Final Fight: Revenge
  

REVIEW:  Capcom's classic and iconic beat-em-up series, Final Fight (originally debuting in 1989 arcades), is host to a variety of memorable street brawlers, some of whom have previously crossed over into Capcom's Street Fighter series (with others following suit many years later). For some reason, some "brilliant" person decided to bring back the Final Fight franchise and turn it into a "3D" fighting game. While the words "Final Fight fighting game" certainly have a nice ring to the ears of old school arcade gamers, Final Fight: Revenge ended up being one very disappointing game.

 

  
First off, there's no Story Mode or intro to the game, at all (ouch).... So let's just talk about the "theme" then. Naturally, the theme of Final Fight: Revenge is gritty and street-like (as it should be), with most stages in fact being a city street of sorts (and most looking very ugly to say the least). Sadly, "low-resolution 2D images awkwardly wrapped around a horribly textured square-shaped ground" pretty much sums up every stage in the game. Character models appear considerably large, but have a sickeningly low polygon count, making them look nothing short of Lego people! Nearly every classic character is out of proportion, has laughably stubby arms & legs, and yes, they just look horrible in general. The grainy background and character model textures make things even worse. Alright, I'll go ahead and say it because it needs to be said... Final Fight: Revenge is one of the ALL TIME WORST-looking fighting games ever made. At least the official character artwork for Final Fight: Revenge is pretty sweet (although it's rather pixilated on the VS screen).


Sadly, but expectedly, the gameplay is equally as bad as the graphics... and pretty much defines what I'd refer to as "slow and clunky". The crappy animation makes the gameplay even more choppy and awkward. Could this game get any worse? Yes. Yes it can. The characters themselves don't have many moves, which means (if you actually bothered to play this game) you'll be seeing A TON of spamming. In turn, you'll also be hearing the characters say the same (stupid) things over and over, and over, and over again. The super moves are somewhat entertaining... at best. For example: Eddy E. runs his opponent over in a police car, Rolento guns down his opponent from an Apache helicopter, Poison does a pole dance, and Hugo squishes his opponent under his big ass... classy stuff right? I mean... I understand the Final Fight crew aren't the most civilized folk from the Capcom universe, but they really should've shown a bit more heart in their fighting styles (as they did in their original games).
 

 
One of the main gameplay "innovations" of Final Fight: Revenge is the fact that characters are able to pick up weapons from the ground and use them mid-fight. It's a novel idea that seems like it could work in a 2D fighting game (especially since it's a trademark of the original Final Fight), but isn't executed all that well. Some examples of weapons that fighters can pick up include: knives, swords, guns (lots of guns), spiked knuckles, bombs, a chainsaw (a chainsaw? Yes, a chainsaw), etc.... As you can see, it gets a bit silly (which really contrasts the vibe of the original game). Most characters also have their own exclusive weapons at their disposal, which is sort of a fan service... I guess.


From my description of the game alone, you might think this would be a "violent" game, but it's not nearly as brutal as it sounds. Final Fight: Revenge doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, or even care very much that it's a Capcom fighting game. Indeed, it's a little embarrassing for any Capcom fighting game fan, but hey... in what other fighting game can you use a bazooka, machine gun, rifle, bow gun, freeze gun, and a shotgun? Sounds more like the recipe for a cut & paste FPS! -.- Some of the projectile weapons actually offer some semi-entertaining projectile wars... for a few minutes... (if you're drunk). Please, if you're looking for some Final Fight nostalgia... play the original Final Fight, or hell, even Final Fight 2 or 3.
   

Page Updated: February 27th, 2023 Developer(s): Capcom Publisher(s): Capcom Designers): Tetsuya Iijima               Game Designer Yoshiki Okamoto         Director David Siller                     Director Artwork by: Raymond Fung             Art Director, 2D Art, Graphics Eiko Mori                        Art Lead Jonathan Casco           Art Lead Akiman                             Character Design, Reference Art Platform(s): Arcade, Sega Saturn, PlayStation Release Date(s): July 1999                          Arcade Mar. 30th, 2000             Saturn Characters:  Cody Travers, Guy, Mike Haggar, Damn D., Hugo Andore, Poison Kiss, Sodom, Rolento, El Gado, Edi E., Belger Related TFG Links:  Final Fight Retrospective   Featured Video: Related Games: Street Fighter EX, Street Fighter EX2, Samurai Shodown 64, Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, Mortal Kombat 4, Buriki One, The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Street Smart, Street Fighter Alpha 3, SFA3: Max, Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken, Street Fighter V, SFV: Champion Edition    Gameplay Engine  2.5 / 10 Story / Theme  4.0 / 10 Overall Graphics  1.5 / 10 Animation  2.0 / 10 Music / Sound Effects  4.0 / 10 Innovation  3.0 / 10 Art Direction  8.5 / 10 Customization  3.0 / 10 Options / Extras  2.5 / 10 Intro / Presentation  1.0 / 10 Replayability / Fun  2.5 / 10 "Ouch" Factor  2.0 / 10 Characters  5.5 / 10 BOTTOM LINE  2.7 / 10  Review based on Saturn version       Final Words: First off, congrats to Final Fight Revenge for earning TFG's very rare score of "Craptastic". This game is Craptastic in every sense of the word. It's so crappy... that it's almost humorously good. On the flipside, the game is such a wasted opportunity on an iconic franchise. Like many old school arcade-dwellers of the late 80's / early 90's, I have a very special place in my heart for the original Final Fight. The characters, the soundtrack, the moody / gritty environments, and the addicting gameplay made it an iconic gaming experience. Final Fight made such a huge impact that it spawned literally a TON of copycat games, including: Streets of Rage, Violent Storm, Brawl Brothers, Rival Turf and many others... all of which borrowed heavily from Final Fight, and in some cases, essentially "tried to be" a repainted Final Fight. Capcom's classic 2D beat-em-up really should've translated smoothly into a decent fighting game, but the team behind Final Fight: Revenge screwed it up pretty badly by going 3D. For us Capcom fans, it was utterly heartbreaking to see our beloved Final Fight characters transform into "walking Lego-people" with laughable, terrible-looking moves and animations. Revenge's gameplay makes the game too hilarious to be taken even remotely seriously, which is ironic because the original Final Fight actually had a fairly serious vibe to it. The character roster is also very small, with no new or "surprising" appearances (besides the retarded zombie version of Belger). It would've been cool to see some faces from Final Fight 2 or even Final Fight 3... or perhaps even a few more FF1 originals that didn't make the cut. Capcom could've done so much more (and so much better) with this project, but it just seems like they rushed it... big-time. Needless to say, if you're looking to experience the true Final Fight vibe, just go back and play the original. The bright side of all of this is that most Final Fight characters faithfully translated into other Capcom fighting games over the years, such as: Street Fighter Alpha 3, SFIII: 2nd Impact, Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter x Tekken, and Street Fighter V. Even though Final Fight Revenge was a total failure, many of the classic character designs have aged very well and have lived on! ~TFG Webmaster | @Fighters_Gen                                    Click Here for all character art!   Click Here for all poster / box art! FOLLOW    ON:                             TFG NEWS CHARACTERS GAMES