Developed and published by Capcom in 1989.

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Following the success of Double Dragon, it was always going to be interesting to see what the next big title in the beat 'em up genre would look like. That question was answered when Capcom launched Final Fight into the arcades in late 1989.

Final Fight is more evolution than revolution, but it really set the standard for every 2D side-scrolling beat 'em that was to come, particularly when it came to influencing Sega's seminal Streets of Rage series.

The story is told through a short introduction sequence and introduces the game's three playable characters. Jessica, the daughter of the city mayor, has been kidnapped by the notorious Mad Gear gang, who intend to hold her to ransom until her father agrees to turn a blind eye to their criminal activities. Fortunately, Jessica's old man just so happens to be a hulking former champion street fighter who is determined to get his daughter back. If that weren't fortuitous enough, Jessica is also dating an expert martial artist who's best friend also happens to be a deadly ninja. Together, all three set off to rescue Jessica and to dispense some vigilante-style justice.

Each of the three selectable fighters possesses individual strengths and weaknesses. Guy possesses the fast speed when attacking, but has relatively short range, whilst Haggar is the strongest, but is relatively slow. Cody is probably the most well balanced of the three characters and also has the longest reach when attacking.

A beat 'em up is nothing if the fighting isn't good and it's fair to say that Final Fight's fighting is excellent. Tapping the attack button in quick succession unleashes a combo of punches and kicks that will be your bread and butter throughout the game. Getting close to opponents results in your character grabbing them, whereupon it's possible to assault them with a swift knee to the head before throwing them across the screen. Each character can also perform a special attack by pressing the jump and attack buttons simultaneously; this attack will hit any opponents standing near the play, although it will consume a small portion of health when executed.

Bolstering your skills are a range of weapons, which can be found by destroying street furniture, barrels and stacks of old tyres. Weapons include knives, a Samurai sword and, everybody's favourite, a solid length of steel pipe.

Each of the opponents that you face will have their only particular move and special abilities; each and every one of them is capable of taking you out, so even the lowliest of thugs should be treated with a certain level of caution. Of all the regular enemies, the "Andore" wrestlers are the most troublesome due to their long range attacks, knock-down charge and plentiful health pools.

The concept of the game is very straightforward in that it takes the Double Dragon design brief, but improves upon it by adding many small but important features. For example, this is one of the first games that I can recall that introduced health bars for all of the enemies, so that it was possible to keep track of how much punishment they had taken and how much they could continue to take. Not only that, but all of the enemies were given character portraits and even names, even if some of them are rather ridiculous.

The game also popularised the trope of finding food inside trash cans, oil drums and many other unsanitary locations and eating it for extra health. I'm guessing that Capcom is a firm believer in the five second rule...

What did surprise me about the game is just how long it is. The game takes a single player about an hour to beat; bearing in mind that this was an arcade game where the player is likely to be on their feet the entire time, it would have been a test of endurance if you intended to play this from beginning to end. The game features quite a few levels and there is never less than a legion of enemies to defeat on each, so beating the game will take some time.

With it's fantastic graphics, sound and bags of content, Final Fight is a fighting game that should be high on everyone's list of fighting games to try and remains an enduring classic.
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