Final Fight One

"Beat thousands of dirty blokes to a bloody pulp with...Guy and Cody?"

Everyone reading this review has experienced times when they didn't feel like playing a game such as Xenogears, where they had to ponder issues of moral philosophy or debate fate vs. free will in their heads. It was for this reason that the beat 'em up genre was created. Sometimes people just feel like having a bloody good time without having to think all that much. This is exactly what Final Fight One brings to the table. Over the past several days, I slid this game into by Game Boy Advance whenever I just wanted to have fun and vent some anger.

The story is nothing out of the ordinary. A crime organization known as Mad Gear has abducted the mayor's daughter, and it is up to two guys named Guy and Cody, as well as the mayor himself, to defeat Mad Gear and get her back. The only real problem I have with the story is that the character's names are Guy and Cody. In this genre, I wanna open a can with guys named Axe and Nailz, not Guy and Cody. At this rate, the next Final Fight game will force the player to take on an entire crime organization with Dylan and Tucker. I'm rambling. Also adding a little bit (I emphasize LITTLE) to the story are the few lines of dialogue that precede each boss fight, which is absent from the SNES version.. Most of it goes something like this, however:

Your character: You are an evil man, Mr. Boss-type character.

Boss: Well, maybe I just have to beat you up then, bloody do-gooder!

Ok, maybe not that bad, but the point is that it does not add a lot to the storyline.

However, nobody plays these games for the epic storylines, so let's get on to what really matters in this genre, gameplay. The gameplay in Final Fight One is excellent. You start out by picking one of three characters: one being slow and powerful, one being fast but weak, and one being average in both. Then, you traverse through six fairly long levels where you try and accomplish one simple objective: Make everyone you meet fall on the ground, start blinking, and then disappear (I just said it was good...I didn't say realistic). If it moves you have to kill it in order to progress through the game. There are little additions throughout the game that help you out with this. Attacking barrels or other containers along the way often yields food items such as chicken or apples that restore your health different amounts. Larger food items such as the chicken refill your health meter all of the way, while smaller ones such as the apple may refill it halfway or 25%. Once your health meter is empty you die, so it is a good idea to look for these items anywhere you can. Weapons can also be found along the way by killing baddies. Knives, sticks, and other instruments of destruction are at your fingertips. These are extremely helpful during the game, because they keep the enemy at a distance and do quite a bit of damage. The game is completely linear, which may turn some people away from it. All you do in each level is go from left to right, with no path variations whatsoever.

After defeating wave after wave of enemies in each level, you must face a boss that is larger and tougher than normal enemies. The challenge of the game mostly comes from trying not to get hit a lot during the level, so that you can take a few hits from the boss before you figure out his attack pattern and bring him down.

The enemies you face will come in all shapes and sizes, from large, hulking slow guys to skinny, fast guys that do cartwheels before they hand you your ass. There are only four or five regular enemy models that change color and get tougher as the game progresses. It does get a bit boring beating up 50 of the same type of enemy, but the repetitiveness is only a minor fault, as the game is a blast to play.

There are five difficulty levels in the game ranging from very easy to very hard. This is very nice when trying to find a level that is not too easy and not too hard for a player of your skill. The number of options here also adds a lot to replay value, as you may want to beat the game on every difficulty setting.

The control is fairly simple, which is a good thing. A and B serve as jump and attack respectively, and R performs a special move unique to each character which is powerful, but takes a little bit off of your health meter (it can also be performed by pushing A and B at the same time). The distance from your enemy as well as other factors determine what type of attacks you will perform. For example, pressing the attack button while right next to an enemy may perform an uppercut, while pressing the attack button while standing a few feet from an enemy may result in a dropkick.

The first thing you will notice when you turn the game on is that the graphics are very good and crisp, much like its SNES counterparts. With that being said, not a lot has changed about the graphics from the SNES versions, which can be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing. The environments are vibrant, the character models seem to be the right size and shape in relation to other things on the screen, and the animation is well done. The level backgrounds are very nicely done too. You will find yourself fighting everywhere from the dirty city streets to a fancy pool hall, and all of the environments are very convincing. Sometimes, the environment changes completely within the same level. For example, in one level, a bunch of thugs throw you through a wall in a nice-looking building, and you end up in a trash-filled alley where the level continues. Since the six levels are fairly long individually, it is good to see a change of scenery every once in a while.

The sound is also pretty good. The music fits the stages fairly well, with elegant music playing inside an elaborate ballroom and louder, tough music playing on the city streets. The sound effects are pretty standard for the genre. Most of the sound effects are of the ''boom-bam-doosh-crunch-thud'' variety, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Overall I would say the sound effects aren't ground-breaking, but they do the job that they were put in there to do, which is to get you in the mood for whipping up on people.

The replay value is fairly high. Each character has different special moves and combos, so you'll probably go through the game with each of them. Also, by beating the game, you can unlock different clothes for your characters, level select, and various other goodies that you have to find out for yourself. The game is pretty short with only six levels, but the individual levels are fairly long. The aforementioned repetitiveness may be the only reason to put this game on the shelf after one playthrough, but that certainly was not true in my case.

In a game like this, nothing else matters if the gameplay is good. Final Fight One certainly meets that requirement. The story is decent, the graphics are good, the sound is average, and the replay value is high. These things combined with the great gameplay equal a great game. The only drawbacks are the character names, the lack of path variation, and the low number of levels, but I hope that none of these things keep you from buying, or at least renting, this great game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/02, Updated 06/22/02