Worst Board Game Covers of All Time

The Dice Tower runs a bracket of the worst board game covers of all time, and you get to vote during the live stream! Come join us and be prepared for the horror.
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[@flawed1]

I’ve watched this channel for years, and that was one of the funniest videos you’ve ever done. You should find a way to do more live voting

[@nurseruben5431]

Well said!

[@LegoAssassin098]

It's up there with Cinco Linko

[@JonReid01]

​@@LegoAssassin098how I have never seen this lol thanks for the call out The Dice Tower Plays Cinco Linko...EXTREME!!

[@JonoNZBoardGamer]

I loved this! You definitely need to do a "worst looking boards in board games"

[@kommodore6691]

The idea you guys joked about the cover looking fake would actually be really good for one of these videos. Being able to tell a fake board game cover vs real, would work great with live voting. People could send in the fake covers as a competition. The panel could play the audience for most correct guesses.

[@MichaelAW17]

I dont think it would work with live voting. Too many people would just look it up.

[@shondoit]

@@MichaelAW17 If you photoshop out the title, that could work. Bonus point if you guess the game title correctly.

[@azuravian]

@@shondoit Depends on how well reverse image search works for the real cover.

[@Kerma7]

never forget the lice shower incident

[@AndrewCCleverley]

Some of those early eliminations were insane - how Oi Dats My Leg got knocked out round one, I don't know. Either way, I had tears of laughter several times during this. Brilliant.

[@letsgojojoshow]

Oi Dats My Leg is a good cover in the context of UK comic artists like Ken Reid and a bygone age when Games Workshop had a sense of humour.

[@stephenball2108]

I think the most brutal early matchup was Cannes against Coal Country in round 2. Those were both top tier contenders that just happened to match up early.

[@Ray-jb3bd]

Very punny at 1:09:36, Chris. "Tom, thank you for teaching me the meaning of 'Plethora,' it means a lot"

[@Patronux]

Oh, that's fantastic

[@gamesnstuff657]

Meltscape is just on another level. The other candidates never stood a chance

[@MisterChris1978]

We need a live play through of the winner - I don’t make the rules

[@reggycide]

Meltscape components look pretty cool. The cover looks ok for a game made at the same time as DOS 3.1 and Wordperfect.... unfortunately it's only 10 years old.

[@TheRatedOniChannel]

... what? That thing looks as if it were made on the 90s... the EARLY 90s.

[@razjml]

What!? Who makes that in 2012? 😂

[@Wh0isTh3D0ct0r]

I love the fact that after I watched this video I found that Meltscape had ended up at number 7 of “The Hotness” on Board Game Geek. 😂

[@borreholic7238]

Yep! We did it, folks!

[@schuechen]

Just imagine people, who didn't watch this video, look The Hotness, than look at the game and go "Why, though?"

[@Gruso57]

14:15 Zee descent into madness at how bad that art is had me crying in laughter

[@dougwarr9459]

One of the absolute best entertaining board game videos I’ve ever watched!!! Well done!

[@stevenburgos9127]

This was a slam dunk! More videos with this format would be a treat 😆

[@Luchiop]

that wizard cover is awesome!

[@DavidSupina]

My brain just got Meltscape’d. I am pretty sure I will never be the same.

[@Jootie_de_Kop]

After this, Meltscape has become a collector item!

[@remisalvador702]

great fun! you guys should also do "worst boards" and "most beautiful boards" with the same format!

[@RulebooksForYou]

The discussion was so fun - I loved this!

[@-RTC-]

Wizard is cool!! Agree with Zee 100%! The art itself is well done IMO

[@TheRatedOniChannel]

I thought the art looked badass.

[@Jammonstrald]

That vote was a travesty. Wizard was easily the best cover in the whole video.

[@-RTC-]

@@Jammonstrald 100 percent agreed! Love that 70s/80s fantasy artwork. Some of my favorite stuff ever.

[@TheRatedOniChannel]

@@-RTC- Loved Mike singing Holy Diver.

[@shaunhughes2]

Loved the live voting. It was exciting to watch live, but also later when I had to watch the VOD. Hats off to Roy. Would like to see more of this. Hilarious

[@2frelledminds]

I think it was Mike that said something about being surprised how many bad board game cover Rio Grande has, to which I have to say, um, isn't that the majority of their game boxes?

[@nataliejohn4243]

I’m with Mike on Europa. Heads of State is absolutely awful, but Europa makes NO SENSE!! It’s awful and weird and looks like they were trying to make a really bad party game or something…

[@nobbynobbs8182]

Meltscape is probably objectively the worst, but I truly hate the Coal Country one

[@hairbrainedgames3127]

I like the format used for this video, pitting games against each other and whittling down to the final one.

[@boardgamesonthemoon]

Oh please, oh please, post a Meltscape play through!

[@rulebookrx2411]

Good news for you, Tom did a review of it back in 2013: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKbUh2N6rdR0r7c

[@boardgamesonthemoon]

@@rulebookrx2411 thanks!, just watched it, sad really, that not just the box cover is bad (turns out, it’s actually the only success of that game. Who would of thought that the game inside was actually worse! Hope the designer of Meltscape doesn’t get too upset, if they happen across this ‘worst Board Game Covers’ list. At least Meltscape is ranked well for something

[@nobbynobbs8182]

How the heck did Troyes got nominated? The style totally fits the medieval theme. I love it

[@nicholasimholte7359]

Same with Power grid!

[@scottgrummert3312]

I can already see the headlines… “Zee Garcia Threatens Violence Against Power Grid Designer Friedmann Friese Over Picture of Blurry Bird”

[@ElanDivan]

"Forgot what this game was remade as" - Heads of state was remade as Royals, a Dice Tower Essentials game. 😀

[@Legitster]

Dice Tower Incidentals

[@uplift-yourdailypickup6424]

It’s a great game. They did it good by remaking it as Royals. Just played it this last week. Fantastic game!

[@jari-pekkasuuronen2462]

Expecting four-way-review of Meltscape soon!

[@zatstarxScaleta]

Please please do more of these. You guys are so good at working an audience. Imagine somthing like this live at a dicetower convention? Do bad board game covers, or best area control games, or ANYTHING. Great idea for a series.

[@Legitster]

Should have made 4 divisions: Bad Art, Questionable Composition, Aged Terribly, On Drugs

[@jameswoodard4304]

My favorite joke of the video: "🎵Video Grin killed the Plethera art🎵" Well done Mr. Garcia. Well done.

[@jonpaget]

This is one of my favourite videos of this year. I always love listening and learning from the group. This video was a lovely laughter bonus with those truly epic board game covers and the cool voting system!

[@LegoAssassin098]

Meltscape looks straight out of a middle schooler's PowerPoint slide

[@guillermoz4914]

Thank you guys for this awesome content 😂 I know it’s a lot of work to put these together but I really hope we get more of these “VS” Looking forward to best Board game covers.

[@ledbetter10]

I really hope there is a Meltscape live playthrough. You owe it that lol!

[@Nightsorrow1]

Its only in my head, or Zee just made a reference to tha scifi novel (and PC game) "I have no mouth, and i must scream" during the Gooey Louie vs Roads & Boats? If he did, kudos to him.

[@ktshipman21]

I loved this video, and I’d love to see more like it. For example: -Worst fonts in board games -worst publisher logo -dumbest board game titles

[@JJ_TheGreat]

Also: Coolest board game names. My vote: Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go To The Ghost Town.

[@nothing3376]

When “It’s Bannana’s” was shown, and all Zee said was “Tom.” I cried

[@simpelton524]

Inhabit the earth has the same issue as all of my painted minis. Eyes are the bane of my existence.

[@jeremiahhammer2282]

This is the next best thing to a standup act based on nothing but board games. I can already tell a quarter of the way in that I’m gonna be watching this one a lot 😂

[@PinothyJ]

Roy, you did really well in this one.

[@Phoenixastro]

There is apparently other art in Meltscape, at least there is some on its BGG page, and it's AWESOME (in a horrific way).

[@DF-we4pt]

This was honesty hilarious. I laughed out loud many times. Easily the funniest thing on this channel

[@SteWorthington]

I was practically crying with laughter at parts of this video. Absolute genius. Thank you for bringing some laughter on a day that brought news of the Queen's death. Genuinely needed! Also, I hope you've now seen that Meltscape did indeed make it into the BGG Hotness list!!! This one fact made my day!

[@RaduStanculescu]

I almost woke my son with my laughter a few times! 😅

[@nothing3376]

It’s Banana’s made me cry

[@jr637-1]

For the best board game covers, Canvas, Modern Art, and The Fox in the Forest have to at least be in the running.

[@TheRatedOniChannel]

I think Aquatica needs to be in the talk, the art is so freaking gorgeous.

[@Alittlefruitgoesalongway]

I would vote for Meadow

[@Alittlefruitgoesalongway]

I also like Seikatsu a lot

[@Valcurdra]

I have not laughed this much in a year, absolute favourite video on DT.

[@Bodyknock]

Hilarious video! 😄 And I love this voting format, looking forward to more like this.

[@HellPet]

This was so much fun, tears were running down from my face. What a blast.

[@F4R207]

Oi! Dat's my leg! Now that's a nostalgic blast from the past.

[@Monica-md2sp]

Loved all the games in that series!

[@MartyKane217]

Meltscape is the "The Room" of board game covers. A true masterpiece of ineptitude. Also, it's hilarious to me that Tom's review is the only video on the games' BGG page: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKbUh2N6rdR0r7c

[@rabidpickle]

Amazing video. Had me laughing a lot. I’ll be shocked if MELTSCAPE doesn’t show up on BGG Hotness in the next day or two! Edit: ha! I typed this right before I got to Chris also predicting it showing up in the hotness.

[@DTChrisYi]

I was just reading that off someone from the chat. It wasn't my genius brain, unfortunately.

[@stefanatalie]

LOL! I just checked the Hotness and then the BGG page and saw Tom ripping it apart in his review!

[@rabidpickle]

@@DTChrisYi #33 on the BGG hotness today!!

[@kevinshelton6133]

It made it to #11 on the BGG Hotness today! 🤣

[@wouteroorthuis801]

The girls on the High Five cover are actually the daughters of the Dutch publisher's owner. He's the guy on the back of the box, looking like he walked out of Sound Gardens Black Hole Sun video.

[@noizeemama3697]

All the laughter on this was awesome. Thank you for this. More please!

[@jahniedez6834]

When Conquest of Gaul came up, I immediately lost it... I'm crying lol

[@jasonc2784]

Loved this. Thank you. Comments by the team were quite funny.

[@gabtrat9091]

Highly entertaining, had me rolling until the end!

[@Nelidew]

this show war soooo fun ! The voting, the covers, the crew comments. Thank you guys !

[@henningb3234]

Hilarious, you guys are amazing. Never thought of something like this. But you make a 2hour show of pure laughter out of ugly covers. Awesome!!!

[@ramonosuke]

Mikes initial reaction to Fruit Bandit and Oi, Dats my leg! Is hilarious

[@wavewynder]

Never did I imagine I'd see the cover for Roads & Boats and think, "You know what, it's not THAT bad of a cover". Well, after seeing a lot of those other covers I stand corrected, it really isn't the worst cover!

[@theinqov]

The KO tournament is so much fun, good job! Can you do more of these on different topics?

[@gozzywozzy485]

wow this was such a good idea. I had tears pouring down my face, I haven't laughed this hard in a long time! Thanks guys X

[@UnluckyHydra]

Fun video! Can I just say Tom's laugh at 1:07:00 Has some Mark Hamill's Joker vibes to it.

[@guillermoz4914]

😂

[@nuuqbgg]

I love heavy metal references in DT videos. There are more and more of those in videos. Thanks Chris.

[@Gnarrkhaz]

The funny thing is the actual contents of Meltscape look pretty nicely produced. X'D

[@Draffut2003]

Sad that "Oi That's My Leg" got dropped in the first round, look at that monstrosity.

[@SanjuroSan]

I thought I knew board games. This video has opened up frightening vistas within my mind.

[@timometsanoja9666]

You've been Meltscaped! Now I'm interested on what the heck this game is??? This is going to end up as a collectible for this one video. You haven't live unless you've been Meltscaped. #meltscaped

[@MistressMissy]

The middle lady on 7 Sisters reminds me of the early look of Marvel comics Typhoid Mary

[@BojanBrankov]

This was a great ride. Thank you for the fun guys!

[@appleseiter15]

This was amazing. Please do the same for gameboards and card art! I could have watched ten hours of this.

[@TheDungeonDive]

Great video! One of my favorites. Well done. :)

[@Jammonstrald]

So many of the votes were people voting against the game concept and not the actual cover art and it was MADDENING.

[@TheCrimsonSpace]

I navigated to the BGG homepage this morning and noticed that Meltscape has climbed to 24th in the Hotness rankings...coincidence??? 🤣

[@1ShotJC]

Assassin was based on Jack Dott, one of the owners of Avalon Hill at the time…

[@MichaelB-jw5po]

Europa was robbed. That cover is a thousand times worse than what ended up winning.

[@nicholasimholte7359]

It's hard to believe something could be worse than Coal Country, but Meltscape somehow did it

[@stephenball2108]

Over a week later, I have to say the cover that’s remained burned in my brain is Cannes. What a horror show, that second round matchup with that and Coal Country was brutal, I think if Cannes moves on it ends up in the finals.

[@JamesOrr1987]

Amazing content! Cry-laughing on this one, so good.

[@davegildersleeve4316]

This was a hilarious video!! Thanks for the laughs guys!!!

[@robertdascoli949]

Great, now every time I look at Caylus I'm just goona see that dudes creepy hand. Thanks Zee.

[@bruceulrich1231]

It's too bad that this was ruined by polls. It was more a referendum on the quality of the games themselves. And much less than the art itself

[@trevorfranklin3536]

One of the most entertaining videos I've ever seen on the dice tower, and I've been watching from the beginning. More like this please!

[@matthewmckinnon9298]

Hey, i'm sure the 9 year old who designed Glory to Rome did their best

[@taeraresh2115]

Great video, as always, and I can't argue about the winner. You did miss two games that I think would have been strong contenders - Cockpit (the 1992 game from Schauroth & Lorenz, not the 1991 racing game), and Falsche FuFFziger.

[@ko9]

Whoa, I just came across an old game called "Wildlife Adventure" and suddenly the cover of "Inhabit the Earth" makes more sense! ITE's cover appears to be intended as a funny spin-off version of the Wildlife Adventure cover! All the animals are the same and in the same position, just redrawn in a cartoony way with unsettling red eyes.

[@mapanzer]

They missed my favorite bad cover of all time, Friedemann Friese's Falsche Fuffziger.

[@tominatorxx]

31:04 Was suprised to see a board game that I actually own on this. It's been a while since I've looked at the cover and yeah... it's bad (same can be said for the minis inside the box)...

[@rodneydunn9611]

This was a very entertaining video. Thanks guys!!

[@meravl7615]

Gotta say, this made me a bit curious about Smokers Wild 1:04:47 (I kinda found the cover funny as a parody thing) so I looked at pictures on BGG... I kinda want this game... 😆

[@tourguidechuck]

Roll To The South Pole...those are the same dogs from The Thing: Norwegian expansion. Foreshadowing!

[@mattlewis5095]

I think both the first two choices are perfectly functional covers lol, but the ransom-note point made me laugh though! Safe ground with Guilds, where it's those early covers that particularly give Dominion art a bad name imo. Battleship - now you've landed! Imo Caylus is fine! Iconic is what you want, esp in a genre where there is so much cliche. Inhabit the earth and Great WesternTrail haha mad.

[@deeza85za]

Funniest video you and the team have ever produced.

[@michelrijnders4533]

Meltscape now 33th in top Hotness list of Boardgamegeek!

[@johnr8095]

You could like 30% of any game published by rio grande games from 1995 - 2005 for examples of horrible covers

[@jameswoodard4304]

Now we're all eagerly awaiting the publication of Mike's Meltscape dissertation.

[@Acenchious]

I would love a worst rulebooks from popular games

[@ArchonHD]

Meltscape has reached rank 33 on BGG hotness!!!! You did it!

[@corbenalley8382]

The time pirates castle mountain is just a photoshopped mirror of the temple pyramid on the other side of the cover lol, wow

[@MadSlantedPowers]

I didn't think the Meltscape cover was as bad as everyone else seems to think.