Final Fight: DF Retro revisits the arcade original, every port, and all sequels

Emerging at a time of unprecedented technical innovation in the arcade, the story of Capcom's Final Fight is remarkable. Building from the semi-success of the original Street Fighter, the firm revolutionised the side-scrolling brawler with the debut of Final Fight, originally known as Street Fighter '89. Brilliant art design, fast-paced kinetic fighting and a pounding soundtrack combined with the technical brilliance of the CPS-1 board to create a revelation and one year later, the game would achieve further popularity from the arrival of a mega-successful - but controversial - Super Famicom/Super NES conversion.

But that barely scratches the surface of the origins of the epoch-making arcade game that introduced Mike Haggar, Guy and Cody. In a DF Retro special, John Linneman, Audi Sorlie and a range of talking heads from the retro community aim to deliver the definitive Final Fight retrospective, starting off the deep dive into the title's beginnings and assessing the original arcade release before delivering analysis of every single conversion of Final Fight ever made, from the dual Super Famicom/Super NES releases, through the brilliant Mega-CD port (actually developed by Sega) all the way through to Mighty Final Fight, a super deformed rendition of the original game for the NES arriving years after the release of its next-gen console successor.

But that's not the end of the Final Fight analysis, because Linneman and company then tackle guest appearances from the characters in spin-off titles and deliver their verdict on every single Final Fight franchise entry, encompassing a brace of numbered sequels from Capcom that were exclusive to Super NES, all the way up to 2006's Final Fight Streetwise - a US-developed open world 3D brawler for PlayStation 2 and the OG Xbox. It sounds intriguing and it is, though the grim tone taken by the game and the contemptuous response from the Final Fight fanbase effectively sealed the fate of the franchise - but its spirit and influence lives on.

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