The original game in a nutshell.
"
Mayor Mike Haggar vowed to snatch the streets of Metro City back from the crooks with his bare knuckles! But the Mad Gear Gang snatched his daughter Jessica. Now there's gonna be some bone-crushing dues to pay! Jessica's boyfriend Cody and his friend Guy hit the streets hard with Haggar, denting heads downtown and slugging it out in the slums. Now you're Haggar, Cody or Guy, each with his own fighting style. Demolish gangland henchmen, samurai swordsmen and musclebound crime bosses in a fist-to-nose frenzy!"
Game description from the X68000 version.
is a side-scrolling beat-em'-up by Capcom originally released for the arcades during the very end of 1989. As one of the earliest games for Capcom's CPS hardware,
Final Fight helped popularized the beat-em'-up genre during the early-to-mid 1990's that was previously established with the likes of Irem's
Kung-Fu Master and Technos Japan's
Renegade and
Double Dragon. It was ported to a variety of gaming platforms such as the
SNES (in two different versions), the
Sega CD, and the
Game Boy Advance among others.
In the original arcade game, the Mad Gear gang kidnaps Jessica, the daughter of Mike Haggar, former pro wrestler and current mayor of Metro City, because Haggar would not turn a blind eye to their dominance of the city's underworld, as the previous mayor had. Haggar teams up with Jessica's martial artist boyfriend Cody, and his sparring partner Guy, a ninjutsu master seeking to test his skills, so that they can save the city and Jessica. The game has
life meters not only for the heroes, but also for the villains.
The game's development contains some interesting titbits: the people in charge of Capcom at the time requested a sequel to
Street Fighter (this was more than a year before
Street Fighter II). As such, the game was originally known as
''Street Fighter '89'', but had its name change before release when the game ended up becoming a side-scrolling beat-'em-up and not a competitive
Fighting Game. The
Final Fight universe was later folded over into the
Street Fighter canon when characters from
Final Fight started to appear in the
Street Fighter series beginning with Guy and Sodom's appearance in the first
Street Fighter Alpha and up to Cody and Guy's return in
Super Street Fighter IV.
While Capcom produced several beat-'em-ups for the arcade after
Final Fight, the game itself was only followed by two
straight-to-home console sequels for the SNES before fading out completely. Two attempts to revive the series in 3D were made by Capcom's US branch:
Final Fight: Revenge, a
3D fighting game featuring characters from the original game (including a Zombie version of Belger) for the Sega Titan hardware (which saw a
Japan-only home port for the
Sega Saturn as Capcom's final game for the system); and
Final Fight: Streetwise, a
Darker and Edgier attempt to cater to the
GTA crowd that is probably better known for its
gratuitous use of the "F word" than any genuine quality it might had.
In April 2010, an
Updated Rerelease of the first game was brought to
Xbox Live Arcade and the
PlayStation Network featuring remixed music from the staff behind
Bionic Commando: Re-Armed, and new High-Definition filters. It also comes with the old Capcom game
Magic Sword.
It has a
character sheet.
This game has examples of:
- 1-Up - In the original game, extra lives are awarded by points depending on the game's "extend" settings (no extra life, one life only for 100,000 points; one life only for 200,000 points, or an extra life for the first 100,000 points and every 200,000 points afterward). The original arcade game stops with the fifth extra life, but the SNES port allows the player to gain as many extra lives as their score allows.
- The Guy and Haggar dolls added in Final Fight Guy serve as instant extra lives. The GBA version also adds a Cody doll as well.
- The Guy doll also appears in Final Fight 2 as a 1-Up for all three characters.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes - Subverted in the GBA version. You don't get new clothes for the characters, but you can change the color of their clothing. Alpha Cody and Alpha Guy count somewhat in this regard. Even though their sprites are different, their fighting ability are identical to their regular counterpart. Now if only they had added Haggar from Slam Masters as well.
- Bar Brawl: Stage 3. West Side.
- Black and Gray Morality: Final Fight: Streetwise. The rest of the series are more of Black and White Morality.
- Bowdlerise: The transvestite enemies were replaced with skinny punks for the overseas versions of the SNES and GBA ports, all the alcohol power-ups were replaced, and Damnd and Sodom were renamed into Thrasher and Katana (although they kept their names in the GBA port).
- The Sega CD port was also censored, although Roxy and Poison were kept this time (albeit with more modest clothing).
- Not even the original arcade game was left unscathed. The Japanese version had a scene in the attract sequence which showed Jessica tied up in her underwear, which was edited out from the US and World versions. The scene redrawn in the console ports to feature her in her more traditional red cocktail dress.
- Canon Discontinuity: The Street Fighter Alpha series pretty much invalidated most of Final Fight 2 by giving Guy a completely different Bushin-Ryu predecessor (Zeku instead of Genryusai), having Sodom lead the new Mad Gear instead of Retu, and having Rolento leave the gang when he was still part of the group in the SNES sequel. With all these inconsistencies taken into consideration, Maki might be considered a Canon Immigrant, but only if you count her appearance in the GBA and PSP ports of Alpha 3 as canon.
- Cast from Hit Points: Pretty much the norm for side scrolling beat 'em ups. Pressing attack and jump together lets your character do a spinning attack that drains their health when they successfully connect.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The original Final Fight (as well as Final Fight 2) had the following three-character hierarchy.
- Guy (and Maki) - Fragile Speedster
- Cody (and Carlos) - Jack of All Stats
- Haggar - Mighty Glacier
- Final Fight 3 deviated a bit from the hierarchy by having four characters instead of three: Guy and Haggar returned, with new characters Lucia and Dean in the middle. Neither, Lucia nor Dean, achieve the completely middle balance that Cody had in the original game, since Lucia tends towards speedy attacks (but not as fast as Guy), while Dean favors powerful attacks (but not as strong as Haggar). Lucia does wear blue though, just like Cody and Carlos.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: Final Fight 2 featured a cheat code that allowed both players to use the same character. The second player character is distinguished with an alternate palette. This feature was carried over to the GBA version of the original game.
- Comic Book Time: The Japanese version of the arcade game was set in 1989, but the international versions and the SNES port changed it to "sometime in the 1990s", which was then changed to 1992 for the Sega CD port (despite being released a year later in 1993). The GBA port (released in 2001) goes back to the original 1989 date.
- Despite changing the year the game was set, Sega for some reason did not change the main characters' birthdates. Instead, they updated their ages by three years (Cody went from 22 to 25, Guy went from 24 to 27, and Haggar went from 46 to 49).
- The Japanese version of Final Fight 2 had Haggar's age given as 50, but the English version changed back to his age in the first game (46).
- Combos: In the original game, the player's attacks changes with each consecutive hit after the second one. Final Fight 3 added more varied combos such as dash attacks and super moves.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover art for the SNES release shows a character resembling Guy twice in the images shown between Haggar and Abigail, even though he's not in the SNES port (he got his own version later on).
- The American cover for Final Fight 2 features Damnd (twice), Cody, Guy, and other characters from the first game that don't even appear in the sequel.
- The cabinet art for the American arcade version features enemies wielding lead pipes (only the player can wield pipes in-game) and the good guys fighting multiple opponents in a wrestling ring (when only Sodom appears in such stage in the game).
- If you think that's bad, wait to you see the cover for the Amiga, ZX Spectrum, and Commodore 64 version
.
- Cut The Fuse: In the original game's Game Over screen, you're tied up with a bomb next to you. Continuing means a knife drops in to cut the fuse.
- Death Trap: In the first game, when you lost the bad guys just tied you up to a chair with a bundle of dynamite placed in front of you. In the later games, they get a bit more elaborate.
- Demoted to Extra: Cody and Guy in Final Fight 2. The latter does return to player character status in Final Fight 3.
- Die, Chair! Die!
- Direct-to-Video: The SNES sequels, which were made-for-console productions without any prior coin-op releases. This is mainly because Final Fight 2 was made to make up for the lack of a 2-Player mode in the first SNES game. It might not seem like a big deal nowadays, but back then Capcom was still releasing most of their main beat-'em-ups on the CP-System arcade hardware and some of them (like Cadillacs & Dinosaurs and Alien vs. Predator) never even got proper console versions.
- Dope Slap: When Cody ignores Jessica at the end of the first game, Guy has to intervene by beating the crap out of Cody, auto combo and all. He then gracefully backflips out of frame.
- Elevator Action Sequence: Ur-example.
- Exploding Barrels: The ones that are on fire, anyhow.
- Fight Clubbing: The heroes fight Sodom in the underground fighting ring and The Andore family (Father, Grandpa, and Uncle) in the steel cage match.
- Have a Nice Death: The continue screens in all three games. The first one has the character tied to a chair with a stick of dynamite placed in front of them, the second has the character tied in a flooding room and the third has a spike trap descending towards your tied character.
- Hot Blooded
- Hurricane Kick: Cody's and Guy's "Megacrush" attacks. Maki does hers while in a handstand.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: smash background object, recieve perfectly healthy foodstuff, get health back.
- Improvised Weapon
- Mission Pack Sequel: Final Fight 2 was mainly made to make up for the lack of a 2-Player Mode in the original SNES port, as it doesn't really add anything new to the game compared to Final Fight 3. In fact, the only returning boss character from the original Final Fight in Final Fight 2, Rolento, also happens to be the only boss who was left out from the SNES port of the first game.
- Oddly Named Sequel/Market-Based Title: Final Fight 3 was known as Final Fight Tough in Japan.
- One Game for the Price of Two: The SNES port was released in two editions. The original edition only had Cody and Haggar in it, while Final Fight Guy (the second edition) replaces the former with Guy. There are other minor changes in the Guy version such as a revised difficulty selection system that not only changes the enemy placement, but also the ending the player gets, as well as two new power-ups (plus other health restoring items that were left out from the original edition such as sushi and pineapples).
- One-Man Army: All the heroic warriors are this (at least if you're playing alone).
- Palette Swap: Most of the enemies in the original game are actually Head Swaps of each other.
- Rape as Drama: Well, the implied threat of it.
Haggar: You son of a... What have you done to her?
Damnd: Nothing yet... but we'd enjoy the opportunity...
- Rated M for Manly: Final Fight: Streetwise
- Rewarding Vandalism - Hungry? Destroy some trash cans and get a whole roast chicken!
- Segmented Ending: Final Fight Guy had one, as did the two SNES sequels.
- Shaggy Dog Story: From the Game Boy Advance remake:
Alpha Guy: As I thought, Jessica is here.
Belger: Who are you? You are not listed...
Alpha Guy: Maybe... I'm not the same person I was back then. I'm wearing new shoes!
Belger: .....
- Shared Universe: With the Slam Masters and Street Fighter series.
- Shout Out: The first game takes a lot of inspiration from Streets of Fire.
- Sinister Subway: The second stage in the original game.
- Spiritual Successor: Pretty much every CPS beat-em-up Capcom produced afterward is Final Fight with a new theme or popular license (i.e: Knights of the Round is medieval Final Fight, Captain Commando is sci-fi Final Fight, and so on).
- Super-Deformed: Mighty Final Fight is essentially the original Final Fight converted to the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System with an experience points system and chibi characters and a more humorous plot.
- Unique Enemy: The "regular" and Junior versions of Andore are very common in the original arcade game, but the Father, Grandpa and Uncle variants are exclusive to the cage fight scene in Round 3 (and Uncle only appears if a second player is present).
- In the original SNES version, only Grandpa and Uncle appears (Father was Dummied Out). In the Guy version, the player fights Father and Uncle first, and then Grandpa and Uncle again on the harder difficulties.
- All three unique Andores appear in the Sega-CD version during Time Attack mode.
- Grandpa Andore becomes a recurring enemy in Final Fight 2.
- Urban Segregation
- Vice City: Metro City.
- Villains Out Shopping: Some of the gang members are just hanging out in the subway train and Bay Area before encountered. Bred was shopping inside the gas station while his car got mauled by the heroes.
- Wasted Song: BGM2 is only used in the second area of Round 1.
- Yellow Brick Road: Arguably the Ur Example within the beat-'em-up genre.
- Yoko Shimomura: Composed part of the music.
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