Final Fight

This came out at a time when America was terrified of its own inner cities on account of violent gangs, some of them existing only in fiction. It does a tremendous job at pushing that a really heightened state.

When you start this up you will either be energized or you'll roll your eyes really hard when you hear the story. I should at this point note that I played this via the Capcom Beat Em Up bundle, with infinite retries and a one slot save state function.

This takes place in a Metropolitan Place where organized crime is completely out of control. The new Mayor refuses their bribes and promises to clean it up.

In response they kidnap his daughter Jessica, one of the only female characters and she has zero agency. Honestly I feel like they should have just had it be that there was some threat made that could only be resolved by the events here.

He's a former martial artist so he and/Or his son and potentially her boyfriend Cody work to get her back. I played as the latter solo because I read that that was the best idea for a newcomer so some of what I say is based on that.

I did very briefly test out the other two for the purposes of this review. Both had more range and at least one of them was stronger and slower. I understand that neither could pick up weapons as he can.

Every so often you'll come across such sometimes you can make foes drop them. If they're on the ground for too long they will start blinking and eventually disappear so you'll have to be quick and it's of course like so many things in this a cost benefit analysis.

You'll have to determine if you can get to it without being taken out on the way as well as if it's in too exposed of an area. One of them is a knife that slashes up close and can be thrown.

Either by you or them and if it's the latter if you time it right you can actually hit it and knock it out of the air so it doesn't hurt you at all and might even help you.

There's also a steel pipe and a sword both greatly increasing your range as well as damage output. None of them last forever and you'll have to be careful that you are ready to lose it when you do so you don't keep behaving as if you still have it.

You move through streets, buildings, a subway station and then train and every step of the way there are dozens of opponents just waiting for you to arrive and you have to take them out before they do the same to you.

There is a tremendous variety of enemies. Very impressive considering that they're limited to humans. They come in multiple shapes and sizes. Several of average muscle mass, some of increased such as an Andre the Giant insert that they're not even trying to hide quite the opposite and also one that is short but heavy who will rush at you and can knock you down if hits you.

There's this one guy that will appear every so often who is able to block everything you can do except for one. And the wonderful thing is each time it's a different move that works on him so you have to try out the different ones until you reach the right one while there are other ones nearby threatening you.

I played the Japanese version because I read that it was at least slightly more forgiving and that was what I wanted out of it. In it you will sometimes be attacked by CIS women. They're fast and weak but effective as they very quickly get close to you using flips to move.

There obviously isn't anything inherently wrong with that. It would be if you were beating defenseless ones but this is technically a fair fight and they are trying to prevent you from rescuing an innocent member of their kin. This is similar to how it is not bad to have women in fighting tournament games.

Of course the US took offense to this because that is their reaction to anything that isn't actually causing harm or at least the Republicans. So their version was altered.

There they are trans women. The obvious implication being that they are secretly men. This came out at a time when the media tended to portray them as serial killers and a threat to others, especially women.

In real life they are much more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators and I fear that this title may have worsened that although it obviously didn't originate with it.

Controls are responsive and minimalist. I appreciate that the latter may have had more to do with technical limitations than anything else.

You can move in all four directions and other than that all you have is a jump key and one for attacking. With the latter you can somewhat chain as well as stunlock which can also be done to you.

Combining the two allows for I think three different strikes. This depends on when exactly you hit the attack button during the jump.

One of these is a very effective spinning kick that is tremendously helpful when you find yourself surrounded as happens.

I do also have to mention that one type runs around with these Molotov cocktails. You'll definitely want to make sure to hit those before they touch the ground or you'll have to avoid the fire they start which temporarily sets you ablaze and can also hit some of them. Sometimes you can actually make it so that it hits them rather than anyone else.

The level design is on point. Everywhere you go you find yourself thinking how could anyone possibly live in a place like this. In real life the answer is of course that that's a big part of why there is some degree of violent crime in such areas.

What we are meant to take away is that they attract them instead of shape them. The idea is not for us to question why rich people let places like this deteriorate to such an obscene degree.

They sit bored in luxury whilst other people literally die because they hoard the wealth. This does actually feature one upper class area. That's not giving anything away You're told almost immediately what the various areas are going to be.

Once I reached it I was not particularly surprised to find it was not criticizing our supposed betters, noting that it is their fault if anyone's that these horrible things do happen when taxing the wealthy could do a lot to limit it as has been shown.

Rather the implication was that we should hate the idea of someone poor in such a place. Conservative Americans will sometimes come right out and admit that they believe that private property is of greater value than human dignity, safety and even survival.

This is seriously addictive to play. Because of my carpal tunnel I played this to completion over the course of a week and I kept looking forward to getting to return to it to see the next part. 8/10.

If you're a Streets of Rage or Double Dragon fan then Final Fight will no-doubt appeal to you. I only ever played it in the arcade once about 13 years ago but I was a cool game indeed. This Gameboy Advance version is identical to the Arcade but with a few more touches added such as new cut-scenes and animations and a couple of hidden levels.

Since I am such a wimp when it comes to games I did complete this on my fourth go (on the easiest setting) but I did notice a LOT of similarities between this and SOR in regards to the baddies, level progression and power-ups. That's not a bad thing but I only wish it lasted a little longer. Still it's a cool game and definitely worth getting.

Graphics A Sound B- Gameplay B Lasting Appeal B-

Final Fight IS one of the greatest games of all time. It really introduced alot of new elements to the beat-em-up genre, and it had an influence on lots more games in the future (e.g. Warriors Of Fate, The Punisher, Alien Vs. Predator). My favorite character is Guy. He had such a cool design. And my favorite of the generic bad guys is Two P. He used to really crack me up for some reason. Abigail (The boss of Bay Area) is really a tough boss! He picks you up and throws you, and it takes away half your energy! Anyway, back to the review. This is a classic, and I think it will live on for generations to come.

I played this game on a couple of home consoles and it was alright on the SNES to me as I did not have any friends to share the experience with anyway. I also played it on the Sega CD. The arcade is actually the easiest of the bunch due to you having as many continues as needed to get through it. Granted, you needed quarters to feed the machine, but this game takes maybe three or four dollars worth which is doable, but I never got through the SNES version because of the difficulty and the limited continues.

The story, what is there to say? It is a beat em up, and this one has the typical gangs running wild thing. About the only thing that sets this apart is that it is the father who is the main dude and he is beefed up. Hagger would appear in other games he was so awesome while Cody and Guy are just the typical guys you find in this genre of games. Hagger has to fight to get his kidnapped daughter back from a gang that is apparently run by a dude who has an infinite shooting crossbow and rides in a wheelchair.

The game play is standard, you have your attack and jump and you press both at the same time for the super attack which reduces your health a bit. However, there are ample health power ups in this one, they are not stingy, too bad you cannot earn a one up through your score. The sprites are very large in this one, another thing that sets this game apart from the rest and the scenery is pretty good, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

So, a game I enjoyed playing as a kid, and I revisited it and won. I may play the Sega CD version again and review it as it has a separate listing here, but this game is fun. It would be cool to play with others as the extra muscle would help, but then you are going to have to share the health drops, which is a drawback. A fun beat em up whether in groups or alone though.

The template for post-Double Dragon side-scroller brawlers, but I'm not sure why it had to look like it. Not whether to be grateful for the homage to WWF wrestlers here or roll my eyes at the blatant templating, but perhaps it's new to someone and is nice nostalgia for the rest of us.

A few creative moves, annoying music, and cheap shots all around. This quarter muncher does a fine job and ported okay to the Super Nintendo for fun with friends. Grindy, but a sense of satisfaction once completed, and an interesting ending.