3 posts tagged “capcom”

The people in the background. They are so calm and collected. As if seeing two people beat the shit out of each other and even throw fireballs from their hands (!!!) is a casual, everyday occurence.

"Ah yes, good form- but yesterday's brawl was much more uptempo. Oh what will tomorrow bring?" - the two dudes to the left.

SF4 is looking mighty tasty. Thought I reaffirm I would loooooove to be able to play a SF(2) title on my DS without having to resort to the use of a SNES emulator. *sigh*

It just doesn't get much sweeter. Announced at Capcom's Gamers Day convention.

Sixteen years ago when the Nintendo Super Famicom was announced, I only cared if two games were available on the system. Obviously the next installment in the 'Mario' saga- which at that time would be coming right off the heels of the huge success of Super Mario Bros. 3. But the other was one of my favorite arcade coin-ops- the beat-em-up side-scroller: Final Fight.

Oh how I miss the days of the arcades. A local 'watering hole' for teenage virgins filled with a few dozen flashing arcade games to not only provide some entertainment, but probably give a good percentage of those kids one great trip. But the days of the arcade will have to wait for another posting I'm afraid.

Final Fight was produced by Capcom- the Japanese company responsible for Street Fighter, Mega Man, Resident Evil, among others. Final Fight, as legend has it, was Capcom's second attempt at breaking into the fighting game genre. Their first attempt, Street Fighter, didn't do very well at all- but it did give birth to the idea of a character capable of kicking the shit outta someone else. Final Fight was the second attempt- and featured a variety of special moves for the player to pull off, as well as your classic button-mash. Unlike Street Fighter, which was set in an enclosed environment, Final Fight was a side-scrolling game similar to the Double Dragon series. Final Fight is the kind of game you can zone out into and take some of your frustrations out on.

When I had heard that Final Fight was slated to be released on the upcoming Nintendo Super Famicom, I was probably more excited about it than I even was about Super Mario Bros 4. Throughout my entire (first) 'console budget' (keeping in mind I was 12 years old) I always had Final Fight slated as my 'second game', knowing I had Mario already riding inside with the system. In a strange twist of fate, Final Fight ended up being one of the last Super NES titles I ever ended up picking up. I had played it numerous times, renting it from the local video store, but somehow I never got around to actually picking it up to buy it. Even when confronted with the option, I often opted to pick up something else besides owning one of the games that initially hooked me on the system.

But perhaps it was more of the games shortcomings on the Super NES that drove me towards investing into something else. Final Fight was far from an arcade-perfect port of the arcade classic. Graphically, the two were barely indistinguishable- at least in still pictures. Seeing it in person side-by-side with the arcade version, there were obviously slight variances in graphic quality and notably content.
Content!? Yes. Final Fight on the Super NES had a few missing pieces, as well as a few cosmetic changes to, um, 'dignify' the game a little. Let's start with what's missing- most notably: 2 Player Gameplay, and an entire Character! While Final Fight was the kind of game you could have a lot of fun playing on your own, the game was challenging enough to sometimes require a second player to help out. But there was no 2 player gaming to be found on the Super NES port of Final Fight, the game was one-player only. And Guy! The so-called 'Red Guy' was completely absent from the Super NES version, leaving only Cody (the 'White Guy') and Haggar (the 'Big Guy') to do battle with. Not a critical hit, but an obvious one nonetheless. Nintendo also began to flex it's censorship muscle with Final Fight- asking Capcom to alter or otherwise remove certain aspects of the game. This included things like the removal of blood from the game- although there was very little to begin with, and even the entire transformation of a character!

The characters in question are 'Poison' and 'Roxy'. They're essentially your garden-variety late-80's 'gang hoe'- decked out in high-heels, short shorts so short they're clinging onto being called short shorts, tattered- uh- I guess 'tank top' that's so tattered it looks more like a bra, as well as a variety of popular 'Jem and the Holograms' colors of hair. And they're pissed off and want to kick your ass. They come with all the feminine charm one would expect from such a lady- long legs, a long, but powerful strut to let you know she means business, and even across-the-screen acrobatics that only a fit woman could achieve.
Nintendo thought 'Poison' was a little too slutty- so Capcom was 'asked' to change the character to something a little less revealing considering the Super Nintendo's lure was Super Mario World and was targeting kids my age. Capcom came back with Poison and Roxy's replacements: 'Billy' and 'Sid'. These two were basically the gay male replicas of 'Poison' and 'Roxy'- including all the physical features and acrobatic skills from their female counterparts.
I can actually understand Nintendo's stance in the subject- it's not that kids that age aren't going to want to see such content, but Nintendo doesn't want to be liable for being the source of it as to perhaps glorify it for something it isn't, or perhaps more so something Nintendo isn't focussed on. Gameplay Vs. Presentation seems to have been the argument then, and ironically that seems to be NIntendo's approach with the Wii as well. But that's another discussion.

Probably most frustrating about the Super NES version of Final Fight was it's lack of key items places throughout the game, and the 'Continue' system. I've played the game often enough in the arcade to come to recognize some key items placed throughout the game in order to help the player advance through the game. Such items might include a sword, or a small piece of food- and over time, you come to depend on these items being where they're supposed to be at that point in the game. The Super NES version, however, lacks some of these items- making an already hard game that much harder. The Lives and Continue system is also lacking- in the arcade game if your character died, upon returning (spawning) into the game, the players character would be temporarily invincible, and all the characters on the screen would take a hit and be knocked down. On SNES, you still get the temporary invincibility, but the ground certainly doesn't knock your foes to their backs upon your return to the game. But when you use up all your lives and are sent to the 'Continue' screen, then what? In the arcade game you could obviously add as many credits to the game as you would like in order to continue playing- on the Super NES, they only allow you to continue 3 times. There are parts of the game where I could use 3 continues fighting a boss alone. TO make matters worse, in the arcade game when you opted to continue, you would be sent directly back to where you were. But on the SNES, you go back to the very beginning of the level you died in. This means that after fighting your way through the subway station, through the subway car, through a small stretch of subway track, and into a ring with a double-katana wielding madman- then die, you get to continue allll the way back at the subway station. I have said 'Fuck No!' while getting up to turn the system off so many times because of it that it almost feels routine- as if it's part of the game itself.

Despite the games shortcomings, Final Fight is always a joy to play- whether it's kicking back and taking out some aggression from the day, or reminiscing about the 'good ol days' and feeling like a 13 year old kid who freaked out in the middle of West Edmonton Mall upon seeing the game in action for the first time- but still never able to get past Level 2.