First time I've seen something like this for video game cover art was back in early 90s, for Another World (Eric Chahi, creator of the game, made it himself):

I think this is Atari ST version, title font in Amiga version was different (and uglier, IMO).

Of course, "original", so to speak, goes back to early 19th century and "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog":

I liked the box art for Ghosts 'n Goblins better than the game itself.  The art captured the personality of the characters really well:

And the box art for Ghouls 'n Ghosts is just badass:

But the art for Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was pretty lame by comparison:

North American Mega Man 1 on NES will forever hold the crown for the most cursed box art in history.

Some of the box art of those old games like Mega Man honestly excited me as a kid, because I thought I was good enough to make box art myself. Naturally, my 8-year-old self sent a bunch of fantasy art to Nintendo with a sales pitch to do their art and they never got back to me.

The box art got better, though. If they did any self-reflection, I’ll happily take credit for it.

Some I liked

And then this crap

YEA

NAY