TITLE: Mega Man Tribute
FOREWARD BY: Hitoshi Ariga
ARTISTS: Various
FORMAT: Softcover
PUBLISHER: Udon Entertainment
LIST PRICE: $39.99
RELEASE DATE: August 10, 2011

By Justin Polak
Co-founder, Ambassador to the Mushroom Kingdom

My dad kicks ass. For most of my life, my dad has been ordering comics and memorabilia from the same comic book store. When I was younger, he ordered me the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics, for example. Inevitably, time flew on by and I got less and less free shit from my parents.

That’s why it came as a complete surprise to me that my dad handed me Mega Man Tribute, a whopping 300 page art book drawn by many people around the world. These people include everybody from recognizable talents to average Sniper Joe’s with a deviantART account. As someone who is completely in love with most Mega Man games, I dropped everything I was doing at the moment after my father handed me the book and looked through every page. I sure picked a good day to visit the folks!

The book opens with a foreword from manga artist Hitoshi Ariga. To sum things up, he points out that, in his opinion, each player who plays any Mega Man title has a unique experience through the games’ notorious difficulty. This leads to all players creating a vision of some sort which Ariga dubs “My Mega Man.” He then ties the “My Mega Man” ideal with the book by saying that the featured artists are sharing their own unique vision of how they carry Mega Man with them, and that perhaps you will find a similar “My Mega Man” within the pages ahead. Or maybe you’ll be interested with a vision that doesn’t match your own.

Despite how much I liked the spirit of the foreword, it didn’t matter to me, and I mean that in the best way possible. I honestly enjoyed every page in this art book. Sure, there were some interpretations that were downright weird, but I can’t deny that I enjoyed having my perception challenged. Plus, that’s to be expected with a wide variety of art styles. You name it, Mega Man Tribute has got it. There are pages that could pass for official artwork, anime flavored action, 3D art, parody pieces (both in universe and pop culture) and freaking handmade dolls! As the saying goes, that’s just the tip of the iceberg (you have no idea how hard it was to resist making a half-assed Ice Man pun there instead).

What surprised me about this book is how many Mega Man-related memories it brought up as I was flipping through its pages. Most of these memories weren’t necessarily about playing the games, either. I thought of the time a neighborhood buddy and I used to make up our own Mega Man adventures when we used to play outdoors as kids. I remembered that I used to dress in a blue sweat pants and shirt combo to express my love for the original series.

I also was reminded of something I completely forgotten. For years now, Mega Man 3 has inexplicably cued Led Zeppelin songs in my head. I’m not even a big fan of them! Turns out that I recalled that my father happened to be going through a Zeppelin kick around the time I was playing MM3 nearly every weekend when it first dropped (wow, remember when there was only three Mega Man games?). “The Battle of Evermore” often accompanied my ass getting handed to me in Wily’s castle.

I guess my ultimate point is that if a simple art book can conjure up lost memories, especially from a person that has an above average long term memory, it must be doing something right. I do have to warn potential buyers that most of the art is based off the original series, including the newer Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10. Although the book advertises having artwork also based on Mega Man X, Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX and Mega Man Legends, there is only a decent chunk of MMX and MML art to be found, with very little MMZ and MMZX. The original series has always been my favorite branch of Mega Man, so that didn’t bother me a bit, but others may not be as pleased.

If you are like me, you’ll find complete enjoyment out of this wonderful art book. Mega Man Tribute shows just how much the blue bomber has impacted the world and stirred the imagination of many different kinds of people. Get out there, get your wallet ready and purchase this collection!

RATING: 10/10

Front page image and preview images from udonentertainment.com.