Capcom is teaming up with the game boutique and production company Iam8bit to release new limited edition cartridges of two of the most popular Mega Man games: Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X.
This is celebrating the franchise’s 30th anniversary. The original Mega Man came out on December 17, 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. These new versions of the classic games will cost $100 each. Only 8,500 of each one will be available (7,500 in an opaque light blue color for Mega Man 2 and opaque white for Mega Man X, 1,000 in a translucent blue for each.) These cartridges will work on NTSC consoles (any system that plays NES or SNES cartridges made for the U.S., Canada, Middle East, and other parts of the world that don’t use the European PAL format or Japan/East Asia’s NTSC-J format). So these carts will work with your original systems or retro machines designed to play SNES or NES games, like Analogue’s Super NT SNES.
Iam8bit has done a similar reissue for Street Fighter 2, another Capcom classic for the SNES.
Mega Man 2 came out in 1988. It improved on the original’s action-platforming formula with better controls and level design. It includes many of the franchise most famous bosses, including Metal Man and Bubble Man.
Above: A new cartridge for Mega Man X.
Mega Man X was the franchise’s first spinoff series. The debut title came out in 1993 for the Super Nintendo and featured a more mature aesthetic. It introduced dashing and wall-climbing moves that made the game feel faster than its NES predecessors.
For years, Capcom had not done much with Mega Man outside of making game collections and featuring the character or his franchise friends as roster additions in fighting games. But along with these special editions, Capcom is also working on Mega Man 11, which will come out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC later this year.