On this occasion, i like to
review Final Fight. I know. I know. I did that already. But what if it's Final
Fight with character from all the series
plus Street Fighter 2 in Final Fight LNS
Ultimate made by LNS team.
It has more elaborate art on title screen than the original. That Andore break an iron pipe to intimidate the player but the mayor Mike Haggar doesn't like about that. I won't break any iron pipe in the presence of the mayor of Metro city even it's just to show my great strength. I respect him and also don't want to make him angry for everyone's sake. I don't remember that "J" guy possess knife let alone lick it. While Axl there prepare his garrote or maybe that's teeth-cleaning wire. Using dental tool to assassinate, is very revolting. But again Mad Gear is filled with nastiest thugs so it's not out of their character. I have hazy memory on how i come across this godsend indie game. My best guess is just random search on internet. As written in the disclaimer from the LNS team themselves, this game is free. If you pay for it then you must be ripped off.
The main menu is pretty decent. As per usual, i check the option menu for the controller setting and make some adjustment. "How to play"? Haha! You can't tell me who is seasoned Beat-Em-Up player on how to play Final Fight! Especially i finished it several times. So i hit "Start Game" immediately.
There's other game mode but it's locked for now. So i have no choice but to pick the Arcade mode. I pick the normal difficulty but what's with that portrait? He looks frustrated. I have bad feeling about this. Also that portrait on Ultra Hard. It looks like Ghost Rider or Dormammu both are Marvel Comic's character. There's Musou which is believable to me because i think Warriors of Fate is not so different from any Musou game in the basic premise of gameplay. Obviously different in genre. One is in 2 dimension while the other is 3 dimension.
Oh look! There's story. Let's listen it. That's secret base of Shadaloo? That's secret lab of Dr. TW from Captain Commando and there's Bludge from Cadillac and Dinosaurs, on the experimental tube. I can tell that i like the developer team's creativity here.
Somehow, Belger's demise and Mad Gear defeat is related to M Bison defeat. Maybe because Cody and Guy participate in Street Fighter Alpha 3, it turns the tide of battle in Shadaloo's enemies. By the way this historical moment is not so accurate to the history. This is what real happens...
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| Final Fight (Arcade) |
The bastard Belger keep shooting arrows at Cody and summoning his henchmen. Thus he resorts to jumping kick instead of uppercut. Either way of making Belger flies out of window is heroic, in my opinion
Because of that M. Bison using time machine to go to 1989 and form allegiance with Mad Gear, hoping to defeat Mike Haggar and Co. I think he use Psycho energy to make time travel technology. Sure, why not?
By the way, i like the dorky look on M. Bison during time travel. Moreover, he spins around while at it.
On the M. Bison's part, the story is quite believable. But as for the M. Haggar's part, is getting weirder. First, how Chun Li know M. Bison's secret plan to ally with Mad Gear? He's in hiding, remember? Second, how Chun Li can make contact with the mayor of Metro City? I see that they use phone. But is there phone that can get through time? That's so bizarre. I know that this M. Haggar's screen is from opening in Final Fight 2 and Chun Li is on it in the background. So there's possibility that both Chun Li in present and 1989 have strong telepathic communication link, maybe? Third, assuming that Chun Li is from present, how she and her friends can meet up with Mike Haggar and his friend? My best guess is they use time machine powered with Psycho energy left by M. Bison and Co. In case of you using time machine, make sure you lock it after use. Just saying.
We can forget about that strange bits of the story because it's time to fight! I decide to pick T. Hawk because he's my fav in Street Fighter 2 even though i very suck at executing 360o move with average consistency. Do you notice that the screen goes very wide and long compared to the original Final Fight. Here's the example.
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| Final Fight (Arcade) |
The streets looks cramped and such. Meanwhile in FF LNS Ultimate, the streets is fit for street soccer match. But the drum barricade is too small for it perhaps due to budget cut. However T. Hawk breaks it anyway. Just to show good will to those thugs that built it with all effort in the world.
You can bring movelist with a single button of your liking. Thank goodness that Mexican Typhoon isn't executed with 360o input. But with hadou ken motion and parry button. What's parry? I tell you about it later. I like the input for Tomahawk Buster (the anti air move) is executed with down then up + attack. It's pretty common move input in late Capcom's beat em up like in Warriors of Fate or Battle Circuit. One thing that's very important is the inclusion of super move. Naturally, it's good to deal massive damage.
Like in traditional Final Fight. There's movement button to move around, one button to attack in the front direction, and another button to jump. Pressing both attack and jump button at the same time will execute desperation attack that useful to knock away enemies around me at the cost of a sliver of my health. Attacking the enemies consecutively will produces combo. Pressing attack button will make player pick up nearby weapon, score item, or health item. There's the usual "sticky" grabbing system: if i approach my enemies -like- 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). There's also throw combo finisher by holding up/down direction while you do combination attacks. The in-game instruction called it "Capcom grab". The thing with the "Capcom grab" in this game is: i always get mixed up with forward or backward throw finish. "Up" direction for forward throw and "Down direction for backward throw. This most likely happen because i get used to play Guan Yu in Warriors of Fate.
This is funny, i move several steps then the game loading and transits me to the same section of the first level albeit with dusk atmosphere. Another thing they add in this game is running presumably from either Final Fight 3 or Captain Commando. I kind of disappointed with this running kick because i feel like it lacks of range. C'mon, man! Extend your foot more! Don't be shy!
Suddenly, a door in front of me break open to reveal Damnd and i get knocked out because of it. Payback time? T. Hawk never meet you before, idiot!
Take this! Mexican Typhoon! Thankfully, the move starts with dash so i don't need to be really close to my victim. The dash isn't long but it helpful enough to connect to enemies easier.
After some more Mexican Typhoon. Damnd is defeated. I didn't expect this big K.O sign. This sign probably from Street Fighter IV. Correct me if i'm wrong, One day i will play Street Fighter IV. Yes, i know there's Street Fighter V already. I'm outdated just like that.
Oh, what's this? Branching path in Final Fight game? Medic_sf12_badmagic05.wav
But before, we go to 2nd stage. Let me destroy this Off Road car real quick, first. Hey! I get some level up during bonus stage! Level system in Final Fight is already weird. And now i can level up in bonus stage, is extra weird. Leveling up will increase my max health and mana. Also auto full heal like in most RPG. Mana is what you use to execute special and super special move. I feels like it's not the appropriate term because mana is related to magic casting but whatever. It's pretty nice feature in Beat em Up game. Almost like my all time favorite non-Capcom beat em up game: Guardians/Denjin Makai II. But the only way the mana regenerate is by waiting. It will recover over time by 5 per half a second or so. Sadly there's no mana regeneration by hitting enemies like in Guardians. But there's other way to regenerate mana: There's some mana recovery item that you can find besides health recovery item. Also successful parry can recover some of mana.
I think i know this place. It's taken from Sailor Moon arcade game, isn't?
I don't remember this subway level in Final Fight. Oh, i see. It's from Final Fight 2, complete with the goons taken from Final Fight 2 including that fat guy with electric fork. Here's another T. Hawk's signature move: Condor Dive! Strangely i can perform it in the ground and he flies to almost entire screen. Oh, he did that in Street Fighter IV? My bad.
Obviously because this is Final Fight game, there's Andore and Andore Jr. They like to charge at me with their large body. This is perfect opportunity to parry their attack. This parry system definitely new feature to this game. As i've said before successful parry can restore some mana but hear me out here. Initiating parry also use mana! So you can't just randomly spam parry. Also its duration is very brief so the parrying time is freaking strict! I notice there's perfect parry if i'm able to do it in very split second before getting hit and probably recover my mana more than regular parry. You can follow up the successful parry with swift hard strike by pressing attack button immediately after the parry.
To be fair, the more i try to parry the more i appreciate to just hit the enemies as soon as possible like in arcade game because how strict the parrying time is. But it's still useful nonetheless. Not only you can recover some mana but also negate damage on you. The best way to apply parry is: against enemy's attack with big telegraph. For example: Andore's charge, fat man's charge, or Poison's jumping kick. You can parry enemy's jab but it's way too unpredictable. Strangely, i can also parry throwing knife. Funny that.
You know what else that's new to Final Fight? Being juggled. Surrounded by bunch of enemies is already bad. Here it's even worse because they can juggle me while in knocked in the mid-air. Then i die. Demoman_paincrticialdeath03.wav
Fortunately, there's autosave and i can load the game easily. But there's only 1 save slot. Also i prefer manual saving so i can spam it like crazy akin to savestate. :p
It seems i have to be more proactive using the super move for it will save my time and effort. Also it diminishes the possibility of my health get dented badly. Each character has 2 super moves including T. Hawk. The first one is the well-known Double Typhoon and the other is Power of Nature which he call his hawk pet and tell it to charge forward. Since when T. Hawk or rather his pet has ability to attack akin to Nakoruru's (from Samurai Shodown) hawk? Not that i (can) complain about it. It's really helpful against group of enemy. What baffles me so much is this super move potentially deal larger damage than the signature Double Typhoon! Given the hawk can deal more hits to enemies compare to Double Typhoon that constantly deal 2 hits (of slamming). There's a lightning strike at the last slam of Double Typhoon that can hit more enemies besides that one that T. Hawk get slammed, than the regular Mexican Typhoon's slam. Even so the Hawk's attack is more powerful in comparison. For the same mana cost, it's obvious that the hawk's attack is the winner over Double Typhoon. Maybe they should make the Double Typhoon super move deals more damage, just my thought.
The boss in this level is Philippe the clown from Final Fight 2. So i was right about this place based on Final Fight 2. One noticeable gimmick of him is everytime he gets up, he will sliding along the floor. I reckon it's perfect for parry but my mind still set on the commandment of "There's no block in Beat em Up game. Either you move away from the attack or take the hit like brave warrior you are!"
We're not done yet? But i already lost lot of health and i die once because of enemy's juggling like usual. At least, we're on the train now that reminds me of Streets of Rage 4. It's quite breathtaking view. This section introduces us with red Hollywood that like to throw molotov bomb at me and has meager health. Luckily, he doesn't immediately run away but rather stay in the screen while walking slowly so he's pretty easy target compared to him in original Final Fight.
I remember this Bratken guy. He's also in Final Fight 2, on Holland stage iirc. Honestly, Bratken is significantly easier to deal with because he is slow. His jumping kick is slow thus i can parry it easily. Me and my mind did some negotiation regarding parry in this game. It went well.
It's kind of anti-climatic to have Bratken who's the easier opponent than the clown, as the real boss stage. But it's what it is. This time the bonus stage is the barrel breaking from Street Fighter 2. There's one funny moment where i do tomahawk buster to break those barrels and i end up standing on one of them. Did you know that there's the remake of this bonus stage in Street Fighter EX 2? And i'm very glad it exists there.
The park? I never know about this level. In first Final Fight, the second level is Subway and Park combined. So this "The Park" is new to me.
Isn't this place based on France level in Final Fight 2? I could be wrong. Now that i think about it, Metro City is not bad place afterall if it has park walkway as beautiful as in Paris city.
As natural as in every Final Fight game, there's drum rolling on your way to give you harm and if you can hit them, they will provide you with item pick up. What is not natural is this sick freak that keep humping and licking street post. I try to knock some sense to him with my fist but it keeps glancing. Consider yourself lucky, damned schmuck.
Oh hell! Andore Jr. retains his ability to jumping powerbomb me. Heavy_negativevocalization02.wav
So i went into the LNS Club as you can see in previous screenshot and naturally they give me some warm welcome. So warm that i keep getting myself killed here over and over again. Because this is in normal difficulty, i don't get any continue. Like none at all. Even there's autosave right in this point, it doesn't do me any favor. Also i don't get any free healing in each transition. Only completing level that grants me free healing.
I reckon that waitress' uniform is quite the same with King from Art ofFighting or King of Fighter. Purple and white is so distinctive to me. Or because i like purple.
Eventually, i can get past that point. I have to face dilemma of breaking arcade cabinet like in Mug Smasher. But i don't feel bad to break this Final Fight arcade machine because 1) It contains cheese that i need so bad to recover my health 2) It keeps playing scene with Jessica screaming that either suggestive or annoying. I don't remember this shots of Jessica that portrayed up to chest region that clearly serve as sexy fanservice. Maybe it's in Sega CD version. When i break it, that guy scream hysterically. He really like that fanservice shot, huh. The sicko.
Oh no! Here's the famous corrupted police Edi. E. As per usual, he isn't reluctant to bring handgun into fistfight. But i have more mobility in this game. Besides T. Hawk special move, i happen to have side jump activated by pressing directional up or down twice. It's kind of the same with side dodging in Streets of Rage 3 or Guardians/Denjin Makai II.
Turns out Edi E. isn't the end of stage boss. There's still more section in this stage. Wait a second. I think i recognize this place.
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| Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade) |
It's quite similar to Guy's stage
in Street Fighter Alpha 3. Not
exactly the same, still amazing creation though. Even without the Capcom office
building and the Final Fight characters (i.e. Andore, Poison, Axl, and Haggar)
in the background. That section is easily related to this stage. Medic_positivevocalization01.wav
To capture a screenshot of Guy's stage, i tried play as R. Mika and Rolento to no avail. Only when play as Ryu i manage to capture this moment. At second fight, to be more precise. As if Guy only want to fight me with his prideful Ryu-inspired custom. I mean look at him. He wears custom with white as dominant color. But you forgot that Ryu wears no shoes (in this game). Checkmate, Guy!
Not this place, again! I really hate public restrooms in Final Fight. One of the thug is sitting down on the bloody PUBLIC TOILET'S FLOOR. HOW REVOLTING! Think about all the germs and scums, you freaking idiot!
This is lot better. Remember there's bikes parked in this section? In this game, there's some biker on some of the bikes and i think they're not ripped from other game so kudos on the developer for their hard effort. Although Snowy looks unhealthy or small there. Also, yeah. Akuma is there on yonder. Perhaps he's contemplating who will get his raging demon this time.
If you're not convinced this indie game is not legit Beat em Up game. These flock of rolling oil drums, should convince you. Seriously, there are more oil drums here than in overall original Final Fight combined. I think i should spam the desperation attack to destroy them all and one of them contains meat that can replenish health more than you need to compensate from the desperation attack that you did.
You know the unwritten rule of Capcom's Beat em Up game that fat enemies sometimes drop food item upon demise? It less happens here and to add insult to injury, defeated fat guy often drop....eh...dropping instead. I think the joke is "You beat the s**t out of them, literally". But that doesn't help me in the slightest because if i accidently pick it up i lose some health. Seriously, T. Hawk? Why you always eat anything you pick? Did you mother not teach you not to do that when you were young?
Let's leave that dung alone because it's time to fight Abigail! He got to be the real boss of this stage. Remember when i said that the Double Typhoon will produce lightning strike on last slam? Here it is. Anyone who get the lightning (including the main victim) will get the electrocuted effect like in Street Fighters 2. Demoman_positivevocalization04.wav
To be honest, i'm almost at my wit's end. No matter hard i try to "git gud", i can't defeat Abigail with no life at all. If only they spawn more health refill or life up item, i can pull it off in fair way. Then suddenly a cunning idea spring on my mind. With some adjustment on control setting, i can assume control of 2nd player! If i play 2 players at once, it will be less efficient to play. So i decide to put 2nd player as reserve life instead.
Hey! Do you know Dean from Final Fight 3? Of course, you don't. If you said yes, you most likely lying. No one remember or even know Dean. I mean he has quite important role there but i don't think he is barely remembered. Lucia probably is better known than him because she's one of two main characters in Final Fight series, the other is Maki Genryusai who's Guy's rival/young sister-in-law and later become playable character in Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max on PSP. That fact alone is worth the recognition.
Finally, i defeat Abigail. That's not cheating. Hush! Remember when i say that the first bonus stage maybe takes place in a stage in Sailor Moon game? This section in Uptown stage is definitely taken from Sailor Moon game because there's the Tuxedo Mask right there. The flamboyant smug.
I remember Dean is the non-wrestler hard hitter character and has great affinity with lightning element. In this game he become skew to shoto clone because he has both special and super special move that shoot lightning within far distance. Ideally good for fight in narrow corridor like this. But Dean's grapple is backbreaker that clearly has limited or next to none throwing range. Yes, i know there's giant beast in the background clawing the door. He's not fitting to Final Fight domain but he's most likely come from Sailor Moon game. Yes, i try to break the phone booth there and hoping to get close to him (and getting the MP scroll as the secondary objective) but i think it's indestructible.
I can't reach beyond this point much because i already lose a life. Noticeably much shorter run than T. Hawk's and i realize i know why. Newly spawned character is on level 1! Bigger health and mana most likely help me to fight further. I don't think higher level also affect attacking power. But i could be wrong. Again i'm at the end of my rope. I almost lost hope.
Thus i replay the game from the beginning and change the difficulty to Easy which gives me unlimited continue. I have bad feeling about the strange generosity there. But let's cast that aside and enjoy Ryu beating Mad Gear gang. I think that crowd over there is from X-Men versus Street Fighter or other installment.
Is that Abobo from Double Dragon fighting game? I think i recognize that lady on food truck but i don't know exactly who she is. Sorry i get distracted from this boss stage: Won Won who is boss from Chinese Stage in Final Fight 2. He's big man with meat cleaver and like to do elbow drop from high altitude. He must learn that warfare from Warriors of Fate. On the other hand Maki Genryusai who's originally speedster character, now she has ability to shoot projectile whether as special or super special move. Not gonna lie, he can reap more damage with her super projectile move than the Double Typhoon.
Again, i'm baffled with fact that there's still more section in the stage after defeating a boss. But i'm encouraged with this billboard advertising soft drink tea. It gets my approval immediately.
Oh, i see. The real boss is Retu, the final boss from Final Fight 2. Her father Genryusai and her sister Rena also here hanged like in Final Fight 2. How convenient! Like fighting Won Won, i rely on super projectile move and when i'm out of mana i resort with traditional way with combo, until i get enough mana for the super move rinse and repeat. Retu is kind of push over.
So Maki rescue her father and sister. This look like the good point to stop for this part. M. Bison and Belger will get their share of proper beating. I promise!
Also enjoy this ost from Final Fight CD until the next part of the article done.
I think this ost played often in the game. I'll be honest with you that i like this one than the original arrangement. I really do.
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