I know I wasn’t the only one disappointed by the SNES release of Final Fight. As one of the biggest arcade games of all time many were itching for a home port. And while it certainly looked the part the Super Nintendo version of Final Fight came up short in a number of categories. From a missing level, missing character, no coop and altered sprites it was obviously a rushed release. But what stings even worse is that they had the chance to correct this with Final Fight Guy. And that was also a half assed release! Luckily Sega came through for Genesis and Sega CD owners with this excellent port of Capcom’s classic. While it has stiff competition it still manages to hold its own despite its age.
Right away you know this is the real deal. Haggar, Cody, and Guy are all accounted for. Two-player coop is also available and in my opinion is half the draw of the game. There is less censorship so you won’t be beating up Billy and Sid rather than Poison and Roxy. The trade off is that both characters have been slightly covered up, not that most will notice.
While Double Dragon was the many gamer’s first brawler Final Fight set the standard for the genre. That being said by the time the CD version was released in 1993 it began to show its age. The limited move sets of each character compared to a Streets of Rage really stick out. It grows tiring by the game’s second half when you are dealing with close to 100 enemies per level. This is something that plague’s most beat em ups but is pretty egregious here. Those that really know the arcade game will notice slight differences here and there. There are fewer enemies in most cases, most notably in stage three. The Andore pit features only 2 Andores rather than four. If you ask me that is an improvement in my opinion.
Where the gameplay is largely the same the most important piece is that all of the levels made the cut. The infamous Industrial Level was cut from the SNES game and is here in all its glory. With its moving gouts of flame and relentless enemy assault you are guaranteed to lose a few lives here. Personally I’m not a fan of it but it is more content and is therefore welcome. The sole addition to the game is a Time Attack mode. Here you are tasked with defeating groups of enemies within a strict time limit. If you are that much of a Final Fight I suppose it is worth it. But once again your limited attacks stunt its appeal. Aside from the new background art it is completely forgettable.
Final Fight was a difficult game in the arcade and that carries over to the home version. It was a bit of a rip off that you only had two lives per quarter. Sega has added options that make it a bit more manageable. You can increase your starting lives and the amount of points needed for extra lives. It doesn’t make much difference in the grand scheme of things when you consider the arcade game was designed to keep you pumping in quarters. Most bosses deal insane amounts of damage; I have yet to beat Sodom without losing two lives. Even some random enemies such as Axl can kill in 3 hits or so. Your two credits disappear pretty quickly.
What ultimately drags Final Fight down is its pacing. The later levels drag on far too long. The Bay Area and Uptown specifically feel like they have two levels worth of enemies stuffed in one. It highlights just how limited you are in combat. The limited enemy selection is also another factor. By the second stage you’ve already fought every enemy in the game. Fighting the same thugs in different groups in waves of 10-20 in a row grows old fast. Sega did a good job recreating the arcade experience but I wouldn’t have minded an arranged mode like Mercs.
Considering the limitations they were up against Sega have done an admirable job with this port. It displays more enemies on screen than the Super Nintendo version with no slowdown. The color limitation means the game is darker overall and lacking some of that game’s detail. One area that did receive an overhaul is the sound. The intro and ending are fully voiced and the game has a fantastic arranged soundtrack.
In Closing
For its time this Sega CD version of Final Fight was the closest to the arcade outside of the obscure X68000 release. While its impact may have been lessened due to titles like Streets of Rage 2 blowing the doors off the genre Final Fight CD is still an excellent game.
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