Final Fight Guy

"Mediocre never smelt this good!"

(Note: This is a review for the Japanese Version of Final Fight Guy for the Super Nintendo)

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Introduction
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Now where did they come up with this?

Well as Final Fight was ported to the Super Nintendo, the game warranted many problems. It only kept three enemies on the screen at one time, the Industrial Area was absent, Guy was absent, and the game just didn’t act fluently enough for someone to just give it a try. It was as if a test was being done to see if we could finally avoid an up-and-coming series. Well Capcom never responded as to fixing the problems bestowed on the original Final Fight, but I’m thinking that they had another thing in mind. I’m thinking that in a way to respond to their cash-cow they will release another version (the same as the original), and not change a thing, other then the fact that the player will now be able to play as Guy (a character who never really seemed to fit in the Final Fight series in the first place.

Hmmm ... 1990, Capcom will never change. And so this game wouldn’t change anything that would have been considered to be well... good.

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Story
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Another blast from the past, with a mayor who’s on top of everyone’s a**

The game takes place in moody 1990. The game takes place in Metro City. Metro City is a place overpopulated with crime sprees that make the city dangerous and pretty darn controversial. Unfortunately things are going for a small change. Newly- elected mayor Mike Haggar (also a former Street Fighter) is hoping to put an end to the biggest crime organization in the country- the Mad Gear. However, soon the Mad Gear Gang learn of Haggar’s plans and plan to stop him.

Then one day in office Haggar gets a call. The caller tells him not to hang up because he was about to tell him something. Then he mentioned that he kidnapped Haggar’s daughter, Jessica. Doing anything to get her back Haggar wants a piece of the Mad Gear.

Following this suit, Haggar visits the gym (or a wrestling arena, if you suppose) and here he talks to Guy. Guy is a ninja-type of character who also was a former Street Fighter back in his day. Eventually Guy tells Haggar that he applies to help him to get Jessica back.

And thus Final Fight Guy begins, not with a bang, however, but with a shudder.

5/10
Off the bat the mix of adding Guy does little to entertain, and the story has been used well over 1,287 times

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Gameplay
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Haggar screams “that’s why he gave me the finger?”

Anything these beat-‘em-up games can do is to achieve their gameplay to an all time high. FFG is very average at playing this route. First off there are 5 parts of the city. These parts include Bay Areas, the back of the Subway, and just some middletown parking lots. However, what happened to the Industrial Area. You know the place with the steam engine in the back and with the flames gushing out of every corner. What ever happened to that? I guess I’ll never know.

The characters you control are Guy and Haggar. Each has a different type of fighting style. Each are also balanced out differently. For example, Guy is the fast kicking kind of guy, while Haggar is the slow pounding type. The main controller premise is jump, kick, and your character’s special move. Once you press the punch button your character will dish out slaps, uppercuts, and cheap shots to your opponent. If you press the Jump button your character will simply jump, and then while they are in the air if you press the punch button your character will do a jumping kick. However, it’s not so effective. If you press both the punch button and the jump button then your character will do a special maneuver. Guy’s special move is a spinning kick taken right off Double Dragon, and Haggar’s special move is his classic spinning-arm clothesline. However, you may not notice, but whenever your character does a maneuver, there is a huge lag during the time he’s doing it, which even makes you street dirt in a couple of minutes (or even seconds)!

To get around the game you must simply beat up all the enemies that come up on screen. At one time three enemies will come up. After you take them down three more enemies will show up. This will continue till all the enemies in a level have been taken care of. After you pass all the sections of a level you will fight a boss. Bosses range from using cheap attacks like unavoidable jumping kicks, to using easy to move around stomping moves.

Like the bosses, the enemies that scatter the areas play a lot like this also. All of the enemies attack differently, and all of the enemies look different and have different types of stats. For example, Andore and Andore Jr. (is there an Andre the Giant resemblance here) are two guys that are more focused on attacking you. Once they take you down with their powerbomb maneuver, they will go forth and try to “slam” you. However, while these guys are strong attackers, they are slow movers, which then makes you keep on attacking them till they are eventually down. But that may not be the case at most times either. For example, Roxy and/or Poison will attack you very fast, but if you notice their attacks do very little damage, thus making you kick the crap out of them very easy (YEA, TAKE THAT POND SCUM! ). Each level, however, contains over one hundred of these guys to deal with making fat guys with hard-heads, and Cuban guys with knives a common sight after a while. D’oh.

What these beat-‘em-up games, however, mostly go for isn’t just a beefed up single-player mode, these games need a two-player mode. And for this part Final Fight Guy falls flat on its face. The main problem, in my opinion of bringing the Final Fight games to the Super Nintendo was that at first they had no two-player mode. This entirely kills the game and makes its replay value just shattered dreams to the person who actually bought this game (stop looking at me!).

Another thing is that when you start this game off, you immediately start off at Normal difficulty. While I have no problem, it is just that with unresponsive controls and a lot to be angry about you will just find this an even more redeeming feature that does nothing, but slow this game down.

Overall, Final Fight Guy has an impressive single-player mode, but the fact remains that everything else is simply unimpressive. Not only is this a complete copy of the original Final Fight, but it does nothing to change the game from redeeming an above-average grade. The only added additions are a slightly alternated ending and the fact that you play as Guy (who plays very little taste in the story).

5/10
“Guy was a “guy” who came straight out of hell! He ruined his game and the “guy” didn’t even stir up a bell!”

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Graphics
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Final Fight Guy is the only game that gives you a look at the streaming 90’s.

The graphics for the most part, however, are pretty good. They once again help capture the game with its 1989 status that it has been revoked with. Even by today’s standards the graphics look pretty good. All the character sprites seen in the original Super Nintendo Final Fight, however, haven’t been changed. But I’m thinking that that doesn’t affect the game at all considering that it is a complete rip-off of the original.

Character animations are seemlessly captured pretty well. The high-flying, low bunching maneuvers are all done pretty well. Fighting is also done pretty fluid, and it seems and shows that these Final Fight games really did push the Super Nintendo’s hardware.

The environments are all luscious-looking and will please any veteran Final Fight aficionados. The backgrounds are also greatly done and stuff like streaming oil crates and shattered glass are all animated well. The only problem with the graphics, however, is that they look too much like how an old game looks. It’s not common today you see a giant man with red and purple (?) leopard T-Shirts, with a red-chain stuck in their blue pants (jeans maybe?). But once again that’s average for this game. The introduction scene and the ending are also animated pretty well.

Overall you will be pleased with the game’s graphics, but if you look at it from today’s scale you will be less then pleased. Oh well!

7/10
Alright, but odd-looking by today’s standards.

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Sound
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{Insert witty comment here}

In the age of blips and blops, Final Fight still had great themes and effects, and now the same story is shown here. The background music is nicely done and at best, I have no complaints on it. While it does seem to get repeated constantly it is still great. The small amount of voice acting shown in this game is also a good thing as well.

The sound effects for the most part are a little bland, but hell a normal jo can live with it. Once you hit an enemy you will hear a small noise, and the same goes to once you get hit, or once you hit stuff like oil crates and a pile of tires that are laying down on the street.

Overall you can’t help, but love Final Fight’s small, but moody soundtrack. While it isn’t really good by today’s standards, it still has enough “oomph” in it to surprise any bystander that just sees this game on the street. And who said having “oomph” was a bad thing.

7/10
Bones Crack. Next! Bones Crack. Next! Bones Crack. Next!

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Overall
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Guy I hate you!

While, as I mentioned, Final Fight Guy’s only “good” thing is its ability to please for only about forty minutes. A single-player game shouldn’t be the only thing this game lives on, but it is. If any sort of “goodies” were added, then I would have been at least pleased, but all I saw was added was just a red-dressed Vietnamese kind of guy called well... Guy. D’oh.

Better luck next time Capcom, because luck was definitely not on your side while making this game. And that is a compliment.

5/10
Teach me something new Capcom I’m getting bored!

Also Try-
-Final Fight (Arcade)- the ultimatum to all of these “beat-‘em-up” games, even by today’s standards this stands as one of the best beat-‘em-up’s yet.
-Final Fight 2 (SNES)- a whole new adventure with Haggar and pals.
-Final Fight 3(SNES)- the last game of the series, which actually is pretty good.
-Final Fight One(GBA)- indeed my favorite Final Fight game of them all. This game remakes the original Final Fight and limits it to the stuff displayed by today’s standards.

Dogg

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/02, Updated 09/03/02