Unused Maverick Revealed From Rare Mega Man X Pre-Release Footage

A sub-series of the very popular Rockman, Mega Man X was a huge success by itself. It originally launched way back in 1993, almost 30 years ago, and spawned a new series of games in the franchise. The action-platformer introduced many new things into the franchise and further expanded the lore.

Mega Man X’s longevity has even made it available on current-generation consoles, such as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Cult classics, like this one, always have some hidden easter eggs in them. Players are always finding some new things about the series in one way or another. Recently, very old footage of the game shows an unused character model now.

Rare footage of Mega Man X from a segment in an old episode of a syndicated weekly video game television show, GamePro TV, features a Maverick character model no one has ever seen. The video of this pre-release build had been lying dormant for years on YouTube.

However, it has been unearthed now and we can clearly see some differences between the actual game and this early model. We can see this unusual design for the Maverick at the stage select screen, at first. You enter this screen after the introductory sequence and this previously unknown Maverick appears on a side portrait screen.

Later on, we are able to see this scorpion-like Maverick in its full form. It only appears for a brief second but we can judge for sure that this design did not appear in the final version of Mega Man X. The Maverick has broad shoulders, pincers, and tusks, so this Maverick version definitely stings. We can’t figure out what it actually is but it appears to be a mixture of a scorpion and a warthog.

No mention of this type of character exists anywhere in the Mega Man X series. It isn’t in the comics and any other concept art or unreleased footage, so it’s the first time anyone is ever seeing this early version of the game’s Maverick.

Finding things like this from old games is always very exciting but it’s also mysterious. Mega Man X came out 30 years ago, so an explanation for this unprecedented Maverick model is probably nowhere to be found. Perhaps we will find something else in the future but for now, we can only say that it was a potential design that didn’t make the final game.