Book Review: Mega Man: Official Complete Works

Mega Man: Official Complete Works is actually a half of the 336-page Japanese art book "R20 ロックマン＆ロックマンX オフィシャルコンプリートワークス" which was published in March 2008 to celebrate Mega Man's 20th anniversary. It's nice to have Capcom translate the book into English. The other half is Mega Man X: Complete Works.

This book retains the paperback format, low gloss pages and layout. The cover has a glossy embossed Mega Man printed against a matte cover. It's very beautiful and Mega Man pops out nicely.

There are both good and bad in releasing the original book as two volumes in English. The bad, of course, is the higher price. The good is the it's thinner and more friendly to the book spine. By comparison, my 320-page "SF20", also from Capcom, has slight spine creases when I open the book wide.

The art inside is arranged by chronological order and game platforms. The book is filled with colourful character designs, sketches and illustrations from game covers, manga and other merchandise. The variety is amazing. The pages are packed with so many versions of powered up Mega Man, the bosses and enemies. Whatever you can think of is probably found in this book.

It's nostalgic looking at some of the art, especially those that I've played so many years ago. There are a few comic strips behind and one interesting one is on the birth of Mega Man. There aren't any screen shots of the game itself though.

Accompanying the designs are lots of quotes from the Japanese artists. They talk about the characters, ideas, and you can gain some interesting insight into their working environment. There are 7 artists doing the designs and they are Ryuji Higurashi, Hayato Kaji, Keisuke Mizuno, Tatsuya Yoshikawa, Hideki Ishikawa, Shinsuke Komaki and Yoshihisa Tsuda.

This book is a great tribute to the Mega Man franchise, highly recommended to all fans.

If you like this book, check out Mega Man X: Official Complete Works also.

The full list of game titles included are:

• Mega Man 1 to 8
• Mega Man & Bass
• Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge
• Mega Man II to V
• Mega Man: The Wily Wars
• Mega Man: The Power Battle
• Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
• Wily & Light's Rockboard ~That's Paradise~
• Mega Man's Soccer
• Mega Man Battle & Chase
• Super Adventure Rockman
• Rockman Complete Works (PS)
• Rockman (PS)
• Rockman 2: The Secret of Dr. Wily (PS)
• Rockman 3: The End of Dr. Wily!? (PS)
• Rockman 4: A New Ambition!! (PS)
• Rockman 5: Blues' Trap!? (PS)
• Rockman 6: The Greatest Battle of All Time!! (PS)
• Rockman Battle & Fighters (NGP)
• Mega Man & Bass (GBA)
• Rockman Power Battle Fighters (PS2)
• Mega Man: Powered Up

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