Retro Game of the Day! Mighty Final Fight

Retro Game of the Day! Mighty Final Fight

Mighty Final Fight by Capcom, released for the NES in 1993.

Here's an odd little game for you. Capcom's big brawler Final Fight which had previously been a hit on the arcade scene, and of course it was a staple of the early SNES lineup as well. To everyone's (sort of) surprise, they eventually released this version on the lesser-powered 8-bit hardware, too.

Seeing this previewed in magazines, I was immediately suspect. Though "SD" versions of "full" games were not so uncommon in their native Japan, it was not exactly the rule over here. Being that 16-bit was in full swing, I was hard-pressed to get so excited about this throwback of a title, it just seemed like a cash-in to me.

To complicate things further, Capcom already plundered the Final Fight name with their Street Fighter 2010 game (subtitled "The Final Fight") a couple of years earlier, likewise on the NES. That game really had nothing at all to do with either of the games it referenced; though it was a cool game, it was not really what they were trying to make you believe you were buying.

Anyway, I have known about this title for ages and it's had good reception and kind of a legacy; picking it up, I am satisfied to see a nice Final Fight"side story" of sorts, or comedic reworking of the source material to be more precise. Rather than trying to ape the original tit-for-tat, they had a little fun with it and played a little fast and loose. The same Double Dragon-inspired gameplay is there, of course, and they even tweaked it a bit with a leveling-up experience system. Nice touch.

Overall, not a bad game, and quite colorful/full of personality, especially for a late-date NES game. I was not too excited to see it then, but now I can appreciate it and have a good time with it. Also, this game is no pushover - see how far you can get! If they went the extra distance and went 2-Player with this, I think it would deserve some classic status; as it is, the game is alright, fun to divert with for a spell.