So, when do we see GBA ports of Final Fight Two and Three?
Written: Oct 19 '04 (Updated Mar 03 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Gameplay, Good Graphics and music
Cons: A little easy,hard to have multiplayer
The Bottom Line: Final Fight One is a solid and highly enjoyable Beat 'em Up takeaway that all fans of the genre will enjoy, even if it does have it's faults.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Final Fight One for Game Boy Advance (GBA) |
When Capcom released Final Fight for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the Early 90s, it was seen as a major score on Nintendo's part in their battle with Sega, however, after the initial buzz of getting to play the arcade hit in your home hit, gamers realised that this was a far from perfect representation of one of the most famous and loved Beat 'em Ups ever. First of all, the 2-Player aspect of the game was removed, instantly denting the game's value, but the fact that a character, Guy, was removed, as was a level, further dampened the game's reputation. But something else came to light that further smacked the game up. In the arcade version, there were two female enemies named Poison and Roxy. Nintendo wouldn't allow women to be hit in a game on their console, so Capcom were forced to change them into Sid and Billy, two punks. While this further sillied the game, and reinstated Nintendo as the Mary Whitehouse of videogames, it later took on a a whole new life on the internet, you see, Poison went on to latter star in Final Fight Revenge and Streetfighter 3, and a point was brought up that in the mess of trying to get her into Snes Final Fight, Capcom declared that she was actually a man. This was long forgotten until a Streetfighter reference book from Capcom was released, and in the 'Gender' Section on Poison's profile was a male symbol.
For the GBA release, titled Final Fight One, Capcom saw to it that the majority of these problems were remedied. You could now play as Haggar,Cody and Guy, as well as being able to unlock Guy and Cody's Streetfighter Alpha sprites to play as, the lost level, with Rolento as the boss, has been restored and if you have a friend with a GBA and Final Fight, you can link up for some co-op smashing. Sadly, unless you own the Japanese version, it's still Sid and Billy.
The story of the game is so legendary, and so simple. Newly elected Mayor of crime capital Metro City is ex-wrestler Mike Haggar. When he declares war on crime, and makes it clear that he won't cooperate as the last mayor did, the city-running Mad Gear gang captures his daughter Jessica to blackmail him. Instead of getting the message and bowing to their demands, Mike enlists the help of her street-fighter boyfriend Cody, and his Ninja buddy Guy, and sets out to take down the Mad Gear and get Jessica back.
So I don't expect a Final Fight novel, it's story is sufficient for a game like this, and it was the late 80s.
The basic game is still the same, in fact it plays better than the SNES port, and is a lot closer to the arcade game. Final Fight is a Beat 'em Up along the lines of Double Dragon, where the idea is to get from one end of a stage to another, defeating all the enemies in your way before taking on a tougher boss enemy. Final Fight has carved out a reputation for being one of the best games in the genre, and in it's arcade, Mega CD and now GBA incarnation, it's a deserved status. It's hard to put your finger on exactly what separates a great Beat 'em Up from just a decent one, but in my eyes the moves and variety of enemies and weapons play a major part, and FFO doesn't disapoint. While the 3 characters moves are all activated in the same manner, apart from Haggar's patented piledriver, they each have their own attributes, Haggar the strength but lack of speed, Guy the opposite and Cody in the middle, and while it's possible to play as any of them equally well for me, they are distinct enough to ensure it's fun. There are also a decent amount of different enemies, and many of them are amusing, if only for the pop-culture aspect of it. Sid and Billy, two punks, clearly take their names from the Sex Pistol's Sid Vicious and Generation X's Billy Idol, giant wrestler Andore owes more than a little to WWF wrestler Andre the Giant and there are two leather jacket sporting thugs named Slash and Axl, the names of Guns N Roses infamous frontline. This helps keep the fun in the game, as do the boss characters, including Rolento, Sodom and Andore, who went on to further fame in Streetfighter games, although Andore's name was changed to Hugo.
While there are only 3 weapons, I like how they are implemented. Haggar or Guy can only get one hit from the knife, yet Cody can wield it for a while. Haggar is more accomplished than the other two at using an iron bar, and the Ninja Guy is more suited to the katana than the other two.
Final Fight already had solid, great fun gameplay, so naturally no changes to the basics of the game were really needed, so Capcom's additions to it are welcome, in that none of them are forced into play, they are simply options. Extras are unlocked by beating a certain number of enemies, and range from the ability to perform rapid fire punching by holding down the punch button to changing the colour of your character's outfit. They have also been kind enough to add an automatic save feature that tracks your progress to the end of the last level you finished.
Another little bonus is that each of the characters now has a unique little conversation before the last duel with the boss of the game, Belger.
While the gameplay is for the most part solid, it does have a few chinks in it's armour, with one being that it is a little too easy, even on hardest difficulty. I managed to finish the game in about an hour, something I struggled to do at all on the SNES, CD and arcade versions of the game. While it is still fun to play, slightly tougher foes would have been nicer. Funnily enough, the other complaint I have is about an enemy being tough unfairly. Belger has a crossbow thing, that often hits you even if it shouldn't, this caused me much grief, and has been a constant in every Final Fight version I have played, I wish Capcom would have sorted it out.
One semi-complaint I have is that while there is a multi-player mode, how many people actually play hand-held games on multiplayer? I certainly don't. In a situation where it's possible to organise a multiplayer on handhelds, it's often easier to play on large consoles, so naturally for a game where multiplayer is very important to the life of it, this hurts the game quite a bit. I realise this isn't Capcom's fault really, but it still annoys me a bit.
Graphically, the game is excellent. It's less grainy than the SNES port, yet still keeps enough to keep the 'gritty' feel to it that set it apart from a lot of games. The streets of the city actually look dirty, you can almost smell the subway, yet the Mad Gear Skyscraper is beatiful and clean, the epitome of a gangster's hideout. The character sprites are large and well animated, making Final Fight a definite high scorer in the graphical stakes.
The sound in the game isn't of a superb quality, in fact it's a bit muddy, but I usually play handhelds with the sound turned down anyway. The music is still the same memorable tunes from when Capcom put cool music in their games, and it even has some amusing sound effects that make Cody sound like he is quacking when he does his desperation move and the funny screams of the enemies, although these are part of what makes Final Fight Final Fight, so I don't class this as a fault.
The controls are incredibly simple. B is Punch, A is Jump. Pressing the two together lets rip with your desperation move, a move that hits enemies on all sides, but does a little damage to you if it connects, although you can set either shoulder button to use this move, which I did.
It's not really like you could get confused by these controls, and the response of them is pretty accurate, on the whole I haven't a complaint on the controls.
In general, Final Fight One is a worthy purchase for anyone who grew up with the game, or just generally has a love of old school Beat 'em Up titles. This was one of the reasons I bought a GBA, to be able to play classic games like this, ported perfectly, on the go, and while Final Fight One isn't in any way really a disappointment, it's short lifespan is what stops it from scoring full marks. With that said, despite the fact I have completed it several times now, and my count for enemies defeated is into the thousands (well into the thousands), it's still a constant fixture when I go on holiday and take my GBA. While this would probably change if Tradewest would take their finger out and release Double Dragon Advance in the UK, Final Fight One is still a very good game that all fans of the genre with a GBA will want to get a hold of, especially at it's current, fairly low, price.
While it doesn't quite do enough to get full marks, and be what I class as a must own, the game still delivers enough high entertainment to warrant a high score, and my recommendation.
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Review also posted at Dooyoo.co.uk
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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