That isn’t the end of the road for the original Mega Man art style, though. When the retro-style Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10 were released in 2008 and 2010, they debuted with mock box art in the style of those early releases. Granted, this time they were intentional artistic misunderstandings of the source material.
Actually, there was a bit of a renaissance of that “classic” Mega Man art style throughout the 2010s. In 2010, a stop-motion animated trailer for Mega Man Universe depicted the game as a kind of customizable remake of Mega Man 2. Box Art Mega Man made a stinger cameo, revealing that he would be playable. A month later, a demo was playable at New York Comic Con, allowing you to play as Box Art Mega Man, as well as other incarnations of the Super Fighting Robot.
Around that same time, Street Fighter X Tekken was announced. Not only would the game feature heroes and villains from the two fighting games, but the PlayStation 3/Vita versions included exclusive fighters, such as Pac-Man in a Mokujin mech and Mega Man. Not just any Mega Man, though, but a fat, gun-toting human designed to look like Box Art Mega Man.
A joke for sure, but one that shouldn’t have stung due to the then-upcoming releases of Mega Man Universe, Mega Man Legends 3, and Maverick Hunter. The problem was that all three of those games were eventually canceled. To rub a little more salt in the wound, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and its Ultimate upgrade made jokes about keeping Mega Man out of the game. So the only playable Mega Man we’d see for years was this dumpy, middle finger of a guest character. Fans were not happy.
The Box Art Mega Man Legacy
Box Art Mega Man would continue to receive the occasional reference, like making cameos in both the first and final issues of Archie’s Mega Man comic series. More recently, he appeared as a poster and action figure in the Resident Evil 3 Remake.
It’s funny, there are countless video game box cover designs out there and there are only a few that have us scratching our heads and wondering what the story was behind them. We’re talking about the nightmarish orb faces on Bust-a-Move 2: Arcade Edition or the confused, old man playing a banjo on Phalanx. Yet, Mega Man had one of the worst, ugliest, most inaccurate, and potentially detrimental pieces of box art in gaming history, and fan culture has learned to laughingly celebrate it.
