SuperPhillip Central Best of 2015 Awards - Top Five Best Box Arts

Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, with the very first list of SuperPhillip Central's Best of 2015 Awards! This is the eighth year I've done an end-of-year celebration of all things gaming of the past year. However, it's only the second where I've been doing different lists for each category instead of listing the nominees and then the winner like the first six years.

Regardless, the first list for this awards ceremony is all about box arts. Back in the day, a box art was really all you had to base your purchase off of (or in my case since I was young, all I had to base my mom's purchase of a game for me off of). Nowadays, things are turning more and more digital with downloadable games being more popular than ever before. It's just fortunate that physical releases haven't yet gone the way of the dodo, as I love ogling beautiful box arts on store shelves.

This list of five box arts show off what I perceive to be my favorites out of all that have been released. If you're ready to delve into the world of excellent box arts, then so am I. Away we go!

5) Until Dawn (PS4)

A bone-chilling box art that is perfect to set the tone for the game ahead, Until Dawn's cover is quite striking in its simplicity. It's essentially an hourglass with the snow pouring down from the grizzly skull serving as the hourglass' sand. The snow falls onto the cabin, something that could be perceived as its own character, with the eight college students standing in front of it, out in the winter wasteland.

4) Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U)

Moving from the macabre to something with a decidedly different flavor and feel to it, Yoshi's Woolly World's box art is a beautiful bounty of color. I absolutely adore how everything has a knit and fabric appearance, much like the game itself. The composition is pleasing to the eye, and the amount of adorableness per inch is just too much to bear. And I mean that in the greatest of ways.

3) Kirby and the Rainbow Curse (Wii U)

We're not done with the Wii U yet. We go from yarn to clay with Kirby and the Rainbow Curse's colorful box art. The design here, from the perfect composition, drawing your eye to the center, to the bright and bouncy colors all around, is fantastic. The box art also does a good job of showing that you'll be controlling Kirby with a touch of the stylus, also made up of clay. It all adds up to a mighty appealing box art that oozes with personality and charm.

2) The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (3DS)

There is just so much going on in this next box art that looking at all of the clever and interesting details of The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is an entertaining task. We have the three colored Links atop the central platform with a menagerie and who's who of Legend of Zelda enemies like Moblins, Chu Chus, Deku Scrubs, and more. It's a pleasant box art to look at, and it helps that I'm an absolute sucker for The Legend of Zelda series.

1) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (3DS)

Speaking of The Legend of Zelda, we now arrive at my number one pick for favorite box art of 2015. What we have here is a gorgeous and foreboding box art, all thanks to the brilliant use of light and shadows, depth, space, and composition. It's box arts like these that make me happy that we still see physical releases in a growing digital world. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D's box art is like a magnificent painting, worthy of being viewed time and time again, and each viewing presents something new to discover.

SuperPhillip Central Best of 2014 Awards - Top Five Best Box Arts

In a more digital landscape, box arts are becoming less and less important. However, back in the old days before the Internet existed in great popularity, a box art was sometimes the best you could get for knowing what a game was all about. It was sometimes the only way to gauge the quality and bodaciousness (I'm dating myself with that word) of the game.

While box arts aren't nearly anywhere as important to get a game to sell well, it is the thing that consumers see on a store shelf. Sometimes a magnificent cover art can be the difference between being bought and being passed on. These five box arts out of the countless that have been released this year are my personal favorites. Hence, why I consider them the top five best box arts of 2014.

5) Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)

I love how this first box arts gels well with the Wii U banner on top. Some game cover art bashes horribly with the blue Wii U banner, so it's nice to see something work really well with it. Of course, that's not the only reason I adores Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze's box art. It just makes the game look like a really fun game, and the character models in the center, boats on either side, energetic logo on the bottom, and icy corners say a lot about this gem of a game.

4) Titanfall (XONE, 360, PC)

One of two box arts from games published by EA, Titanfall's box art features one of the game's massive mechs. Its pilot squats down on the left arm of the massive destructive mech cast against the sun and a dilapidated battleground. Titanfall's box art exudes with coolness and piqued my interest of the game, even knowing that it's not the type of title I'd usually look into.

3) Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Wii U)

The aptly titled Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, which strangely enough is on the Wii U of all platforms, presents a mishmash of ten Nintendo all-stars positioned proudly around the game's logo makes for a very cool sight. It's as if they're rushing off the cover and zooming towards a skirmish in Smash. It may not be the most original idea around, but it certainly left an impression on my eyes.

2) Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)

Nintendo's Wii U sales may be in the crapper (that's a nice way of putting it, right?), but throughout this generation thus far, the company has been killing it with great box arts. My favorite of which is this year's Mario Kart 8. Mario takes center stage on the cover, making his most determined look as he drifts during a turn on the Mario Circuit track. It's a box art that shows what the grand feature of Mario Kart 8 is-- anti-gravity sections of track, and its composition is one to behold. 

1) Dragon Age: Inquisition (Multi)

Unlike many of the covers of the games featured on this top five list, Dragon Age: Inquisiton's cover looks the most like art. Now, that's not to say that a game's box art needs to be artistic or anything snobby like that in order to be my favorite. It certainly helps, however, and Inquisition's box art looks like a beautiful painting with gorgeous imagery, including the glorious dragon and knight with sword ablaze in his left hand. If only that nasty EA logo wasn't hogging up any real estate... then I wouldn't feel so cheap to have as my number one box art. *wry smile*

Hold it! There's one more top five list scheduled for today, and it's going to be posted later tonight! What games will be listed for the Top Five Best Multiplayer Games of 2014? The answers may (or may not) surprise you!