We all know that we shouldn’t judge something by its cover, but let’s face it, we’ve most certainly all done it. Before the ease and convenience of sites like Metacritic or the vast number of other review websites, people would often decide which game to buy at the store based on the cover alone (I know I did this when I was a kid and somehow got lucky deciding on Spyro the Dragon for the PlayStation 1).

While a lot of video games have really fitting box art that represents the game well, some have art that is just plain and generic and completely misses the purpose of the game. Is this really that big of an issue? No, not really. But there has been a very clever solution to this issue that some publishers have done in the past, and that I would like to see more of the industry follow: alternate art printed on the reverse side of the cover. I want to look over a couple of my favorite examples of reverse art (that I own at least) and show how much better that can be than the standard box art!

Take a look above at the box art for Bioshock Infinite on the Xbox 360. What kind of game does this look like to you? A generic, Call of Duty-esque shooter that takes place in America. What is it actually, though? Bioshock Infinite is a shooter, yes, but it is more of a highly fictional, steam-punk, multi-verse theory-exploring narrative that takes place in a floating city called Columbia during the year 1912 and is centered on the girl on the back of the box (Elizabeth). Would you have guessed that at all? Most likely not. So why on earth would they advertise this game as something it isn’t at all?

Ken Levine, the director of Bioshock Infinite, discussed in an interview with Wired about the power of the box art helping push sales towards people who normally would skip over such a game. He assumed fans of the franchise would be interested in the game, but the box art is a great way to pull in the “frat boys” who have never heard of it before. Fans of the franchise, however, mostly hated the cover for its blandness. Ken Levine heard the fans’ cries but didn’t want to change his marketing strategy, so he decided to print an alternate cover on the games’ reverse side based on the fans’ votes. What resulted is pictured below and is a far superior cover that actually captures the feel and atmosphere of the game itself. I don’t know how effective their strategy was in terms of sales, but I do know that I love the reverse art a lot.

Mass Effect 3 was a very controversial game. It had an ending with such a negative reaction that the developer, Bioware, had to go back and add free DLC that added more closure to the story that originally left players feeling empty and unresolved. Regardless of the overall ending of the story, one of the defining features of the series was the ability to play as the fully voiced and acted male or female version of Commander Shepard.

In the past, all games used male Shepard as the box art, but there were many fans who stuck with female Shepard from the start that weren’t being represented on the box itself. Bioware did something really cool with the final game in the series, and included two versions of the cover art, one male and one female. I think the box art is pretty darn generic, but I do think that this was a creative way to represent a character that players had potentially spent hundreds of hours with in the past.

Spider-Man on the PS4 has a good standard box art. Spider-Man itself is a pretty self-explanatory franchise, meaning you can get away with many different covers, as long as “Spider-Man” is on the cover as well. I like the pose they put him in, but he really does blend into the background with some “red on red” happening. Maybe a different color background would have helped, but it doesn’t really “pop” as much as it could have.

They didn’t really need reverse art, but GOODNESS do I love the alternate art that Insomniac Games shipped with the game! The concept art used for the main image is absolutely gorgeous and shows the importance of NYC to Spider-Man, and I LOVE the simple white spider logo on the back (maybe that should have been the main cover itself). But what really makes me love it even more is the spine down the center that includes the PS4 name and logo on it, just like the main covers. Most reverse covers remove that on the spine, so I thought it was pretty neat that they kept it on as well.

God of War, a game that I absolutely adored, has some excellent cover art that shipped with the game. Showing the two most important characters, Kratos and Atreus, the boat they go everywhere in, the mountain that they are tasked with climbing, and that freaking amazing axe, the cover shows the important elements of the game while showcasing some gorgeous art at the same time. So why do I think it needs reversible art? Because just LOOK at that beauty below and tell me you don’t want every game to have something this awe-inspiring sitting on your book shelf. I mean, come on.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the greatest video games of all time. In my opinion, the cover is also one of the greatest of all time. Channeling Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog, the cover teases the vast, open world of Hyrule and the endless sense of exploration and adventure that it contains. Seeing it makes me nostalgic for the time I spent in that world and makes me want to dive right back in. This game really did not need an alternate cover, but I really appreciate that it came with another piece of gorgeous art capturing the same feeling as the main one. I personally stuck with the main one because it is perfection, but I love being able to take it out of the sleeve and look at another gorgeous work of art if I want to.

Lastly, I would like to discuss the most thankful I have ever been for reversible cover art. Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition has the thing I hate the most in cover art for games and movies: REVIEW SCORES. I abhor when beautiful art gets plastered with dumb scores and ratings just to sell more copies and let people know how much others liked it. Alright, off my soapbox for now. Thankfully, the folks at Guerilla Games predicted my pain and suffering and included a beautiful full art cover to replace the disaster on the flip side. Just look at that beauty below and feel the sense of ease and relaxation that I felt when I discovered its existence.

There have been other games that have included alternate cover art, but these were some of my absolute favorites. I’m betting that most people don’t bother looking for something as random and seemingly pointless as alternate art, but to me it is something I now greatly appreciate. I hope in the future that more publishers and developers include beautiful pieces of art for weird collectors like myself to gawk over. Maybe I’m the only one who loves looking for this in my game cases, but maybe I’m not!

Has anyone else seen any awesome reverse cover art that they appreciate? Let me know in the comments below!