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Final Fight Series
Developer: Capcom
Final Fight (Arcade) - 1989
Final Fight CD (Sega Mega CD) – 1991
Final Fight 2 (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) – 1992
Final Fight Guy (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) – 1992
Final Fight 3 (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) – 1995
Final Fight Revenge (Sega Saturn) – 2000
Final Fight One (Gameboy Advance) - 2001
It seems to me that Capcom’s favourite thing to do besides making games is running an idea to death so by sequel number 6 people are sick of whatever they’re doing. They did it blatantly with Street Fighter II, and they began to do the same with Final Fight. Luckily, it seems they came to their senses.
The first Final Fight game still is considered an arcade classic. With the choice between Guy, Cody and Haggar, several different levels and a multitude of enemies to beat, it quickly became one of the most played and most popular games, and everyone quickly forgot about Street Fighter, Capcom’s first major disappointment. The aim of the game was, as most fighting games tended to be back then, to rescue the hapless dame. Each of the characters had different strengths and weaknesses: Guy was fast but a little weak, Cody was stronger but slower, and Haggar was stronger and slower still. Oh and Haggar had a cool moustache. 10 points straight away.
Having fought your way through enemies of various sizes, strengths and difficulties (and half of Guns ‘n Roses), with your fists, feet, or any old weapon that you’d usually find lying around in a street…You know...kitana blades and huge metal pipes or throwing knives…You felt a tinge of satisfaction from completing it and getting the girl. Did I mention Haggar had a cool moustache?
Recently, Capcom have re-released Final Fight as “Final Fight One” on the Game Boy Advance, creating one of the two better home conversions of the game, the other being 1991’s “Final Fight CD”.
Due to the success of the arcade Final Fight, Capcom created a SNES port and titled it “Final Fight 2”, as they took out Guy. Other than that, the game was largely more or less the same, but didn’t quite have the sting in the tail that the Arcade version did. To make up for the lack of Guy in Final Fight 2, Capcom released “Final Fight Guy”, with… you guessed it… Guy in it instead of Cody. By this time people were starting to care less and less about Final Fight. So good old Capcom did what they do best and released another sequel.
Final Fight 3 actually improved on the graphics and sound a little on the original, other than that, it just didn’t cut the cheese as far as competing with the original went. Sure, it was still a good game, still fun to play, but by 1995 when it was released, the SNES was already beginning to go into retirement. Final Fight 3 saw the end of Final Fight as a 2D beat-em-up. What came next was… unexpected.
In 2000 Capcom did what all good game developers should have done, and invested money in creating a game for the Saturn (cough). Titled Final Fight Revenge, it was a 3D fighter, much in the same vein as Virtua Fighter or Tekken. It was kinda cool and kinda stupid at the same time to see your favourite Final Fight characters in a 3D fighter. My guess is Capcom was experimenting with Final Fight so they didn’t have as much experimenting to do when it came to the next Street Fighter installment.
Either way, it is plainly obvious that through this whole charade or Final Fight “X” games, only one has really stood out and stood the test of time: The original. It makes me wonder what would have become of Final Fight if Capcom stopped at one game…or…went on to make even more.
Pube
Final Fight series Image Galleries:
Final Fight
Final Fight 2
Final Fight 3
Final Fight CD
Final Fight Guy
Final Fight One
Final Fight Revenge
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