10 Worst Wii U Box Art

A waxy 3D host gestures at a board of dollar amounts under the show's logo. It looks like a screenshot of the menu, and it makes the whole thing feel like a demo.

A goggle-eyed 3D sheep leaps over a barn while cows and chickens mill about below. It is the same shiny, characterless look the 3DS version had, only bigger.

A cartoon boy swings on a rope through a pale blue swirl of tiny pictures and logos. It is cluttered and faded at once. Worse, the game inside was panned by critics and holds the lowest score of any game on the best-known review aggregator.

Sonic and his friends in their new sports tape and scarves crowd a jungle temple, all glossy and busy. The game behind it is widely regarded as one of the worst Sonic games ever made.

Cartoon contestants fly through the air over a giant red ball, under the logo of the TV show. Nothing about it says why you would play this instead of just watching the show.

A small blue tank fires up a street while giant robots and explosions fill every inch above it, under three stacked logos that each say Tank. Is that one title or three? The box seems unsure.

A 3D Barbie smiles over a hot pink background with a big curly logo. It is exactly what you expect, which is fine for the fans, but it says nothing about the game.

The blue robot hero leaps out of a cluttered collage of bosses and colours, so crowded that he barely stands out. The game was crowdfunded through Kickstarter as a spiritual successor to the early Mega Man games, and the box tries to fit everything in.

Isabelle, K.K. Slider and a pile of villagers squeeze inside a wreath of flowers, with dice and balloons stuffed in every gap. Cute faces, but it is the busiest cover the series ever had.

The American box is a sweaty bald man in sunglasses glaring through a wall of flames, like the cover of a straight-to-DVD action film. Japan and Europe, however, show a tattooed fighter with a sword on each arm against a metallic, smoky background, which is far more striking. The game received negative reviews outside Japan, and it was the final game directed by Tomonobu Itagaki.