Final Fight: Double Impact

Available on XBLA is the blast from the past, Final Fight: Double Impact. This 1980’s side scrolling piece of gaming history is yours to own for a mere 800 MS points.

For those who have never played Final Fight before, let me first say shame on you. This game has not only been considered the best brawling game ever but it was meant to be a sequel to the Street Fighter series. Before its release the game was changed to be a side scrolling beat ’em up instead of a one-on-one mash up, hence spawning its own franchise.

The game begins with Mayor Mike Haggar’s daughter, Jessica being kidnapped by the notorious street gang The Mad Gear. With the mayor just so happening to be a retired wrestler he doesn’t call the police, he decides to rescue her himself. But such a massive task could not be done without backup. So he recruits the help of Jessica’s boyfriend, Cody and his marital arts specialist friend, Guy to go and kick some ass.

You have the choice of using Haggar, Cody or Guy to go and make a ruckus. Do bear in mind that each character is different and have varying fighting styles. Haggar is the strongest out of the three but happens to be really slow. Guy is the weakest but can fight a lot faster while Cody is just the all rounder.

But what do I see here? Is there an additional game that you get, meaning you get an extra bang for your buck? I do believe that is the case. For not only do you get Final Fight: Double Impact, but you also get Magic Sword. Now I have to admit, I have not played this before, which is just wrong, but I did enjoy giving this a whirl too.

Magic Sword is also a side scrolling action game but instead of dealing with street brawls and kidnappers you get to use magic and sorcery to battle your way through 50 floor tower. Here you must defeat the dark lord Drokmar, who has a crystal which can allow him to take over the world know as the Dark Orb. The main character and his allies he can find don’t seem to have names, but the main protagonist is referred to as ‘The Brave One’ so that’s good enough for me.

The button configuration is the same for both of the games, with ‘X’ and ‘Y’ being used to attach and ‘A’ and ‘B’ to make you jump. What I thought was pretty nifty is that you have the option to drop in/out of an ongoing game, meaning you can recruit the help of a friend if need be. You also have the option to choose the look of the game by upscaling – making the characters become flawless or if your feeling retro, it can even look like it did on the arcade machines. You can also change the screen layout to fit the whole screen or to zoom into the gameplay. My favourite is the cabinet mode which feels as though you’re playing on an actual arcade machine. There is even the option to kick ass to either the original soundtrack or to the remastered versions of the songs.

Any game which reminds you of how gaming used to be is always worth a play. Getting two games for the price of one, with one of those games being Final Fight: Double Impact, I would say that spending 800 MS points is definitely justified.