Final Fight
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| Final Fight | |
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.jpg/254px-Final_Fight_(flyer).jpg) Final Fight arcade flyer — European release |
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| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Capcom, U.S. Gold Ltd., Ubisoft |
| Designer(s) | Planners: Pon G, Akiman, Nin |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, PlayStation 2, Sega CD, ZX Spectrum, Super NES, Sharp X68000, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, Virtual Console |
| Release date | Arcade JPN December 1989 NA January 1990 EUR 1990 Super NES JPN December 21, 1990 NA November 10, 1991 |
| Genre(s) | Beat 'em up |
| Mode(s) | Single player, 2 player Co-op |
| Input methods | 8-way Joystick, 3 Buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system | CPS-1 |
| Display | Raster, 384 x 224 pixels (Horizontal), 4096 colors |
Final Fight (ファイナルファイト Fainaru Faito?) is a 1989 beat-em-up arcade game released by Capcom. The game was directed by Akira Nishitani and Akira Yasuda and originally produced for the CPS arcade hardware. Producer Yoshiki Okamoto considers Final Fight as his company's take on the beat-em-up genre first popularized by Double Dragon, which he cites as an inspiration, and is considered to be a precursor to the numerous beat-em-ups that dominated the arcade and console market during the early 1990s, including some that were produced by Capcom themselves such as Captain Commando, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, The Punisher, and Alien vs. Predator, prior to the fighting game boom started by Capcom's own Street Fighter II (designed by the same team which did Final Fight).
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[edit] Plot
Final Fight is set in the fictional American city of Metro City sometime during the late 1980s or early 1990s.[1] The story centers around the kidnapping of the newly-elected Mayor's daughter, Jessica, by the dominant street gang in the city known as the Mad Gear Gang, which seeks to bring the Mayor under their control. The Mayor in question, a former pro wrestler named Mike Haggar, doesn't give in to the gang's evil request and sets out to rescue his daughter with the help of her boyfriend, a martial artist named Cody and his friend/rival, Guy
[edit] Gameplay
Final Fight is an archetypal scrolling beat-em-up game. One or two player characters move from left to right through each level (most of which are split into 3 or more scenes), fighting with the enemy characters who appear, until they reach a confrontation with a stronger boss character at the end of the level. Once said boss is beaten, the players automatically move onto the next stage. Enemies appear from both sides of the screen and from out of doorways or entrances set into the background, and the player(s) must defeat all of them to progress. If the players try to simply travel through the levels without fighting, the screen will stop scrolling until all current enemies have been defeated, before allowing the players to continue progress. Enemies may move outside the confines of the screen, but players may not. There is a time limit to each stage, but, like most beat-em-ups from this era, this is merely a failsafe device to ensure that the arcade cabinet did not suffer screen burn if a player abandoned the controls in mid-game. Typically for a game of this kind, there are no characters in the game who are not antagonistic towards the players.
Final Fight featured very large and detailed sprites for its day, and the controls were quite fluid and simple. The game also introduced the strong/fast/average character trinity copied by countless other games: Haggar (very powerful yet very slow and vulnerable to attack), Guy (very agile, can hit and run, yet has weak offensive power), or Cody (who balances strength and speed, being an excellent choice for beginners). It also featured very long levels populated by crowds of enemies using various fighting tactics against the player.
[edit] Continue screens
Final Fight (and both of its sequels) featured a notorious continue screen in the vein of the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden. In Final Fight, once the player has lost all his lives, the screen changes to the character tied to a chair with a bundle of dynamite ready to explode in his face. If the player does not insert a coin within the ten second countdown, the bomb will detonate, causing the screen to flash black and white. In Final Fight 2, the character is locked in a well with water slowly rising towards his head. Final Fight 3 pays tribute to Ninja Gaiden's continue screen by lowering a giant spike press on top of the character, who is tied down in the same way Ryu Hayabusa was in the arcade version. Unlike Ninja Gaiden, instead of a scream being heard at the end of the countdown, a sound effect was heard. (An explosion, a splash, etc.)
[edit] Playable characters
Final Fight features three selectable characters.
- Cody
- The lead character and Jessica's boyfriend. A well-rounded martial artist who is the only character who can stab enemies with a knife at close range.
- Haggar
- Jessica's father and the Mayor of Metro City. Haggar is a professional wrestler who can use techniques like the Piledriver and Backdrop.
- Guy
- Cody's friend and rival. He is the successor of the fictional Bushin-ryū Ninjutsu style. He can do an off-the-wall jump kick.
[edit] Enemies
As with most games in the genre, Final Fight features a variety of enemy characters the player must defeat in order to progress through the game. Although there are numerous small fry characters thorough the game, only seven of them are actually unique in terms of appearances and fighting style, while the rest are head swap/palette swap counterparts with more or less vitality. There's also six unique boss characters, one for each stage.
[edit] Underlings
- Bred, Dug, Simons and Jake
- They serve as the game's standard thug characters. They are dressed in matching pants and tanktops (with jackets for Simons and Jake), with Bred dressed in gray, Dug in red-orange, Simons in gold, and Jake in blue. They have no distinguishing characteristic or attack other than their ability to push oildrums. Bred appears in the first bonus round after the player trashes his car (in the GBA version, a palette swap of Dug in a grey outftit appears instead of Bred). Only Jake and Simons can perform a jump kick.
- J and Two. P
- A pair of punks dressed in baggy pants and jackets. J is dressed in yellow and blue and has an atomic biohazard symbol on his back, while Two. P wears orange and green and has a dragon symbol on his back. They tend to strike when the player has their back turn on one of them.
- Axl and Slash
- A pair of bikers named after Axl Rose and Slash respectively of Guns N' Roses. They are the only enemy characters that block the player's attacks. They loosely resemble their real life counterparts, with Axl having blond shoulder-length hair and red bandanna, while Slash has black curly hair. Axl wears a grey uniform, and Slash wears brown.
- Holly Wood and El Gado
- A pair of knife-wielding fighters dressed in camouflage garb and ski caps. Their fighting style is described in one of the Japanese manuals as being based on dancing. Their most powerful attack is the jumping knife strike. Holly Wood wears orange, and El Gado wears yellow. There are versions of Holly Wood dressed in red that often shows up to throw Molotov cocktails at the player.
- Bill Bull, G. Oriber and Wong Who
- A trio of obese men. Their attacks consist of a charging headbutt and a kick. Bill Bull has a Mexican look and wears grey pants, G. Oriber has Arabian look and wears blue pants, Wong Who has Chinese look and wears green pants. According to the manual for the Japanese Super Famicom version, G. Oriber stands for "Graham Oriber".
- Poison and Roxy
- Two scantily clad women with gymnast-style attacks. Poison has pink hair and wears pink cheeky shorts, a white tanktop cut just below her breasts, and a matching black hat an high heels. Roxy is a palette swap who has orange hair and wears red cheeky shorts. The English localization of Final Fight for the SNES and GBA replaced Roxy and Poison with male counterparts named Billy and Sid. When Final Fight was under development by Capcom, both Poison and Roxy were planned to be female. However, they were later revised to be transsexuals, when Capcom's U.S. division objected to having the player hit female gangsters (fearing it encouraged domestic violence).[2] The instruction manual for the Japanese Super Famicom version of Final Fight describes Poison and Roxy as transsexual women or "newhalfs"; however, the character profile in the English language version of Capcom Classics Collection only describes Poison as a transsexual female and Roxy as a regular female.[3]
- Andore
- A pro-wrestling thug modeled after André the Giant. He wears a shocking pink-colored leopard-print outfit and attacks with pro wrestling techniques, including a charge attack, a pile drive and choke attack. He has numerous palette-swapped counterparts in the game, with Andore Jr. (dressed in red) appearing alongside him in nearly every instance. Grandfather (blue) and Father (yellow) appear as sub-bosses in the second level of Round 3, along with Uncle (dark grey) who appears only when there is a second player. Andore appears in Street Fighter III video games under the name of Hugo.
[edit] Bosses
- Damnd (Thrasher in some versions)
- The boss of the Slum area (Round 1). A Caribbean thug with dreadlocks, who serves as Mad Gear's informant, though he is apparently also an informant for the FBI and a worshiper of Mammon[4]. He is the one who calls Haggar in the opening intro and can be seen carrying Jessica at the start of the game. When he takes a certain amount of damage, he summons his underlings to fight in his stead by whistling, while he sits in wait before waiting for the opportunity to strike the player. His name was changed to Thrasher in the English localizations of the SNES and Sega CD versions.
- Sodom (Katana in some versions)
- Sodom is the boss of the Subway area (Round 2), a Caucasian American who is a Japanophile that speaks in broken Japanese. He is dressed in samurai-like protective gear (including a blue kabuto helmet that conceals his face) and is armed with twin Masamune blades. The player can disarm him and use his blades against him, but he will counteract this with a rush attack. His name was changed to Katana in early English localizations of the SNES and Sega CD versions, as well as the SNES version of Street Fighter Alpha 2. Sodom would reappear as a playable character in the Street Fighter Alpha series.
- Edi E.
- A corrupt police officer who serves as the boss of the West Side area (Round 3). Edi E. looks similar to Ray Traylor, better known as Big Boss Man from the WWE. He attacks the player with his nightstick and when he's low on health, he will draw his revolver and start shooting randomly. The gum he spits out just before starting to fight will restore a lot of health if needed. Makes a cameo appearance in a couple of Cody's win poses in Street Fighter Alpha 3.
- Rolento
- Rolento is a former member of the Red Beret special forces who is now in charge of Mad Gear's drug plant. The boss of the Industrial Area (Round 4) attacks the player with his club and grappling techniques. When he is low on health, he will resort to "shadow dashing" around the arena and throwing many grenades. Stage 4 and Rolento were absent from the two SNES ports, although Capcom compensated this by making Rolento the only returning boss character in the SNES-exclusive sequel, Final Fight 2. Like Sodom, Rolento would be turned into a playable character in the Street Fighter Alpha series, starting with Alpha 2.
- Abigail
- The boss of the Bayside area (Round 5). He is a head swap of Andore who wears a white/silver outfit and has a face paint and mohawk (like the wrestler Animal). He tends to literally turn red when angry and charges towards the player with a punch. When he's low on health, the charge attacks become more frequent.
- Belger
- The final boss and leader of Mad Gear is Horace Belger. He poses as a disabled old man on a wheelchair in order to trick his enemies and attacks the player with his crossbow. When he first appears, he is holding Jessica on his lap. When the player defeats him, he is thrown into his window and falls from the high rise building and into the ground. In the English localization of the SNES version, his wheelchair was redrawn into an office chair. He reappears as a cyborg in Mighty Final Fight and as a zombie Final Fight Revenge. His older brother, Father Bella, serves as the antagonist of Final Fight Streetwise.
[edit] Production
Final Fight was originally produced as a spinoff of the original Street Fighter titled Street Fighter '89 (before Capcom decided to produced a real sequel)[5] and the game refers to one of the main characters as a "former Street Fighter". Some of the characters in the game would later resurface as playable characters in later Street Fighter games.
The street gang the player faces in the game, the Mad Gear gang, takes their name from a 1987 overhead racing game by Capcom of the same name. The game was released as Led Storm outside Japan.[6]
[edit] Ports
Capcom has produced various home versions of the original Final Fight throughout the years, with each version offering different changes and additions to the game. The following is a brief summary of each version and the characteristics that make them unique.
[edit] Super NES
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| The arcade version, on the left, features Poison showing undercleavage after being hit. The Sega CD version, center, lengthened Poison's tank top and shorts to make her less revealing. The SNES and GBA versions, right, replaced Poison with a entirely different character named Billy. | ||
Two distinct versions of Final Fight were produced for the SNES.
The first edition of the game, simply titled Final Fight, was released as a launch title for the console in Japan (December 21, 1990) and later in North America (September 1991). Several elements from the arcade game were cut, which includes the 2-Player cooperative feature, one of the playable characters (Guy) and the fourth stage in the game (Industrial Area). The English localization of the game underwent considerable censorship before release: the first two bosses in the game, Damnd and Sodom, were renamed, becoming Thrasher and Katana respectively; the two shemale enemies, Poison and Roxy, were replaced by male punks named Billy and Sid; Belger's wheelchair was redrawn to look like an office chair; some of the enemies such as Dug and Simons had their skin color lightened; all alcoholic references were removed ("bar" signs were changed to "club" signs, and two health-recovering items, Whiskey and Beer, became Vitamin E and Root Beer respectively); and a punk screaming "Oh! My God" was changed to "Oh! My Car".[7]
The second SNES edition, titled Final Fight Guy, replaces Cody with Guy (the explanation given that Cody is away on a training trip) and features other subtle changes from the first edition as well, but still lacks Industrial Area stage and the 2-Player co-op feature.[8] The Japanese version of Guy was released on March 20, 1992. The American version (featuring the same changes as the first game) was released on June 1994, but was available as a rental-only title.
[edit] NES
An NES game based on Final Fight, titled Mighty Final Fight, was released in 1993 as one of the system's later game. The game is not a port of the original Final Fight, but a more comical take on the same concept, featuring super deformed renditions of the original characters.
[edit] Sega CD
The Sega CD version, titled Final Fight CD, was ported and published by Sega under license from Capcom in 1993. This version retains nearly all the features of the arcade game, adding voice acting to the game's opening and ending sequences, a redbook soundtrack and a version-exclusive time attack mode.
Like the SNES version, the game also underwent some mild censorship in its English localization, with many of the same changes made in this version. Poison and Roxy were kept this time, but were redrawn with less-revealing clothing.[9]
[edit] Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance version, titled Final Fight One, was released in 2001 as one of the earliest games for the system. Final Fight One features all three characters and the stage that was missing from the SNES version. 2-Player co-op is also featured via link cable. Cut scenes prior to each boss battle have been added and the Street Fighter Alpha renditions of Cody and Guy were added as hidden characters. The English localization of the game still replaced Poison and Roxy with Billy and Sid, although little else was changed.[10]
[edit] Capcom Classics Collection
The version of Final Fight included in Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox is emulated from the original CPS board and thus, is virtually unchanged from the arcade version. Likewise, the game is also included in the PlayStation Portable compilation, Capcom Classics Collection Remixed.
[edit] Final Fight: Streetwise
The original Final Fight is a secret feature available after completing the main game in Final Fight Streetwise. This version of Final Fight is emulated differently from the Capcom Classics Collection version: the framerate is lower, leading to somewhat slower gameplay. Also the audio is somewhat fuzzy. The video quality is also blurred and blocky. Production Studio 8 did not have enough time nor resources for an adequate emulation.
[edit] Other versions
- Final Fight was ported by Capcom to the Sharp X68000 computer in Japan. The game is a direct conversion of the arcade game, with the only notable difference being that the number of enemy characters displayed on-screen is reduced in the X68000 port.
- European-based U.S. Gold released ports of Final Fight for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Sinclair Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
- Final Fight ported to mobile phones and published by Breakpoint in the UK.
- The SNES version of the original Final Fight was released in 2007 as a Virtual Console title.
[edit] Legacy
Final Fight was followed by two sequels for the SNES: Final Fight 2 in 1993 and Final Fight 3 (Final Fight Tough in Japan) in 1995. These games were produced specifically for the home console market with no preceding arcade versions. A 3D fighting game spinoff, Final Fight Revenge, was released for the Saturn-based Titan hardware in 1998, which was followed by a home version for the Saturn in Japan only. Final Fight: Streetwise, released in 2006 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, was a 3D take on the game.
The character Mike Haggar is featured as a wrestler in Saturday Night Slam Masters and its follow-ups, while many Final Fight characters appear as playable fighters in the Street Fighter Alpha series, beginning with Guy and Sodom in the first Alpha, who were then joined by Rolento in Alpha 2 and Cody in Alpha 3. A character named Hugo, who is a renamed version of Andore, debuts in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact with Poison as his manager.
[edit] References
- ^ The date changes between versions, with the Japanese arcade version and later GBA port using 1989, while the American arcade version and SNES ports sets the story "Sometime in the 1990s".
- ^ "All About Capcom Head-To-Head Fighting Game 1987-2000", page 339. Studio BentStuff, 2000.
- ^ Capcom Classics Collection. Capcom, 2005.
- ^ SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash card bio for Damnd
- ^ The Arcade Flyer Archive - Video Game: Capcom Concept Cabinet, Capcom.
- ^ System 16 - 68000 Based Hardware (Capcom).
- ^ 日米ファイナルファイト比較 (Japanese).
- ^ Final Fight Guy - Final Fight Online.
- ^ Final Fight CD regional differences - Final Fight Online.
- ^ Final Fight One regional differences - Final Fight Online.
[edit] External links
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This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations. |
- Final Fight at the Killer List of Videogames
- Final Fight at GameFAQs
- Final Fight Online
- Hardcore Gaming 101 - Final Fight
- Final Fight at MobyGames
- Final Fight at World of Spectrum
- Final Fight guide at StrategyWiki
- Final Fight at ArcadeHistory
- original official Final Fight 1 artwork at FightingStreet.com
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