Final Fight 2 [SNES/1993]

System Played: Super Nintendo

Year Released: 1993

Year Reviewed: 2011

Final Fight 2 is a SNES exclusive sequel to Capcom’s classic arcade beat ‘em up which see’s the Mad Gear gang return for revenge.

Having successfully rescued Cody’s girlfriend and cleansed the mean streets of Metro City in the first game, the punks of Mad Gear regroup in Eurasia (Europe/Asia) proving themselves to be quite a well travelled if slow-to-learn group, when they hatch a new but familiar plot, this time to kidnap Guy’s fiancé and her old man, presumably just because he was there at the time. Guy, having a strange notion of priority isn’t able to help save them due to being “busy with training”, so his fiancé’s sister Maki reaches out to man/truck/mayor, Mike Haggar who is always up for pile-driving street punks. Also along for the ride is Haggar’s bud Carlos, a Michael Bolton look-alike who again was presumably just there at the time…

Haggar, being the only returning character, controls much as you remember, with huge power and reach but lacking in speed (except when he’s spinning pile-driving stinkin’ punks across the damn screen!). Maki is essentially just Guy from the first game, but female and with much fewer clothes on (a sure fire formula to improve any character) and Carlos is the guy in the middle, a decent all rounder and the most balanced character.

Criminally, the gameplay in Final Fight 2 hasn’t evolved at all since the first game, with one attack button, a jump and a special when you mash the two still your main ways of doling out punishment. You still have grabs, flying kicks and the occasional weapon pickup but there’s nothing here that wasn’t possible in the first game which is a massive disappointment.

Success is still all about managing your surroundings and keeping the enemies around you at the right distance. Again, there are only a couple of enemy types which makes things very repetitive, even with a sparse 6 levels in total. You’ll spend too much time stood on the edge of the screen, punching of it to hit enemies who are offencelessly stood around.

Being an arcade game, the original Final Fight was designed to be a coin guzzler, giving you just enough of the sweet stuff for your money to encourage you to keep feeding it every few minutes. By comparison, Haggar and team have a pretty easy time of it in Final Fight 2, with more than enough Lives and Continues to go around, and the game is definitely worse for it. Anyone wanting at least some modicum of challenge should play on Expert from the outset, but can still expect to get all the way to the end on the first attempt. Enemies are predictable and only really oppressive in groups and none of the bosses are challenging with the possible exception of returning douche bag, Rolento.

The only good things to be said for Final Fight 2 is that there is now a 2-player option, something which should have been in the port of the first game on SNES but wasn’t for some stupid reason. There are also a few more Street Fighter nods to look out for, like Chun Li in the background on the first level, car beating-up mini-game and a few shared sounds and sprites but overall, Final Fight’s European Vacation is a very short, unchallenging and disappointing game with zero inspiration or innovation.

5/10