Ugliest "Greatest Hits" packaging?

[emwearz]

The silver used in PAL Platinum games is ugly, more so because the cases are also silver.

[Tanooki]

I think Sony still takes the taco with it in my book. PS1 with those ugly booger green spine covers with the contrasting ink saying greatest hits on there. And then you have the PS3 boxes totally in red so they stand out equally like a sore thumb. Nintendo I think is fairly tame on theirs but still the red vs gold on the SNES and GB stuff with the medal/ribbon thing there I want nothing to do with either. I'm buying a few GB games lately and I'll pay the extra couple bucks for an original not just because of looks but Nintendo used very cheap stickers and ink that wipe away for any reason.

I like there's far more games out there, but changing the art to some cheap budget line while also usually cheapening up on the paper and ink for the manuals and the disc ink themselves isn't cool either. If it were up to me I'd pull a Nintendo from a few years back and just re-press the existing materials in bulk like they did with the Wii Mario Allstars when they stuck it to all the scalpers. Personally I don't like the whole sore thumb look, and it bugs me I've got a red box on my shelf currently as it stands on 3DS (NSMB2) but it was so cheap I would have been dumb to leave it. Not sure why I don't swap the case, I have a spare white one.

[Gunstar Green]

Not sure what they were thinking with the neon green spines. I used to really hate them but I'm over it now.

[Cronozilla]

I dread what PS4 greatest hits will look like. (Red is probably a safe bet, since they went with it for three systems)

[darsparx]

Only thing i can find is one with this slapped on it:

[the7k]

I think I hate the European Yellow on PS3 cases more than the green on US PS1 cases.

Maybe i've just gotten used to the green, I dunno.

Honestly though, I just hate it when any system has multiple layouts for their covers, especially the spines. It's part of why my Genesis collection annoys me so much, there must have been about 20 different cover layouts they used. Even if a system had a Greatest Hits cover that was better than the original (which I've yet to see happen...) it would still annoy me if the spine was different in any way.

[samsonlonghair]

I think I hate the European Yellow on PS3 cases more than the green on US PS1 cases.

Maybe i've just gotten used to the green, I dunno.

Honestly though, I just hate it when any system has multiple layouts for their covers, especially the spines. It's part of why my Genesis collection annoys me so much, there must have been about 20 different cover layouts they used. Even if a system had a Greatest Hits cover that was better than the original (which I've yet to see happen...) it would still annoy me if the spine was different in any way.

Not really. Just three main ones. Checkerboard (an evolution of the SMS graph paper) was used for early Sega titles (1989-1992ish). Intermediate third party games had no standard layout and could have any color spines (1991-1993ish). Sega Classics have kind of pointless covers, but their blue spines blend in with the third party games just fine. Genesis games shifted to the infamous "red stripe" spines for better consistency (1993-1995ish). I never understood why the red strip boxes get so much hate. Sure, the cardboard boxes are poorly made compared to the plastic clamshell cases. I just fail to see why there's so much hate for those diagonal red stripes. I say it's a much needed improvement over the intermediate period when third party publishers just put whatever colors they like on the spines.

[ZeroAX]

The silver used in PAL Platinum games is ugly, more so because the cases are also silver.

oh god, these made me want to vomit. Especially the batman one:



WHY? who the fuck thought silver and yellow look good together? (not ot mention the infinity logos/stickers on batman).

Sony has really messed up with collector's editions in Europe since the PS1 days

yeah, the box ain't ugly, but the print on the disk being so plain feels like they just wanted to fuck with cheap collectors, and the reason ps1 platinum games have such low value compared to the normal versions :/.

[isiolia]

yeah, the box ain't ugly, but the print on the disk being so plain feels like they just wanted to fuck with cheap collectors, and the reason ps1 platinum games have such low value compared to the normal versions :/.

U.S. Greatest Hits does the same thing - but at least disc printing makes a little bit of sense. They swap from (potentially) multi-color printing on them to just black - I think manuals tend to get swapped to black and white as well.

The hideous color schemes, borders, etc don't usually cost less, making them less forgivable.

[Snatch1414]

I never understood why the red strip boxes get so much hate. Sure, the cardboard boxes are poorly made compared to the plastic clamshell cases. I just fail to see why there's so much hate for those diagonal red stripes. I say it's a much needed improvement over the intermediate period when third party publishers just put whatever colors they like on the spines.

It just made things even more inconsistent that's why I don't like them (aside from the obvious cardboard vs clamshell). The black was neutral and was in line with the look of the system and Sega's marketing. I guess times change and by the time the red ones came out the whole "attitude" campaign was kind of over, but they could've rode it all the way or, like I said, just kept things consistent.

I always associate the black boxes with the Genesis' hey day, and the red ones with kind of a 'blah' era. I'd like to compile or see a list of quality games in the black box era vs the red box era though. There's some good ones later on despite my feelings (Ristar, Vectorman, Castlevania Bloodlines, etc.)