For anyone curious, here's a translation of the French ad at 10:00 Mario: "Mega Man is back!" Announcer: "News from the world of Nintendo, with Mario." Mario: "Mega Man is more mega than ever. He blows Air Man away, completely freezes Heat Man, and sends Metal Man straight to the junkyard. Dr. Wily, is that throwing a wrench in your world domination plans?" Dr. Wily (with a weird accent for some reason): "Oh no, you're forgetting my super robots, my atomic chickens and all my other creatures." Mario: "Thank you Dr. Wily, we'll let Mega Man 2 have the final word." That's a pretty funny ad actually, I had never seen it before.
Not quite. It's a _not-real version_ of a _real-life version_ of something that's _not real._ Cosplay is different, being only a real-life version of something not real. And they look fine. This, tho, looks like some cursed picure you'd find on the internet. Like FF7 Remake. I'd rather look at creepy clowns and creepy dolls. 😬
When I first saw the mega man 1 game box , I said no thanks...even the sequel. Until I was at a friend's house and was playing this totally awesome game. Mega man 2. Imagine my young mind being blown when he shows me the box...pretty sure it was the first "wtf" I ever said out loud. 2 weeks later it was in my collection. Along with the 1st only a month later...been buying them ever since. Had we had the rockman box art...I probably, and many others, may have jumped on board much faster. Great vid... thanks for ur hard work and research...
Those bastards!! Well Thursday night is my time to upload so just check back when you can. Glad you enjoyed the video. Probably not having one next week but the two I have planned for October will be 40-60 minutes if I can do it as I envision. Thanks for coming back to check 🍺
Fantastic video, man! This may be my favorite of yours. It was funny. Why was the west so reluctant to use anime/manga style artwork? Rockman 1 and 2 both look great! The art for both Mega Man 1 & 2 is horrendous!
Imagine a bad box-art Mega Man X: On the cover would probably feature a blue & cyan Robocop-looking X, standing next to a red & white Darth Vader-looking Zero.
The megaman upon a star ova actually uses the Internstional names for all the characters even in Japan Really weird hearing “megaman” spoken in japanese
I feel like Japanese box art is usually the best in most cases. I never saw the European or German covers for Mega Man 2 before, that’s nuts! Your videos always have really interesting and unique topics. I love it.
9:00 Back in the day, American Exec had no idea that the Anime art style would be VERY appealing to US kids. These clueless adults had felt it had to be "westernized".
There was actually box art made for 9 and 10. It was a promotional thing you could order from Capcom USA. They were designed as a homage to the bad box art of year's past. Also, I think 7 is quite good and is my 2nd favorite classic Mega Man game. I recommend you revisit it :)
I know 7 is good. It was just a joke as I couldn’t capture it and just to see what the reaction would be. I do have a Japanese Rockman 10 box. Thanks for watching!
In all likelihood, Capcom USA was afraid that mom & dad wouldn't purchase the game for their kids if they printed a box art that was overly Japanese. I mean, after Pearl Harbor, who could blame them?
@@GTV-Japan That's THEIR problem. If one is still hung up about something that happened 70+ years ago, they need help....for holding a grudge that long.
To answer your question about MM1 box sitting on my shelf. Yes. Yes, I would be proud to have it on my shelf. It may be ugly, it may not make any sense, but I love it!
Yeeah Germany for some reason was pretty big on Mega Man. The animated series had its own intro theme here, too. That's why Mega Man (Rockman) is still very quintessential 90s, to me.
I’m learning more and more that Nintendo was pretty popular in Germany which contradicts the narrative you always hear about how the NES wasn’t popular in Europe. Probably because English speaking news skews things and often the UK is a stand in for the whole continent, ironically!
Dude, I totally resent what you said about MM7, since that remains my most favorite game in the series, and I was still playing 16-bit games back in 1995 as well! :P
It's crazy how they wanted to avoid putting anime and stuff too "strange" or cute art style on box art so instead, we got manly guys with a big sword and ugly art sometimes (actually most of the time) not representing the game correctly. Faria is a good example for that, the game is showing a Knight in full armor battling a dragon while the Japanese box art is showing the real character which is a girl, and the instruction manual in English literally omit to mention the gender of the character. Oh, another good example is Sky Kid, this is actually hilarious when you compare both box art of this game.
I can tell you why western box art barely allowed the Anime look. It's the same reason the Megaman cartoon was so drastically different in appearance: Test Audiences. Small Focus Groups shaped these kinds of things for each region. This was before the massive bang of Anime thanks to Pokemon, so naturally they tried to appeal to the common tastes of the era.
Yup. By the time 3 came out, anime was super popular in Europe (early 90s, had been for a while actually) while I think it took quite a while longer over in the US. Hence the crude face swap ahah
If Mega Man X had bad box art: What we would probably see on the front cover is "X", who appears to be a blue and cyan RoboCop; standing next to "Zero", who appears to be a red and white Darth Vader.
Nintendo published a list of games that earned the seal of quality in 1987 in the fun club news. Some titles were not yet out but marked coming soon. MegaMan was not on the list at all. In Japan where all the carts were made, MegaMan had a reprint that was released in March there. Factor in that carts take a long time to make Theres just no way the game was out in the us in December. Why would any company release a game days before Xmas when the shopping is mostly done?
Oh yeah. I forgot about the Fun Club News listings. I hope one day, we get a definitive list of US and PAL NES release dates, like we've got one for Japan. Are you familiar with Jeremy Parish? He does series' like NES Works, Game Boy Works, and SNES Works. I wonder if he's aware of the March 1988 tidbit? He's yet to review the game as part of his NES Works series on YT.
I know who he is, but I've never spoken to him. He knows who I am because they talk about my videos a lot on the podcast he and his friends have! I can't prove it Columbo style, but people take what they hear as gospel and to me it just doesnt fit.
I respect your willingness to question the conventional narratives, though in this case there are more pieces to the puzzle. An ad for Mega Man 1 did appear in the Winter 1987 issue of Nintendo Fun Club, and a contemporary video game publication released monthly called Computer Entertainer listed Mega Man as a December title in their Dec 1987 issue, and they posted a review of the game in the January 1988 issue, where it ranked #10 (last) in their popular video games from the previous month, and they offered the ability to order the game at discount for their subscribers. You can find these sources at the Nintendo Times website. As to why release that close to Christmas, it could be because that's when their sales window was available, and even if some holiday shopping was done, perhaps they sought to give last minute shoppers a game worth waiting for, or a chance for kids to spend holiday gift money, or exchange unwanted presents. Capcom was pushing to release several other NES games at the time, too. Releasing Mega Man at the end of 1987 instead of 1988 enabled them to get around Nintendo of America's "five games a year per licensee" policy, so they were able to release 1943, Mickey Mousecapades, Bionic Commando, Gunsmoke, and Legendary Wings on NES all in the same year. The relatively slow rollouts of distribution in that era could well mean that many stores didn't get MM1 until 1988, but officially the game was already being sold in America, at the very least on the West coast.
PLEASE go on forever with all of the box art for the Mega Man games; I need the distraction from my so-called life. P.S. that silvery Mega Man on the box art from one of the European games is my favorite one.
Who was still playing 16 bit games in 1995? Seriously? It's not like PlayStation and Saturn came out on January 1st 1995 and then Genesis and Super NES vanished off the face of earth, the magazine coverage at the time more than proves that. I know the comment wasn't meant to be THAT serious, but for a lot of younger gamers who weren't around at the time to know, they might take that at face value and have an incorrect sense of how the gaming scene progressed in the mid 90's.
I appreciate the comment and yes it was meant to be a joke as I know things were just starting mid 1995. But often I just throw in lines to see what reaction they get. This one was pretty negative. And there’s really no way to see what people think at times on here without invoking a reaction. For me though I was divorced from Nintendo by this time and was dying to get a Saturn or PlayStation
Oh hey Lex! I’d actually prefer that people don’t know my address. But I’ll happily take the medal and the 10k! But don’t worry, someday I’ll take off and 50-100 videos will explode all at once and I’ll get a huge return on it. If you want to get in to the why really, I do think it’s in part because I’m so far away from where people view the videos. I can’t meet any other you tubers or fans and those than can get to network and grow faster. Can’t complain though because I get to live in Japan and they don’t! 😁
"Can’t complain though because I get to live in Japan and they don’t!" You NAILED it, with that comment! If you, you know, ever need a roommate...hook a brother up?! :D *puppy dog eyes* haha!
Well there are companies that will put you in a school or something 8-5 for 25000$ a year and the rest if your free time. So a lot of people like myself have made it work.
I live in Europe, and always loved the box art from the first game. Apparently, in that game Mega Man's a youth. And when you get to the second game... look at the box art... he's a man. As a kid/youth myself, I only played "Mega Man 1-3" and "Mega Man X-1 & 2". Now I have bought "Mega Man 30th Anniversary Bundle" (19 games in all) on Xbox One, and try to finish those games one by one. The yellow giant in the first game... can't believe how I beat that as a kid, but somehow I did...
I had to do that for the sake of realism 😉. Anyway, thank you so very much for the opportunity to contribute to your video. I sort of feel like a Mega Man 6 fan submission winner!
Fun fact: That idea of America just being stubborn about the stuff being from Japan is the reason the Ruby Spears Show has so many issues. Just look up the original promo for it and you’ll know what I mean.
Thanks! Do you know anyone else who does that? I started as a way to divide information and put ads without disrupting the flow. But actually I don’t know if anyone else ever tried that or I’m the first. Thanks for watching
Some people speculate that Mona Lisa has facial parts facing different directions, causing uncanny effect and plant rage to some types of observers. Maybe USA Mega Man 1 box art is a modern Mona Lisa in some sense.
So, between the different variations for the covers, my favorites for each game are: 1. Europe 2. Japan 3. Europe 4. Japan 5. Japan 6. North America 7. Japan 8. Europe I totally disagree on the face changes for the 4 & 5 European covers being needless. Mega Man looks WEIRD on the North American covers. However, it seems like they washed out the color on the Euro covers. I appreciate changing Mega Man's color scheme to represent how he looks in-game, but it would have been nice if that had been done without fading the whole image.
Actually, Megaman 6 DID see a European release, albeit very, very, VERY limited. I've only seen PAL releases of MM6 from Germany or Italy, and those cost around 350$! Mind you, last time I checked was around 6-8 years ago and I live in Sweden.
@@GTV-Japan Like I said it's extremely limited and I can't speak for all of Europe since I live in Sweden and many Megaman games were never released here. MM6 is no exception.
It seems like “Europe “ follows whatever the UK did because it’s an English speaking country like the USA. So whatever happened there became “official “ but that’s wrong on many levels because first the uk isn’t on the continent and there were several means of distribution that were unrelated to what the uk did.
I actually love the European box art for Mega Man 1. I agree that looks like some alternate dimension poster for a budget 80's Mega Man movie. Also I was still playing 16-bit games in 1995. Some of us were poor.
The Japanese art is way wayyy cooler. Europe at least was trying, USA's art back in the 80's not good. Little did they know a decade from then anime would become huge and all the way to today.
Awesome piece, man it's so well produced, and just a joy to watch and so well written, and to top it all of even your commercials are always a pleasure, love how you tie em in with the content, very well done, always look forward to new stuff from you, thank you.
Thanks Chris! I hope to get 25 videos out this year but I have 70 older ones I’m sure you’ll like. The commercials are always my fav part to plan out by the way
There was a box for 10. I have it! It’s for the candy Rock-Manjuu they sold in 2010. It just looks like the icon in Collection 2. And had info about how to buy the game on the back!!
@@GTV-Japan There were press kits released for Mega Man 9 & 10 that came with their own retro boxes. Before you say that doesn't count, then why does there exist actual boxes with *art* on them? Just because they originally released digital only doesn't mean they should be invalidated; because Capcom literally went out of their way to make special boxart for these games just because of how notorious boxart is for Mega Man. And also FYI, you CAN buy MM9 & MM10 physically. Granted, they don't have their special boxart, but you can get the Legacy Collection 2 on PS4 and Xbox One physically.
There was the Rock Manjuu sold in promotion of Rockman 10. The back of the box advertises how you can download the game and that was pretty cool! They also sold one in a replica Rockman 1 box but unfortunately that’s all. No other games. As for the artwork they used for 9 was also used on the Rockman E-can soundtrack box set which was pretty cool too. I’m sure there’s more 9 stuff out there, it’s only been like a decade or something since then n
Man, don't take this personally but: i've watched a lot of your videos (they're great, really really good work!) and it's not the first time you mention the NES being unpopular in Europe which is partially false imo. The UK is not equal to the whole western Europe market at the time. Overall sales were low not because it was unpopular but because the video game market was small in itself and if you look (UK aside where nintendo was clearly unpopular comparing to home computers) at actual sales/population ratio or sales/video game market it did pretty well, look at the total sale in USA/Canada and compare it the population (34 millions unit for 296 millions people) and then compare the total sales in Europe compared to the western Europe population in, let say in 1995 (8.5 millions units for 180 millions); it's not ridiculous. The NES sold about 1.7 million units in France, the population at the time was something like 60 millions, that's not what i call bad sales! It did very well in Germany, in Italy (it was second behind the C64), Spain, for what i know. But yeah precise sales are hard to come by, there was no Nintendo Europe at the time and each market had his own distribution network: for France it was Bandai who was in charge before Nintendo France was created, the commercials were the American ones for the most part (for the system when it came out, and later for Zelda, Zelda II, Mario Bros 2, Mario Bros 3 from what i recall), and i can't remember seing one for a computer game (only for the systems)... You make it sound like we didn't knew what the NES was and i think it's a little harsh! Yeah it was a flop in the UK but there's a whole continent outside the english speaking area ;)
Thanks for the input Walter! I admit I’ve come to learn the NES was popular where it was marketed properly. I think it get skewed because the US will get more information from the UK simply from the shared language. I have started to mention in later videos that I’ve been wrong and it’s great to hear voices from outside my bubble to help give perspective on things in a way I’d never know otherwise. I’m going to keep on and use this kind of information in the future so I’m happy you shared it! 🕹
12:21 it's not just the face, ITS EVERYTHING, there's this weird pattern in NTSC Megaman and is also more blue meanwhile PAL megaman looks like he was intended to looks like but some little bells and whistles here 'n there
Every time I look at these covers, specifically the American ones, I just think what was the matter with just using the Japanese cover art across the board?
I’m refusing to get games on day one anymore. I’m waiting till my birthday! Another thing is if there’s leaderboards or whatever they’ll instantly have 10 people with like 99 million points somehow, ruining the whole fun of it. I still got more MegaMan in me though. Infinite video ideas
The WTF, box art kept me from trying the Mega Man games because I didn’t know what the heck it was supposed to be. MM3 was the first in the series I played.
The first round of Capcom games in 87-88 with the grid background were all awful. I think they were done by the same artist. but certainly have the same style. Look at Trojan!
How? There was no box? There was no disc? There was rock “Manjuu” sold in japan for the release of 10 in a fake box. But there was no game of course in that
Yeah you could say cover art or online shop icon I guess. But I added that because people keep saying there’s boxes for them but I’ve never seen them. Anyway there was a rock man 10 candy box that looked like a family computer game box. That was pretty cool. But I showed that off in an earlier video. Thanks for watching!!
@@GTV-Japan Actually they can fight each other in Street Fighter X Tekken. And get this, it's the North American box art Mega man. As a playable character. It talks with that old Timey classic hero voice.
I think having weird box art in the US is part of MegaMan's charm, it's hilarious and so unexpected. I'm not a fan of Megaman 11's normal accurate box art, I like when it's misleading and out of nowhere levels of weird and post apocalyptic themed nonsense it would spurt to the US. Even some fan games such as Megaman Perfect Blue liked having that so much, they made their own!
The American box art for Mega Man 2 was parodied as a Marvel vs Capcom poster. This was to promote Marvel vs Capcom origins. A now de-listed collection of games
@@GTV-JapanTook a look, and OP was right. Changes I noted include Mega Man now having his standard appearance and on the logo, Ryu now standing where he stood in the box art, and the scene being mirrored. From the looks of it being from a now-gone MvC collection, it was made at the tail end of Capcom's Mega Man release streak on every console from the 90s to the 2000s.
Not sure if anyone's noticed it before, but that odd-looking floating head on the European Mega Man 2 box art is definitely a reference to Zardoz, John Boorman's trippy 1974 sci-fi film with Sean Connery. I think the floating heads in the Airman stage gave the artist license to put Zardoz on the box, which makes a little sense in that the film was more well-received in Europe than the US (it's a love-it-or-hate-it move, but I think it's kind of brilliant).
Also I’ll add I remember that movie from back when cable tv played schlocky sci fi movies late at night. This one was often paired with Yor Hunter from the Future
... Mega Man 7 was one of my favorites, and I was regularly playing my SNES until the early 00s -- and still play 16-bit and 16-bit inspired games regularly to this day (and will 'till the day I die).
In my opinion they nailed it with Mega Man 7's box art. In the box art the size of mega man has been redone to look more like the game, and they ditched the weird 1940s cartoon face for one that looks similar to the japanese one but more Americanized which makes a fine blend of the two. Mega man standing on a roof top showcasing Wily in his saucer along with three of the four robot masters (excluding freeze man for some reason) destroying the city is pretty accurate to what happens in the intro segment. As the city was attacked and the robot masters awoken to free Wily, effectively showing you how this game's gonna go. They actually did their research and drew an appealing looking mega man, and I feel like it should have been addressed how much of a step up this box art is instead of "Its great but eh but who talks about 7 anyway?" But thats my opinion
Mega man is one of the only game franchises i like the new/american name for more than the japanese original. the only other one i can think of is Resident Evil, but i also LOVE the name "Biohazard" so that's sort of a wash.
Yea I think that one is better. The other Japanese name I like better was WWE smack down was called exciting pro wrestling in japan and I think that’s funny
9 and 10 didn't have box art.
Well I do have a Rockman 10 box, in a manner of speaking!
For anyone curious, here's a translation of the French ad at 10:00
Mario: "Mega Man is back!"
Announcer: "News from the world of Nintendo, with Mario."
Mario: "Mega Man is more mega than ever. He blows Air Man away, completely freezes Heat Man, and sends Metal Man straight to the junkyard. Dr. Wily, is that throwing a wrench in your world domination plans?"
Dr. Wily (with a weird accent for some reason): "Oh no, you're forgetting my super robots, my atomic chickens and all my other creatures."
Mario: "Thank you Dr. Wily, we'll let Mega Man 2 have the final word."
That's a pretty funny ad actually, I had never seen it before.
Thanks! I’ll add it to CC
The European MM1 art looks very good. It looks as if real people were doing somewhat faithful cosplays of Mega Man characters.
ha ha that is a funny way to put it
Not quite. It's a _not-real version_ of a _real-life version_ of something that's _not real._ Cosplay is different, being only a real-life version of something not real. And they look fine. This, tho, looks like some cursed picure you'd find on the internet. Like FF7 Remake. I'd rather look at creepy clowns and creepy dolls. 😬
From mm 3 on it got even better
That intro was an exaggeration…
to form a pun. That was gold.
Thanks! If it gave you a laugh it was worth it
@@GTV-Japan Was worth your time lol.
Mega Man 1: *gets a box art*
Every one: *_PUT THAT THING BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM OR SO HELP ME_*
When I first saw the mega man 1 game box , I said no thanks...even the sequel. Until I was at a friend's house and was playing this totally awesome game. Mega man 2. Imagine my young mind being blown when he shows me the box...pretty sure it was the first "wtf" I ever said out loud. 2 weeks later it was in my collection. Along with the 1st only a month later...been buying them ever since. Had we had the rockman box art...I probably, and many others, may have jumped on board much faster. Great vid... thanks for ur hard work and research...
I know ! Why can’t we just have anime? We love it!
Megaman 10 has the best "box" art (the promotional art).
I have a rockman 10 box. It’s pretty cool!
Awesome video. Glad I hit your channel up manually. RUclips hasn't been notifying me of uploads.
Those bastards!! Well Thursday night is my time to upload so just check back when you can. Glad you enjoyed the video. Probably not having one next week but the two I have planned for October will be 40-60 minutes if I can do it as I envision. Thanks for coming back to check 🍺
Fantastic video, man! This may be my favorite of yours. It was funny.
Why was the west so reluctant to use anime/manga style artwork? Rockman 1 and 2 both look great! The art for both Mega Man 1 & 2 is horrendous!
probably because those guys never learned how to focus test products.
Mega Man 1's North American boxart haunts my nightmares
I should have put a trigger warning ⚠️
Imagine a bad box-art Mega Man X:
On the cover would probably feature a blue & cyan Robocop-looking X, standing next to a red & white Darth Vader-looking Zero.
AI art has found its calling!
Fun fact: bad box art megaman (along w/ pacman & cole mcgrath from infamous) were ps3 (& vita) exclusive characters in street fighter x tekken
Oh pacman you say? Cool!
The megaman upon a star ova actually uses the Internstional names for all the characters even in Japan
Really weird hearing “megaman” spoken in japanese
Neat. I’ll have to check that out! Thanks for the tip
I get the Euro changes to the faces. The face on Megaman was looking super derpy and oddly shaped.
Derpy sure but SUPER derpy?? I dunno.....
@@GTV-Japan That face totally turned me away as a kid. I never knew of the Eruo faces. I very much prefer that. VERY much.
Yea. Good thing we didn’t see the labels so ,much anyway
I feel like Japanese box art is usually the best in most cases. I never saw the European or German covers for Mega Man 2 before, that’s nuts! Your videos always have really interesting and unique topics. I love it.
9:00 Back in the day, American Exec had no idea that the Anime art style would be VERY appealing to US kids. These clueless adults had felt it had to be "westernized".
Yeah. Unfortunately
There was actually box art made for 9 and 10. It was a promotional thing you could order from Capcom USA. They were designed as a homage to the bad box art of year's past. Also, I think 7 is quite good and is my 2nd favorite classic Mega Man game. I recommend you revisit it :)
I know 7 is good. It was just a joke as I couldn’t capture it and just to see what the reaction would be. I do have a Japanese Rockman 10 box. Thanks for watching!
8:26 You forgot to mention Mega Man is blasting that robot in the balls.
I didn’t because coppa! Thanks for watching! 💣
Well, the only part of the boxart that stays exclusive to Japan is the extra name after the number of each Rockman title. Except for the first game.
True! I guess Capcom USA thought that’d be too confusing
In all likelihood, Capcom USA was afraid that mom & dad wouldn't purchase the game for their kids if they printed a box art that was overly Japanese.
I mean, after Pearl Harbor, who could blame them?
That’s true! Japanese and German things were not welcome but who knew that art style was Japanese? Maybe not many
It was like FORTY YEARS later, though.
My grandparents would never allow a Japanese car or tv in the house that’s for sure
@@GTV-Japan That's THEIR problem.
If one is still hung up about something that happened 70+ years ago, they need help....for holding a grudge that long.
They’re dead now. But that was the sentiment then. And in the 80s Americans feared Japan we ups be rich enough to buy the USA whole.
04:16 It looks like a Mega Man Live Action If it was done in the 90s.
That would be cool
To answer your question about MM1 box sitting on my shelf. Yes. Yes, I would be proud to have it on my shelf. It may be ugly, it may not make any sense, but I love it!
Hey no problem! Live your life man!! 👍
@@GTV-Japan 🤣👍
Yeeah Germany for some reason was pretty big on Mega Man. The animated series had its own intro theme here, too.
That's why Mega Man (Rockman) is still very quintessential 90s, to me.
I’m learning more and more that Nintendo was pretty popular in Germany which contradicts the narrative you always hear about how the NES wasn’t popular in Europe. Probably because English speaking news skews things and often the UK is a stand in for the whole continent, ironically!
Dude, I totally resent what you said about MM7, since that remains my most favorite game in the series, and I was still playing 16-bit games back in 1995 as well! :P
Oh I’m sorry really it was just a joke because I couldn’t capture any footage from it
If they ever do a megaman 12 they should do a bad box art pre order exclusive for the United states
Nooooo. Bad idea 👎
@@GTV-Japan i mean you’d still get the international boxart it would just be a bonus for those who want it lol
Let’s see a real Megaman 12 first. Then we can talk.
It's crazy how they wanted to avoid putting anime and stuff too "strange" or cute art style on box art so instead, we got manly guys with a big sword and ugly art sometimes (actually most of the time) not representing the game correctly.
Faria is a good example for that, the game is showing a Knight in full armor battling a dragon while the Japanese box art is showing the real character which is a girl, and the instruction manual in English literally omit to mention the gender of the character.
Oh, another good example is Sky Kid, this is actually hilarious when you compare both box art of this game.
Yea all these examples are good. It seems the marketing and programming depts never communicate back then
I can tell you why western box art barely allowed the Anime look. It's the same reason the Megaman cartoon was so drastically different in appearance: Test Audiences.
Small Focus Groups shaped these kinds of things for each region. This was before the massive bang of Anime thanks to Pokemon, so naturally they tried to appeal to the common tastes of the era.
That’s understandable
Yup. By the time 3 came out, anime was super popular in Europe (early 90s, had been for a while actually) while I think it took quite a while longer over in the US. Hence the crude face swap ahah
But looking back there were a lot of anime shows on tv and home video. Though admittedly they often tried to hide it’s Japanese roots.
In the European cover of megaman and megaman 3 it looks as if Dr Wily invented the atomic bomb and regretted it
He is modeled after Einstein after all 💣
If Mega Man X had bad box art:
What we would probably see on the front cover is "X", who appears to be a blue and cyan RoboCop;
standing next to "Zero", who appears to be a red and white Darth Vader.
I want this so bad now.
The Megaman that appears in the MegaMan 2 box art looks like a rip-off of Robocop.
Seems like it.
Sadly, People often misunderstanding and don't understand, disrespect foreign culture. Foreign games' Japanese version has also localization problem.
Where did you find out that the first game was released in the U.S. in March 1988? I wanna hear that, Gaijillionaire. Sounds interesting.
Nintendo published a list of games that earned the seal of quality in 1987 in the fun club news. Some titles were not yet out but marked coming soon. MegaMan was not on the list at all. In Japan where all the carts were made, MegaMan had a reprint that was released in March there. Factor in that carts take a long time to make Theres just no way the game was out in the us in December. Why would any company release a game days before Xmas when the shopping is mostly done?
Oh yeah. I forgot about the Fun Club News listings. I hope one day, we get a definitive list of US and PAL NES release dates, like we've got one for Japan.
Are you familiar with Jeremy Parish? He does series' like NES Works, Game Boy Works, and SNES Works. I wonder if he's aware of the March 1988 tidbit? He's yet to review the game as part of his NES Works series on YT.
I know who he is, but I've never spoken to him. He knows who I am because they talk about my videos a lot on the podcast he and his friends have! I can't prove it Columbo style, but people take what they hear as gospel and to me it just doesnt fit.
I respect your willingness to question the conventional narratives, though in this case there are more pieces to the puzzle. An ad for Mega Man 1 did appear in the Winter 1987 issue of Nintendo Fun Club, and a contemporary video game publication released monthly called Computer Entertainer listed Mega Man as a December title in their Dec 1987 issue, and they posted a review of the game in the January 1988 issue, where it ranked #10 (last) in their popular video games from the previous month, and they offered the ability to order the game at discount for their subscribers. You can find these sources at the Nintendo Times website. As to why release that close to Christmas, it could be because that's when their sales window was available, and even if some holiday shopping was done, perhaps they sought to give last minute shoppers a game worth waiting for, or a chance for kids to spend holiday gift money, or exchange unwanted presents. Capcom was pushing to release several other NES games at the time, too. Releasing Mega Man at the end of 1987 instead of 1988 enabled them to get around Nintendo of America's "five games a year per licensee" policy, so they were able to release 1943, Mickey Mousecapades, Bionic Commando, Gunsmoke, and Legendary Wings on NES all in the same year. The relatively slow rollouts of distribution in that era could well mean that many stores didn't get MM1 until 1988, but officially the game was already being sold in America, at the very least on the West coast.
Sure those are good points. And if true then I’ll go by them. And have a nice copyright trap set haha. Thanks for the info
PLEASE go on forever with all of the box art for the Mega Man games; I need the distraction from my so-called life. P.S. that silvery Mega Man on the box art from one of the European games is my favorite one.
Who was still playing 16 bit games in 1995? Seriously? It's not like PlayStation and Saturn came out on January 1st 1995 and then Genesis and Super NES vanished off the face of earth, the magazine coverage at the time more than proves that. I know the comment wasn't meant to be THAT serious, but for a lot of younger gamers who weren't around at the time to know, they might take that at face value and have an incorrect sense of how the gaming scene progressed in the mid 90's.
I appreciate the comment and yes it was meant to be a joke as I know things were just starting mid 1995. But often I just throw in lines to see what reaction they get. This one was pretty negative. And there’s really no way to see what people think at times on here without invoking a reaction. For me though I was divorced from Nintendo by this time and was dying to get a Saturn or PlayStation
Gaijillionaire Thanks for the replying your stuff is awesome
No problem! I’m all for long detailed honest discussions. Thanks for coming by and I’ll keep putting out stuff in the meantime
Someone should come to your door and give you a MEDAL!
HOW HAVE YOU ONLY GOT 4.6K SUBS?! YOU DESERVE 10K+ MINIMUM!
Oh hey Lex! I’d actually prefer that people don’t know my address. But I’ll happily take the medal and the 10k! But don’t worry, someday I’ll take off and 50-100 videos will explode all at once and I’ll get a huge return on it. If you want to get in to the why really, I do think it’s in part because I’m so far away from where people view the videos. I can’t meet any other you tubers or fans and those than can get to network and grow faster. Can’t complain though because I get to live in Japan and they don’t! 😁
"Can’t complain though because I get to live in Japan and they don’t!" You NAILED it, with that comment!
If you, you know, ever need a roommate...hook a brother up?! :D *puppy dog eyes* haha!
If you do actually want to live and work here, I know exactly who to call!
I guess I could make...Phantasy Star remixes for a living? xD maybe a hardcore rave version of the Land Rover battle theme? :D
Well there are companies that will put you in a school or something 8-5 for 25000$ a year and the rest if your free time. So a lot of people like myself have made it work.
Which MegaMan/RockMan box arts are your favorite and most hated? Discuss and comment away!
Number one
I guess it could be both loved and hated at once!
@@GTV-Japan i just love it because of how campy it is the same way people like the 60s batman
I like that too. I mean hey we’re grown ass men talking about ancient video games! Gotta be able to laugh at least a little right
That FACE on 4-6 ugh! I kinda like creepy wily on megaman 3 EU, probably all of the Japanese boxarts are the best
I live in Europe, and always loved the box art from the first game. Apparently, in that game Mega Man's a youth. And when you get to the second game... look at the box art... he's a man.
As a kid/youth myself, I only played "Mega Man 1-3" and "Mega Man X-1 & 2". Now I have bought "Mega Man 30th Anniversary Bundle" (19 games in all) on Xbox One, and try to finish those games one by one. The yellow giant in the first game... can't believe how I beat that as a kid, but somehow I did...
That’s cool! In Japan anyway rock or Rockman is 10 years old
owning the america megaman 1 box is privilege now fight me
it is a privilege! it survived 35 years!
Hey just so you know, there’s no boxed retail version of MegaMan 11 for the Nintendo Switch in Europe.
I had to do that for the sake of realism 😉. Anyway, thank you so very much for the opportunity to contribute to your video. I sort of feel like a Mega Man 6 fan submission winner!
Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?????!!!
Thanks for helping out! I like those kinds of things! I’ll keep you in mind for future stuff too when it’s needed
Fun fact: That idea of America just being stubborn about the stuff being from Japan is the reason the Ruby Spears Show has so many issues. Just look up the original promo for it and you’ll know what I mean.
I think I will. thanks
GTV Japan No problem
it took 8 generations of mega man for the US to finally get it.
I know right!!!
The mega man 2 USA BOX ART had mega man's foot broken
Oh! I tonight that was just muh duck walk!
10:13 funny laugh
the US MM8 case has the JP art inside behind the disc!
Aw if only I knew! Thanks for sharing
I love your format and with the commercial breaks.
Thanks! Do you know anyone else who does that? I started as a way to divide information and put ads without disrupting the flow. But actually I don’t know if anyone else ever tried that or I’m the first. Thanks for watching
The first one is best because it’s terrible and eye catching
The European Box Art of Mega man 3, Dr. Wily looks like if Heihachi from Tekken has seen some god-awful crap...
Haaaaaaaa! Great comment
Some people speculate that Mona Lisa has facial parts facing different directions, causing uncanny effect and plant rage to some types of observers.
Maybe USA Mega Man 1 box art is a modern Mona Lisa in some sense.
So, between the different variations for the covers, my favorites for each game are:
1. Europe
2. Japan
3. Europe
4. Japan
5. Japan
6. North America
7. Japan
8. Europe
I totally disagree on the face changes for the 4 & 5 European covers being needless. Mega Man looks WEIRD on the North American covers. However, it seems like they washed out the color on the Euro covers. I appreciate changing Mega Man's color scheme to represent how he looks in-game, but it would have been nice if that had been done without fading the whole image.
Thanks for sharing your list. I mostly align with that
Funny thing that mega man fully charged have an episode with bad art box mega man
Yea lots of people keep telling me that. Thanks for watching
The europeon box art for megaman 3 makes Wily look like Heihachi from Tekken 🤣
Actually, Megaman 6 DID see a European release, albeit very, very, VERY limited. I've only seen PAL releases of MM6 from Germany or Italy, and those cost around 350$! Mind you, last time I checked was around 6-8 years ago and I live in Sweden.
Oh no! Get out!! Now if that’s true, and I believe you, why isn’t it well known?
@@GTV-Japan Like I said it's extremely limited and I can't speak for all of Europe since I live in Sweden and many Megaman games were never released here. MM6 is no exception.
It seems like “Europe “ follows whatever the UK did because it’s an English speaking country like the USA. So whatever happened there became “official “ but that’s wrong on many levels because first the uk isn’t on the continent and there were several means of distribution that were unrelated to what the uk did.
I love your channel so much. Keep up the great work!
Thanks! I got a new video coming in 2 days
13:40 I never understood why the Japanese version had a different intro theme
I actually love the European box art for Mega Man 1. I agree that looks like some alternate dimension poster for a budget 80's Mega Man movie.
Also I was still playing 16-bit games in 1995. Some of us were poor.
Haha no hard feelings. You could get a 64 bit jaguar for 99$ in 95.
Funnily, the Finnish rental copies of MM2 had American artwork. Also, nice spoiler on the euro MM3 cover. We all knew it was Wiley, but still...
I had no idea! But thats good to know. There were a few "rental only# versions in the us but in Japan, no rentals allowed. They are illegal!
The Japanese art is way wayyy cooler. Europe at least was trying, USA's art back in the 80's not good. Little did they know a decade from then anime would become huge and all the way to today.
Anime was big in the 80s! Well at least if you lived your life “straight to video” 😂
Awesome piece, man it's so well produced, and just a joy to watch and so well written, and to top it all of even your commercials are always a pleasure, love how you tie em in with the content, very well done, always look forward to new stuff from you, thank you.
Thanks Chris! I hope to get 25 videos out this year but I have 70 older ones I’m sure you’ll like. The commercials are always my fav part to plan out by the way
I’m so glad we’re past the point of needing to do custom artwork to “appeal to western audiences”
Kirby would disagree
Is it weird I wish they had a port to the x68000? Just for the music of course.
That would be cool!! Or msx! The FC games ported there were a little different usually
Megaman is such a better name than Rockman
I think so. But in Japanese the suffix -man implies superpowers
You say megaman is better but you’re not spelling it mega man. Split for English merged for Japanese looks best.
@@pikminman13 louis ck has a a great bit about people like you
Let’s face it: sometimes Murica nails it 👌🏻
USA! USA! 🇺🇸
Toonami came in the late 90s. That’s why MM8 looks the way it does compared to the other games. Anime as accepted formally in the USA at that time.
Ok!
I got a stroke reading the American Mega Man description. WTF?
Too many electrons perhaps. Please feel better.
Kinda interesting that the Mega Man 6 NA box art features the 2 robot masters designed in the west
Yeah, I like that special touch
Did anyone else see the game informer cover that has all the alternate box art Mega Men? (or Mega Mans, idk 🤷)
Sorry, its beyond my time.
@@GTV-Japan I'm sure u can probably look it up on Google by now 👍
I have one
Err, Megaman 9 and 10 did have a digital box art and they were done bad on purpose. Too bad you didn't include them in your video :(
There was a box for 10. I have it! It’s for the candy Rock-Manjuu they sold in 2010. It just looks like the icon in Collection 2. And had info about how to buy the game on the back!!
Feyrah man??!????
Fer row.
Pharaoh = fair row.
Fun fact: bad box art mega man was made into a fully fledged joke character in mega man fully charged.
ruclips.net/video/GRpoDg6x5m0/видео.html
Mega Man 9 and 10 both have box arts, they're featured in Mega Man legacy collection 2
Oh? I’ll have to go look that up. But I never knew where you could by the game on disc in a box
@@GTV-Japan There were press kits released for Mega Man 9 & 10 that came with their own retro boxes. Before you say that doesn't count, then why does there exist actual boxes with *art* on them? Just because they originally released digital only doesn't mean they should be invalidated; because Capcom literally went out of their way to make special boxart for these games just because of how notorious boxart is for Mega Man. And also FYI, you CAN buy MM9 & MM10 physically. Granted, they don't have their special boxart, but you can get the Legacy Collection 2 on PS4 and Xbox One physically.
There was the Rock Manjuu sold in promotion of Rockman 10. The back of the box advertises how you can download the game and that was pretty cool! They also sold one in a replica Rockman 1 box but unfortunately that’s all. No other games. As for the artwork they used for 9 was also used on the Rockman E-can soundtrack box set which was pretty cool too. I’m sure there’s more 9 stuff out there, it’s only been like a decade or something since then n
Dude. Videos like this proves the brotherhood among video game players.
I hope so!
Nice Wave Man music in the background of Mega Man 5.
That’s the e can sound set
Europe really nails most of these box arts (maybe except Mega Man 2, as that one goes to Germany).
Yea they’re surprising good! Thanks for watching
Man, don't take this personally but: i've watched a lot of your videos (they're great, really really good work!) and it's not the first time you mention the NES being unpopular in Europe which is partially false imo. The UK is not equal to the whole western Europe market at the time. Overall sales were low not because it was unpopular but because the video game market was small in itself and if you look (UK aside where nintendo was clearly unpopular comparing to home computers) at actual sales/population ratio or sales/video game market it did pretty well, look at the total sale in USA/Canada and compare it the population (34 millions unit for 296 millions people) and then compare the total sales in Europe compared to the western Europe population in, let say in 1995 (8.5 millions units for 180 millions); it's not ridiculous. The NES sold about 1.7 million units in France, the population at the time was something like 60 millions, that's not what i call bad sales! It did very well in Germany, in Italy (it was second behind the C64), Spain, for what i know. But yeah precise sales are hard to come by, there was no Nintendo Europe at the time and each market had his own distribution network: for France it was Bandai who was in charge before Nintendo France was created, the commercials were the American ones for the most part (for the system when it came out, and later for Zelda, Zelda II, Mario Bros 2, Mario Bros 3 from what i recall), and i can't remember seing one for a computer game (only for the systems)...
You make it sound like we didn't knew what the NES was and i think it's a little harsh! Yeah it was a flop in the UK but there's a whole continent outside the english speaking area ;)
Thanks for the input Walter! I admit I’ve come to learn the NES was popular where it was marketed properly. I think it get skewed because the US will get more information from the UK simply from the shared language. I have started to mention in later videos that I’ve been wrong and it’s great to hear voices from outside my bubble to help give perspective on things in a way I’d never know otherwise. I’m going to keep on and use this kind of information in the future so I’m happy you shared it! 🕹
12:21 it's not just the face, ITS EVERYTHING, there's this weird pattern in NTSC Megaman and is also more blue meanwhile PAL megaman looks like he was intended to looks like but some little bells and whistles here 'n there
It's criminal you haven't got more subs. Your video quality and production is outstanding.
Thanks. I got 2500 new followers this month though!
@@GTV-Japan
Well done, and I can't wait for you to get even more, your content really is solid.
Thanks again. I’ll keep at it and see how far it goes
Every time I look at these covers, specifically the American ones, I just think what was the matter with just using the Japanese cover art across the board?
Exactly!
They went for the Buck Rogers look with the American Megaman 2 cover art.
That’s a good point!
After watching the video all the way to the end, I take it back, he does know what he is talking about. Re-Subscribe!
Hahah! Thanks! Except for one problem, I’m dead.
Another great video man. I didnt pick up Mega man 11 yet but Im looking forward to it.
I’m refusing to get games on day one anymore. I’m waiting till my birthday! Another thing is if there’s leaderboards or whatever they’ll instantly have 10 people with like 99 million points somehow, ruining the whole fun of it. I still got more MegaMan in me though. Infinite video ideas
Some day I want to own used cartridges of all the famicom Rockman games. They're all so colourful and cute!
Yea. Much better than grey!
I've never been a patron for anyone but you on RUclips. Was pretty cool to see my name in there! Keep up the awesome work!
+Pichuscute thanks I appreciate it!
7 is better than 5. Change my mind.
The WTF, box art kept me from trying the Mega Man games because I didn’t know what the heck it was supposed to be. MM3 was the first in the series I played.
The first round of Capcom games in 87-88 with the grid background were all awful. I think they were done by the same artist. but certainly have the same style. Look at Trojan!
Japanese box art is the best. The American box art for Mega man 1 is great! 80's pop art lunacy!! Awesome stuff :)
I wonder what future generations will think. Yea it’s weird surely and that makes it cool
@@GTV-Japan have you played Street Fighter X Tekken? You can be the box art Mega Man. He is the....Mega Man.
Actually no, I missed that one! I’ll have to check it out
@@GTV-Japan the MM2 box art in northamerica was not too bad.
I also liked the ones with the 2008+ 8 bit box art, too.
This is one of your best videos. Your personality really shines through! Great stuff!
Thanks good friend! It’s all from the heart
I hated this video because how does he get mad in this video, he just sounds normal. And why add the sesures at the end?
Well, that’s almost comprehensible
wait so MM11 released before RM11??? Dang, Mega Man finally canon hahahaha
By 2 days! Though actually just 1 because Japan is always a day ahead
MM9 and 10 have Box art.
How? There was no box? There was no disc? There was rock “Manjuu” sold in japan for the release of 10 in a fake box. But there was no game of course in that
@@GTV-Japan you can check MMKB galery of both. Also Legacy Collection 2. No Box but Box art we have
Well without a box it’s not box art. Just an online shop image
@@GTV-Japan works for me.
Ok good then.
If you want to argue semantics that there's no physical " boxes " for 9 and 10 therefore there's no " box art " that's just silly.
Yeah you could say cover art or online shop icon I guess. But I added that because people keep saying there’s boxes for them but I’ve never seen them. Anyway there was a rock man 10 candy box that looked like a family computer game box. That was pretty cool. But I showed that off in an earlier video. Thanks for watching!!
"nobody cares about megaman 7"
"europe art from megaman 8 is good"
oh boy
Yea. These are things that I said. Thanks for watching ⚡️
@@GTV-Japan Nice video, bro (even though your taste for the mega man 8 cover is questionable hahahahahahh)
@@alx_carvalho huh? Am I wrong? I’ll admit if I am but I thought it was pretty good. Simple sure. But it’s not a disaster 😂
wow you are just gonna skip the megaman 9 and 10 box art? They were call backs to the retro futuristic art and looked so cool!
There are no boxes for 9 and 10. Yes I know they had some kind of gaudy looking shelf item. Thanks for watching 🔥
@@GTV-Japan There were boxarts, actually, but they're terrible...
I look really ugly in some of these
8:56 I didn't know Heihachi Mishima from Tekken was a boss in Megaman
haaaaa, ok ya got me good there
@@GTV-Japan Actually they can fight each other in Street Fighter X Tekken. And get this, it's the North American box art Mega man. As a playable character. It talks with that old Timey classic hero voice.
Ohhh see I don’t know that because im the man from 1996!
@@GTV-Japan 1996 was awesome.
It was. It’s why I never left!
2:16 actually the name Rockman was used in Indonesia, but only for the EXE & Starforce anime
cool thanks for telling me
I think having weird box art in the US is part of MegaMan's charm, it's hilarious and so unexpected.
I'm not a fan of Megaman 11's normal accurate box art, I like when it's misleading and out of nowhere levels of weird and post apocalyptic themed nonsense it would spurt to the US. Even some fan games such as Megaman Perfect Blue liked having that so much, they made their own!
I can see the charm in that. Beauty in imperfection
The American box art for Mega Man 2 was parodied as a Marvel vs Capcom poster. This was to promote Marvel vs Capcom origins. A now de-listed collection of games
Neat!
@@GTV-JapanTook a look, and OP was right. Changes I noted include Mega Man now having his standard appearance and on the logo, Ryu now standing where he stood in the box art, and the scene being mirrored.
From the looks of it being from a now-gone MvC collection, it was made at the tail end of Capcom's Mega Man release streak on every console from the 90s to the 2000s.
Not sure if anyone's noticed it before, but that odd-looking floating head on the European Mega Man 2 box art is definitely a reference to Zardoz, John Boorman's trippy 1974 sci-fi film with Sean Connery. I think the floating heads in the Airman stage gave the artist license to put Zardoz on the box, which makes a little sense in that the film was more well-received in Europe than the US (it's a love-it-or-hate-it move, but I think it's kind of brilliant).
Good eye! Very esoteric! 🍺
Also I’ll add I remember that movie from back when cable tv played schlocky sci fi movies late at night. This one was often paired with Yor Hunter from the Future
... Mega Man 7 was one of my favorites, and I was regularly playing my SNES until the early 00s -- and still play 16-bit and 16-bit inspired games regularly to this day (and will 'till the day I die).
Very nice. Thanks for watching
In my opinion they nailed it with Mega Man 7's box art. In the box art the size of mega man has been redone to look more like the game, and they ditched the weird 1940s cartoon face for one that looks similar to the japanese one but more Americanized which makes a fine blend of the two. Mega man standing on a roof top showcasing Wily in his saucer along with three of the four robot masters (excluding freeze man for some reason) destroying the city is pretty accurate to what happens in the intro segment. As the city was attacked and the robot masters awoken to free Wily, effectively showing you how this game's gonna go. They actually did their research and drew an appealing looking mega man, and I feel like it should have been addressed how much of a step up this box art is instead of "Its great but eh but who talks about 7 anyway?" But thats my opinion
This is the best comment I’ve gotten for this video! Thanks! 🔥
@@GTV-Japan No problem!
If megaman 6 & the show Battlebots came out around the same time, I can imagine some sorta cross promotion 👍
Title says 1 through 11. *only does 1 through 8.* ._.
No I mention all of them that were sold in a box
*ohhh*
Mega man is one of the only game franchises i like the new/american name for more than the japanese original. the only other one i can think of is Resident Evil, but i also LOVE the name "Biohazard" so that's sort of a wash.
Yea I think that one is better. The other Japanese name I like better was WWE smack down was called exciting pro wrestling in japan and I think that’s funny