When Capcom released Final Fight on the Super Famicom at the close of 1990, it was, for some people, reason enough to purchase the system.
While Super Mario World, F-Zero and Pilotwings all understandably earned accolades for their groundbreaking gameplay, Final Fight was the most popular coin-op of the period – and plenty of people (your humble scribe included) were desperate to have a version to play at home.
The resultant port might not have been exactly what fans wanted (it was missing the two-player mode, the third playable character and an entire stage), but it was the best option at the time – and it also had some rather lovely cover art for its Japanese release.
It turns out that Akira 'Akiman' Yasuda – who worked as a planner on the game and whose artwork is synonymous with some of Capcom's most notable titles, including Street Fighter II – wanted to create the cover artwork for the game, and even sketched a mock-up of his idea. However, in the end, it was illustrated by an outside artist (thanks, @gosokkyu).
Posting on Twitter, Akiman said:
When Final Fight was released on the Super Famicom, I was going to draw a package picture, but the package picture was decided from the beginning by an outside illustrator. It may be, but at this time, I can understand that it was not particularly appreciated within the company. I secretly thought about this picture itself, but I think that it is not suitable for the package. But I think it's a good picture.