Final Fight: Streetwise

"A fun and under rated Sequel to a classic."

When I first saw the reviews for this game. I thought that capcom seriously messed up this game. But upon buying it, I cant help but feel that the reviews are seriously biased against the genre. I would say that this is one of my favorites under Ninja Gaiden.

Graphically the game looks decent. Nothing special and nothing thats bad looking. The main characters are all nicely detailed while lesser characters are ok. The environments are the usual urban sprawl which Metro city is all about. The textures standout and have a nice high resolution, even on extreme closeup, there is very little pixelization. Alot of reviews complain about the camera which honestly, has given me almost no problems, besides adjusting it for the free roaming areas, during fights it usually sits in a good position. The 4 different areas are all diverse and have some cool touches.

The sound effects are your average beat'em up stuff with alot of slaps and smacks and metal and glass breaking sounds. Nothing special. The soundtrack is actually pretty decent, with a nice mix of Rock and Rap. I personally dont like rap, but the songs do seem to fit the situation and certain locales. A cool feature is that you can buy music and also change the playlist to play your favorite songs off the list, so if a song bugs you, you can change it right in the pause menu. Voice acting was a pleasant surprise. They got the voices of the characters perfectly, and the voice actors really succeeded in adding attitude and emotion into the voice work. You wont get any of that "Hello, Mike Haggar Here..". There is quite a bit of swearing, but not enough to bother me. Its on par with any R rated movie. And of course, I still get a kick out of Kyle saying "Monayyyyy".

Gameplay is where this game shines. This is a fun game to play! I usually play games for about an hour or two, but I found myself hooked for 5 hours straight. I was worried about alot of things, like the fighting system and the use of guns and clunky controls, but it all comes together so well. The combo system works easily and new features like the instinct meter really make the game deep for its genre. The free roaoming battles are just like the original final fight with you mopping up gangs of baddies. The pit fighting puts you into a one on one showdown where blocking and countering becomes more important. Hand weapons and firearms are easy to use. The only problem I have run into is that its sometimes hard to pick up weapons or food while running around.

The story starts off simply enough, but gets a little kooky by the end. It feels like a final fight game pretty much all the way through. I wont spoil anything, so I'll just say that even if the story gets crazy near the end, it does give an excuse for some pretty challenging boss fights. I was satisfied with the game when I finished it and had a sense of accomplishment.

All in all the game is great for its genre which by todays standards is a very limited and niche market. It does end rather quickly but its got enough bonuses and an arcade mode to play through with a friend as well. Theres also an unlockable version of the original final fight, but this is one of the worst ports of an arcade game ever. Just get the capcom classics collection if you want the original. If you are a final fight fan like me and are worried about the jump to 3-d dont.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/08/06