Final Fight

The Good
Final Fight was a favorite of mine in the arcades. Where Double Dragon was often cited as starting the real beat-'em-up craze, Final Fight is now often used in its place. The large characters and special moves are fantastic at the time.

The SNES version, while obviously scaled down a bit, was graphically faithful to the arcade version. In the land of Nintendo, at least, it was one of the first games that truly made me feel as though I was going to be able to have arcade-quality games in my home.

The sound, while limited, does the job. At the very least, the important sound effects of the arcade, such as the hit sounds and Haggar's yells, are here and quite clear. Where the CPS1 hardware used for the arcade version had a Yamaha FM synthesis chip, the SNES relied on a midi-style setup that couldn't quite nail the same instrument sounds found in the original arcade soundtrack. However, the instrument choices made kept the soundtrack very recognizable, without really taking away from it. For the most part, if you liked the music of the arcade game, you probably won't be disappointed.

Gameplay is basic, but is responsive and handles just like the arcade. You have your basic punch/kick combos that come as you mash the punch button. Two methods of aerial attack are at your disposal. Jumping and hitting the attack gives you your standard aerial attack, while holding down on the D-Pad before hitting attack gives you your secondary. You can actually chain these two attacks together, which is helpful when attacking a crowd. Jump in with the secondary, which is weaker and won't knock anyone down, and then while still in the air, hit the attack button without holding down. When done correctly, you'll score up to two hits on an enemy. Smashing both attack and jump gives you your special attack, which results in massive damage to the enemy, but a little is taken from your own life bar.

The Bad
It looks like Final Fight and it sounds like Final Fight, so it must be Final Fight, correct? In a manner of speaking. The SNES versions of the original Final Fight are notorious for their omissions.

The first thing any Final Fight fan will notice is that the two-player co-op that made the arcade original so fun is gone. As two people can't play, there was no need for two fast characters, hence Guy is now off somewhere training. So, you're down to Haggar and Cody. This in itself isn't entirely bad if you weren't a Guy player to begin with, but it's still a bit of a slap in the face to fans.

Another glaring cut was the removal of Roxy and Poison, the two female characters. They were instead replaced by Sid and Billy, a couple of skinny punks who retain the moves of Roxy and Poison. The issue of violence against women is often attributed to their replacement, though rumors of Poison being a transsexual are also cited. It's of note that in some versions of the arcade game, smacking either of them up into the air would reveal the bottom side of their breasts, which could also be another factor.

Two characters also received editing, but only in their names. Damnd, the first boss, has been rechristened as Thrasher, whereas Sodom, out of fear of a backlash to a reference to the biblical tale of Sodom and Gammorah, became Katana. The Sodom-to-Katana change made its way into the SNES port of Street Fighter Alpha 2 years later as well.

Two entire levels also went missing. The factory stage, which was full of flames shooting up from the steel grate floors, was cut. A larger cut was to be found in the stage that featured an elevating platform outside of a skyscraper, which lead to the battle with Rolento. As that stage is gone, so is Rolento. To those who only ever played Final Fight on SNES, Rolento's existence and ties to Final Fight probably came as a surprise when they first played Street Fighter Alpha 2. In fact, Rolento's stage in Street Fighter Alpha 2 takes place on the very level that was also cut.

One thing that should be noted is that as the game is missing a playable character, the ending itself was also changed. I won't spoil it with details though.

The Bottom Line
As the 16-bit era was truly heating up, Final Fight showed arcade gamers both promise and disappointment. While most of what made Final Fight what it was is intact, the cuts, lack of two-player co-op, and mostly needless censorship keep it from being what it should have been. Fans of the arcade game would be better served tracking down the Sega CD version or the SNES sequels, Final Fight 2 and 3.

The Good
The Graphics…No. The Music…No. The Gameplay…No. The only thing that I can think of that makes this game good is how it makes every other “Beat em up”, look so much better.

The Bad
Talking about the bad is always more fun. Okay for starters, this is bad port of a bad arcade game. The Gameplay is weak at best and horrible at worst. The characters move as if all there joints are stiff. The animations are laughably bad. I.e. the enemy whom is trying to hug you. There are no special moves…why? The “Action” is redundant and simply not fun. And the level transitions are odd, you go from a subway to fighting pit…what the?

The Graphics are poor, and enemy designs go through to many palette swaps. Not even the bosses or playable characters are well designed.

The Sound and Music might as well not be there. As they are sub-par. The music basically sounds like really bad jazz.

The Story, I saved the best for last. Metro City(Stupid Name). Is under siege from the Mad Gear Gang(Hah!). And the ex-fighter now mayor, Jesse Ventura oops I mean Haggar, intends to clean up the street, his daughter is kidnapped and will be killed if he does not back off. So what does he do? He goes after them with his idiot pal Cody. Hmm now Haggar was told to back off…yet he ignores this warning and goes after Mad Gear…right. What if they killed his daughter? Apparently this never occurred to either Haggar or Capcom.

The Bottom Line
I cannot recommend this game in good conscious. As it is a bad port of a bad game. Play Streets of Rage, or Golden Axe instead.

The Good
I was one of those kids who never got a chance to really play Final Fight in the arcades. Most of my quarters were pumped into games like Gauntlet, Mortal Kombat, and Double Dragon since those were the main titles at my local arcade.

My first foray into Final Fight was when it was released for the Super Nintendo, and although many arcade purists will complain about a lot of missing content, it didn't phase me much since I never really knew it was missing in the first place.

Final Fight takes place in Metro City, a corrupted and violent city that has recently come under the jurisdiction of a new mayor, Mike Haggar. After a gang known as the Mad Gears attempt to buy off Haggar with no success, they kidnap his daughter Jessica to try to make him listen to their demands.

You can play as either Haggar or Jessica's boyfriend Cody in an attempt to take on the gang and clean up the streets. Both characters play differently, with Haggar being more powerful and slow, while Cody is more quick but weaker.

The player will venture through five different stages, and two bonus stages, which all look really good on the Super Nintendo hardware. The sprites are really large for a 16-bit game, and tends to make the player feel a lot more up close and personal than other beat em' ups from this era. Colors look vibrant, and animations are very good as well.

Final Fight makes it very easy for nearly anyone to pick up and play. There are only two buttons used on the controller, with one for a basic melee attack and the other for jumping. Some experimentation will lead you to uncovering some nice advanced attacks, and both buttons can be pressed together for a super attack. The learning curve is very easy, and makes controlling your player smooth and effective.

The Bad
One of the major gripes I hear about the SNES version is how much content was omitted. Prior to playing this version, I had no experience with the arcade version. I decided to try out the arcade version, and after doing so I can definitely say a lot of content was left out. This was not a major factor for me though, since I played the SNES version first, but I could see how it would be a negative to veterans of the arcade version.

The game also suffers from slowdown when a lot of enemies appear on screen. While this is definitely not game breaking, it still is annoying during critical times of a fight.

And finally, I really wish there was some sort of password or save feature. To beat Final Fight you will need a lot of practice to get down the patterns of the enemies and bosses. Nothing is more frustrating than playing the game for 40+ minutes, using all your continues, then having to restart over at the beginning of the game.

The Bottom Line
Overall Final Fight is a awesome beat em' up, which will surely please fans of the genre. While not perfect, Final Fight is a very fun game to play and remains a cult classic to many gamers.

Final Grade : A