While Mega Man games might vary in gameplay quality, every entry in the series has superb art. Take Mega Man X Dive, for example, which started a smartphone game before jumping to Steam in 2023. While you might expect a mobile spinoff to cut corners, its art direction is just as strong as any other game starring the Blue Bomber, and its nature as a cross-over title means it’s packed with awesome-looking characters and remixed designs from across the entire franchise. If you’d like to see the hard work of the illustrators and designers who helped bring it to life, you can preorder the
This is a 256-page hardcover book that contains character designs, rough concepts, key art, and plenty of creator commentary. There’s even a series of interviews with the developers, so you can find out how characters X, Zero, and Axl were designed for the leap to mobile, alongside newcomers like RiCO, iCO, and ViA. The English cover hasn’t been released, but since Udon is publishing this, it’s highly likely that it’ll be the same as the Japanese edition.
Curiously, Mega Man artbooks like this fetch a very high price on Amazon–the hardcover Mega Man: Complete Works is an eye-watering $200 and Mega Man Zero: Official Complete Works is $140–presumably due to low print runs and limited stock, so it’s smart to lock in a preorder of the X Dive Complete Works if you’re a Mega Man fan. As a reminder, you won’t be charged until the book ships.
If you’re on the hunt for more Mega Man reading material, there are some other great books to check out. You can watch the Capcom hero confront the horrors of adulthood in the Mr. Mega Man manga series, and there are quite a few other manga series as well with a more classical story direction–like Mega Man Mastermix: Robot Rebellion and Mega Man: Gigamix–that hews closer to the NES and SNES games. Sticking with the art side, you can also add books like Mega Man Tribute and Mega Man Star Force: Official Complete Works to your library, for a collection of fine art focused on the bionic boy and his iconic rogues gallery.
For more Capcom books, the Street Fighter library packs an impressive visual punch. The Street Fighter World Warrior Encyclopedia: World Tour Edition will be out on November 5, and this 224-page book is full of detailed profiles of every Street Fighter character, including their origins, allies, enemies, fighting styles, and more. Some of the other must-have books from this Capcom franchise include anniversary retrospectives, a collection of tribute art from around the world, and even a swimsuit edition, because summer is almost here.
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