We've seen the unreleased Wily Wars U.S box art before... but never like this.
Our buddy Rock Miyabi won the recent film cel auction, and took it upon himself to scan it at a ridiculous hi-resolution. We're talking 10000 x 14500 pixels here; a massive 200 MB file that perfectly preserves this rare piece by Greg Winters. And sure enough, you can download too. Grab it here!
As the story goes, the Wily Wars was originally intended to launch in the U.S as a physical cartridge. Greg Winters was commissioned to design the box art in the summer of 1994. However, Capcom USA and Sega entered a partnership around that time to distribute the game exclusively on Sega Channel. Plans for the retail cartridge were nixed and Winters' art fell into obscurity for decades.
The Wily Wars finally received an official cartridge release in the U.S in the form of Mega Man: The Wily Wars Collectors Edition. Perhaps due to lack of access or inadequate scans, Winters' original piece was not included. But today we can truly appreciate his handiwork! The attention to detail is nothing short of amazing.
Enjoy, everyone. And thanks much to Rock Miyabi too!
Nice but look at his mouth. What an odd looking. I dont like it.
ReplyDeletehorrible...like most of the localized U.S. artworks
ReplyDeleteYea. this falls under the CURSED image category for sure. Makes Mega Man look like the bad guy.
ReplyDeleteHe looks pissed and I love it.
ReplyDeleteMEGA MAN'S FRUCKIN' PISSED!
DeleteMoreover, I remember in 2018 I saw this unused art for the American release of the game Megaman The Wily Wars, because in America the game was released only on the Sega Channel, something like Steam from the 90s!
ReplyDeleteYup!
DeleteSomething Nintendo had locked as a Japan only thing was the Satellaview (and only transmitted games for a limited time and you had to tune in at an specific hour of the day, thats why the emulated Satellaview fire emblem games dont have music, they transmitted dialogue and orchestra by radio).
While the Sega Channel was a worlwide thing (almost), that acted like a steam store and every game you download stayed downloaded forever and thankfully preserved.