![]() ![]() As Kyle, you play through the game in search of Cody, who eventually got mixed up with a deadly drug known as GlycoLauric Octanol, or just plain glow. On the way you meet up with Haggar, Guy, several recurring bosses like the Stiff, who appears in normal and glow-ed out forms (lightning bolts included), a porn store owner named Weasel and the knife-wielding Dino. Instead of progressing strictly stage-by-stage, Final Fight's setting of Metro City is broken into Four districts: Little Italy, Japantown, the Pier District and Kyle's Hood. First off, what kind of name is Metro City? That's like calling a smaller residential area Town Ville. Between each story mission you're usually given the ability to run around and complete various side quests for cash. By talking to NPCs with bubbles over their heads, you'll be able to play 3-Card Monte, darts, a card-flipping memory game as well as various other quirky tasks. While the option for these kinds of diversions is welcome, it becomes a problem when they're made necessary to progress through the story.Īn elaborate setting appropriate for a boss fight.įor instance, there are several moments in the game where you'll have to squish rats and cockroaches underfoot while silly music plays. Sure it's different than what you might expect, but fun? The glow-ed out rats were kind of funny, but it was far from fun to play. There are a few more sequences requiring you to manipulate a nine button pad to eventually make the whole thing light up after three presses. The first time I completed it to open a hotel's back door, my reaction was, "wow, that was one of the most annoying mini-games I've ever played." Then the same puzzle popped up several times later. If these types of mini-games were confined to the realm of optional side quests, it wouldn't have been as much of a problem. Building on that criticism, some of the sequences that add extra gameplay devices beyond the actual fighting totally don't work. I'm speaking specifically of one stage where Guy and Kyle are escaping a house before it explodes. Never mind that the time limit was way too short. The greater problem was that some of the fires didn't go out when you blasted them with an extinguisher. I had to put one fire out by shooting foam 90 degrees away from it. In one attempt he got stuck standing in a fire, and in others he got distracting fighting enemies 20 feet away from me when I was trying to douse flames. Given that you drop your fire extinguisher when you're knocked over, the constant stream of spawning enemies, and the strict time limit, this sequence pretty much required Guy to get my back at all times. Final Fight is still a beat-em-up at its core, and the fighting can actually be entertaining. Kyle has some effective dodge moves, a cool counter-attack system and a nice variety of punches and kicks. When taking down enemies, bigger combos result in more tension (the blue bar under your health) which you can use to power up attacks. Against some of the harder enemies, this can actually lead to some enjoyable fights, especially against some of the pit arena opponents. The main motivation behind amassing money is to buy new moves, of which you can learn quite a few. However, as long as you keep upgrading your attack power, you'll never really need anything beyond the basic punches and kicks. In many cases, the game's many battles are made unnecessarily difficult by a camera that can't seem to stay still. At any point you can swing it around behind your character and zoom in or out. That's fine for wandering around Metro City. When you're slamming every other button on the controller to try and kill guys, however, it's not really feasible to have to simultaneously adjust the camera. It's mostly indoors where the camera runs into problems, often erratically shifting so only the shoulders and above are visible on your character. Needless to say, this makes fighting a hassle. In outdoor environments when the camera shows more of the battlefield, some alcoves and areas will remain hidden from view, and at other times it doesn't feel close enough to the action. For players looking to avoid the story and mini-games altogether, there's an all-fisticuffs arcade mode for up to two player with a stage progression similar to the arcade original. For some reason, hardly any of the new fighting system changes were included here. There's no tension meter, no dodge move and I couldn't lock on to opponents. Though some may appreciate the more consistent action, I was able to make it through two entire stages only using Cody's double-kick combo. ![]()
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