Look everybody, it’s Final Fight…with one player mode…and only two heroes…and a missing stage…and a body swap…
Overview
Final Fight was an arcade smash that rocked the arcades in the last year of the 80s. It was a side scrolling fighter over a space out plane to freely move up, down, and around, striking losers at every corner, kicking ass and taking names. Well, the fans couldn’t get enough of it and they wanted their right to bring Final Fight in the privacy of their own homes. Shortly after the debut of Nintendo’s sixteen bit SNES, Capcom listened and brought forth a game worthy of the series as one of the first games for the console.
Or did they?
Turn outs there were missing a few links in this adaptation. Mostly an incompletion, done on purpose some would say. Would the fans enjoy what is waiting for them with Final Fight for the SNES?
Graphics 7/10
They did a decent job in capturing some of the arcade feels, incredible spotless was the intro (with no Guy) story leading to the game, but they were too many noticeable things that could not be ignore during the actual playing. If you know this game by heart, you see some stuff taking out like signs and pictures from many battle zones you encountered. The life meters, when taken damage, sure was shorter and quicker to get empty then I remember, too. It was kind of funny smashing boxes and barrels to find weapons, item points and strangely placed food, in the middle of deadly confrontation, to replenish your health. I wasn’t very fond of Capcom hiding these pick me ups behind solid things. I bet you right now, most people didn’t know there were health objects behind the pillars in the final stage.
They are some misunderstood graphical changes in the names, items, and whatnot. Deleting such things like gaining energy via beer was, I think, a smart way of making this kid-friendly for the parents to buy. Surely, not wanting kids not see a can of beer during a game where YOU CAN BEAT PEOPLE UP makes tons of senses. The characters, good and bad, look a lot larger, more lighten, and cleaned up. If you hadn’t know by now, many of there thugs were inspire of many things seen from America. From the Andre the Giant inspired Andores (who look very cool) to the Gun ‘n’ Rose references of two dudes named Axel and Slash. It nice to see the Japanese crew at Capcom pointed out these cool little tidbits of the US scene.
As for the actual heroes, they move around were in the middle. Some of Cody’s moves looked too perplex to look like it can hurt somebody, while Haggar looked ridiculous extending his arms out in his stance and walking like he wants to get a hug from someone. I wasn’t expecting a picture perfect conversion of the game, but at least make it look not too far off of the original. It did its task well.
Gameplay/Controls 5/10
If you played the arcade version, you knew something went wrong with this home cart. Due to Capcom lack of experience of then new technology, Super Nintendo, they couldn’t get enough time to adapt to the system to meet all the necessary deadlines demands. So they pretty much had to cut and snip a few things. This proved fatal and did take away most of the fun aspects.
Guy, ninja extraordinaire, was missing, leaving only Cody and Haggar to fend for themselves against Metro City hoodlums and thugs. A stage from the original game, the industrial area, was remove and nowhere to be found. During times when it was difficult to showcase a man attacking a women, real life or not, Capcom USA decided to alter the two females, Poison and Roxy, into male punk music looking freaks, Sid and Billy. Damn people and they strict beliefs. Last and certainly the most damaging part was no available choice of two player mode. You hear that? That was the “Gameplay” score lowering itself.
Still, in the single player game, it does still hold true to the Final Fight roots with the punching, stabbing, piledriving, and whacking the people getting there face smash in. Every minion (in their various colors and looks) comes with many ways of attacking, from fast jabbing to charging head on to throwing sticks of dynamite on the ground, these guys can be a real hassle to deal with. To be honest, anytime you see one Andore or more come out, the fun factor goes higher. The bosses are indeed strong with their high power attacks and become increasingly smarter (or cheap) as the game progress. Why a few of them can block incoming onslaughts, while players have no such blocking tactic to save them harm, really don’t make much sense to me. The bonus round are okay and I liked the ending of the car demolishing, but the breaking glass room is forgettable and quite crap.
The configuration is very straightforward from the get-go, no strings attach. Cody is still the average dude, while Haggar is still the walking powerhouse. Having resort to your special attack when mauled all over can be a stress reliever to escape, will make you feel good. Sadly, once you are down to a spec of energy in your life bar, you mind could trigger you brain into thinking and probably tell you to screw it and end it right there and wait for your next life or continue to come up.
Sound/Music 5/10
I didn’t think they would manage to get the voices and sound effects right on different hardware. Supremely, they did get them, but in the way the arcade had them. Muffling and unfiltered like crazy. It must be an awful thought when your best voice work was getting Damnd (or however you spell it) laughing and whistling on cue. To tell you the truth, the music is what makes up for the majority of the scoring here. I can recall the slums, the subway station, and the stage completion very well, just the way I heard them in the arcades. From there, the rest goes in from one ear and out the other.
Replay Value 4/10
When gamers heard of Final Fight being cut to the bone, it truly pissed off some fans, while others just accept it as it is. Hardcore fans might try to squeeze every ounce of what they could get out of it, but to no avail. It took them about a few years to send out a console copy, they could have postponed it so they could fully understand the system. Well, at least they brought us a simple to do hidden code on the title screen to change the number of lives and rating difficulty at the title screen, bettering your shots in reaching the end of the game.
Still, a game that is this limited to have only one person having a good time, while his friend can only watch, sucks massive walnuts. Not just that, but when you finish the game with both Cody and Haggar, what’s there left to do? Absolutely, positively nothing.
Overall 4/10
Boy, did the fans get the short end of the deal with the SNES version of Final Fight. No one saw this one coming from a mile away when they got their hands on it. A loner will have no problems with the single mode, but friends wanting to team up will have to look elsewhere for that style of fun. It may one of the first titles and a classic in the arcades, but this particular version of this game, to me, isn’t a classic to me…its just there.
- By Mr. Boombada
