Final Fight One
Reviewed by Dogg
The game that started it all is remadeÉ
For many years I have dreamed of this. I've dreamed
that the Final Fight series will be renewed or even
remade. Well, Capcom has answered my prayers and
they've finally bestowed upon me and everybody else
the remake of the original Final Fight, the game that started it all.
Final Fight was originally released in Arcade's back
in 1989. Here it established itself to many by giving
up a hard-knocks beat-'em-up that was something new
and was something to be proud for. Here a player
chose one out of three characters and they battled
against enemies (over 6-7 at a time) in the level,
till they finally reached the last boss of that
specific stage. While this fact was nothing new, the
standards that this game set, however, were new.
Eventually the series was ported to the more
sufficient and user-friendly Super Nintendo console.
The outcome of this led to both good and bad (bad
being the fact that the game only carried 2-3 enemies
at a time). However, despite major points of
criticism the game still ended up being a legendary
Arcade conversion that had earned many fans.
But anyways, now with the release of the Nintendo
Game Boy Advance, Capcom is going to remake and
re-establish the first game in the series and also
combine it with some of the greater beat-'em-ups of
today, while also trying to make a way to get more
fans to fall in love with this
once-thought-to-be-dead series. The final result is a
heartwarming and moving game that while it won't
please people who played the original to death, it
will more likely give much more independent faith to
finally relieve this series back to its good old fame and glory.
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Story
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Cheesy and very 80s like, you betcha'.
The game takes place in a huge conurbation called
Metro City. Metro City is overpopulated with crime
sprees that make the city dangerous and pretty
controversial. But someone is hoping that will
change. Former wrestler and entertainer Mike Haggar
has just been elected mayor and he is hoping to put
an end to the one gang responsible for the
destruction of Metro CityÑthe Mad Gear. However, the
Mad Gear Gang was a step ahead like always and now
they are hoping to even destroying Haggar's personal life.
So, one day in office Mike Haggar gets a call. The
call at first sounded like a joke, but the caller
eventually spoke up and told Haggar that he and his
pals have kidnapped his daughter, Jessica. They then
told Mayor Haggar to open the television, and so he
did as to get a clue on what they did to his beloved
daughter. Once the TV opened an image was
unswervingly shown and it displayed Jessica being all
tied up. The criminal then reveals himself as part of
the Mad Gear Gang's trusty personnel and he then says
in a friendly expression that he won't hurt herÉ if
Haggar doesn't hurt them.
Then the scene switches over to a viewpoint behind
the wrestling ring where Haggar tells his
entertainment buddies, Cody and Guy, that his
daughter, Jessica, was kidnapped. Cody was Jessica's
childhood friend and now he wants to save her more
than anything. Guy is a mysterious ex-Street Fighter
who also wants to help Jessica.
Thus the three make a team to save Jessica, and thus
the legacy that is Final Fight begins.
7/10
While it is cheesy and sounds like its been used a
million times, the story is however, still pretty good
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Gameplay
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I'm sure Capcom got our full incomplete attention.
Final Fight One's best aspect comes in the form of
its gameplay. In the game you pick one of the three
aforementioned characters. Each character has a
different type of fighting style and each one
balances their attacks out in different ways (due to
all having a different style then others). The main
fighting controls are punch, jump, and special
attack. When you press the punch button, you will
repeatedly keep on attacking the enemy upside the
head. If you press the jump button, your character
will jump up high, and then if you press the punch
button while in the air your character will do a
flying somersault kick injuring the enemy right in
the gonads. When you use the special maneuver button,
your character uses their selected special move. Each
special move can do a lot of damage, and each
character has a different one to implement. But here
is the catch. Once you use a special move on an enemy
and it hits them, your character will also sustain
some damage making using this move a selected choice.
The main premise of the game is to beat up all the
enemies on a specific level, and then eventually
beating up the boss at the end of that level. In the
game there are over six levels. These areas include
the Bay Area, and even the Industrial AreaÑa stage
not featured in the Super Nintendo port. The
Industrial Area is a heating furnace room in which
burning steam escalates on to the platform giving
both you and your enemies damage. Some of the levels
in this game are shockingly short, while some others
are amazingly long. Also, each level consists of over
at least 100+ enemies to deal with at precise times
making the challenge even more surreal.
All of the enemies attack differently, and all of the
enemies look different and have a different type of a
fighting style. For example, Andore and Andore Jr.
(is there an Andre the Giant resemblance here) are
two guys that are more focused on attacking you. Once
they take you down with their power bomb maneuver,
they will go forth and try to Òslam" you. However,
while these guys are strong attackers, they are slow
movers, which then makes you keep on attacking them
till they are eventually down. But that may not be
the case at most times either. For example, Billy Ò
the Punk" Rocker (now why did they take out Roxy and
Poison...hmm) will attack very fast, but if you
notice their attacks do very little damage, thus
making you knock them out very easy (YEA, TAKE THAT!).
Final Fight One's bosses are also very imitative to
how the original enemies act and play like. Many of
the bosses look different, and many of the bosses
attack and act very differently (much the same with
the enemies as mentioned above). One boss for example
will focus on taking you out with his two swords in a
fighting arena, while another bossÑthe final
bossÑwill take you out a much more easier wayÑby
shooting at you (coughÉ Streets of RageÉ cough).
There is even a sub-boss in this game, which puts you
in a match against 2 of the many AndorŽ brothers.
FFO also has many sorts of difficulty levels to
choose from. Now a beginner and a very agile person
can move on and take the Very-Easy difficulty
setting, while another person who is in need of a
challenge can take on the Very-Hard difficulty
setting. In the game you are given a varying amount
of opportunities to fight back once you are down.
Once you lose all of your opportunities you will be
taken to a screen where you see your character in a
room with dynamite. Here you can either use one of
your useful credits, or you can just choose to not
continue. The game also features a Battery Pack-Up
installed into the cart, so once you turn down the
game you will be able to play it later from the part
in which you were last on.
Gameplay-wise, Final Fight One has enough
entertainment value to keep it keen on its knees, and
this is also enough to satisfy the buyer of this
product. The game also features 4 characters on
screen at one time, which at most is an upgrade to
what the Super Nintendo could have done. Follow it up
by a couple of secrets allowing you to play as SF
Alpha Guy and Cody, and you've got an awesome remake
of a once awesome game.
9/10
Final Fight One can indeed give you everything you
want, and more!
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Graphics
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Capcom says: Let's use the same character sprites
over and over again. It's not like anyone will ever
notice.
The graphics for the most part are pretty good. They
help capture the game with its 1989 status that it
has been repealed with. Unfortunately this is 2002 (I
hope), and people who look like idiotic idiots aren't
treated very nicely game-wise. Many of the characters
appear the way they appeared back in the Arcade and
Super Nintendo versions. Many of your enemies also
have simplistic designs that'll make you score a
laugh once or twice.
Character animations are on par with how the
character designs are. They are swiftly done and are
greatly animated. However, they are not perfect.
Characters like Haggar first punch, then punch again,
and then he misses the next punch to the oncoming
enemy, but that enemy still gets damaged. It's not
much of a complaint, but it still can subtract the
overall grade of the game.
The environments are all luscious-looking and will
please any veteran Final Fight aficionados. The
backgrounds are also greatly done and stuff like
streaming oil crates and shattered glass are all
animated very well. The only problem with the
graphics, however, is that they look too much like
how an old game looks. It's not common today you see
a giant man with red and purple (?) leopard T-Shirts,
with a red-chain stuck in their blue pants (jeans
maybe?). All of the character sprites haven't changed
making the game to replicate to its old predecessors,
which once again shows the series hasn't aged well.
D'oh! One more note: the small cut scenes shown after
you beat a level are pretty cool.
8/10
Slap sticked with leopard shirts and shin pads, FFO
is a graphics crowd-pleaser!
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Audio
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T, what the heck does this music seem to me?
In the age of blips and blops, Final Fight still had
great themes and effects, and now the same story is
shown here. The background music is nicely done and
at best, I have no complaints on it. While it does
seem to get repeated constantly throughout the levels
it is still great. The small amount of voice acting
shown in this game is also a good thing as well.
The sound effects for the most part are a little
bland, but hell a normal individual can live with it.
Once you hit an enemy you will hear a small noise,
and the same goes to once you get hit, or once you
hit stuff like oil crates and a pile of tires that
are lying down on the street. Your character will
even scream once his butt falls flat to the floor.
OUCH!!!
Overall you can't help, but love Final Fight's small,
but moody soundtrack (the Streets of Rage soundtrack
beats it by a mile though). While it isn't really
good by today's standards, it still has enough
Òoomph" in it to surprise any bystander that just
sees this game on the street. Guess that can either
be a good or bad thingÑI say it is both actually.
6/10
FFO doesn't exactly set the mood, but that doesn't
mean it's not good!
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Overall
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FFO is a classic gem from the past!
Overall, people who have played this game to death
years ago will still find enough in this cart to
surprise them. Final Fight One isn't also a complete
copy of the original because it still has enough
hidden extras in it to pertain it from its original.
For starters, there is its two-player cooperative
mode, a feature that only began in Final Fight 2 for
the Super Nintendo, and it also has many secrets
(like the SF wardrobe making Guy and Cody much better fighters).
Final Fight One is also a solid game because it
captures all of the high flying antics, and all the
zany action in just one cart. Anyone who likes to
throw people out of windows, or wants to see a guy
punch out his best friend because he didn't get the
girl will surely get a kick out of this cart (BEWARE
OF HAGGAR AND HIS POLITICAL PALS).
FFO is a welcome addition to the series we've all
come known to love!
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Jesse Òthe Body" Ventura will never be able to beat
up Mayor M. Haggar. Arrgh
Overall: 8 out of 10