Sega had the best Final Fight Port

Final Fight CD

console:Sega CD/Mega-CD

 release:1993

 Developer: Capcom



Final Fight CD was one of the earliest games available for the system, and is also one of the best. As with many Capcom ports, this one was developed by SEGA themselves. The result is a game far superior to almost all other versions of the game available at the time.

 ​Final Fight CD's strongest assets are its design and its visuals; the game looks absolutely amazing. The quality of the enemies in particular is something to behold. There's a fantastic, colourful and diverse range of goons-for-hire with their funky hairdos and colourful jackets, as well as the memorable duo of Poison and Roxy, who dominate the screen with their lissom, dynamically animated flying-kicks. Andore makes for a towering, bear of an opponent who is slow but lethal thanks to his long reach and devastating throws. There are foes who flick knives across the screen, whilst others opt to dash molotov cocktails at the player's feet. This veritable carnival of street thugs makes for some of the most anarchic, visually splendid brawling of its time.

Review:

GRAPHICS - 8/10

Graphically this game certainly lives up to the hype. Every frame of animation that was in the arcade original seems to have been ported across perfectly. There is no slowdown, the characters are the same size and retain all their moves - there have been no cut-downs in terms of either the number of villains or the types of villains to fight against. Whilst the names may differ between the English and US versions, characters like the big freaky Andorr are still in there, as are the somersaulting, knife-toting girls in stiletto's *shiver*.

In terms of colours the game doesn't seem to be lacking either - all the flash and bright colours from the original are there, and really speaking it does feel like you've just been given the arcade game on cd !! It's cool !!

SOUND - 9/10

The sounds in this game are SPOT ON when compared with their arcade counterparts. There is perhaps one exception, and that's the voice-over introduction, which has to be the single CHEESIEST thing I've ever heard ... the Mad Gear boss actually says "hee hee hee Mister Haggar" when Haggar picks up the phone. AND HE'S SHOCKED !!

The punches, kicks and metal-bars-thumping-people-in-the-head are all there, as are the full range of character 'voices' (I use inverted commas because they really only have 1-2 things to say each, and one of those is usually a death scream). As with the graphics, the developers have ported everything over perfectly.

CONTROLS - 8/10

Simplicity itself. An attack button, and a jump button. a SPECIAL ATTACK that drains your health slightly but does more damage to your opponents, and is character-specific. You've seen this LOADS of times - in practically every side-scrolling beat-em 'up before .
PLOT - 2/10

It's the old "they stole his girl and now he's out for revenge" plotline they used in Vigilante, and a fair few other titles. nothing that special,but quite normal for the time. happened in every movie.

GAMEPLAY - 6/10
  It is simple,the controlls are responsive . Each character had strengths and weaknesses, unique moves that they could do, throws even - REALLY in-depth stuff ...  this title is a PERFECT conversion from the arcade original, and if you're a video-games newbie and looking to get into something stable and light ? Then THIS is the fighter for you ...

Another negative issue is that of loading times. The bane of every cd-based console out there has always been the time taken to access data between levels (and this is considerably worse in the older titles - from the Dreamcast up they seem to have gotten better). It takes a fair while for the levels to load up, and this is LESS than stellar unfortunately ...

But in spite of all that, what you're looking at is, in essence, a strong fighting title - a vet in its own right. Plus, it's a FAULTLESS conversion of the arcade original, and that's something worth raving about :)

REPLAY VALUE - 6/10

Compared to the newest video games in this vein, it offers stability and a look back at how things started, for them to have progressed as they did. In its day it was the king of side-scrollers, and now it's a cheerful museum piece. Its replay value is reasonable based on the number of times you can call your mates over and say "hey guys, do you remember THIS ??"

VALUE FOR MONEY - 10/10  given the quality of the conversion, the pittance it SHOULD cost you is, in my humble opinion, worth every penny.

OVERALL - 8/10 (This is NOT an average)

It's a perfect conversion of the arcade original (bar the loading times). As such it's like owning the arcade original ... and who wouldn't like that !?!?! =)

MAIN GOOD POINTS

* Faultless arcade-to-console port
* Graphics, sound and controls are all perfect and very easy to get into

MAIN BAD POINTS

* Loading times. The game was acclaimed by critics. Mega magazine compared the Mega CD version of the game favorably against the incomplete and "poor" Super NES version, and placed it top of their list of the best Mega CD games of all time.

Final Fight CD is a superb homage to a towering arcade experience. Surpassed by the Streets of Rage games by the time it landed on the Mega-CD in 1993, Capcom's classic nevertheless remained a rip-roaring effort, and one of the finest-looking 16-bit games on the market. Replete with memorable sections and an excellent co-op experience, Final Fight CD is a must-have for beat 'em up lovers.