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There is no doubt Final Fight is a classic, from the hot pink wearing Andore to the classic car smashing bonus level it is a game everyone should play at least once. I mean a fully cooked turkey dinner right out of a garbage can! ~J.A. Laraque

Final Fight

The summer of ’89 was a great time for arcade goers thanks in part to the Capcom smash hit Final Fight. FF was one of the best side-scroller beat-em-up games of its time. If you loved plowing through tons of bad guys (and gals) then Final fight was for you.

The first thing any fan of Street Fighter would notice was the game mixed in the style and even some characters of the famed versus fighter. This was not just because it was made by the same company, but originally Final Fight was to be a sequel to the original Street Fighter. It was to be titled, Street Fighter 89’.

Final Fight was changed to a more Double Dragon style game. Final Fight had six stages which took you on a path through Metro City to save Mike Haggar’s daughter, Jessica from the Mad Gear gang. Before becoming Mayor Mike was a former professional wrestler and street fighter. Along with Jessica’s boyfriend Cody and Cody’s sparring partner Guy, Haggar sets out to bust some heads and get his daughter back.

The game was pretty straight forward you walked throughout the level being pressured to move on by the blinking and beeping hand as you punched, kicked and body slammed your way through tons of Mad Gear gang members. There were a wide variety of bad guys each with different looks and skills and abilities.

Each player also had their own abilities for instance Cody could use the knife over and over where as the others would just through it back at the enemies. Guy was the fastest and deadly with the katana, but Mike was the strongest with his powerful grapples and slams.

Playing was simple as there were only two buttons, attack and jump, but like most fighting games you could pull off a special move by hitting both buttons at the same time. However, in Final Fight using your special move took some of your life. You could also hit attack and the forward direction to grab your enemies and continue your attack or toss them over your shoulder.

For me the various bad guys and bosses made the game. You had your average street punks that would just punch you and then you had knife wielding guys in camo gear named El Gato and fat guys named Cho who would charge at you with their bald heads. Final Fight arcade also had ladies you could lay the smack-down on which was weird and fun at the same time.

Strangely enough the women characters were actually transgender, I wonder how the player was suppose to know that. The game was diverse not only in the bad guys, but in how many items you could collect. It seems in Metro city everyone stores items in garbage cans or barrels or phone booths. You would break these open and find everything from jewels to cash to even a full cooked turkey dinner.

A few of the characters from Final Fight ended up in future Street Fighter games including Sodom, Rolento and even Cody. You faced many bosses from the long haired psychopath who appeared in the opening sequence to a crooked cop that you could eat his discarded gum to replenish your health. (yuck!) The boss of all bosses was an old man in a wheelchair named Belger who shot a nasty crossbow that could take you out in a few hits.

When you kick the old man through the window Hagger get’s his daughter back and Cody and Guy walk off like they are badasses. (…and they are) When Jessica shows up I assumed Guy got jealous and decided to pull off a combo attack on Cody before leaving him to be kissed by the lovely lass.

Final Fight was one of those games that after a stressful day at school you could play and release some anger on a horde of bad guys. While the graphics and animation were nothing special it did have some simple sound effects and music that kept you in the game. It also had a great “continue” screen where your character would wake up tied to a chair with a roll of dynamite ready to explode. If you put in a coin and hit start in time a knife would fall out of nowhere and cut the wick and you would magically appear back where you were knocked out.

When Final Fight came to the Super NES it was stripped down nasty style. The changed plenty like turning the girls into guys, removing Guy, which was just a sin, and cutting out any blood and alcohol in the game. I still played it but it wasn’t the same.

For you XBL and PSN fans good news Capcom has announced that they will release the arcade version of Final Fight to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in a two-in-one bundle titled Final Fight: Double Impact, which will also include the arcade game Magic Sword. A release date is set to April 14 2010 for Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft points and April 15, 2010 for Playstation Network for $9.99.

There is no doubt Final Fight is a classic, from the hot pink wearing Andore to the classic car smashing bonus level it is a game everyone should play at least once. I mean a fully cooked turkey dinner right out of a garbage can!

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