The Spine: Or how to discern a good game from a bad one

[Erik_Twice]

On the spine, the bottom of the letter being to your left is a good sign. The bottom of the letter being to your right will more often than not indicate either a bad game or a bad publisher. In a Super Mario Bros NES cart, lay it on the side and you will see that the bottom of the letter will be to your left, like a good game. Ocarina of Time does the same too both in the box and the cart. Old PC games and even Atari carts follow this!

For example, the only games that point in the wrong direction I have are:

Half Life Generation (Cheap bundle published by Sierra before dying) (Bad publisher, ugly art)
Sid Meier's Railroads and Railroad Tycoon 3 (Marketway) (Bad publisher, ugly art)
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 (Best of Atari) (Bad publisher, ugly art)
Seven Kingdom (sic) (Free with newspaper) (Lol, they didn't even get the spelling right)

So, have you noticed this?

[noiseredux]

I don't get it? Pics?

[Erik_Twice]

I don't get it? Pics?

Pick any well-known PS2 game like Persona 3, Disgaea , Kingdom Hearts etc. If a game has the lettering facing the same direction on the spine as that game it's fine. If not, it will either be bad or have a bad publisher or even both.

Finding pictures tends to be hard since you need to look the spine of the box and bad publisheres are not exactly known for having pictures.

[noiseredux]

do you mean, if you spine the game on a shelf, good games will all have lettering with the bottom to the left -- like a book would?

[neilencio]

I could probably chalk it up to English not being my first language, but I have trouble understanding even with a picture:

[Erik_Twice]

do you mean, if you spine the game on a shelf, good games will all have lettering with the bottom to the left -- like a book would?

If your books are in English, mostly yes.

@neilencio

If that were a bad game you wouldn't b able to read the title because, in the same position as pictured, the title would be backwards.

[Hobie-wan]

Do you mean screwups like this where the text is upside down on the spine? That's just a noob graphic designer mistake and poor quality checking before sending off to the printers. This is audio CDs, but was easier for me to find an example of what I think you mean.

[Flake]

Despite being drunk I'm still confused.

[flamepanther]

The only sure way to tell whether a game is good is to play it.

[Niode]

Huh? I have absolutely no idea what the OP is talking about.