Final Fight

Final Fight is set in the fictional Metro City and you take on the role of one of three fighters, Cody, Guy or Mayor Mike Haggar and must battle the Mad Gear gang to rescue Cody’s girlfriend Jessica from their clutches.  Most of these characters went on to appear in other Capcom games, such as the Street Fighter series and many of the enemies were pop-culture references too.  (Witness: Axl & Slash from Guns n’ Roses and Andore is a reference to the late WWF Wrestler, Andre the Giant.)

Capcom’s answer to Streets of Rage on the MegaDrive was a darn fine one and it almost succeded.  A big hit in the arcades, the conversion to SNES looked and sounded great, but this came at a price.  Guy was gone as was the two-player mode and one level was removed entirely!

It was definitely a lot closer in its third incarnation though as can be seen here, and there’s no doubting that the graphics were superb.  The sequels Final Fight 2 and 3 were SNES exclusives and did not appear at the arcades.

Trivia: The two female enemies are not transvestites but were deemed as such by the ever careful Nintendo of America and were replaced in the US version.