Final Fight is one of the definitive games of the side-scrolling beat 'em up genre, no doubt about it. Released in arcades in 1989, the game was ported to the SNES the following year, with multiple things missing such as Level 4, an entire character, and no two-player mode. Despite being something of a flawed conversion, the fact that Nintendo had one of the hottest arcade titles as a home console exclusive was a real coup at the time.
That's not the only port the game got, of course, but for envious Genesis / Mega Drive owners, Streets of Rage had to substitute, and many Sega fans missed out entirely on Final Fight unless they had a Mega / Sega CD, which got its own port a short time later that had much of what was missing from the SNES version.
Still, time can be a great healer, and if you've been holding out for a brand new release of your favourite beat 'em up for your retro Sega console, then Final Fight Ultimate is for you.
This upcoming homebrew port of Final Fight has been the passion project of retro developer Mauro Xavier for a while now, and together with Edmo Caldas, on music, and Master Linkuei, who is working on ripping, tricks & tech support, they are looking at bringing a definitive version of the game to the Genesis. Xavier posted the very first video of the project to YouTube (above), and it looks absolutely brilliant.
From the Genesis' grungy chip tunes to the sprite work, this looks and sounds like something that came out on the console 30 years ago. Fans are eager to see this one, with some asking just whether the homebrew version will be able to accommodate more changes than the SNES port could manage. And while Xavier can't promise anything, he's said that the team is trying.
@ChaddyBones also shared mock-ups for the box art, using that iconic red stip of the Genesis box, and another using Capcom's template for its first Genesis release, Street Fighter II': Special Championship Edition.
The port is still currently being worked on, with Xavier sharing in an update last week that sound effects, controls, and the intro (as we've seen!) are all complete, while item and enemy placement still needs a fair bit of work to get up to scratch.
Still, we're hugely excited to see everything come together into what is hopefully the definitive version of Final Fight – and one that (unofficially, at least) could kickstart those playground debates about which 16-bit console was best.
You can check out Mauro Xavier's Patreon here and sign up for updates on the homebrew's development.
Share your Final Fight memories with us alongside your opinions of the port in the comments!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 32
It’s got that awful Megadrive colour palette though. Say what you like about the Super Famicom version but at least it captured the feel of the arcade game.
@AlanaHagues Slight typo? 1st Paragraph, 'flawed conversation > conversion'?
There’s a Final Fight 2 romhack for the SNES that ups the number of on-screen enemies to 5. I’m not sure if it’s using the SA-1 but that will be the number for this game to beat. I’m hoping the author of that romhack also works on a patch for SNES Final Fight 1.
I had it on Sega CD and SNES. Still do, but prefer the arcade rom itself. Better colors, all the characters
@sikthvash That was my fault, fixed!
@Damo Cool! Great articles as always, thanks to you all ^_^
Loving all the Final Fight love lately. I hope the Capcom ransomware leak is true and a proper follow up is on the cards.
Just so I understand, this is about a fan-made game that they are trying to port to a physical Genesis cartridge?
And I assume none of this has license or IP approval?
Now that you can play the arcade version of Final Fight on either the Capcom beat 'em up bundle or Arcade Stadium, there is very little reason to ever return to the flawed Super NES version.
It's getting really good!
I love the GBA version where you can unlock Cody and Guy as they appear in the Street Fighter Alpha games.
Snes more than made up for it with Final fight 2 and 3 which are both brilliant.
@Chocobo_Shepherd It's totally unofficial, and most people are likely to play this via emulation. However, given that it has happened with other unofficial fan games in the past, I'd imagine someone will end up putting it on a physical cartridge as well.
I would have thought the definitive vesion of Final Fight is on the Capcom Belt Action compilation, no?
It’s cool they’re doing a full port for the mega drive but I was kinda hoping they’d do a little more with it. Like have maki and dean etc playable or have some cool new options or smth.
“Streets of Rage had to substitute” for Mega Drive
/Genesis owners? The Streets of Rage series was overall better than the Final Fight series and SoR 2 is the best game in either series by a considerable margin.
@Damo So it's entirely illegal?
@Chocobo_Shepherd It's totally unofficial, yes, but there's no cash changing hands here. This is a fan project.
@RushDawg. Definitely. My personal dream preference would be streets of Rage 2, with the sor1 soundtrack, with the speed of the action from Sor3. Would love that x
I'd gladly take the color limitations of the Genesis, as it still looks good enough to me, to get much better sound. Final Fight on SNES didn't sound all that good, in my opinion. Of course, the arcade version is easy to find these days, but stuff like this is always interesting to me. I know someone was working on a version of the original Shinobi for the Genesis(the PC Engine version was impressive, but held back by a small ROM size).
With Final Fight, the Sega CD version looked to be at its limit as you can spot sprite flicker if you're looking for it. It would be hard to do any better than that version in terms of on-screen characters, though other improvements are possible.
Pretty interesting what they are doing here. I used to play the SNES version all the time back in the day. But it’s really hard to go back to since it’s easier just to play the arcade version. And I don’t see why Capcom hasn’t put Final Fight 2 and 3 on the SNES online yet. Rather have those than the whack Jaleco beat em ups that are on there.
If I want to play Final Fight on a Genesis, I will just play Final Fight CD. That is the best home version anyway.
@Chocobo_Shepherd Capcom has been extremely friendly with fan projects like this. So much so, that "Street Fighter X Mega Man" has been featured and promoted by Capcom themselves.
As long as it isn't a commercial product, i doubt Capcom will have any issues with it.
It would be "illegal" if they made money with it.
Man, 1992-era me just did a little happy dance — while I loved the SOR series, I was always praying for Final Fight to come to the Mega Drive. It wasn't until years later playing the SNES version on Virtual Console and realised just how trimmed-down it was (2 playable characters, stage missing, maximum of three enemies onscreen...)
Let's not beat around the bush. To the letter of the law, unless the developers secured a license or written permission to use Capcom's IP, this project is very much illegal.
Capcom may choose not to pursue legal remedy against the developers, but they are well within their rights to do so, and would be very likely to prevail, regardless of whether any money had been exchanged.
Keep in mind, too, that information about this project is being distributed behind a Patreon paywall, so the argument that no cash is changing hands is not entirely accurate.
@kingbk Even before then, you could just get the excellent GBA port (or possibly the Sega CD port).
@Axelay71 "Final Fight 3" is really good (although not up to the level of "Streets of Rage 2" or the Japanese version of "SoR3"), but the second game is pretty mediocre (albeit still preferable to the first game's butchered port just by having 2 player co-op).
@shonenjump86 Capcom clearly isn't supporting NSO. Why would they? They make a lot more money by getting you to buy their compilations like the "Beat 'em Up Bundle" instead.
@BulbasaurusRex yes I agree the Streets of Rage series is superb. But Final fight 2,3 are still brilliant. With regards to Final fight the original on Snes. Obviously was rushed out for launch, also the meg count on the cart was to small at the time.
@Axelay71 Like I said, I agree with you on the 3rd game, but the 2nd one is merely decent at best.
@BulbasaurusRex each to there own i guess.
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