Thursday 25 June 2020

Sim City 2000 (PSX)


The reason i play this game because i find its CD in here, my parent house. Not because i played as the famous gang-busting mayor on last article [average city-sized honesty]. So this time i play Maxis' Sim City 2000 (1996) on PS1 again after some eternity hiatus. 

Believe it or not, this is loading screen and not the main screen. This screen gradually appears from center top in clockwise direction. It takes very skilful screenshot to capture this loading screen in perfect state. If you take it too late, the game finish loading and this screen vanishes. If you take it too soon, the screen will still have that black gap. I would like to say that spider-y robot is your avatar on building the city but the truth is not, sadly. It's Alien invader that will ruin your-made city but i will talk about that much much later.   
 
Once the loading screen fully appears, this main screen immediately appears and as i have mentioned before it's boring. Asking for Classic Doom-like main screen will be asking too much, i know. But there's certainly no fun element on these steel plate that looks like bathroom tile from dull part of Honda's bathhouse. There's no controller setting so far but just so you know, d-pad controls the movement's of that dull white cursor and 'X' button to confirm. I don't want fiddling too much on the game so let's hit the "Start New City" option immediately!  
 
The game automatically generate the world for me and it takes 3 step of smoothing: 1) Smoothing; 2) More Smoothing; 3) Yet More Smoothing. If the generated world isn't as smooth as velvet, i'll be mad.


On to naming the city. I can name it to Duckburg, Metro City, or Gotham City but i choose not because i believe in my incompetency on managing the city will remains the same with the last time that i play this game which is when i'm still high-schooler. For the definition of iseng: whim of doing something as respond to overcome one's boredom, seek excitement/fun, or (plainly) be strange. It's on glossary section.
 
Next, i have to choose the initial setting of finance and years. I choose the most top options because i'm lazy to change the settings. Years determine what technology you can build, by the way.
Extra! Extra! A city with stupid name, is born! Very funny that there's line about the citizens is troubled with dense traffic considering i haven't build any road or residential even.  Wait! Something or someone, stuns a cat! That's immoral violation of animal's right! Scout_jeers08.wav  
 
Pressing start in the middle of gameplay, only pauses it (but you can use it to change the music that currently played). If you want to bring menu that contains save/load game, controller setting, etc, you should press select button instead. I have no idea why they put the nearly completed sketch of the controller there instead of real photo of it. If you press the "next" option, it will change the control setting in other pre-fixed configuration. The problem is unlike in other game that has naming on setting like Setting A, Setting B, etc there's none here. So it's very difficult to me to change the setting to default. Besides the button function, the configuration allow you to use either normal or reverse directional. The question is why would you want to use reverse direction control in not plane simulator game? >:I
 
Finally, i show you the real screen of the gameplay. Lots of toolbar there! Then there's rolling flash news on top of the screen, tells me that my city need Power Plant. So what i need to do is: drag the cursor to that electricity icon on bottom-left corner. But wait! I need to move the screen to other less hill-y area for the power plant site. How do i pan the screen, again?
 
On the electricity tab, there's option for power line and power plant. Choosing power plant option, leads me to this selection of power generator: 1) Coal powered plant, is the cheapest and has good proportion of provided electricity-build cost; 2) Dam power plant, that doesn't provide much electricity per unit and requires waterfall to run. Meaning, it requires terrain engineering thus extra cost; 3) Oil powered plant, has quite smaller proportion of provided electricity-build cost and more expensive but more environmental friendly than Coal powered ones. Turns out, i can pan the screen while choosing the site of the power plant.
 
Citizen need road and i shall give it to them. The road tab contains more options! From top to left, we have: flat road, highway, tunnel road, freeway (maybe), and bus stop. Let's settle with nice and simple yet cheap flat road for now and put it near the power plant.
 
The terrain surrounding the power plant is too hill-y so i figure i have them flatten just a bit. I said just a bit! God damn it! Not making a crater like that for God's sake! So yeah. The lower elevation tool is freaking iffy! No wonder, i don't bother with terrain engineering back in the day.
 
There finally some nice and cozy plateau! Like in control setting, i can zoom out the screen by pressing "R2" button and i can hardly see anything there. I mean sure, you can still see the power lines, road, and the power plant. But you can't see the water pump station clearly there. Yes, that tiny building is water station. You can't tell it, no?
 
Speaking of water station, i need to put on some pipeline too. After powered, the water station will supply water through the pipelines to any building. While in underground view mode you can't see any buildings, instead you can see their underground water pipes. Did you see green blocks on previous screenshot? Those are residential zone which can turn into house if there's power line and pipeline under them. But it takes quite long time for them to be occupied with housing. I think certain residential demand also required. That's funny, nonetheless. So before there's houses designated by me, the citizen probably lives in wagon or camp in wilderness to wait the housing project. Due to absence of house's underground water pipes (because there's not there yet), you can use the power line to mark the residential zone.
 
The white house tab provides me with government option. I reckon dollar symbol is about city budget. Let's see there!
On budget menu, there's advisor's button that you can press to ask for advice. He said i should lower property tax to encourage growth. Thus i change the property tax rate from 7% to 5% and it seems my citizens like it.     
 
Still there's no house yet. Maybe i should build some industrial zone first? There's 3 main occupation zone: 1) Residential; 2) Commercial; 3) Industrial.  You can see at right bottom corner, there's (probably) demands bar on those occupations. The left bar maybe represents negative demands while the right bar maybe represents positive demands. By the reading of the demand bar, the people want some industrial zone then i shall give them. Only some, that is. On the industrial tab, i have choice between light industrial zone and advanced ones. I shall make the light of course because i'm cheapskate bastard. :p
 
Oh look! It works even though there's only 2 of them while the other 2 are in the middle of construction. The reason why i put residential zone quite far from the power plant: according to the info that coal-powered power plant exhausts nasty amount of smoke pollution that can make the houses dirty if it's located too close to them and people will complaint about it because they have to repaint their house more often. There's also blue zones  that i built for commercial zone and obviously they're not occupied yet because the demand isn't there yet.
Turns out, i can bring help if i press shift + cancel button (default: "circle" + "square")! Sweet! That on-line part of the text is obviously a lie because i don't need internet connection to bring the hint but at least i'm safe from the problem of encountering Microsoft Office's Clippy. I hate that bastard.  
 
With that knowledge at my disposal, i can bring hint about anything at ease. I find out that the left center toolbar is about view mode: underground view toggle, network view toggle, building view toggle, or zone view toggle. Medic_sf12_badmagic05.wav
 
I can also see the explanation of building icon like in this case. But the hint doesn't say the detail about the difference between the regular residential and dense residential except the cost. I will explain about that later.
 
Engineer_cheers05.wav. I also can see the detail of the existing building by using that help button(s). Plus the picture spins.
 
I reckon they need extra pump station for wider distribution and more water supply so i build it next to the residential area. Oh, right! They're occupied now. You can see 2 different commercial zones there. One in sky blue and other in darker blue. They're all 2 X 2. Not the power line build area that i just drag to empower dense residential zone. At this point, we know that occupation zone has 2 type: the simple and the advanced. The latter called dense or whatever. The former type has more pale color and the latter type has darker color. The former type is (obviously) cheaper than the latter. The first type can only change into one-block building while the second type can change into bigger building. But it requires 2 X 2 design. So if you -say- build the advanced zone in 6 X 1 zone, you're definitely doing it wrong and you have wasted extra money unnecessarily. I don't find that zone building explanation in in-game hint, i discovered that by myself back in the day. 
 
Also back then, i play the game by conserving budget as hard as i can but end up failure anyway. So i think, i'll go crazier for this time. I try build some Hydraulic dams and they turn into dam mess! [pun intended]. I try to build 3 dams with parallel arrangement like what you see everyday but no. The left dam refuse to face the same direction as the center. The same problem goes to right dam too but since it's not on the same height i can give it a break. It seems you don't need to make water on top of the slope to make the waterfall. You can just put water on any slope and the game will just consider it "waterfall" enough and you can put the dam there. That's really saving grace as the cost to put water on terrain in $100 per block! The coal powered power plant will expire at some time and you have to replace it with new ones. While hydraulic dam can run forever if i'm not mistaken.
 
See? The big building are being constructed. There's slight mis-design on advanced residential zone, though. I put 2 X 4, hoping to make 2 big resident building of 2 X 2 side by side. But the game decides to put 1 building of 2 X 2 and the rest is just minor houses.
 
Might as well as build harbor/dock. Moreover, we're not so far from river. But we need to lower this terrain first and it turns quite not well. You see that debris near water station? There was power line a while ago. It's destroyed because i try to lower the area that few blocks from it! It's hard to tell how the "lower terrain" tool works. It sure lower the terrain by 1 level but the affected area is varied. Sometime it lowers only 1 selected block and that's fine. But more often than not, the area surrounding the selected block are lowered instead and collateral damage happens like here. There's also "flatten terrain" tool that hopefully brings less disastrous result. But it's more complicated to operate. You have to hold the cursor on terrain that has the elevation you desire and drag it to the terrain that you want to change. The problem is the cursor dragging feels janky  but maybe because i play the PS1 version. Maybe, the PC version  has better cursor control due to mouse appliance.
 
Hufft, finally! We get some decent dock area with crane and piers after several load state. As you can see that some roads have cars on them. It means that the traffic condition there becomes denser. For starting phase of the city, this means good. Soldier_goodjob01.wav
 
The advanced residential zone turns into a church. It looks majestic but why there's medium crime rate inside of it?
 
Through budget menu, i can set the property tax rate in detail and i can see how much tax rate that each occupation contributes. I conclude that Industrial gives the city most income. I tempted to rise the tax rate for it but i'm not no-good greedy bastard. I still have golden part in my heart although just a bit.
 
On the view tab (with icon of binoculars' view) from top to bottom we have: 1) Inspection trip; 2) Building view (or alternatively you can press the shift + cancel button); 3) Option menu that contains save/load game, controller setting, etc (or alternatively you can press 'select' button instead) 4) Quick help/hint explanation. Let's take joy ride, then!
 
The inspection trip allow you to look around the city from the road section of your choice. D-pad allow you to change camera view. Pressing/holding 'L1' and 'R1' will make your car turn to left or right if there's junction.  Although there's indication of dense traffic, my trip goes smoothly. So i imagine the traffic authority ceases all citizen's car to allow my trip unhindered. Plus i ride in the middle of road, ignoring the separator line. What a jerk, i am! Note: there's graphic glitch if you pass on slope.
I look at the junction that nearest with the dock because it seems the busiest junction in our city. 52 cars/minute quite packs a punch But if i remember correctly there's only 22 houses at the moment. That means each house occupants have at least 2 cars! Does no one own motorbike or something?  
 
To be honest, i feel bored. I can designate more occupation zone but it costs money and i have to held back for the sake city's monetary balance. Maybe, my mistake back there was putting too many occupation zones that will lead my city into bankruptcy. Therefore, i fiddle with the budget again. There's many tab above: one of them is city ordinance. There, my advisor suggest to establish pollution ordinance. So let's do that!
 
There you go! It cost $3 per year. I tempted to turn on the Homeless Shelters (that perhaps lower overall crime rate) because i have (just a bit) golden part in my heart. But i reckon my city's budget need more growth before establish that.
 
By the way, here's the full screen of the budget menu. That blonde bloke icon is the advisor. While the book icon is the detailed setting. Transit authority includes road maintenance, right? Maybe, we don't need 100% rate for that so i decreases it by 10%.
 
Woah! Chill, dude! I believe my road maintenance budget here is still more competent than in my country where many road damage left unattended. Our government seldom care about it until governor/mayoral vote is near. Let alone monthly maintenance, accidental road repair is rare sight here. So we have to resort to self-subsistent repair where some of us take this as opportunity to ask alms from passing drivers. But that's only occur in public road. Freeway are managed more competently, though.
 
In Government tab, there's option that allow me to see overall population of SimNation and my neighboring city. My city is the second lowest in population after Old Boots. At least my city has better name than smelly cowboy shoe, right? The most populated city is Little Rouge. They should change it to Giant Rouge anytime soon in my opinion.    
 
By the way here's the complete setting menu. There's not much content of options there besides sound and graphic setting. You can also change the game speed here. Normally on Real Time Strategy game, i'm reluctant to change the game speed. There's 4 speed setting: Pause, Turtle, Lama, and Cheetah. The default is Cheetah but it still takes some time for the occupation zones to change even on that speed setting. I reckon Pause is useful to manage wide area of the city at the same time but my city is pretty much small right now. Before i set the Disaster, i would like to read the newspaper. Hopefully, we find that cat violator is getting arrested or other good news.
 
Sniper_negativevocalization02.wav. What's with the sudden news of communism here? Does Cold War still goes on? I'm currently at 1908 so the answer is probably: yes.
 
Here's the moment that you probably waiting for: UFO attack! For some reason it's listed as "Monster" on Disaster list instead of Alien. Is Alien considered offensive or something? When i summon Monster, i expect Godzilla or King Ghidorah razes my city but we got UFO attackinstead.
 
During emergency situation i can deploy fire brigade, or police. But since i haven't built fire department and/or police precinct, i can't deploy them. Instead, the game SimNation lends me National Guard force. That pillar with tank on top of it, marks that i deploy National Guard there but it's too late. The UFO runs away. Perhaps the aliens have bigger city to mess. Sorry to disappoint you, E.T! By the way, they don't burn the building to the ground or sort like that. They just change road or building to trees. They're tree hugger type of aliens. They don't seek destruction, conquest, or gold (like in Cowboy and Aliens). They just want to reduce (some of) human civilization to trees. Such green solution . How adorable! I think i'm done here.
 
Maxis' Sim City (1996) is simulation strategy game about city management and that's pretty much of it. There's the pre-built city that you can mess around with or you can start build ones from beginning like what i did there. The main problem that i encounter is the income rate. More inhabited occupation zones means more income. That much i know. But it feels uncertain or random. You can't control what building that will come out except for its category (residential, commercial, or industry). If i can control it, i will probably go with the cheapest cost yet with most value and the game will be easier/friendlier. As far as i know there's no sub-quest that will grant you money reward for further city expansion so all i can do is build just a bit and wait for the budget to kick in enough for further spending. I know i can get provide extra income by setting parking fine or other taxes but i worry that they will only make citizens angry and leave my city. I know that this game could be basic of other strategy game with recreational theme like Jurassic World game where you need to build power generator and power line to empower facilities and also road to connect them. However those game has more distinct and faster income rate: visitors per day or month. Not to mention they has more interesting theme than this game that only build a city. The game could use a button to pan the screen but instead there's cycle marker function that i don't know exactly what's about. The game has nice and interesting music. The graphic looks outdated and simple  

I think it's just me that Sim City (1996) is not strategy game that good enough for you to immediately seek and play. The main aspect of city growth feels too random and the income rate is slow and not engaging. Not to mention that the theme is boring. I advise you play that Jurassic World game or other strategy game about recreational site that most likely has better terrain engineering. Also in that game, you don't get yelled because you cut the road maintenance fund (or you can't do that at all).

Friday 19 June 2020

Final Fight (Arcade)


I made bunch of reference from Final Fight (1989) so it feels unfair if i don't review it. So here we are. 



That's radical graffiti. It's so radical that the wall starts to crumble because it can no longer sustain its radicality. I don't know exactly why it's called Final Fight (unless adding word 'final' makes the title more badblood). Maybe it's the same case with Final Fantasy but it's less absurd as Final Fight series only last 4 games while Final Fantasy series encompasses freaking 15 games (excluding spin-offs or remake) and probably still continues in the future. I kind of bitter with that fact especially when SEGA still care enough to support the development of Streets of Rage 4 while Capcom seems don't care anymore about Beat em Up game even though they made the pioneer the genre: this game. I know that Final Fight isn't exactly the first Beat em Up game but it's considered the "draft" that many developer try to adapt its basic to create their own Beat em Up game. Due to that, i respect Final Fight to this day. Although i underestimated it because there's lots of game of its genre that much friendlier and better but that was me from several years ago and i would love to punch myself for that. Enough with my insensible story, we moves on to the game's story...
 
Sometime in 1990's, there's new-elected mayor on Metro city: Mike Haggar, who's intent to make the city into a better place than city that's infested with crimes mainly controlled by 'Mad Gear' gang like when mayor before Haggar is in the office. The Mad Gear gang obviously don't stand for this new mayor's good will therefore they kidnap Haggar's daughter, Jessica.    
 
With her daughter into their custody (plus some monthly money bribe), Mad Gear hope that this new mayor will let them do their criminal activity as they please like Haggar's predecessor mayor. That seems solid plan but they miss some important detail: this mayor Mike Haggar is former champion of Street Fighter and he doesn't hesitate to use his own violence to other mankind! Although i believe when i played Street Fighter back then, he's nowhere to be seen. But let's pretend he's also on it, maybe in period where Ryu vanishes and decides to travel all around the world to hone his martial art skill rather than sitting on his Street Fighter throne and defend his champion title. If Mike Haggar can takes on either Birdie or Sagat, he's force to be reckoned with and he has no qualm to fight scumbags like this Mad Gear gang.
 
But Mike Haggar isn't alone. He calls Guy and Cody for their help. Calling it "call for their help" isn't accurate (and also underestimating Haggar). It's more like he tells those two that Jessica is kidnapped by Mad Gear gang and they volunteer to rescue her. Haggar isn't the kind of weenie man who like to ask anything from other, except asking phone number from Jessica's mother when they're not married yet. Maybe. You should feel familiar with the roster of the speedy guy, the average guy, and the powerhouse guy. I accidentally list them in appropriate order like in the pictures (from left to right): 1) Guy, is the speedy guy because he's ninja although i don't think that orange-colored gi is standard ninja's attire; 2) Cody, is the mediocre guy. The one who has medium speed and strength of the trio. That's why he's on the center and also has the same fashion as Axel Stone from Streets of Rage; 3) Mike Haggar, is the heavy hitter and -i'll be honest- the main character of the game. The problem is centered on the new Mayor, you see. The game isn't about a boyfriend rescues his girlfriend, right? Although Cody admits that Jessica is his friend from childhood. Anyway, Mike Haggar is most likely the iconic of the trio. He's wrestler with title of Street Fighter champion, for God's sake. How come he's not grand, huh? But three of them are in Capcom's fighting game and that's why Final Fight's characters are considered top. Do you ever see Axel Stone or Blaze Feldling in Virtua Fighter or Fighting Vipers? Exactly.   
 
I pick Cody first because he's the most boring character and i reckon he needs my attention ASAP. Plus he must makes Jessica impressive with his appearance to rescue herself. I thought entire Mad Gear Gang are just artless brute but that big guy who carries Jessica, has ability to moonwalk! Besides that, they are able to arrange 2 rows with perfect arrangement! But that artwork soon destroyed by Cody's spinning kick which looks uncomfortable to watch as he must stretch his leg to the fullest while spinning his body around or at least it looks highly impractical. 
 
I believe you know the basic but i will tell you anyway. There's joystick to move your character around, one button to attack in the direction your character facing, and another button to make your character to jump. Pressing both attack and jump button at the same time will make your character unleash life-draining special attack that useful to knock away enemies surround your character. Attacking the enemies consecutively will produces combo. Pressing attack button will make player pick up nearby weapon, score item, or food item. Because i played a lot of Streets of Rage 1 in my childhood, i thought these mohawk punks with stance that showing you their back, are imitation of yellow signal from SoR 1 but the fact is the otherwise. Also, i suspect them to slide kick me at anytime even though they can't do that. Instead they like to step a bit to swiftly deliver a punch preferably at the back of my head.    

Then i get Cody killed by these fat chaps that like to charge with their head. There's nothing you can do once you're headbutted once and you will most likely get another one immediately before you're recovered from previous strike. This is what i mean by the game is relentlessly unfriendly.
 
Then i pick the famous sword Muramasa from nearby garbage bin. If i remember correctly there's also sword with the same name in Warriors of Fate.
 
That's the moonwalking giant but Jessica is nowhere to be seen. We might be too late but we still have time to beat this big bastard. It goes without saying that we can't continue on our way to rescue Jessica if Damnd here still unbeaten so we have a fight. But he doesn't like manly one-on-one fight. No. He will summon his underling by whistling while he take a bit rest from severe beating that he had and he's invincible while he's at it. His way of whistling there reminds me of Captain Brineybeard from Cuphead.
 
While i'm busy with his underlings, Damnd leave his rest and immediately jump kicks me. I try to counter his jump kick with mine but for some reason he has higher priority over me even though his jump kick there looks lame. 
 
Next stage takes place in Subway next to slum where i went. The train looks uncomfortable due to broken glasses but the floor is very clean, thankfully. Axl here like to block any of my attack, not often but block on many occasion. So you have to throw him around like a basketball. There's the usual "sticky" grabbing system: if i approach my enemies really close, i will automatically grab them. I can follow it up with grabbed attack (by pressing attack button) or throw them away (by pressing attack button + left/right direction). Or you can use throw combo finisher by holding up/down direction while you do combination attacks. The difference is the throw finisher always throw your enemies on the opposite direction of your facing. I find this trick from playing Warriors of Fate in PS 1 so many times.
 
On to the train that happens to have no machinist on controls, i play as the ex-street fighter mayor: Haggar himself. I don't think any of these thugs is the machinist because they appear on previous car and no one stationed at the control panel. As you expect from a wrestler, Haggar is adept at back drop his enemies and it deals lots of damage too. Hey, i notice an apple as health refill item! Suck it, Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle!
 
Mike Haggar stops the train for some reason. By operating the machine and not pushing it into dead stop, mind you. Bred, Dug, and their clone are just mindless mooks. But if they're provided with oil drum, they will kick it as The most Beat em Up-ish makeshift projectile and that's where their talent on. I'm impressed with that, on the other hand Haggar's expression there is not so impressive.
 
At the end of the railroad track, there's underground fighting ring and Sodom here uses dual sword that can deal devastating damage within quite long reach! I know that underground fight known to not have strict rules but in my opinion you supposed to have unarmed combat in this kind of ring, like wrestling. So i finish him with jumping powerbomb here. That's what the audience like to see, i believe.
 
Oh, look! There's car-smashing bonus stage like in Street Fighter. Mayor Mike Haggar doesn't have ability to throw soul projectile from his hand or blow fire from his mouth, but he has high fondness to beat anything/anyone with metal pipe and that's close enough. Anyway, who can believe that a mayor dressed only with suspender trouser beat the hell out of a car with metal pipe? No commoner will believe that witness. Such a cunning scheme! Medic_positivevocalization01.wav
 
After that, Guy goes to a bar and of course have a bar fight with Mad Gear gang. It's common that a fight happens in a bar but these guys are way too lazy with that. It's not often you see orange ninja fight members of most renowned gang in town for God's sake! The bartender silently judges Guy on how ninja should fight, like king's portrait on Freecell card game, observes your card arranging skill with cynical expression.
 
Suddenly, (an) Andore Jr. grab my head and take me away from that exit door. Take your sweaty hands off my nose, big jerk!
 
And then i'm thrown into another underground fight ring. But this time my opponents are unarmed and i have privilege to pick a weapon around here! I must confess that i don't like guy's sprite here especially compared to him in Street Fighter Alpha in which he looks anime-ish and that's pretty natural of him. In here, he looks like Al Pacino back when he's on Scarface (1983) movie that wears funny orange ninja(?) attire.
 
At the end of stage, i fight a police along with Mad Gear Gang and i assume he's corrupted because he takes sides with the evil gang and his name is Edi. E. He lies on left corner not to avoid my tornado kick. He's there after i knock him down first, that's why. It's funny to think that back when i first time play Street Fighter Alpha 3 and i play as Ryu. Then when it comes the time when i face Guy, i thought "Who's this cheeky git that can do cheap Tatsumaki Senpukyaku that only travel vertical as anti air move only? He must be two-bit Ryu wanna be.". Although it's solid fact that Ryu has the move first in first Street Fighter before Guy.
 
I was going to make "Say hello to my little friend!" joke here but it will only be relevant if i had gun and not him. Once his health is low enough, Edi E will not smack you with baton anymore and start to use his handgun instead. He doesn't need to reload after finish unloading his gun which is: 1) Unrealistic; 2) Cheating. But you can dodge his gunning quite easily by not standing at the same plane as him. He will walks to the other corner each time he finish his gunning and that's the perfect time to fight him back. Guy is exceptionally good to catch him while doing so or at least walk near him within punching distance before he arrives at the corner and start shooting again.
 
While i'm focused on taking down his goons, he's killed by stray fire Molotov from one of them. Karma is bad if you're bad, indeed.
 
Speaking of fire, welcome to the most dangerous factory in the world! Where fire jet is practically everywhere in worker's platform. No fire extinguisher or not even safety rails here! Health and Safety inspectors will most likely be agitated with this below-standard safety equipment.
 
See! They can't even write "Danger" properly there! With Muramasa sword at my hand, i can mitigate the denger err i mean danger of rolling drums by strike them before being rolled by Dug and Co, and the extra range of the sword really helps. No. I can't be fooled! I know you're there waiting off-screen to catch the player off guard by suddenly kicking the drums. Also there's chicken in a plate. Suck it again, Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle!
 
The boss in this factory stage is Rolento, the militaristic maniac who -i can assume- is the supervisor of the factory. He's there climbing ladder and throw hand grenade at me who's busily dealing his henchmen. By the way, this is the usual elevator where enemies drop on you.
On top of the level, Rolento finally deals with me directly. Guy Vs Rolento, huh? That can happens if you play Street Fighters Alpha 2 or 3. On top of that, both characters are the speedy/agile type. Anyway, he  runs around and throws grenades with the occasion of hitting you with his longer baton than Edi's. Most of the time while his running and leaves blue shadows, he's invincible but i find rather easy way to defeat him. Guy is fast enough to grab and later throw him, again. Rolento can also throws you but maybe i just got lucky.
 
Rolento doesn't want Guy take the glory of finishing him so he explodes himself with grenades. Demoman_specialcompleted11.wav
 
There's another bonus stage where i have to break glasses that's probably the product of the factory. You have hit them in the center otherwise, they take less damage than it should be and spin around that can knock you out. As why i have to break them, i have no clue. At least, it's almost the same motive with breaking ice blocks in Mug Smasher.
 
On to Bay Area, where i found foods inside of barrels but i already at full health so they only serve as score item instead. Maybe it's just me but i don't think eating pineapple along with the skin, is healthy diet.
 
Come on, guys! We have rolling drum for everyone, villains and hero alike! Soldier_cheers01.wav   
 
This section is probably the most disgusting one in history of Beat em Up gaming history although there's bit section of toilets in Streets of Rage 4 but still. I freaking hate dirty public toilets especially when there's graffiti on them. What's so sexy about fighting in this God-forsaken place, you sick freak?

This is so much better. I believe this is the parking lots for Axl's or Slash's motorcycle. They have fashion like biker what's with their leather jacket and such. On the other hand this blokes in red, are probably the first hit-and-run mook in Beat em Up games. They don't take much damage but they run swiftly after they had thrown their makeshift bomb. You can either stay away from their bomb or hit it and thus disarm it for some reason.
 
I forget to tell you that Cody's specialty is ability to use knife to stab enemies instead just throw it like others. It's conducive in situation where there's lots of Hollywood and El Gado like here. They like to throw knife. They drop knife when knocked. There will be tons of knives and they will fit into a dozen of kitchen set or two. Knife stabbing can provide Cody with attack that just a bit longer than his punch and knock away enemies instantly like iron pipe and sword but i don't think it's worth the trouble. Thus i prefer to throw it at the enemies right away. Also hello, Snowy!
 
This stage's boss is Abigail who's the base of Abadede of Streets of Rage because he like to run at me and punch. That means he's also susceptible to jumping kick. But he has more moveset than the giant from SoR. Abigail can delivers regular punch or throw you really high like a janitor throws garbage bin at dump truck's tailgate. 
 
Then i finish him by jumping powerbomb into the crowd. It's more glorious sight than that crownless bootleg Liberty statue over there.
 
On to the final stage where i barge into the Mad Gear HQ. Funny thing is the building doesn't have gate and instead there's pillar with topless lady statue on it. You can tell that Mad Gear gang are evil because they really obsessed with half-naked lady statue. They're immoral afterall.
 
But they have cozy swimming pool completes with chairs and tall diving board. Plus exotic palm trees.
 
I find another way to deal with those charging fat men: jumping powerbomb. With that, you can deal hefty damage to one fat man while also avoiding his friend's running headbutt.
 
Very good, Andore! Finally there's someone who listen to my advice.
 
There's more pillar with breast-naked statue and did you know that there's precious stone such as ruby or emerald, hides behind each pillar? Not so useful secret unless you want to rake more score in this game.
 
This mansion only security  device is chandelier that automatically fall if you walk past them. It's fine if only one or two. But when there's like dozen of them, it gets old really fast. But i appreciate this last two as they contain last cartoon meat in this game.
 
Here it is the leader of Mad Gear Gang, Belger himself. At first, he walk around in fast wheelchair while holding Jessica as hostage. In this hostage situation, you need to grab Belger and throw him away. If you try to punch him, you will hit Jessica instead. Ups! Where's Jessica? She's behind that ruined wheelchair but i reckon she's pretty fine.
 
Belger wield some kind of automatic crossbow. He's probably cheaper than Edi E. but what annoy me the most is he like to jump around like mega-sized fleaman and everytime i try to unleash combo, he just knocked away by the simple jab. Fine! I will just jump kick him to death.
Just like this! You can't blame me for kicking him out of window like this. He's the one who deliberately stand still near the window while chucking arrows at me. If only he stand near Jessica, he's much safer.
 
With Belger falls to his death, his underlings vanish for some reason. Guy and Cody wonder at the broken glass and think who will going to pay for that window and how much it will cost. Meanwhile Mayor Mike Haggar approaches his daughter and comforts her.   
 
That's quite touching scene but i don't think pressing your daughter against your sweaty muscular body, is a good idea. Good thing, Jessica is broad-minded enough to still love his father after the kidnapping and also her mother lost. Happy end!
 
Wait! There's more! After credit roll. Jessica call Cody but he ignores her. Thus Guy beat his awareness to come out and later Cody's willing to speak with Jessica.
 
And now's the real ending. It looks like Cody and Jessica will be together happily ever after but no. He breaks up with her and become fugitive but that's another story (in Street Fighter Alpha 3).
 
Capcom's Final Fight (1989) is Beat em Up game that define the genre in more practical way but i warn you that it's not easy game yet doable. You can and will get surrounded by enemies relentlessly. Not to mention if enemies manage to get a hit on you, you will get another one again and again to the point you will lose a life. It happens thanks to significantly slower recovery of your character when get hit than the enemy's. You can cancel your flinched status with the special move but it will cost your health otherwise you can't do nothing about the flinch. There's lots of case where you initiate combo on enemies that more than 3, one of them slip a hit on you and that relentless disaster happens. But there's some way to mitigate that beside with the special move: 1) Jumping kick is basically the good method for all around situation although it deals so-so damage but Haggar's drop kick can deal considerably large damage; 2) Using iron pipe and sword also a good idea if you can get the hand of it. Much like in Warriors of Fate, you have split-second decision on the combo finisher. The heavy strike finisher is generally good to deal damage on group of enemy on same side. While throwing finisher deal the most damage on one specific enemy and also useful to swiftly deal with enemies stalk behind you. The enemy variation is distinctive but less compared to Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle 2. As i have mentioned before Dug and his friends mainly adept at rolling the drum. Andore family (which is based on Andre the Giant) have big health and able to body block you or execute piledriver move on you. Poison and Roxy able to do back flip, making them invincible for a while. Also they like to jump high and kick at you. Hollywood and El Gado which are Rolento's soldiers, are more annoying than Poison and Roxy. They can either sliding kick or jump and puncture your head from above. And it goes without saying that they love to utilize knife in either melee or throwing method. The music may feel gritty but it's appropriate with the atmosphere. The 1st level BGM is later remixed for Capcom VS. SNK - Millennium Fight 2000 PRO own BGM. While the first part of Bay Area stage BGM later become Rolento's stage BGM in Street Fighter Alpha 2. The sound effects are fantastic i particularly like the "Whuud!" sound of the jab. The graphic is kind of good but also dirty in some places especially the public toilets.

Some of you may disagree to me that Final Fight (1989) isn't enduring classic of Beat em Up game. There's lots of better and friendlier game of the same genre like Warriors of Fate that i keep saying or my personal recommendation Battle Circuit. But i also saw worse one like Burning Fight. Nevertheless, i still hold Final Fight with high regard. It's the first Capcom's side-scrolling Beat em Up game, afterall. By the way, here's some character's stats analysis!


Guy is Bushin style ninja. That's the fact that i know from Street Fighter Alpha 3, by the way. I'm sorry that i can't still get over with it but damn that orange gi is so funny. Maybe Bushin style ninjutsu teaching dictates that its practitioner must wears orange gi. His fiancée's sister Maki Genryusai also wear orange gi like that (but minus trouser) and it all comes together. Just like Blaze Fieldling or Zhao Yun/Subutai (Warriors of Fate),  he's not so fast but certainly the fastest in the roster and i estimate that his main stats is Agility at 3.5/5. He can throw his enemy pretty far that clearly shows just a bit extra on his strength thus his strength is 2.5/5. He has ability to wall jump but sadly not much section in the game that has wall on it. If only he has ability to double jump, i can believe that he's ninja. His jab is the fastest so he's the best at interrupting enemy's attack.
 
For some reason, Cody's mouth expression reminds me of Sylvester Stallone and he uses punch a lot like Rocky Balboa. As he's the average guy with medium strength and speed, he's clearly the Dexterity type guy but i reckon his fighting technique is still rough. It's shown in his special move: that wild spinning kick. Nevertheless his primary stats is Dexterity (3.5/5). His attacking power is slightly stronger than Guy thus his strength is 2.5/5. He may has specialty with knife but he's the least favorite character in my opinion. But i finish the game with him. Funny that.  
 
The last but not the least, the most iconic of the trio: Mayor Mike Haggar! Now i know why, Miles from Mug Smasher really wants to wear suspender trouser: because he idolize the Metro City's ex-street fighter Mayor! And i now i feel bad of making funny of Mile's fashion. As you expect from the powerhouse type guy, he can deal the most damage among the trio so his main stats is undoubtedly Strength (4/5). As you expect from wrestler type of guy, Haggar can perform wrestling throw with quite good finesse. Therefore his dexterity is 2.5/5.

If you excuse me, i will like to analyze deeper on Mike Haggar's prowess thus become insight for you, reader. What i like to discuss is: his jab. Jab or the first strike is the basic yet also the important part of the character's moveset as it allows them to initiate combo which is the main method of damage dealing. Note that: 1) Outer arm, means their left arm when the characters face right or their right arm when the characters face left; 2) Inner arm, means their right arm when the characters face right or their left arm when the character face left. Okay, here we go:
 
I put M. Haggar's picture on left-top corner because he's the main topic. As you can see his gut punch where he uses inner arm but he twists his torso while bend a bit, resulting in pretty long reach. 
While Pimple from Battletoads (arcade) in right top picture, also uses inner arm but he doesn't twist his torso as much as Haggar. Resulting in roughly 60% reach of Haggar's gut punch. 
On the other hand Max from Streets of Rage 2 in left-bottom picture, use outer arm which is sensible but he only utilize half of his arm because his jab is overhead chop, you see. Due to resizing, both Haggar and Max may have the same reach. But if you take a count of the playfield size of Streets of Rage 2 (which is significantly larger than in Final Fight), Max has harder time to get the first hit on enemies because they can move more freely. Not to mention he's much much slower than Mike Haggar. I summarize that SEGA may adapt the essence of Mike Haggar: heavy-hitter yet slow wrestler guy, but they don't design Max's attack reach/move speed proportion well. Thus he's forced to rely on his sliding kick to get the first hit on enemies. He's pain in the teeth to play as but don't get me wrong, i like him because he can execute wrestler's grapples that deal destructive damage. 
Meanwhile, Skullbyule from Guardians/Denjin Makai II (arcade) in right-bottom picture, is truly enigma because he use his tongue as jab move which is very unusual. The tongue attack is roughly located from his center so the attack reach supposed to be medium. But luckily his tongue is long enough for appropriate jab. Plus, it's fast too. Skullbyule has the fastest jab among these 4 power character.   
 
For better or fairer comparison, let's compare Haggar with other heavy-hitter from other Capcom Beat em Up games. Major D. Schaefer from Aliens versus Predator (arcade) in left-bottom picture has more or less same gut punch with the Mayor albeit his move is slower and feels more robotic. Consider he equips cyborg arm that double as his personal smart gun, that makes sense. 
Meanwhile Alien Green from aforementioned Battle Circuit (arcade) in right-top picture, utilize outer arm for simple jab. He leans a bit to provide some extra range too so he also has appropriate reach. 
Meanwhile Kassar/Guan Yu from Warriors of Fate (arcade) in right-bottom picture, deploys some pankration technique where he put his hand together and swing them downward. Because he can't reach the maximum range because he has to bind both of his hands which limits his reach. He has rather short range, is what i want to say but as you can see in the picture where he's able to hit those 2 blokes together. Considering he can hits the farthest enemy like that, i can assume he also has suitable reach.
 
But before ending this absolute non-sense writing, i like to show you another reason why Mayor Mike Haggar is considerably the best Powerhouse character in history of sidescrolling Beat em Up game: i found his statue while playing Captain Commando! Okay, bye!