Back in the 70s and 80s companies were making board games based on anything and everything, and they were trying to appeal to adults with both theme and gameplay.
But it seems like their idea of adult meant bland and boring, because retro games like The Backbone and 15 Love are easily identified as mind-numbingly dull simply by looking at the board.
They, like many of the games on Cracked's sarcastically titled list of The 9 Most Insane Board Games Of All Time, also feature themes and box art that have nothing to do with the game.
With crazy clowns, angry lemons, and Kilkenny cats dueling with pistols on the boxes you'd think these games would have something interesting about them, but their colorful box art was pure gimmick.
The clown game Narro is just a simplified version of checkers, the angry lemons game Früchtchen plays like Old Maid with dice, and The Amusing Game of Kilkenny Cats is simply checkers mixed with Sorry!, with no cats, no guns and no fun!
Read The 9 Most Insane Board Games Of All Time here (NSFW language)