Final Fight (SNES Review)

This is a boxing match right? — This is a boxing match, right?

What to say about Final Fight? Loved the arcade game. I remember one trip to Brighton spending all of my dad’s change on it. He must have stashed some away – we had chips afterwards. Streets of Rage on the MD stole, sorry, borrowed a lot of the mechanics from FF and with a little invention is by far the best scrolling beat em up on the 16-bit. Parallels to it are bound to be drawn.

It’s about time the SNES had such a title, of course. So I popped in the cart, decent opening sequence, character select screen. Hey wait a minute! Yep, seems that the lack of any options has been ported from the arcade, but where the hell is Guy? Guy has been culled! Leaving Cody and the honourable mayor Haggar. Hmph.

I only wanted to get to the office on time!!!

The action begins and the graphics are lush. The sprites are big and well animated. The stages are also well detailed but slightly too colourful I think for a “gritty” beat em up.

Wait a second, where’s the two player mode? Yup, from what I gather, the SNES can only handle three or four of these sprites at the same time – no co-op for you! So it’s a one player game, fine. Except it’s not fine. Although the collision detection is good and both characters’ moves feel satisfying, everything is the same. Walk, punch, punch, walk, suplex, punch punch. There is no variety in the game whatsoever – again, directly ported from the arcade. A little invention wouldn’t have gone amiss! The sound effects are good but the music is dreadful (this is where SOR really came into its own). And boy is this game tough!

YOU SAID I LOOK LIKE AXEL WHO!!! — YOU SAID I LOOK LIKE AXEL WHO???

With no options to alter difficulty you’re left to its natural learning curve, which is steep. Even mediocre enemies will cut through you, there’s no blocking that. Whilst initially impressive, Final Fight’s flaws are quickly exposed. If you don’t end up ejecting the cart after 15 minutes I’ll be impressed. Or very disappointed.

There’s no doubting this port had to be done, but by choosing style over substance (smaller sprites = more action – springs to mind), Capcom have left us with something very turgid indeed.