|
|
|
|
UPDATED:
June 2022
|
|
Final Fight Retrospective / More History
|
|
|
|
 In Part III of our Final Fight retrospective, let's talk about some of the history of the inevitable, fated crossover with Capcom's iconic Street Fighter
series (and more). I'd like to remind everyone that I will continue updating this retrospective feature in the future with even more content and rare images, artwork, 2D sprites, and fun facts! Continue scrolling down to read a personal take from yours truly, as I grew up in the late 80's / early 90's playing Final Fight and was lucky enough to experience the full evolution of the series
(and fighting games) -
witnessing each character's epic debut in Street Fighter games. Good times... Good times indeed.
|
PART 3
|
Seven years after his original debut,
Guy made his first playable appearance in the Street Fighter series in June 1995. In SFA, Guy was also joined by fellow Final Fight veteran
Sodom (originally named Katana in the SNES version of Final Fight). Instead of fighting with two katana like he did in Final Fight, Sodom switched to weilding jitte. In SFA3, Sodom uses his katana once again when selected with the X-ISM system.
In 1996,
Rolento joined the series in Street Fighter Alpha 2. In 1997,
Hugo (accompanied by his manager,
Poison) appeared as a new playable character in Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact. In 1998,
Cody made his series debut in Street Fighter Alpha 3 as an escaped convict (which made perfect sense after all the Mad Gear thugs he beat up). In 2019,
Abigail made his series debut in SFV: Arcade Edition along with
Lucia Morgan from Final Fight 3.
|
■ Final Fight characters have also made a number of beloved cameos in Street Fighter stages over the years. This was always an amazing homage for fans enriched in the Capcom universe.
FUN FACT: In Guy's SFA2 stage, when a female playable character
walks by Cody, he will "turn his head" to look at her... only to receive a slap of jealousy from Jessica. It was this attention to detail that made 90's Capcom games so memorable (and made me a Street Fighter / Final Fight fan for life). Even after all this years, it still seems like an underdeveloped
crossover. (We want more crossover games Capcom!) |
  
| ■ FUN FACT: Cody's knife mechanic in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is a reference to the fact that he is the only character in the original Final Fight who can use a
knife multiple times. |
 
| ■ FUN FACT: Cody's super move "Final Destruction" in Street Fighter Alpha 3 is a direct homage to his jab infinite / exploit which was possible in the original Final Fight. |
| ■ Final Fight 3 Super Nintendo box artwork. |
| ■ Final Fight 2 Super Famicom box artwork. |
| ■ Final Fight Revenge (1999) was the first fighting game appearance for many Final Fight characters. Sadly, the Capcom USA team
wasn't able to deliver a "quality" product at the time... as the game was met with huge disappointment, and maybe some laughs at best. |
| ■ Mighty Final Fight character artwork for Cody, Guy & Haggar. |
| ■ "Final Crossing"... a brilliant fan creation in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2020). I won't miss this opportunity to place an obligatory link to TFG's Fighting Games
× Animal Crossing
article. |
|
|
| ■
FUN
FACT: Final
Fight made a prominent appearance in the Hi
Score Girl manga / anime. |
|
| Frank's
take on Final Fight.
|
|
Growing up as an "arcade kid" in the 80's / early 90's... I'll always have a special place in my heart for Final Fight. I remember Final Fight being one of the reasons I 100% needed to own an SNES (besides SF2 and Super Mario World). Still to this
day, I love Final Fight's characters, soundtrack, gameplay, storyline, and all the hidden details and Easter Eggs that followed. Final Fight was (and still is) the perfect beat-em-up game. 10/10. In my TOP 10 fighting game countdown vlog below, I talk about how Cody's SFA3 super was a throwback to old fans who remember the
infinite in Final Fight 1.
For its time, Final Fight was easily the most aesthetically pleasing and technically impressive beat-em-up title, by far. It was so good in fact, that the original Final Fight spawned countless wannabes that were essentially "repainted Final Fight rip-offs".... (yes, I'm looking at you Streets of Rage). While some
of those "me too" beat-em-ups were decent games on their own, there's no arguing how much of an impact Final Fight had in the making of those games. The console-exclusive sequels to the original: Mighty Final Fight, Final Fight 2 and Final Fight 3 weren't too shabby either.
|
| ■ Shinkiro Final Fight 1 throwback comic for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. |
|
Back in the day... I remember how
special and epic it was to see Final Fight veterans like Guy, Sodom,
Rolento, Cody, Hugo Andore, Maki, and others make their fighting game
debuts into the Street Fighter universe (after many years of those characters not appearing in anything). It was first revealed in Street
Fighter Alpha (1995) that Street Fighter and Final Fight
share the same universe, making the world of Capcom seem much larger. There was so much love, care, and deep attention to detail when each Final Fight veteran
was added to the Street Fighter roster.
Especially for Capcom fans who played the hell out of the original Final Fight...
seeing each character's moveset and appearance fleshed out and reimagined in various Street Fighter
iterations was such a treat, and truly a
heartfelt fan service, every single time. These early
"crossovers" were some of Capcom's best fighting game ideas (and
have aged incredibly well), if you ask me. Metro City for
life!
|
■ Cody, Guy & Haggar illustration by Bengus drawn circa 2015-2018. Say what you will about the evolution of Bengus's art style, but I love this image. The lines are killer... and
the characters have an exagerrated "caricature" appeal to them. Yeah, Cody looks really buff here - but don't forget he beat up about 500 street thugs (and the Andore wrestling family) without losing a credit. (That's canon.) The dude was swole and had to be.
FUN FACT: Haggar is holding chewing gum (or a gem) and Guy is holding sushi. |
| ■ Zeku and Guy illustration by Richard Suwono. |
|
In the early 2000's, on this very website... I made a statement on TFG Funnies, that, and I quote "if they released a Final Fight movie with Don Frye as the lead actor, life would be significantly better." Well. Life is funny sometimes. In June 2018, Game Basement Productions worked
some magic. The Frye himself was cast as Mayor Mike Haggar in the fan film: "The
Broken Gear: A Final Fight Film". Life is significantly better.  Thank you Game Basement Productions
for turning my childhood dreams into reality. Enjoy the full 30-minute
martial arts flick below. (Please make PART 2 guys!)
You can read Capcom's original dev interview posted in February 2019 HERE. Thanks for checking out TFG's retrospective article! Once again, I'll continue
updating this feature with more content in the future! 
As always, keep it here on Fighters Generation to enjoy more fighting game
history and nostalgic content.
~Frank Joseph, TFG
Webmaster |
@Fighters_Gen
|
|
| Sources: Capcom
Shadaloo CRI,
thegamebasementcrew |
| Related TFG Links:
Final Fight:
Revenge,
Capcom Fighting All-Stars, SFA3, Cody,
Guy,
Haggar,
Rolento,
Sodom,
Hugo,
Poison,
Damn D,
Edi. E,
El Gado,
Abigail,
Zeku,
Lucia |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ON: 
