Rock that art, Man

Pyoo Pyoo

Take a gander at that image - a promotional shirt for Capcom’s Mega Man 9 game. I know what you’re thinking: “Jesus the Christ that is all kinds of ugly.” But ask a gamer and he’ll tell you that’s the greatest piece of marketing ever. “Are you blind? Even Helen Keller would say that’s atrocity.” Let’s look past the Anne Sullivan-like miracles needed for that to be true and gather around, for I have a Once Upon a Time to tell….

Mega Man is a franchise that started on the NES way back in 1987. The latest installment is a retro offering that aims for a pixel perfect representation of the NES Mega Man games, upping the nostalgia factor by a hojillion percent. Instead of polygons and cutscenes that look like they have the budget of a teen comedy, it’s all 8-bit sprite glory. The developers even went as far as mimicking the limitations of the hardware; for example, the first game couldn’t handle more than 3 enemies on the screen, and so the new one doesn’t have 3+ baddies sharing the same on-screen real estate. The original Mega Man - and its first sequel - is recognized as one of the all-time greats. And it’s also recognized for having one of the worst box covers ever, not only cuz it looks wicked terrible but also because Mega Man doesn’t even carry a handgun in the game - nor does he look like a middle-aged Captain Constipated. Capcom knows this, and so when they announced number 9 and its strict adherence to the NES classic, the marketing department decided to create that shirt and laugh with us.

And that is the story of little boy blue and his mega awesome marketing digs.