Review

Final Fight is a side-scrolling beat-em up that was released on the SNES in 1990 in Japan and 1991 in America. This game has gone through several platforms, from the Sega CD to the Gameboy Advance. This is one of the famous games of it’s kind, courtesy of Capcom. The story revolves around a couple of heroes trying to save Haggar’s daughter, Jessica, from an evil street gang called Mad Gear. Apparently, Haggar was trying to avoid getting mixed in the wrong crowd, resulting in the kidnapping. The player has a choice of using Haggar, or Jessica’s boyfriend, Cody, to take the fight to the gang. Guy, which was another featured character in Final Fight, is not included in the SNES version.Levels reside in the fictional city of Metro, from abandoned suburbs to an underground subway. Each level is littered with items, weapons and enemies to rough up. Like all beat-em ups, you stroll through each mission, eliminating each and every member of Mad Gear, from bimbo prostitutes to hunky wrestlers. The formula is very cliche, but fun nevertheless.

The controls are simple. You get a fighting button, and jumping button. The player can’t do much, though certain grapples are enabled at a distance from an enemy. The jumping button is outragiously clunky, resulting in the character looking like a buffoonery. It’s very difficult to track down an enemy, because when in fighting standpoint, your character can only pivot like a robot, making it hard to find a perfect position to nail someone in the face. The fighting system feels like a one-button Street Fighter clone, not great, but it get’s the job done. Players can pick up various weapons such as knives and blungers which help significantly in combat. But like all weapons, they wear away when in use too long.

The visuals are amazing, from the vibrant city lights, to the interiors of a sky-scraper. Final Fight was one of the early games to make use of detailed sprites, which makes gameplay feeling more realistic. Character models are top-notch, so don’t expect to face up against clones of the same enemy throughout the whole game.

Like many of it’s kind, Final Fight is a short game. But looking at the glass half empty, it’s fairly longer than some other beat-em ups. The story is very cliche for it’s genre, but the game does more justice in level design and graphics. The fighting mechanism is very clunky, which might turn some players off to play other beat-em ups such as Streets of Rage. Neverthess, if you are a hardcore fan of the series, or just a player willingly to pay $5(U.S) for a decent fighter, Final Fight is definitely worth the purchase. Just don’t expect anything phenominal.

Overall Score: 7.5/10