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