Mega Man Box Art: The Legend Continues

Here we have Mega Man, exactly as he appears in his first game:

And here we have a seemingly unrelated horror:

Was this painted by one of the Hildebrandt brothers while in the throes of a fever dream at the age of five? Nope. It's the actual box art from the North American release of Mega Man on the NES.

Nearly everything in the image suggests that instead of playing or at least seeing the game firsthand, the artist was given a few vague details and told to "have at it with some watercolors for half an hour". Note how Mega Man's arm cannon has been replaced with a generic handgun, clasped in a hand that appears to be horribly broken. Reflect upon the look of sly constipation on Mega Man's forty five year old face. His body - clad in an oddly colored uniform - appears to be in the middle of M.C. Hammer's signature dance move. Then there's the burning skyline of a futuristic Hawaii, only accessible via giant floating golden cufflnks.

After seeing this, you'd think that the artist would never get work in the video game industry again, and you'd be right. Sort of.

Here is a piece of cover art he created for 1994's Star Wars: Tie Fighter, which LucasArts rejected for unknown reasons:

Undeterred by this rejection, he crafted this unique image for the cover of 1997's Final Fantasy VII. Although the art strikes upon many of the game's themes, Squaresoft - a Japanese developer - displayed their xenophobic nature by choosing the lesser work of a Japanese artist.