Hand-Drawn Game Guides: Mega Man

by Philip Summers, Lucas M. Thomas

The origin point of the iconic Mega Man franchise is revisited and reimagined in this totally hand-illustrated guidebook! Use Hand-Drawn Game Mega Man as a companion to your next playthrough of the Blue Bomber's first classic clash against the devious Dr. Wily and his rogues' gallery of radically reprogrammed Robot Masters. Mega Man's inaugural mission is infamously challenging, and tough to tackle on your own - but if you've never been able to reach the end credits before, this book might just be the boost you need to finally finish the fight! And if you're a Mega Man master who doesn't need any help sending Wily's bots to the scrap heap? Then just flip through and enjoy the incredible hand-made artwork on each page, letting it take you back in time to the glorious golden age of 8-bit gaming!

208 pages, Hardcover

Published December 17, 2025

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well put together guide for the first NES Mega Man game. The style is reminiscent of Nintendo Power magazines, with fun art, tips and strategies, level maps, and game history.

[Cretin Workshop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hand-Drawn Game Guides: Mega Man, written and illustrated by Philip Summers, is the first commercial launch of Summers' Hand-Drawn Game Guides series. Officially licensed and supervised by Capcom, Summers attempts to recreate the off-model style of 1980s American gaming magazines in a deliberately tongue-in-cheek fashion. The illustrations are vastly more macho and "hardcore" than Keiji Inafune's original art, but that's part of the humor and nostalgia. Summers' art is well illustrated, with often striking color and compositional choices. How the 8-bit levels are redesigned to achieve a greater atmosphere and sense of place is not entirely unexpected (of course Cut Man's stage would be a timberland) but greatly appreciated. It's something I found myself doing - trying to immerse myself in these stages - while playing, so finding a like-minded author in Summers was gleeful. The sparse yet appreciated narrative writing is solid as well, providing some surprising depth to the characters that the video games often don't bother with. Even smaller niche details, such as providing Super Game Boy color codes for Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge, show how much Summers truly cared about these two games, their legacy, and their accessibility.

Hand-Drawn Game Guides: Mega Man is a passion project, that much is clear. The book's ending, spoiler alert, teases a Mega Man 2 iteration, so here's hoping it pans out. I, for one, would love to read it.