Retro|Spective on Retro|Spective 170: Final Fight

[Neon Ignition]

The third and final of these installments where we look at the titles that prompted the most discussion in the history of Retro|Spective:

Retro|Spective on Retro|Spective

Retro beat em ups have often proven to be a popular subject on the forum but none drew as much discussion as Capcom's series of walk-along-beat em ups. The Mad Gear Gang's efforts and the battle to stop them had engrained themselves in our collective minds over the course of...

Final Fight



From 1989 through 2006 the series put to market a series of brawlers and fighters with numerous references, appearances and characters appearing through other Capcom franchises such as Street Fighter. Primarily led by Guy, Haggar and Cody as the most notable leads they took on the Mad Gear Gang in street brawls and the series is even said to have been the inspiration for Robin Williams naming of his son as Cody. Today things remain quiet on the front of Final Fight outside of references in Street Fighter V.

In light of the success of Streets of Rage 4 should Capcom look to revisit the world of Final Fight and if so in what form?

[Asura]

Eeeeh, I dunno.

I might be the only one who thinks this, but for me, the best things Final Fight ever produced were the original game (arcade version and few pretty-much-perfect ports only) and the character appearances in Street Fighter and Capcom Vs SNK.

While all the sequels and such were playable enough, decent games in their genre, none of them really stood out in the manner of the above.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I might be the only one who thinks this, but for me, the best things Final Fight ever produced were the original game (arcade version and few pretty-much-perfect ports only) and the character appearances in Street Fighter and Capcom Vs SNK

You're not the only one.

The SNES/SFC-only sequels, Revenge & Streetwise are garbage. Mighty gets a pass though.

I'd actually go as far as to say that Capcom were right to vacate the scrolling beat-em-up scene at the end of the 90s after they released Battle Circuit - the genre had pretty much run its course by then and I'd also argue that still looks tired and dated despite the resurgence of it in recent times.

I definitely wouldn't want to see Capcom do a revisit, and I'm saying that as somebody who loved the original coin-op.

[Baseley09]

The OG is a game ill go back to forever but yeah as above everything else has been sheer fart attack, though I did like Guy's appearance and theme from Street Fighter Alpha.

[monel]

I agree with all the posters above, after the original game the best contribution was to the street fighter series. That's fitting because Final Fight was started as a possible sequel to SF.

I never liked the music in the game, that's where Streets of Rage absolutely smashed it.

Personally I wish beat em ups were produced later on but I never understood why the movesets were so limited and maybe have branching stages.

Oh yeah I remember my friend spending quite a lot on the Saturn game which was probably by Capcom USA, yet a Japanese late Saturn release and when he loaded it up I couldn't believe what was happening. Character turned into a car, etc.....

[DeathAdder]

For me, the original Final Fight is the best game in the side-scrolling fighting game category. It's an absolute classic. I can forgive the SNES port its lack of two-player, as I prefer playing alone. The loss of a character and a stage is harder to stomach, but it's still fun.

I don't mind the two sequels, particularly the third game. They're not as good, but they do the job.

Final Fight Revenge is utter ****e. I've never played Streetwise, but it sounds as if I'm not missing much.

Recently I've been playing Mighty Final Fight, which is a good laugh.

I wouldn't mind seeing a new Final Fight in the vein of SoR4. As long as Charles bans anyone who posts the word "clipart" in the thread.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Totally forgot about Mighty. I would definitely put it above Revenge, Streetwise and the SNES sequels.

[phillv85]

I never played FF as a kid, I was a Sega kid and SoR2 was (still is) my favourite game. I enjoyed beat em ups immensely and was sad to see them go away. When I finally got around to playing FF it was the Mega CD version I first played. I enjoyed it, but it was so difficult (I was naive to the fact it was a coin op originally and therefore designed to make you pay to master it). The other games in the series are I have played are so-so to bad. I feel like if you were brought up on SoR then you had a, dare I say it, better alternative to the FF games.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I feel like if you were brought up on SoR then you had a, dare I say it, better alternative to the FF games.

I can understand that logic - the original SoR succeeded FF by two years at that point, and FF CD didn't come out until 1993, which would've meant that if you hadn't played the original coin-op your only experience of FF would've been the sub-par SNES ports and the crap 16-bit home computer ports. FF CD was pretty much the only near-perfect port that western games could experience at the time and Capcom didn't even code it!

That said, IMO, the original FF still plays a much tighter game than any of the SoR games. I can't shake the feeling that SoR is style-over-substance. It might have better music and looks (and even then I feel like that can be debated), but FF plays so much better for me.

[samanosuke]

I can understand that logic - the original SoR succeeded FF by two years at that point, and FF CD didn't come out until 1993, which would've meant that if you hadn't played the original coin-op your only experience of FF would've been the sub-par SNES ports and the crap 16-bit home computer ports. FF CD was pretty much the only near-perfect port that western games could experience at the time and Capcom didn't even code it!

That said, IMO, the original FF still plays a much tighter game than any of the SoR games. I can't shake the feeling that SoR is style-over-substance. It might have better music and looks (and even then I feel like that can be debated), but FF plays so much better for me.

I wouldn’t say it plays better; the way you can combo through the bad guys in SoR2 & 3 is a level above and beyond what FF offers, but the AI in SoR is not up to the bone-crushing difficulty of FF where they swarm around you. I’ve always maintained that SoR2 with the AI of FF would be a god-tier game, up there with SMW in terms of gaming perfection.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I wouldn’t say it plays better; the way you can combo through the bad guys in SoR2 & 3 is a level above and beyond what FF offers

I disagree.

The moves and combos in SoR2 & 3 may look flashier than FF's (again, style-over-substance), but I genuinely don't feel that they're any better in terms of fundamental mechanics. SoR4 is a different story, granted, but even that is nullified and undermined by nasty AI that seems to be able to use cheap invincibility/armour frames whenever it wants to.

FF's controls might come across as basic but they're incredibly tight and precise. SoR cannot say the same IMO.

[Arashikage]

It's the enemy AI that makes the arcade version of FF, it's so progressive that I don't even think that Capcom equaled it in their own later games. SOR2 is a great game but it doesn't feel as tight as arcade FF. I maintain that SOR2 is probably the best 16-bit console belt scroller but arcade FF pips it overall.

[wheelaa]

Oh the hardest settings, or any I suppose, I find FF is too reliant on one playstyle, herding enemies through throws, across all three characters. Nail that, game is cakewalk. Although the throw mechanic is so so slick in FF, amazing.

SoR2/3 there are mulitple playstyles that you can use to knock out mania runs. And cheese too haha.

[Nu-Eclipse]

SoR2/3 there are mulitple playstyles that you can use to knock out mania runs. And cheese too haha.

Again, I don't agree with this and SoR2 is probably the game in the series I've played most. SoR4 definitely isn't like this and we can all agree that it has more refined mechanics than the other three.

The very nature of belt action games is that crowd management is obviously the name of the game given the lack of space and the nature of the AI. I fail to see these different ways to knock out runs in SoR that you supposedly cannot in FF. Sure, SoR has more moves to choose from than FF but IMO they really don't make much of a difference. Hell, a good chunk of them aren't even really needed.

[wheelaa]

Well, I disagree. FF, manage the crowd with one move, master the game. What's more, you need to do this for decent runs imo. And it's the same for all three characters. The way the AI behave and the power of the throw (with its incredible yet absurd windows), make it so imo.

SoR2, there are multiple ways to go about decent runs, and different characters add wildly different options. Throw runs, hold runs (Max can get freaky in the right hands), aerial runs, super spams, no super runs, hit and run runs, cheese, or, for maximum fun, a combination of all. Successful crowd management isn't one move reliant, neither are decent successful runs solely dependant upon crowd management (at least in one spot) either. Imo haha.

Edit..to clairfy

When I talk about FF crowd management etc I don't mean the wider general awareness, I mean what I see as the specific need to have as many enemies as possible on top of each other at all times (which is achieved through one monster move) to have a successful run on high difficulty.

Perhaps I just suck at FF hahaha.