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To elaborate a little more than that, I not only didn't say that, but I don't think I said anything close to it. The Ogre Battle cover is mostly all foreground, the Soul Blazer cover is mostly all background. But, as you already said, too many modern game box covers use a character or two from the game just standing around.

Here's the SNES Contra 3 box art again:


See how the use of perspective here implies action - things are moving from the background to the foreground. The art style is colorful without being too "cartoony", so it doesn't contradict the mood of the game.

Now here's the Game Boy Advance Contra 3 remake's cover:


No line of action, no perspective. It doesn't look like anything is happening. The "Terminator" in the background actually looks cute with that big goofy grin, and he looks like he's just peeking out of a gap in the walls moreso than pushing them apart (as he does in the game). You might even point out that they were paying homage to the Contra 1 boxart, but that was known for not being very original to begin with (using imagery taken from Predator, Rambo, and Aliens), and they made it duller. For example, what the hell are they looking at?


At least in the original there are tentacles everywhere, so you get the idea they're surrounded and fighting for their lives. The other one just looks like they're standing around waiting for something to happen.

Contra: Shattered Soldier's box is similarly dull:


This looks like "every modern military game ever". What's in the background? Just some generic buildings? And it seems to me like the lower half of the girl's body should be visible below the guy's arm, but instead she just cuts off and disappears into a void. Oh wait - maybe her upper torso is growing out of his shoulder!


Neo Contra's is kind of nice. It's good that they went for something a little different in the art style by making it look like a panel from a comic book. But the background is still too generic and it would be nice to have some indication of what they're fighting. Otherwise, it just seems silly to have two big guys with guns cowering for no apparent reason.


As much as everyone hates this game or will go on about how it isn't a "real" Contra game, even Contra Force's box art is better than the modern Contras. These guys are leaping right into the action and you can see what they're fighting. The only problem is that it's also a bit jumbled and confusing. Are those planes and helicopters flying overhead good or bad? Are they dropping bombs on the heroes or the bad guys? And fighting normal humans isn't quite as exciting as fighting aliens.

When I was in art classes years ago and we used a vanishing point to create a line of sight, it was called "drawing from perspective", so that's where I got that term.

I don't know if anyone else reads Ragey's blog besides me, but his September 16th entry made a very relevant point to this topic:

http://tenchionline.com/ragey/RandomHooHaas-blog.htm

I love how in the latest Mario Kart game, they're not even in a car, but just floating in midair. And in the DS one before that, I don't think what Mario is doing with his right leg is physically possible, and why is he doing that on his car, anyway?

Their gecko-fingers are creepy, too.