Retro Review – Final Fight: Streetwise

<p>A few months ago&comma; I went down memory lane and decided to play one of my favorite button mashers&comma; <em>Final Fight<&sol;em> on my <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;retro-review-final-fight&sol;">Super Nintendo<&sol;a>&period; That nostalgia prompted me to go out and look for more <em>Final Fight<&sol;em> games seeing as I only had that one in my collection&period; My hunting around used games stores and thrift shops helped me find a title that I knew existed but hadn&&num;8217&semi;t had time to play&comma; <em>Final Fight&colon; Streetwise<&sol;em>&period; Capcom wanted to bring the old 2D classic back into the 3D world on the PlayStation 2&comma; and they did a mediocre job at best&period; In my opinion&comma; this generation of gaming did not age too well&comma; especially when they were rushed or not cared about&period; It blows my mind that Capcom who released the <em>Resident Evil Remake<&sol;em> four years before this game made such an ugly looking entry&period; I know they were two different systems and most likely different developers&comma; but technology generally gets better as time progresses&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know why Capcom couldn&&num;8217&semi;t make this game as pretty as the Spencer Mansion adventure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That being said&comma; the game doesn&&num;8217&semi;t look amazing at all&semi; at least the original <em>Final Fight<&sol;em> was colorful&comma; the character design was creative and insanely memorable&period; <em>Streetwise<&sol;em> is very dingy and not beautifully animated&period; I understand that Capcom was shooting for a gritty <em>Fight Club<&sol;em>-esque feel to the game&comma; and they did pull it off&period; The city that you venture around in is a dank and drab one&semi; it is a city that I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t want to live in&period; Everywhere I took my character&comma; there was a hooker who needed a hand or a thug robbing some poor old woman&period; Graft and vice were everywhere and you were there to lend a helping hand to the destitute&period; The story is as flimsy as the original&&num;8217&semi;s&semi; you play as Kyle who is trying to make his name as a streetfighter and Cody is your friend and your coach&period; He also bears a striking resemblance to the first games Cody&period; After a big fight you and Cody are sitting at a bar when some mean looking dudes wander in looking for Cody&period; After a lengthy battle&comma; they cheap shot you and make off with Cody&semi; it is up to you to save him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111495" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111495" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-111495" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;14222352&sol;153327-Final&lowbar;Fight&lowbar;-&lowbar;Streetwise&lowbar;Europe&lowbar;EnFrDeEsIt-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;FINAL FIGHT&colon; STREETWISE - CAPCOM&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111495" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;FINAL FIGHT&colon; STREETWISE &&num;8211&semi; CAPCOM&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls aren&&num;8217&semi;t too bad for a 3D brawler&semi; they&&num;8217&semi;re responsive and there&&num;8217&semi;s no lag to assist you in getting your butt kicked&period; The &&num;8220&semi;X&&num;8221&semi; button is quick punch&comma; and you can land a large amount of these on enemies in quick succession if your thumb is fast&period; Circle is grab and square is heavy punch&period; Doing combos between X and square is the best way to fell the multiple enemies that come at you&period; L1 is block&period; This is an extremely important button&comma; some guys will come at you with bats and such and you need to block that to stay alive&period; Of course once you knock the bats out of their hands you can pick it up and lay some waste with it&period; Sadly the weapons you find disappear unusually fast&period; I lost a bat after about three strikes&colon; must have been a knock off&period; In your travels&comma; you meet interesting people&period; These include some that befriend you and you get to play games with &lpar;one that I remember emphatically is the arm wrestling&period; I remember it because it reminded me of <em>Mortal Kombat<&sol;em>&comma; when you &&num;8220&semi;test your might&comma;&&num;8221&semi; you just button mash until you win&rpar;&period; There are also events that make you torture some degenerate and those are well timed quick-time events&period; Overall&comma; it has a very easy to master control scheme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The voice-overs are laughable at best&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know if the actors were going for overly corny&comma; but they missed the mark if they were&period; Long gone are the days of a &&num;8220&semi;Jill Sandwhich&comma;&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;masters of unlocking&comma;&&num;8221&semi; in are the days of self doubt filled with angst&period; The music is forgettable&period; As I sit here and type this&comma; I cannot for the life of me remember any music from this game that I can hum&period; So if you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for <em>Last of Us<&sol;em> style voice-overs or an over the top epic musical masterpiece look elsewhere&period;  Other laughable parts of the game are the combo&period; When you combo&comma; the game tries to tell you how badass you are like <em>Devil May Cry<&sol;em>&comma; but it just falls flat&period; Plus&comma; since you are battling in a 3D world it is difficult to line up punches&comma; which makes you swing and miss quite a few times&period;The whole game seemed to be toggled together just to jump on the <em>Fight Club<&sol;em> bandwagon&comma; with no real love for the game or desire to make it really good&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111496" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111496" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-111496" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;14222436&sol;ff&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;FINAL FIGHT&colon; STREETWISE - CAPCOM&rpar; " width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111496" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;FINAL FIGHT&colon; STREETWISE &&num;8211&semi; CAPCOM&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The game does try to be a good game&period; It has an open world to explore&comma; non-story quests and missions for you to enjoy&comma; and the feel of the <em>Fight Club<&sol;em> movie&period; However it just doesn&&num;8217&semi;t gel together correctly&comma; and something about the game just seems off to me&period; Winning a fight didn&&num;8217&semi;t seem like an accomplishment&comma; and I really didn&&num;8217&semi;t care if I saved Cody or not&period; I wandered around the city&comma; beat up some crooks&comma; arm wrestled some folks&comma; worked out at the gym and so on&period; If you want to play an older open world beat &&num;8217&semi;em up then by all means pick up <em>The Warriors&semi;<&sol;em> that game has this formula down&period; Or if you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a challenging beat &&num;8217&semi;em up with a better sense of humor&comma; pick up <em>God Hand&semi;<&sol;em> that game is a riot but it is insanely difficult&period; What I am telling you is to avoid this version of <em>Final Fight<&sol;em> and pick up the original&semi; you&&num;8217&semi;ll thank me for it later&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;