Ink Trash gives modern games amazing retro art box makeovers.
Crafty Creations: Modern Games Reimagined as Retro Box Art
Written by Ollie Bradley at 03/27/2022, 08:03 AM
If you thought that the quality of video game cover art, as funded by the billions of dollars in the industry, was at its zenith - you're wrong. Everybody knows that the retro box art of the 80s and 90s was objectively the best. A sentiment that one talented artist by the name of Ink Trash agrees with and has been paying tribute to with aplomb.
Retro box art looked exactly as it should as the industry was entering its awkward teenage years. Hand-drawn renditions of characters rarely showed any resemblance to their pixelated counterparts as they stuck action-packed poses in an attempt to convey what the player is supposed to picture as they bunnyhop their way through the latest platformer.
But as the industry grew into the behemoth it currently is, developers began to branch out from what seemed to be the single artist tasked with creating every bit of box art for our favourite Sega Megadrive games. And the hokey yet oh-so nostalgic depictions of classic titles became a thing of the past. Until now.
Brazilian artist Ink Trash has made it their mission to re-encapsulate that nostalgic aesthetic by rendering modern classics in the artstyle of yesteryear. And their efforts are exemplary.
There's something about retro box art that suggests that the artist was commissioned before they could take a look at what the game actually looks like. For example - Among Us is about multicoloured astronauts attempting to fix their ship as an alien impostor-murderer goes about dispatching them. And Ink Trash does a stellar job of rendering what this game could look like in rather disturbing fashion.
The same ethos is employed in their reimagining of Fall Guys characters as being actual humans rather than cutesy jellybeans with eyes. The brief also didn't mention that the game was more fun-loving than violent. So of course it would involve bloody noses.
To soak in all the fantastic depictions of current classics in a retro style, we'd highly recommend giving Ink Trash a browse and follow on Instagram and Twitter.