The link isn't loading for me, unfortunately. Not sure if it's a browser thing (I use Firefox) but I suspect that it's the "*removed*" in the URL causing trouble.
However, if you tap / click on those memos in the article I linked, it reveals the box art.
Odd. I think that’s the label I remember on the cartridge too, but I just never noticed the pistol. It definitely doesn’t look like that in-game. I played 4 the most because I loved the weapons, so maybe I just missed it entirely.
I mean, it's likely that it wasn't capcom us rejecting the japanese design. Far more likely that Capcom JP didn't share marketing materials with US branch and left them on their own to figure out how to market it. Japanese companies not taking any interest in how things were localized for other markets was completely the norm during that time period.
If you want a company that actually did have the US and JP branches actively warring with each other, Sega is the company to look at.
Pardon me, but the character is correctly known as Rockman, and is correctly depicted only as a prepubescent human cannonball with one apocalyptic death-ray arm. 😂
I don't know the story, but that's the genuine cartridge art they used for the first Mega Man in the US. It's just terrible and looks nothing like the game.