So I’ve been looking at cover art a lot lately. There seems to be a revolution in cover art and it’s one that I’m liking. No longer do titles seek to cram every element of the game onto the cover using every asset available. No longer is it the style to have zig zags of colour to make up the background. With Nintendo taking the lead, cover art has become iconic, simple, clean and mostly… white.

It seems that what gamers want - not so much in a game but at least on the cover of one - is a bit of class. In days gone by cover art was garish and not particularly something that I would even notice. Now that every cover is a masterpiece of minimalism, I find my eyes stinging with distaste at the old fashined style and genuinely put off by it.

Both brilliant games but the cover art for Devil May Cry 4 and The Orange box were incredibly off putting. DMC4, despite being a funny and attractive game, comes off as being dank and straight out of the early 90’s if the cover art is anything to go by. As for the Orange Box… It may well have been a bargain given the amount of high quality games that you got for your money, but it didn’t have to look like a bargain bin sticker!

Wii cover art seems to have genuinely moved game covers away to a cleaner look. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the difference between the cover art for Tomb Raider Anniversary on the Wii and on other systems.

This kind of paring down of a game’s imagery to its most basic component is definitely becoming the fashion and I for one am a fan. I don’t like to judge a book by its cover but in a world now overflowing with games style does come into it. I find myself drawn to those games that can be whittled down to one simple iconic image on the front that says it all. I’m not saying I’m going to stop reading reviews or loking up games to find out more about them, but I can definitely now be swayed or put off by a bad cover. Shallow maybe but who can turn away from such pretty covers as these?