Legendary Street Fighter II artist Mick McGinty has died

Mick McGinty, the man behind the iconic SNES Street Fighter II cover illustration, died.

McGinty was an immensely talented artist, as evidenced by the impressive collection of works on his personal site, but for 90s gamers his release will almost be synonymous with video game covers.

He is perhaps most famous among Nintendo fans for creating the western cover art for the SNES version of Street Fighter II. While many people opposed the “westernization” of artwork at the time, it was very common for companies like Nintendo to order entirely new artwork that was better suited to a particular region.

McGinty’s cover – which features Chun-Li fighting Blanka on Ryu’s reclining body – has become one of the most recognizable video game covers of all time. McGinty’s association with Street Fighter will continue with Street Fighter II: Champion Edition on Mega Drive / Genesis, Street Fighter II Turbo on the SNES and Super Street Fighter II.

In addition to producing artwork for Capcom’s famous series, McGinty also created the covers for Streets of Rage 2 and Streets of Rage 3, as good as Chameleon Child and Brilliant strength. Twitter account VG Densetsu has put together a great discussion thread that shows some of McGinty’s work in the video game arena:

Speaking of this father’s commitment to his craft, his son Jobey McGinty shared the following post:

My dad was an amazing artist, as everyone knows. And like a true artist, he was also never satisfied with his final work. Just a few weeks ago, he said he needed “just an extra hour on a few songs” in order to “really finish them”. We all knew this just wasn’t true, however. Dad would always come to visit our house, see some of the paintings he has done for us over the years, and put his nose about an inch away and say, “You know, Jobe, I wish I had done those bruises. a little deeper “, or” you know, I’d just like to splash some more shadows on that tree “or” that really needs a new coat of polish on it “.

McGinty was interviewed for the upcoming Street Fighter II documentary Here is a new competitor, which is currently in the final stages of its fundraising campaign on Indiegogo. It will therefore represent McGinty’s final interview. You can see part of it in the trailer below, around 1:15 am.