The cover art for Halo 3 and Gears of War 2 is nigh identical
I recently had a friend over for multiplayer, and I was taking Halo 3 out of the Xbox and putting Gears of War 2 in. Or maybe it was the other way around—I don’t remember. But I was putting one disc into the drive, and returning another to its case, and then I had the keep-case for Halo 3 in my left hand and Gears of War 2 in my right.
And I had never seen the box art for the two games side-by-side before. “Oh my God!” I shouted. I presented both boxes to my friend. “Just look at them—it’s the same cover!”
“How could a Christmas shopper tell these two games apart?” I continued. I named the similarities aloud: on each, there stands a hero, totally kitted out, wielding an enormous gun, set against a post-apocalyptic futurescape with a big, fiery sky, maybe with some alien architecture or a spaceship just along the horizon.
“If it’s so easy,” I concluded, “I think I have a real future in box art.”
I’m not being snide here. So, for your consideration, my attempts to punch up a couple game franchises for their eventual blockbuster releases:
I tried counting the ways I could get into trouble with this post, and I got nervous. So here are some due attributions: cosplayer, arm cannon (sorry), Dr Wily’s castle, stars tutorial, Arizona, robot, zeppelin, steamgun/forearm, sweet-faced man (sorry), Victorian man, Victorian boy, France.
About the author: Jenn thinks the Atari 2600, Game Boy Micro, and Apple iPhone are all viable game consoles. Email her at jenn at infinite lives dot net. See also
The man behind the gears: Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
As an aside, it’s the color palette that does it, not the content.
As a shopper, if you’re scanning, the first thing that you’ll notice and/or remember if you’ve taken a look at the box art, is the color palette even more so than the characters, scenery or posing. While both have some yellow-orange, Halo 3 is dominated by the blue that has been with Halo since it’s inception, while Gears went all orange and brown.
Well, in my defense, Halo and Gears look more uncannily alike in life than they do onscreen. Seriously, go look at them side-by-side. It’s hilarious.
But you’re right. I think the color palette thing only occurred to me after I’d messed up the Mega Man cover art by turning it into an anime wonderland. I was like, “What? Where did I go wrong?” and, shortly after, realized my total colorblindness. It really does make an incredible difference.
I would pay money for a Professor Layton game with that cover.
Is Professor Layton the master? That would be awesome.
You are a brilliant human being.
Of course it makes sense when you know that the cover art for both games was designed by the same person.
WHOOPS