We’ve all had a hearty laugh at Street Fighter X Tekken‘s take on the Blue Bomber — part homage and part caricature. For better or worse, people will be talking about fat, middle-aged Mega Man for years to come. Still, how exactly did the artists settle on such a bizarre look for one of gaming’s most noticeable icons?
When Inafune still worked at Capcom, he suggested a more “unique” look for Mega’s inclusion in SFxT. The artists submitted various concepts, many (or perhaps all) of which were collected in Street Fighter X Tekken Artworks, a book available in Japan. In that massive tome, we learn that not only did Mega go through a few wardrobe changes, he also got aged up and down numerous times.
In the photos below, we see variations of Mega’s gold-blue costume as well as one modeled more after his traditional outfit. There’s also a “bad box art” design that looks more like X in gold armor. Then there are the teenage designs, including one that turns his armor into a hoodie. To top it all off, Roll underwent a few revisions as well.
It’s amazing how wildly different things could have turned out. Is there any design among these that you would have preferred?
The Making of an Old Man [The Mega Man Network]
