Final Fight: Streetwise

"This game could have been so much better..."

So. I was wandering through my local Blockbuster, and decided to rent this game, since all the movies I wanted to rent were out and there weren't any other games that interested me. Just seeing the Final Fight name attached to this game made me feel nostalgic for the days I'd play the original in the arcade. So how does this game stack up? Let's take a look:

GRAPHICS: I'm not gonna beat around the bush; the graphics suck. The animation during cutscenes is horrible. For a game coming out so close to the end of the current console generation, graphics this bad are inexcusable.

GAMEPLAY: This game also suffers from one of the same problems that plagued Devil May Cry 2; you're given an assload of different combos and abilities to use, but none of them are necessary to actually finish the game. Most people will just end up using the same 3-hit combo every time, and after a while the novelty of playing a new Final Fight game wears off quickly. And, I'm willing to admit that this next bit might just be me, but this game seems to suffer from SNK Boss Syndrome. This game is on the VERY short list of titles that have actually given me a stress-induced headache.

DIALOGUE: How can I put this... there's too much ****ing swearing in this game. If I were to type out the ****ing piece of **** script for this game, it would be 90 **** percent asterisks. Now, I don't mind there being swearing in a game, but there are some games that take it a bit too far... and this is ****ing well one of them.

OVERALL: This game could, and should, have been so much more than it is. As it stands, it's a dud, plain and simple. 6/10, and that's being generous.

PS: If anyone from Sega reads this... please, for the love of God, release a new Streets of Rage game and show Capcom how it's done!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/06