While it can't always be said that western cover artwork is superior to that seen in Japan, it's important to remember that for many gamers growing up during the 8 and 16-bit eras, it was all they knew - and for that reason alone it's easy to see why so many Nintendo fans might have a nostalgic connection with the (often inferior) cover art in question.
Mega Man is a series which has endured a rather storied history when it comes to western artwork - the North America cover for the first game has gone down as one of the worst examples ever. However, as the sequels rolled by the quality thankfully headed in the right direction, giving us several striking and memorable boxes to stare at longingly as we tried to make up our minds about which one to buy with our precious pocket money.
Nintendo Age forum member Buyatari is such a fan of these western Mega Man covers than he has assembled quite a collection of original artwork. These are the actual paintings created by artist Greg Winters (who would also do work for Sega during the same period) which were used on the boxes, and the fact that Buyatari has been able to obtain so many of them is really impressive.
[source rockman-corner.com, via nintendoage.com]
Comments (16)
Love stuff like this, it's always fun to see an artwork collection.
I particularly like the Mega Man 6 pic.
Back when box art was good and a thing!
The X games featured the same artist? Interesting.
I discovered Mega Man 1 roughly ten years after it had been released, and having no prior knowledge of anything else about the series, I didn't find the cover art ugly. I feel as if it has gotten an unfair amount of criticism, stoked by "edgy," try-hard games journalists (big surprise). It's no Mona Lisa, but seriously folks, it's not that bad.
Then this...
...and this happened.
Wish I had these. It was indeed all I knew as a kid, game art-wise, so Greg Winters definitely inspired me to persue art. I don't see it as inferior to the original Japanese art. Just different.
Box art is so soul-less nowadays
Awesome art work, man i miss Megaman would love too see a remaster done in the New Super Mario U art style.
I got Mega Man 2 back when the first 3 games were out. It came with a Mega Man 3 poster with that art on it. It was so cool.
Megaman V <3
Now I understand why people pay ridiculous prices for art. I'd give anything for those MM3 and MMX paintings.
Greg Winters' art is the iconic benchmark for "cool action title" in the late 80's/ early 90's. They captured the emotional grounding of the respective titles in a surprisingly holistic manner, while accurately depicting the intended art style for the in game action. Greg's artwork wasn't "high art" like some other contemporary artwork was, such as Boris Vallejo's box art on titles like Ecco the Dolphin, but it stands out even today as a solid representative of the cultural aspirings at that time period.
Whoa, Megaman is RIPPED on the pitch!
(and lol Top Man--maybe he's less useless as a keeper)
Cool, to say the least! Favs here being MM V/3/X!
Ohhhh, the Nostaliga!! I would SO love these paintings as wall scrolls!!
I just realized something about MM3's boxart. Poor Spark Man is getting blasted right in the crotch. Ouch.
Pretty awesome.
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