You all know Mega Man, right? Capcom’s protagonist of the series of the same name, known as Rockman in Japan, made his debut in 1987 for the NES (and for the Famicom in Japan). The valiant robot fighting other, evil robots has been one of the most beloved video game characters, and many recognise his trademark helmet, blue armor, and arm cannon.

However, when his debut game was to be ported to the NES in the US, Capcom’s USA branch gave very little time and very little information to the marketing team to prepare the box art. The result? Oh God… Behold…

Mega Man looks like a grown-up man, with different colors on his armor and a gun instead of an arm cannon. Keiji Inafune, one of the game’s artists, blamed the cover for the poor sales the game had in the American market.

The cover became infamous in the gaming community, and it has been widely parodied by fans, to the point that it became cool: people started making tributes of it, such as cosplays, fan art, figures, and more.

In fact, in the game Street Fighter X Tekken, Capcom included Mega Man in his “bad box art” variation as a playable character (as you can also see on the header image of this article). There have been a few more tributes to this outfit in other games, which is evidence that sometimes “so bad it’s good” is a very valid expression.

You can watch more bad video game covers on the following video.

Header image: Capcom