Mega Final Fight - DIPSWITCH

After having successfully shrunken arcade Final Fight down to a Mega Drive-sized cart file, fan devs CFX have, quite apparently, gotten drunk on their power. Not only have they added a scroll feature to the character select screen that reveals two brand new player options - Captain Commando and Maki from Super Nintendo exclusive Final Fight 2 - but extra moves have been added to the three original selections. Cody inherits elements of his Street Fighter Alpha 3 move-list while Haggar gains a meaty double axe handle-style strike. 

Final Fight Ultimate - 2P

Another look at CFX's Final Fight Ultimate, a modern fan project that squeezes Capcom's seminal coin-op down to a blast processing-friendly size. This latest clip shows off a gameplay mode missing from the SNES' 1990 adaptation (a Japanese launch title no less, which probably explains why the cart was a little feature poor): simultaneous two-player action. 

Final Fight Ultimate - BLASTED

First look at a Final Fight fan project that shrinks Capcom's seminal coin-up down to Mega Drive dimensions. Although there's not much but menus in this clip, Edmo Caldas, Master Linkuei and Mauro Xavier's Final Fight Ultimate already looks about on par with the nearest equivalent adaptation, the 1989 Mega CD release, and conclusively trumps the period SNES cart(s) by allowing players to chose from all three street fighting characters. Although hardly a fair match-up, given the intervening decades of accumulated compiling know-how, it's still fun to see Sega's humble 16-bit system pushed to its limit. 

DF Retro - Final Fight

The Digital Foundry gang take a look at Capcom's iconic brawler Final Fight, detailing the tech behind the original coin-op as well as the many ports and sequels that followed. Of particular note is the news that, for their Mega CD conversion, Sega slowed down each of the playable characters, clipping the overall movement and attack speed of the nimble selections. A similar sort of averaging out plagued the Mega Drive version of Golden Axe - specifically the hit box of the playable character's weapons. Tyris Flare's short sword and Gilius Thunderhead's massive broadaxe both hit with the same medium range assigned to Ax Battler's middle-of-the-road sword.

FINAL FIGHT CD

Vid on the blink?

ULTRA

By the sounds of it, Capcom are strip mining the less than successful Street Fighter X Tekken for updates assets in the next version of Street Fighter IV. Due next year, Ultra Street Fighter IV is to feature fan feedback gameplay adjustments, as well as six stages and four characters ripped straight from 2012's cross-over. Joining Ryu and the gang are Mad Gear alumni Poison, Hugo and Rolento, as well as the hyper-limber Elena from Street Fighter III. We are also promised a mystery fifth fighter, apparently making their Street Fighter series debut. Capcom Twitter feeds have already discounted Asura (from Asura's Wrath) and Mega Man but, so far, there's been no mention of a certain Mayor Mike Haggar.

Saturday Night Slam Masters by Tetsuo Hara

If Capcom are rooting around for another Final Fight Double Impact style legacy title ripe for a HD spruce-up, might I suggest Saturday Night Slam Masters (known in Japan as the splendidly vulgar sounding Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion)?

Belly Not Full

Revealed at Capcom's recent Captivate event was this retail recalibration of Dead Rising 2, designed to cater for a perceived consumer want. Like a modern-day version of SNES curiosity Final Fight Guy, Dead Rising 2: Off the Record monkeys around with Blue Castle's six month old title, junking family-man player character Chuck Greene in favour of everyone's favourite slob, Frank West.

Dead Rising 2 was a decent enough approximation of the original title's lawless glee, even if it did lack the mumbled, lost-in-translation narrative qualities that drive most Capcom action games. The original Dead Rising chugged along to a pleasing survival horror conclusion, before transforming itself into a fraught, sci-fi scavenger hunt for the post-game bonus mission. Dead Rising 2 accounted for this nifty secret story-telling, but whiffed it by attempting to keep things organic. Dead Rising's joy came in its tangents, mistakes, and wild tonal shifts. It presented itself as a game made specifically for American tastes, whilst taking endless pot-shots at the consumer culture that drives that country. Dead Rising 2 played it straight, and came up short. With Frank West back in the avatar seat - and sporting an impressively slouchy beef gut - perhaps Blue Castle and Capcom can recapture some of the futureshock madness that made Dead Rising so special?

Ten Video Games 2010: Super Street Fighter IV

Despite formulating the completely excellent polygon scrapper Rival Schools, Capcom has always struggled to translate its premiere fighter franchise into 3D. The Street Fighter licence was farmed out to Arika for the Street Fighter EX series, a love-it or loathe-it side-step brand, hobbled out the gate in Europe thanks to lousy 50Hz conversions. Regardless, even on 60Hz import the results never touched contemporary 2D installments. After the wonderful, but undersubscribed, Street Fighter III series it seemed like Ryu et al were being abandoned to nostalgia prompts in big-budget franchise clashers. Woe was us!

The Street Fighter series unexpectedly bounced back in summer 2008 with the arcade release of Street Fighter IV, thanks to Yoshinori Ono and The Rumble Fish developer Dimps. Street Fighter IV ditched any pretense of arena roam play, instead sticking to 2D planes with 3D assets. The vast cast were rendered as chunky, colourful charm lumps, blessed with spectacular ultra move movies, and Looney Tune injury faces. Super Street Fighter IV is the third iteration of the IV series, with a fourth, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, on its way. The title heaves with features, from the re-introduction of Final Fight's bonus vandalism stages to minute frame tweaks for combo connects and a comprehensive suite of multiplayer matchmaking. It's an exhaustive package, designed for utter scrutiny, and maximum replayability.

HAGGAR!

Zangief's continued absence from Marvel vs Capcom 3 announces was starting to get a little worrying. It just wouldn't be the same if players couldn't mangle Marvel's finest with a gruff Soviet wrestler. Although it doesn't look like the Red Cyclone will be making an appearance, Capcom have lined up the very next best thing - Metro City Mayor, Mike Haggar. It's a welcome return for Final Fight's moustached one, the character having dodged drafts for both the Street Fighter Alpha series, and Street Fighter IV. Fighting games have missed his absurd, leather belt brawn.

via Kotaku

Final Fight: Double Impact

Twenty years on and Final Fight still has some arresting ideas about video game form. Levels are divided into short, punchy vignettes, packed with enemy swamp incident. Currency and vitality pick-ups are situationally abstract treats that operate on attention grabbing shorthand. Bins and crates hide everything from gleaming jewellery to pineapples and roasted chicken dinners, turning the necessary power-up slog into a daffy treasure hunt.

Lightly building on the Double Dragon / Renegade template, player characters have a basic shock of button jabbers, as well as a deeper set of command moves. Muscle bomb Mayor Mike Haggar enjoys the most detailed game, his desperation lariat is complimented by a timing dependent piledriver, forming the bare model for Street Fighter II's grappler Zangief. Player sprites are large, and detailed with a full range of motion. Walking and action animations cycle nicely; each of the three controllable characters bristle with weight and charm. Enemy sprites have slighter motion ranges, but make up for it with a wild variety of colour and form. Thump targets range from lazy-zip knifers to WWF punkers and gymnastic transvestites.

Final Fight isn't perfect though, later stages betray coin guzzle arcade origins with players are stranded in danger tile industrial nightmares, and pitted against bosses with unclear vulnerability states. Even so, Final Fight is still obvious as a premium experience, complimented here by a superb presentation by Proper Games. 2010 players can toggle a wealth of display options, including adding CRT scanlines and monitor fluorescence, as well as a digitised cab reproduction to fill out the 16:9 frame. Equally fantastic is Simon Viklund's reworked soundtrack, Viklund turns in a suite of sweaty synthetic thwacks on a bedrock of juddering collision beats. Final Fight is also supplemented with an unlockables vault, and Magic Sword a complete death-trap dungeon CPS sidescroller. Tackled like a Criterion edition reissue, this should be the model for all vintage gaming re-releases.

Hakan!

Week late video game news! Capcom reveals its latest world warrior; a Turkish wrestler named Hakan. This supernatural stompah oils up for slidey grab and mangles, and poop-shoot eject Ultras. Look at their faces! They wear a scowl of acute misery! Except Dee Jay, he's enjoying himself. Given Hakan's broad grapple outline, it makes you wonder if the character started off as an appearance for Final Fight politician Mike Haggar? It's all there: prowling monster walk, grab damagers, leather pants, facial hair. It's a different kind of comedy seeing a moustached scowler oil up and manhandle though - maybe a little too leather daddy for Capcom?