Final Fight (Arcade) Review

jaykhunter

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to call FINAL FIGHT the Grandfather of all Beat-Em-Ups. The Side-Scroller was released in arcades in 1989, developed by Akira Ni****ani, Akira Yasuda and those geniuses at Capcom. This game added a new genre to arcades, with covers exploding all over for the next 6 years. Each of those games have elements either expanded on or derived from this game. Awesome. Play Streets of Rage after this game, and you'd wonder how SEGA didn't get sued!

Plot


Final Fight takes place in America, in the fictional Metro City "sometime in the 1990s" . Mike Haggar, a 'roided out newly-appointed Mayor with a hearty mustache, gets a phone call saying his daughter's been kidnapped. The gang (Mad Gear) tell him she will be harmed unless he plays ball, like the last Mayor did. Haggar is a former pro-wrestler, and instead of caving into their demands, he gets his mates Cody (think Generic White Dude Axel from Streets of Rage) and Guy (Yep, Guy from Street Fighter) to instead clean up the city, one punk at a time! AWESOME. That's right - the biggest, baddest, jakked-up dude in the game is YOUR MAYOR. YES!!!

GamePlay :
This is the archetypal side-scrolling beat-em-up. You start on the left, progressing to the right, as waves of baddies show up on screen. Once you clear a screen of baddies, a sign tells you to go left.

Things you should know :

• Jamming the punch button hits as a combo.
• Your jump is vertical, but you can jump left and right aswell. You can dropkick while in the air, or hold down for another attack (Haggar does a splash, Cody Knee Drop, Guy elbow drop)
• You can grab your opponent, for either inflicting damage via a few punches, or throw them.
• You each have an awesome special move that takes a bit of life.

Characters :


You choose from 3 :
Haggar (Slow and Strong)
This guy kicks ****in' ass man. His hold opponent attack is the headbutt, but he can also suplex them, and do a Pile-Driver! His special move is the Spinning Clothesline -- ring any bells?! This guy was made two years before Zangief (who made his first appearance in Street Fighter II in 1991), and these two have a lot in common. AWESOME. It's no wonder that the same dude (Akira Yasuda) designed Final Fight and Street Fighter, amongst other great games. You might notice that haggar has more than a passing resemblance to Hulkamania-Era wrestler, Jesse Ventura, who starred in Predator and Running-Man alongside Arnie.

Cody (average)
The generic blonde Street Fighter. Grabbing your opponent, you can either knee them in the head a few times (Awesome) or throw them over the shoulder. His special is a very short Tatsumakisenpyukyaku (hurricane kick lol). He has the awesome added feature that when he picks up a knife HE STABS PEOPLE WITH IT, instead of just throwing it. YES.

Guy (fastest/weakest)
The guy with the orange dobuk. This dude does pretty much the same as Cody. He can't stab people. Recognise him? That's right, the lad from those Street Fighter/Capcom games!!



There are SIX Stages :



So let's have a quick summary of each stage, and what makes it notable :

1) Slums

Typical cyber punks with mohawks that were shamelessly ripped in Streets of Rage
Gyppos that have knives are are dressed in brown. Me no likey.
Bigger fodder dudes in blue, and grey/green dobuks.
Fat bald dude that runs at you with his shiny head. SoR stole this one too.
Massive blonde-dredded punk "Damnd" - he looks like a cross between T-Hawk and a cyberpunk. He's the Stage 1 boss

2) Subway

There are punks called Axel and Slash; a tribute to GnR.
Also Poison, the scantily clad female punks. Do you reckon it's a tribute to Alice Cooper?
Andre the Giant (Sorry, Andore) comes to greet you. The new fodder are dressed in green and orange and look like Chester Bennington from Linkin Park
By the end of it you go into a wrestling ring (YES!) and fight Sodom from Street Fighter. Pretty awesome.

First of the bonus stages. Street Fighter Style, beat up a car. There's a hilarious bit afterwards I won't spoil

3) Westside District

The baddies undergo a pallete-swap. Sigh...lol!
You head into a club and then ANOTHER ring -- well, a cage -- then the back alley again, and the streets to fight Edi.E, a muscly-looking cop. Meh.

4) Industrial Area


So you're in a factory with lots of metal and steel gratings. There's a gay part where you pass over flames which roll down the floor. It's gay. More pallette-swapping, and new one-hit-they're-dead Gyppos in Red throw fire at ya. Beat the factory and it's into a LIFT. OH YEAH!!!! I love the lift. After a few scores of enemies and some douche throwing grenades at you, it's ROLENTO (you'll prob recognise him from Street Fighter aswell!) He zips around and is most unfair. What a coin-stealing jerk!

Bonus stage two. Break some panes of glass. Gay.

5) Bay Area


What's a beat-em-up without a water-front?
The level gets pretty hard, and they just up the number of baddies at you. You'll frequently be trying to clear house, or throw opponents into each other. Expect to die a good few times here. Why is the Statue of Liberty have a catheter bag?
The end boss is "Abigail" who dresses like Andore but looks like Road Warrior Animal of Legion of Doom fame. He goes down like the rest.

6) Uptown Metro City


Last Level! From the streets, to a hotel-type-deal (where else lol) to backoutside the promenade, to into a lovely hotel (where the baddies now push barrels on the ground at you) You get to fight Mr. X. Sorry! I meant "Belger". He comes out in a wheelchair, with a CROSSBOW, and for some reason, Jessica, the mayor's daughter too. Beat the crap out of him and he'll start jumping around the place, shooting his crossbow. He's the only guy with a gun in the entire game. Take out his cronies and kick this punk through the windown. BAM!




The ending is a bit meh (well what did you expect!!!) but I won't spoil it for you! Youtube it!


OVERALL :

This game was fun to play, but it's not the best beat-em-up ever. It was definitely fun, and set the way all beat-em-ups were made. So just for that it should be recognised as AWESOME. We played this after playing Streets of Rage, and the similarities were just astounding. Shocking. Sure, Max in Streets of Rage 2 is a 'roided-out pro-wrestler who does a spinning punch-line (lol)! I guess there were no copyrights for similar characters back in the day. But it's still awesome. I would still recommend playing Streets of Rage 2 over this one, because SoR built on a fine system, and made it better.

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Thanks for reading, guys! Let me know if you liked this one, or if you prefer the style of the last review better (Streets of Rage 1,2 &3)

Tallon

I like you jaykhunter
I don't normally read reviews but im playing SoR Now, so.....

Gadge

Nice review of a great game mate.

Don't forget Cody was in the Street Fighter Alpha series as well (wearing a jailbird outfit).


EDIT here!

djsim

Great review. I have a great fondness of this game. A personal favourite of mine. Still play it every now and again. Still remember inserting the 10p and getting the ****e beating out of me:D

LoGiE

Enjoyed that! Final Fight is one of my all time favorites. I put a lot of coin into that one in Dublin Airport way back when....

Keep up the good work!

LoGiE

komodosp

Great review but one thing

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to call FINAL FIGHT the Grandfather of all Beat-Em-Ups

What's Double Dragon then? (The great grandfather I suppose!)

TinCool

komodosp wrote: »

Great review but one thing
What's Double Dragon then? (The great grandfather I suppose!)

Yeah totally agree. I was ninja at DD back in the day. I had it locked down that I could pretty much finish it on 1 credit. I do remember back in the day in Dublin airport they had it and clocked it with 1 credit (10 whole P then) to the amasement of about 4 onlookers.

That's up there with the day I clocked puzzle bobble 1 in my then local scumbag snooker hall dive in Rathfarnham. All the knackers were all like "jaysus, your man just finished that bleedin bubble game".... legend :eek:

CCCP^

How does the arcade version differ from the Sega CD version?

LoGiE

CCCP^ wrote: »

How does the arcade version differ from the Sega CD version?

I can tell you they changed the damn sprites again and censored other parts....
Game censorship was ridiculious in the 90's in Europe and the states. Japan with one of the lowest crime rates in the world got full on uncensored games and we're treated to green blood, changed dialog and games outright banned.
Thank you conservative right wing morons!

o1s1n

Some good comparisons of the different versions here --

http://hardcoregaming101.net/finalfight/finalfight.htm

Seems if you must go with ports, the Sega CD version is the best of the bunch. It's still censored though. Best to stick with MAME for this one methinks.

The Sega CD port of Final Fight - actually done by Sega - is actually the closest to the arcade version in gameplay. It has all of the stuff that was deleted from the SNES version, plus an additional time attack mode that challenges you to beat up as much thugs as you can (on an all-new background) in a certain amount of time. The intro has been slightly extended to show some of the enemies of the game, and both the intro and ending are fully voiced (the actor playing Haggar in the English version sounds quite bored with his job.) The music has also been entirely remixed to take advantage of the CD audio. The only downfall with this edition is that the graphic quality had to be sacrificed so it would work with the Sega CD's measly 64 color pallette, so it's a bit grainy when compared to other games on the system. There's still some of the same minor name changes, but otherwise this is one of the best ways to go.

LoGiE

Snes version AKA Two men about to kiss, one being Rock Hudson.



The Famicom version (Japanese SNES) Hagger going ape**** about to kick some ass.


I mean what the hell where they thinking? The japanese version had the actual logo from the arcade printed on the box. The EU/US version looks like crap!!

o1s1n

Ah yes, the great 90s box art **** ups. Anything that looks like anime or even remotely close to anime must be changed. It's a style that will never take off in the west :rolleyes:

Not only that, we have to make all games covers look like classic sci fi/fantasy book covers. Heavy oil style paint. Lots of bulging muscles/veins/realism. Stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with the game.

Wtf were they thinking indeed.

Great thread over on sega-16 comparing loads of American/EU games covers to their Japanese originals. Lots of pics.

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7253

One of my personal favs -

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showpost.php?p=146932&postcount=27

LoGiE

The one you've highlighted is hilarious! What were they afraid off? They just took stunning cover art and made it bland as hell (With a few exceptions)
The megaman covers are priceless....



(Japanese version) Hey look it's Rockman/Megaman!



(US Version) Hey look it's that drawing that came 3rd in the Texaco Primary School Art competition!

I'm shocked someone was paid for that to be honest.... I remember a few years back a thread with images of the worst/funniest box art of all time. I'll have to did it up for a laugh.

o1s1n

Hah! Ah, those Megaman ones always make me laugh. The US one is one of the most retarded painting I've ever seen...nevermind the fact that it was on a cover of a Megaman game. The leg on the left looks like it's on backwards.

Here's a few good ones from that Megadrive thread -



The US/EU Alisa Dragoon cover was never rubbish, but it still fit into that cliched fantasy book cover artwork. But jesus, look at that original Japanese cover! It's brilliant! Why oh why didn't they just use that?



This one annoys me a lot. The original cover is one of the most kick ass covers I've ever seen. The artwork is top knotch, the poses are great. Great cover all round.

But we get-



Tacky airbrushed ****e. I suppose they ruined the game so they might as well ruin the cover too.



Japanese cover - wow. I've never seen this before but that is a really damn cool cover.

American cover - Can it get any more bland? Really? Stealing handbags?



More Shinobi horror. I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with the original Japanese art? Other than being far far superior to the American cover...?


They kind of got it right with Gunstar Heroes. Kept some of the anime style but made it western. Looks a bit odd actually on closer inspection. Still, always liked this cover. Until I saw the Japanese one -



I'd go on as there are many more but think that's enough for now! Kinda depresses me actually as I really should have collected Japanese MD games instead....!

0ubliette

Dude, you totally overlooked the amazing levels of gayness in Final Fight. All the bad guys wearing leopard print t-shirts, a boss wearing a leather daddy cop getup, Bill Bull who is basically your stereotypical Gay Bear, and more mustaches than a Tom Selleck convention? Capcom even confirmed that the female enemies in the game are actually trannies.
Final fight deserves props for bringing gayness into mainstream gaming.

jaykhunter

LOL!! I think you're confusing "Gay" with "Awesome"...but yeah, looking back at it, wow it is incredibly camp. But gays weren't a big focus in the 80s. I guess you had androgenous people but I think people/characters were more theatrical back then Remember WWF in the 80s? Everyone's in neon spandex with flair on the side :L

If the game was made today it'd be celebrated for it's gay overtones I guess....Didn't really cross my mind while playing it, I thought "that's how it is in the videogame world".... everyone can't be in a black shirt and jeans, eh?

Duggy747

0ubliette wrote: »

Final fight deserves props for bringing gayness into mainstream gaming.

Damn right, if any of you guys remember Vendetta:



On the Asian arcade version of one level there are bad guys dressed up in very gay PVC leather who's only attack is to grab you and hump you, even when you're on the ground!

Final Fight kicked ass but Double Dragon is the GrandDaddy, you just can't beat that theme music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPlUjVDKMJo

Rock out with your 80's cock out!!

0ubliette

Duggy747 wrote: »

Damn right, if any of you guys remember Vendetta:



On the Asian arcade version of one level there are bad guys dressed up in very gay PVC leather who's only attack is to grab you and hump you, even when you're on the ground!

I remember vendetta alright, i played it in an arcade and for ages afterwards noone would ever believe me that i played a game here 'gay bikers bummed me to death!!'

o1s1n

Vendetta!

Ah, thank you! There was a side scrolling beat em up game I played for ages and ages while on holiday down the country. Couldn't remember anything about it other than one of the player characters looked like Hulk Hogan. Been doing my head in trying to idenfity it. Nice one

Duggy747

o1s1n wrote: »

Vendetta!

Ah, thank you! There was a side scrolling beat em up game I played for ages and ages while on holiday down the country. Couldn't remember anything about it other than one of the player characters looked like Hulk Hogan. Been doing my head in trying to idenfity it. Nice one

No problem, always glad to help

Ah, I used to love smacking those bads guys with a bat slamming them against the wall.