Civic duties take on a whole new meaning for Mike Haggar, new mayor of Metro City (2CV City wouldn't have the same ring, would it?) in this fast moving beat-'em-up, bash-'em-up, bags-of-ouch struggle! Nick Roberts takes a trip to the future to join the action...

US Gold
£11.99

On becoming Mayor, Haggar has put his life of mindless violence on the street fighting circuit behind him - until daughter Jessica is kidnapped by the brutal Mad Gear gang and held for ransom. What's he to do? Call in the SAS? Shrug his shoulders and sigh? No! 'Cos he's tough, mean and don't take no nonsense from no-one! So, he dons his size 12 Doc Martens and gets his street fighting friends together to get her back in this - the final fight (hence the title!).

You can control either Haggar or his sidekicks, Cody and Guy, and you can play the game as a one or two-player battle. They're all formidable fighting machines and pretty nifty with a punch.

Looking at the screenshots you can see how big everything is. And surprisingly, the speed isn't bad at all. I mean, it's not super fast and zippy but it's quick enough to be very playable. The only time things slow down a bit too much is when the screen scrolls to a further location - but when it does you're generally not involved in a fight scene (so that's OK).

STREET TOUGH

Life on the streets, is tough. Everyone's got it in for you, even the cops! The opponents come in all shapes and sizes but have one thing in common - they're all BIG! Weirdos in the game include a nutter in a Batman suit, a bloke with one hell of a beer belly (I told you Nick was there - Ed) and someone called 2P! (obviously a bit of small change!)

To batter the baddies you can pick up knives, pipes and Molotov Cocktails (petrol bombs if you're not up on the street fighting lingo!) to throw at anyone who takes your fancy, as well as battering them with fists and feet. Knocking off the street scum is peanuts though, compared to facing the big, end-of-level hard nuts. Sinister Samurai swordsmen and evil giants need a bit more than a spank on the botty to stop them crushing you! (No, a wet haddock won't help either).

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THAT THING!

People who moan that Speccy graphics are tiny and boring should take a good butchers at Final Fight. The character sprites fill half the screen just like the arcade machine. The backgrounds to the many levels are detailed and impressive. Some even have animation as you run along, as in the subway section with trains pulling up behind you. Dustbins, crates and telephones dotted along your path can be picked up and smashed to smithereens! This is mindless violence, I know, but it often reveals handy hidden weapons.

Fighting is the same old affair seen in many a beat-'em-up. Waggling the joystick (which can really make your hand ache after a while, if you know what I mean) with or without the fire button, gives different moves, including jumps, back kicks and mega punches. The difficulty setting is just right, with beating an opponent just a matter of perseverance with a lead pipe! Tough, eh?

I'm usually not very impressed with beat-'em-ups as programmers usually fall into the trap of producing mediocre games with nothing new to offer. Final Fight is different. With its detailed, gigantic graphics and loadsa whacky enemies it's bound to be a real winner with all beat-'em-up fans, even I loved it 'cos I pretended it was Corky that I was duffing up!

NICK [89%]

Wow! These guys are mega - the sprites in Final Fight are whoppers. They certainly shift as they kick ass and ensure the Mad Gear gang pay for kidnapping Jessica. The arcade version is unknown to me, but after playing the computer incarnation I'll certainly be searching it out. OK, you may say, this is just another vigilante beat-'em-up. True, but even though the sprites are monochrome the attention to detail is excellent. The mugshots and presentation screens in the title sequence are great and the varied backdrops score highly in my books - there's nothing worse than trudging round a game with samey looking settings. As with a lot of beat-em-ups, the going is tough to start with (the timer doesn't help), but after a while you can merrily punch any attacker's lights out, no probs. Final Fight is a mighty thumbs for US Gold. Excellento!
MARK [91%]

US Gold
£10.21 (543) cass
Reviewer: James Leach

Oh good grief! I did a huge Megapreview all about Final Fight in issue 68 and I've just realised that the start of the game is called Haggar, not Hagger. (Prat. Ed) So it seems I was completely wrong. Er, sorry, everybody.

Anyway, on with the extreme violence. Haggar (I got it right this time) has just been declared Mayor of a rather nifty town in America called Metro City (where all the cars are Metros, I presume). Haggar used to be a bit of a street-fighter, but he's promised that he'll stop so he can spend more time being Mayor. Unfortunately, Metro City is still filled with violent dudes, and the worst of all are the Mad Gear Gang (so called because they're completely mad and they've got lots of, er, gears). They've gone and kidnapped Haggar's daughter, Jessica - for no apparent reason! Naturally, Haggar's none too pleased with this state of affairs, so with his mate Cody, he decides I go and deal with the gang personally.

The thing with the CapCom coin-op version of Final Fight was that it had absolutely mega-huge sprites. And guess what? The Speccy version's got them just as big! They're about half the sceen high and rather spiffily detailed.

Of course there's a price to pay for these whoppers, and it's smoothness. As you might expect, the game is a bit jerky and uneven. The fighters move around nicely but when they carry out their special moves it occasionally gets rather confusing. You have the usual kick, thump, jump and duck moves plus others, depending on whether you're playing Haggar, Guy or Cody. Cody does Ninja-style kicks and flips, Guy does massive punches and Haggar does wrestling body slams and strangleholds (and rather lethal they are too).

TOTALLY SMASHING!

There are six levels of all this horizontally scrolling mayhem, which means that you've got six backdrops to do your fighting in front of. Level One is the street thence 'street-fighting'), Level Two the subway, Level Three is a restaurant, Level Four is a factory, Five is by a rather pleasant seaside bay and Six is a hotel (where you'll find Jessica by the way). The baddies are pretty much the same throughout, but there are different weapons to be found in each level (such as knives and forks in the restaurant, sharp shells by the bay and so on).

Although the sprites can't be as slick as the usual mincing little jobbies you see, they really are works of art. You sense the power in the punches, gasp as your opponents reel back, blood spurting from their... (Calm yourself, James. Ed) But I suppose, at the end of the day, it depends what you're after in a beat-'em-up. Final Fight's got lots of moves and weapons (such as knives, iron bars and lots of yummy things like that) to use on your enemies, and plenty of non-stop face-punching fun. It isn't as slick and playable as some, but it's novel and the speed is impressive for the size of the graphics.

Label: US Gold
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £11.99 Tape, £16.99 Disk
Reviewer: Steve Keen

If a two bit actor can become president in the good old US of A then there is no doubt that a man mountain that looks like the result of genetic splicing between Hulk Hogan and an African elephant can become mayor of a city.

Said Mayor Haggar, who squeezes into a shirt and tie for whatever duties his vast intellect can muster at the office, gets a phone call from the terrorists who have kidnapped his daughter. Rather than let his personal army of security men handle the problem he decides to don his wrestling trousers and scour the streets for himself.

Enlisting the help of Cody and Guy, his street wise side kick, the game begins and this is where it shakes off the yawns. The size of the sprites are awesome, the backdrops fabulously detailed and scrolling is mostly smooth.

Haggar and chums have a variety of moves in the six levels of beat 'em up action with as many backdrops. Bash, thump and kick your way through the subway, restaurant, factory, bay and hotel. Various knives and pipes can be used against the thugs, but don't last forever.

All the way through the game, due to memory restrictions, the baddies are more or less the same with only about five different opponents. It's for this same reason that control is severely restricted when fighting as things can get very complicated. A sudden move of your controls and the two opponents disappear in a ball of arms and legs, and later separate with one sprite remaining as victor. However your attention is maintained by the sheer attractiveness of the sprites.

Some backdrops mask your characters detail, but you suddenly step out to a whiter back ground and are stunned by their detail.

Not the most playable beat 'em up in the world, but definitely the best looking. The variety of moves for the different players go a long way to making this a good lasting buy.

GARTH:
After Pit Fighter I'll believe anthing, but Final Fight still surprised me. Great looking sprites. I could watch the game forever and never have to touch the joystick. (Although I did anyway!)

ALAN:
Possibly the best sprite graphics ever witnessed on the Spectrum (in monochrome). I'll be playing it for a few weeks in between bouts of Rodland.