The original Final Fight was one of the first disappointments on the Super Nintendo. This beat ‘em up title was huge in the arcades, and that version is a lot of fun. The SNES release however was not. Capcom cut lots of content including the ever important two player mode. What fun is a beat ‘em up game solo? It was also heavily edited as well which was a bummer. When the Game Boy Advance was announced 16-bit ports seemed to be a big part of the strategy. Final Fight was getting another chance, and this time on portable hardware. Would Capcom right their past wrongs? Let’s check it out. Here’s Final Fight One!
Metro City is a modern American city with a major crime problem. Criminal organizations run these seedy streets. This changes one day when former wrestler turned politician Mike Haggar takes over as mayor. Life is improving quickly for the good citizens. Unfortunately the Mad Gear Gang has been making moves behind the scenes. They kidnap Haggar’s daughter Jessica, and demand that he let them continue their illegal operations uninterrupted. The muscle bound mayor, along with Jessica’s boyfriend Cody and their friend Guy set out to dish out some knuckle sandwiches and put an end to the Mad Gear Gang. The story here is virtually unchanged from the SNES release. A few new dialogue sequences have been added before each boss encounter. These aren’t a huge difference but their inclusion is welcome.
Final Fight One is a pretty basic beat ‘em up title. You walk from left to right through a variety of different stages with oncoming enemies impeding your progress. It’s a side view 2D game with eight directional movement. You can punch, jump, and spin kick. Generally you’ll walk forward until the screen stops moving at which point a group of enemy will approach. You’re stuck in that spot until you dispatch all enemies. Lather, rinse, repeat. Each stage has a boss encounter at the end of it which presents a more significant challenge. What keeps the experience from being repetitive is the variation in enemy types. You have generic punks that just walk on and punch you. Others may throw fireworks, attack with knives, and even flip around the screen to get behind you. My favorite is the enemy Andore who is based off the wrestler Andre the Giant.
From the onset you get your choice of which character to use. Capcom rounded out the three man roster by making each of them functionally different. Guy is the weakest of the three playable characters, but he makes up for this by being the fastest. Haggar is on the opposite end of the spectrum. He moves slowly but can punch and kick the hardest of the three. For those who prefer the happy medium Cody is average in all respects. All three have the same basic moveset. They can punch, jump kick, and perform a super move. Basic strikes are done in three hit combos with a slightly more powerful finisher at the end. It’s very basic, but this isn’t a problem. After all the original Final Fight was one of the first modern beat ‘em up games.
Despite just punching and kicking your way to victory there’s a fair amount of variety in these stages. I already mentioned the different enemy types but there’s even more to it. You’ll find items like crates and barrels that can be destroyed and these often have items in them. Sometimes it’s just things to boost your points, but there’s also food that restores health as well as weapons you can use. Things like knives, lead pipes, swords etc can deal out more damage to enemies than the standard punches and kicks. This is helpful because as far as general combat goes you don’t exactly have a lot of options. Your characters can punch, jump, kick (while in midair) and perform a super move. The latter attacks all foes within proximity but drains a bit of health from your character.
In the move to portable hardware a few changes have been made. The first of these is that the viewing area is smaller. This is obviously due to the GBA’s smaller screen. There are some areas where the screen must scroll left or right as you move because not everything could fit. Character models are absolutely huge and look even bigger on the small screen. Capcom wasn’t willing to sacrifice sprite size in this game. Unfortunately they’re too big in my opinion. Even with loss of detail I would have preferred a zoomed out view. It’s not a deal breaker by any means but just something I noticed.
Most of the content changed in the Arcade to SNES conversion has been thankfully restored. For one thing all three characters are available to choose. Yes, you can now play as Cody, Haggar, AND Guy this time around. Even the previously absent Warehouse stage has been restored. The biggest fix that Capcom implemented here is the inclusion of multiplayer mode. The lack of it was the most common complaint in the SNES release and so to see them address it here is much appreciated. My only complaint is that both players have to own a copy of the cartridge. There’s no single pak multiplayer here. With how much content there is in the game this is to be expected, but it’s disappointing nonetheless.
There are also more options that are brand new to the game. The most notable of these is the save feature. Final Fight One keeps track of where you left off each time you turn off the system and you can pick up from there every time. Unfortunately there’s only one save slot, and if you don’t choose to continue from it your data is automatically erased. Also new is the two hidden character variations. You can unlock the Street Fighter Alpha versions of both Cody and Guy. I really liked this idea, but unfortunately they’re functionally the same as the normal characters. The change is just cosmetic. While this dampens my enthusiasm about it I still think it’s neat.
With all that good stuff out of the way this is still just Final Fight at its core. Gameplay is rather simple, the layout is formulaic, and it doesn’t take very long to complete. Because of its basic design I think Final Fight actually works really well as a portable title. The length is just about perfect with just around an hour of gameplay here. Being able to save and return to your progress is super helpful for this type of game, and even moreso in the portable version. Being able to link up with another player and work together on two different screens is a real treat. I am however a little disappointed at the lack of new content. There’s just barely enough new here to be interesting.
Graphically the game is pretty decent. Final Fight One is based directly on the SNES release. The backgrounds all look the same, as do the character models. The game also only supports a few different enemies on screen at once which is a far cry from the arcade original. Despite a lot of on-screen mayhem at once the framerate remains consistent even during multiplayer. Unfortunately some of the colors seem a bit over saturated here. The biggest issue however is that the censored graphics once again return. Characters like Poison and Roxie are nowhere to be found. The soundtrack has taken a pretty major hit even from the SNES port. The music sounds really bad if I’m being honest. It’s all recognizable, but just barely. Everything sounds much more like bleeps and blips. Personally I think they should have made original music, because this soundtrack ain’t it.
