Thoughts by Mr Creosote (05 Jul 2007) – Amiga (OCS)
Metro City’s new mayor, the former Street Fighter champion Haggar, has vouched to rid the city off crime. The Mad Gears (a local gang) aren’t too thrilled by that prospect, so they’ve kidnapped Haggar’s daugther Jessica to blackmail him. As either Haggar himself, Jessica’s boyfriend or another random guy who happened to be hanging around at the gym, the player has to fights his way through the hordes of the Mad Gears to free her again. No real risk there, because for some reason, the evil guys won’t kill her even when they’re attacked…
The story has been ripped directly from Double Dragon, and gameplay isn’t far off either. Anything but that, in fact. Walk from left to right and beat up the approaching thugs. All three characters are skilled fighters, and they represent the usual beat 'em up stereotypes (slow & strong, fast & weak and an ‘allrounder’). Each has his own special move. Wrestler Haggar, for example, uses a silly ‘pile driver’ to smash the skulls of his enemies. In addition, there are weapons lying around on the ground from time to time.
What really sets this particular game apart is the gorgeous graphics with its huge sprites. Especially on screenshots, it looks like a technical marvel. Nothing’s perfect, and this wonder is achieved by extremely simple two-frame animation (which isn’t so bad, because there’s no spare time to pay attention to that anyway) and at noticeable slowdowns when too many sprites are in the picture at the same time. Still, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Problem is that once you got used to the splendid exterior, there isn’t much left to this game. It’s pretty standard fare, and with little gameplay-related qualities to boot. There are only very few moves, few enemies which aren’t completely forgettable and the general scenery can’t live up to the graphical standards of the sprites at all. Also, the game’s probably impossible to beat without cheating as you too often find yourself surrounded and beaten up by gang members with no way to properly defend yourself anymore. And the final boss is completely unbeatable anyway. Oh well, at least that guy is very memorable…
So, in the end, Final Fight is nothing more than a game to impress the other kids when they watch you playing something this great looking. Just don’t keep in on long enough for them to notice how lame the actual gameplay is.