Final Fight was a big step forward for Capcom back in 1989 – one of their most successful titles to date. Despite being followed by two SNES-only sequels and a dreadful fighting game, Final Fight is still thought of as one of Capcom’s best titles. Though well and truly exceeded by Capcom’s other CPS and CPS2 brawlers, the game has a strong legacy, and gamers have always demanded a sequel worthy of the Final Fight name – an entry into the series that would actually push the genre forward. Final Fight: Streetwise is Capcom’s way of showing fans of the series that they honestly couldn’t give a rat’s arse about Mike Haggar and co. This game is so self-destructive that you’d think Capcom is trying to emulate the premise of The Producers – developing a game that’s so utterly terrible, the only purpose it has is being one big fat tax deduction.
Final Fight: Streetwise is so bad that it turns Kyle into an alcoholic by the end of the first level
The worst bits of Final Fight: Streetwise doesn’t take too long to show up – in fact, the game’s story practically squats down and drops a link on the original game by the time the opening cutscene is over. Rather than returning to its former glory after the cleanup efforts of Haggar, Guy and Cody in Final Fight, Metro City is still a hole. Cody and his brother Kyle are down on their luck, fighting in a pit fighting contest which is totally derivative of David Fincher’s interpretation of Fight Club (“Handsome Bob”, come on). While celebrating Kyle’s latest victory, Cody is accosted by a group of thugs to whom he owes a large sum of money. This triggers off further plot development below the level of even the cheapest direct-to-video action film from the 1980’s, with another clichéd plot about a new designer drug which takes a completely ridiculous turn later in the piece. Not that you’ll ever play long enough to see it – Final Fight: Streetwise is just that bad.
After the release of The Warriors last year, we must admit that we were somewhat excited about the beat ‘em up genre once again, but Capcom seems to have completely ignored any progression made in the genre in the last 17 years. Final Fight: Streetwise’s move set somehow manages to be more limited than the very first game in the series. Kyle has two basic attacks, a quick attack and a heavy strike, each of which can be hammered to make a basic combo – but you can’t interchange between strike styles to mix it up and produce more moves, it’s really quite silly. A throw button will let Kyle do a fairly basic throw – don’t expect to be able to mix it up. There’s also a focus button that will speed Kyle up and make his attacks more damaging. Throw in a couple of weapons for good measure, and you’ve got a very basic, 16-bit level beat ‘em up. If you bother to progress through the game, you’ll be able to expand Kyle’s repertoire a little bit, and get some dodging moves and such, but you’ll find that they’re completely useless when Kyle is being tossed around by a ragdoll when he’s surrounded by 6 guys, and then can’t get up off the ground. Keep in mind that this fighting system only relates to the game’s story mode – you’ll find that none of the extra moves, focus meter or dodging made it into the two player arcade-style mode, which makes the mode seem even less significant.
Kyle roughs up the Capcom executive that approved the game
The thing we must keep in mind is that the fighting segments of Final Fight: Streetwise are actually the best bits – but that’s kind of like saying that being sat on by an obese person is better than being trampled by a herd of elephants; you’re still being crushed. Story modes as bad as the one in this game don’t come along very often. The direction in the cutscenes used to further the game’s narrative are utterly dreadful, both in conception and execution. In terms of actual gameplay, Final Fight: Streetwise’s story mode forces you into yet another gritty, urban environment, not unlike that of the equally dreadful Crime Life, and lets you run around freely doing inane tasks for winos, hookers, porn theatre owners and diner staff (cockroach crushing for the win). These silly jobs increase your “respect level”, which you’ve likely sent to zero from randomly beating on people. A lot of these jobs give the game the opportunity to subject the player to the awful puzzle mechanics – mashing keypads to get through to meaningless locations is really inspiring. Many of the game’s set pieces are made completely frustrating by the game’s lack of cohesion between the player and their co-operative AI, not to mention bad control mechanics and seemingly endless streams of brainless bad guys – the level where Kyle and Guy need to escape the burning building is enough to make you want to rip the disc out of the system and snap it in two.
Final Fight: Streetwise has virtually no long term appeal; the story mode is dreadful, the arcade mode is pointless, and the unlockables are really disappointing. Streetwise just happens to contain a version of the original Final Fight, (which is amusing, seeing how it’s a much more advanced and enjoyable experience) but the quality of the conversion is so limited, it’s enough to make you curl up into a ball and cry. Throw in a few music videos from the artists appearing on the soundtrack, and that’s about it.
Ladies love "The Stiff"
It’s not uncommon for a game to attempt to cover up bad gameplay with good visual presentation, but Capcom haven’t even bothered to make Final Fight: Streetwise look aesthetically pleasing in the slightest. The usually gritty, urban look just means brown, brown and a bit of orange; hardly pleasing to the eyes. On top of that, the textures are of a ridiculously low quality. Player models are lacking in detail, the animation is hilarious and the distinct lack of variety in enemies is just plain ridiculous. To add insult to injury, Final Fight: Streetwise’s camera system is utterly terrible in any indoor environment. In the sound department, Streetwise features a few licensed tracks from groups like Slipknot; i.e. angry suburban teenager rock. The quality of the script and voice acting harkens back to Capcom’s PSOne days; a variety of talent deprived actors reading a script that sounds like it was written by 100 monkeys with 100 typewriters. Angry monkeys who swear a lot – the amount of swearing in this game is ridiculous and pointless, making even the drunkest sailor seem like a well mannered man.
In an era where so many companies are protective of their intellectual property, it’s just downright bizarre that Capcom would release a product that would kill what little interest is left in the Final Fight franchise. It boggles the mind to think that a team of people could sit around for 12 or more months producing a product, and releasing it in this state. Final Fight: Streetwise is just outright awful – there is absolutely no reason why a rational individual should even consider playing this game, let alone actually doing so. We hope for Capcom’s sake that this effort is quickly forgotten.
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