Retro Review: Final Fight

<p><em>Final Fight<&sol;em> began its video game journey in 1989&comma; the same year that<em> Batman&colon; The Motion Picture<&sol;em> hit theaters&comma; Garbage Pail Kids were all the rage&comma; and when arcades ate all of my quarters&period; When I was ten I loved running to the arcade&comma; my pockets full of quarters to fight crime in Metro City&period; My buddies and I would slide quarter after quarter in the machine hoping to finally save Mayor Haggar&&num;8217&semi;s daughter&period; I honestly don&&num;8217&semi;t remember if we actually succeeded&semi; we would jump from this game to <em>The Simpsons<&sol;em> then to <em>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<&sol;em>&comma; so the fate of his daughter is forever questioned&period; I recently dusted off my Super Nintendo and saw this cartridge sitting in the same box &&num;8212&semi; I immediately blew into it and popped it into the system&period; The game fired up right off the bat and suddenly I was ten again&comma; fighting crime on the mean streets&comma; except this time I was alone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;92381" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-92381" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04132157&sol;Final-Fight-personagens&period;png"><img class&equals;"wp-image-92381 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04132157&sol;Final-Fight-personagens&period;png" alt&equals;"Final Fight" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"481" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-92381" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Final Fight&comma; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story is a fairly simple one&colon; Mike Hagger&&num;8217&semi;s daughter is kidnapped by the evil people that are ruining Metro City&&num;8217&semi;s streets&comma; so Hagger and some friends decide to do a little remodeling in the city&period; Hagger is a former professional wrestler and a difficult opponent to the scum of the streets&period; Cody&comma; the girl&&num;8217&semi;s boyfriend&comma; and his friend&comma; Guy&comma; come along for the ride&period; Both of them are skilled in martial arts&period; It is their job to fight through Metro City and save Hagger&&num;8217&semi;s daughter from the Mad Gear Gang&period; Yes&comma; this was considered a story back in the late 80&&num;8217&semi;s&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics still look phenomenal&semi; I played this game after a brief session with <em>Metal Gear Solid V&colon; <&sol;em><em>The Phantom Pain&comma;<&sol;em> and I didn&&num;8217&semi;t think it looked ugly or needed to be shut off&period; The colors popped on my flat screen and the animations looked great&period; The enemies&comma; while different at the beginning&comma; only change color as you progress through the city&period; As enemy color palettes change&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll have to land more attacks to fell tem&period; The animations&comma; which are repeated over and over through the game&comma; look crisp and don&&num;8217&semi;t lag even if there are many characters on the screen at once&period; The only thing that tripped me up while playing was not being lined up with the enemy &&num;8212&semi; sometimes they would be too far back or forward in the quasi-3D space&period; Other than that the game is great to look at&comma; even on a flat screen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;92470" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-92470" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04131858&sol;Final-Fight-Arcade&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"wp-image-92470 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;09&sol;04131858&sol;Final-Fight-Arcade&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Final Fight" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"373" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-92470" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;Final Fight&comma; Capcom&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls are simple as well&semi; they&&num;8217&semi;re the typical beat &&num;8217&semi;em up 80&&num;8217&semi;s arcade style ones&period; You have a punch button and a jump button&period; Pretty simple&comma; right&quest; When you hit the punch button over and over your character performs a combo on the thug he&&num;8217&semi;s currently beating up&period; If you just can&&num;8217&semi;t wait to land a punch or kick to some dirt-bag&comma; you can always use jump attacks&period; I found that doing jump attacks over and over help a lot when your screen is full&comma; especially since this isn&&num;8217&semi;t a very forgiving game&period; Each character can also do a special move when you hit the jump and punch button at the same time&semi; this is helpful with bosses&period; Grabbing an enemy is also very effective&comma; seeing as you can throw them into other enemies&period; This is accomplished by pressing forward while standing directly next to an enemy&period; You must master all of these moves or you won&&num;8217&semi;t be able to traverse the six Burroughs in Metro City&period; This game has the Capcom difficulty to it&comma; and you have to keep those three lives and five continues to the very end&period; Once you lose that last continue&comma; you have to start all over again &&num;8212&semi; a horrible way to lose your progress&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m very happy that I decided to play <em>Final Fight<&sol;em> again&period; I haven&&num;8217&semi;t had the chance to play many street brawlers laetly&comma; but this is one of the best&period; The controls never mess you up&comma; only your skill level does&period; The sprites and graphics all look great even after decades of aging&comma; it is truly like a fine wine&period; I would suggest to anyone who has not played this game to grab a copy and play with friends&period; It is fun to play alone&comma; but you&&num;8217&semi;ll need a buddy to get further in the game&period; Now I need to go find myself a copy of <em>Final Fight 2<&sol;em> and <em>Final Fight Streetwise<&sol;em> just to have some more street brawling fun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;