Developers hide everything from funny Easter eggs to outright insults to fans

The catchy art on the cover is a guarantee that the gamer will pay attention to boxing with the game in the store, even if he had not heard anything about it before. However, many PR people thought that just a vivid presentation was not enough: you need to provide the image with some kind of funny reference, a secret, and so on. We made for a material that tells about the ten most unusual examples of such covers.

Fall of the fourth wall

Being a prominent figure in the art of postmodernism, Hideo Kojima could not deny himself the pleasure of integrating into Metal Gear Solid several scenes that blur the line between the gamer and the game. In one of these, Snake’s boss invites him to contact Meryl Silverburg using the radio frequency indicated on the back of the cover.

If you were playing the game in the dense 90s on a pirate disk – well, as they say, your problems, because the same frequency was not on the reverse side. However, there was an incident with licensed products. In mid-1999, Konami released an updated version with the subtitle Integral, available only in Japan. And in 2003, within the framework of the PSone Book budget line, its reprint was published, containing only the front cover. They simply forgot to add the notorious radio frequency to the manual. The only way to get through the game without this information is to use a hint from the walkthrough magazine.

Say Hello to Internet

And although a lot of time has passed since the release of Far Cry 3, the maniac Vaas Montenegro still regularly gets into all sorts of charts dedicated to the most striking antagonists. Therefore, the cover of the game, where the villain is captured next to a man buried in the sand, was remembered by many.

Ubisoft decided to play this and released several short films, in one of which actor Michael Mando, who played Vaasa, tortures his colleague Christopher Mintz-Plass, and then buries it in the sand. And if in the game itself you follow the coordinates X: 619.7, Y: 559.4, you will encounter an unfortunate victim of sadism and get a trophy, the name of which is placed in the subtitle.

The path to leadership

Before the release of the third part of Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix decided to release a compilation of The Story So Far, which contains all the previous parts. The cover, consisting of three segments, symbolizes the passage of time and the evolutionary branch of Sora himself as a protagonist – first he sits, then stands up and, finally, leads the crowd.

It seems to be a simple thing, but the Kingdom Hearts series for almost twenty years of its existence has grown in so many sequels, prequels and spin-offs that the devil will break his leg. Therefore, its creator Tetsuya Nomura decided thus once again to clarify.

But the men didn’t know

John Romero has always been an iconic figure for the industry. Not only thanks to the undeniable contribution to the genre of shooters, but also due to its pretentious image, lifestyle and hyped FSV. In confirmation of the latter – a story told by Romero himself a few years ago. According to him, to create the cover for the first part of Doom, a sitter was involved, which wildly enraged John, after which he tore off his shirt and stood in front of the artist.

What is curious is that the newcomer did not have to grieve over the deprivation of work, because he was ultimately involved in creating the demon that grabbed the protagonist by the hand. And so Romero Dumaguy became, though no one suspected this for nearly a quarter of a century.

We are armed with a magnifying glass

Gearbox published the cover of the Borderlands 3 shooter six months before its release. And, as it turned out, for a reason. Attentive players studied it far and wide and found a lot of secrets, including codes for all kinds of loot and mention of the final boss of the first part. And the phrase, deciphered as “We’re not talking about Sanctuary 2”, has generated many interesting theories around itself. Given that the location with the name Sanctuary took place in the second part.

The developers themselves say that all the secrets that box art is fraught with have not yet been decrypted.

From a different angle

When EA released the deluxe edition of its Star Wars: Battlefront shooter, few people noticed that the new cover actually shows the same scene as the original box art. Just from the other side and on behalf of another character. Apparently, we are talking about a pilot walking AT-AT.

Patience Award

On the cover of Far Cry 4, we can see antagonist Pagan Ming sitting on a statue making a special gesture. Many gamers even then drew attention to this, and it soon became clear that one of the possible endings of the game was spoiled on the box art itself.

Indeed, this gesture means in Hinduism nothing more than patience. And indeed: if you wait for the villain for 13 minutes at the very beginning of the fourth part of the shooter, he will return and allow you to dispel the ashes of your mother. And this, in fact, is what the main character sought. And no need to shed blood with all these revolutions. That’s speedran!

Photoshop hundredth level

This is more likely from a series of curiosities, but we simply could not write about it. Another art was made for the Wiami version of Okami, in which the sharp-sighted user from the NeoGAF website saw the contours of the not completely worn out watermark of the IGN portal. The funny thing is that this jamb subsequently flowed into the manual and the official game guide.

After this story, the negligent artist was probably fired, but this is not accurate.

It’s okay to be gay

And, of course, the highlight of the program is the cover for the Super Mario Galaxy platform game. If you add together the letters marked with asterisks, you get U R MR GAY (you are mister gay or “you are Mr. gay” – approx. Ed.). Whether it was a joke from the artist who designed the box art, or another example of “a gopher, which no one sees, but he is,” – so no one knew. However, at the time of the game’s release, the Internet was already accessible to the masses – the news of such a funny discovery scattered quickly enough. On the cover of the second part of the game, completely different letters are marked with asterisks. It contains a message YA I M R U, which stands for Yeah I am, are you? (“Yes, it’s me, and you?” – Ed.), This is clearly not an accident. Only collect letters need in the reverse order.

Without leaving a cash desk

In the 90s, the quest genre destroyed a lot of nerve cells with its florid, and sometimes completely illogical puzzles, which could puzzle for hours. Perhaps this was agreed with the authors of magazines and guides in order to spur the sale of printed materials … but oh well, enough conspiracy theories.

The trick is that the Starship Titanic authors went down the path laid by Kojima and placed the solution to one of the most difficult puzzles on the back of the cover. True, without any breaking of the fourth wall.