Final Fight MD Review (Mega Drive)

Final Fight is a special game to me. It was arguably one of the first coin-ops I became utterly obsessed with as a youngster.

The moment I laid eyes on its towering characters, colourful visuals and bone-breaking action in a seaside asmusment arcade during a family holiday in 1990, I was instantly hooked – so much so that I was visibly upset when it was confirmed that the SNES, a system I didn't own at the time, was getting the first home port and not my beloved Mega Drive / Genesis.

Sega would remedy this oversight with the 1993 Mega CD port of Final Fight, which scored points over the Nintendo version by restoring the two-player mode, the character of Guy and the missing factory stage. As much as I love Final Fight CD, it's still not quite up to the standard of the original 1989 coin-op – so thank goodness for Brazilian developer Mauro Xavier, who – alongside Edmo Caldas (music) and Master Linkuei (general tech tricks and support) – has been working on Final Fight MD for the past few years.

What we're looking at here is a totally unofficial, from-the-ground-up adaptation of the original arcade machine, built using Stephane Dallongeville's SGDK development engine. I should stress now that Xavier hasn't had access to the original source code of the arcade original at any point during the production process – this port has been made entirely from scratch, which, when you see the game in motion, ranks as an almost Herculean achievement.

What's on offer here is a near-perfect port of the coin-op that puts even my beloved Final Fight CD firmly in the shade. While the visuals and audio have naturally taken a hit when compared to the original arcade game (the Mega Drive isn't in the same league as Capcom's CPS-1 hardware), Final Fight MD represents a significant improvement on the Mega CD port. Everything looks more colourful and detailed, and the animation is very close to the arcade.

You also get more sprites on-screen at once, too – in fact, if you enable the '1P+' option (accessible by pushing left or right when the cursor is on the main menu's '1 Player' option), you can enable a high-performance mode which allows for seven on-screen characters simultaneously.

The audio is also terrific, thanks in part to the use of Stephane Dallongeville's XGM2 sound driver; Edmo Caldas has made some subtle changes to the tunes, but everything sounds brilliant (although this is perhaps one area where Final Fight CD, with its redbook audio, wins out). The sound effects and voice samples, while sometimes a bit crunchy, are also authentic to the coin-op.

I can stress enough how close this feels to the coin-op. The control is tight and responsive, and the collision detection is absolutely spot-on. Every punch thrown has impact, and hurling a Mad Gear thug into a group of enemies never gets old. In terms of nailing the speed, power and sheer fun of Final Fight, this conversion is a complete and utter triumph.

Had Xavier simply ported the coin-op to the Mega Drive / Genesis, then I'd be shouting from the rooftops about this game, but he's done so much more than that. The exclusive 'Mega' mode introduces a bunch of new features and tweaks, the most obvious being the inclusion of Final Fight 2's Maki as a playable character.

Some might point out that she's very similar to Guy, making her feel a little superfluous, but I really appreciate having another visually distinct character in the roster – she's also something of a legend in the annals of Final Fight history, having made her way into the cast of Street Fighter Alpha 3 (GBA) and Capcom vs. SNK 2.

Also in Mega mode, both players can pick the same character – so, if you've ever dreamed of battling through Metro City with three Mike Haggers (each with different-coloured trousers, of course), then Final Fight MD is here to make your dreams come true.

You'll also find another slight change in Mega mode, such as the fact that enemies can still be attacked even after you've knocked them flying – something that makes it feel a little like Streets of Rage 4 or Absolum (no bad thing, in my opinion).

Add in achievements (obtaining these will unlock new bonus features in Mega mode), the ability to save your progress in one of three different slots and bonus 'Survival' and 'Time Attack' modes, and it's clear that the developer has gone above and beyond with this port – and there's a mooted 3-player mode currently in testing, too, which will make use of the Mega Drive / Genesis Multitap.

All of this works on original hardware (I tested it on the Sega Nomad) as well as unofficial systems, such as the Analogue Mega Sg. You can also run the game via emulation, or via a MiSTer FPGA – no matter which platform you choose, Final Fight MD performs flawlessly.

As for negatives, the only complaint I can level at this game is that, very occasionally, there's a slight degree of slowdown. Also, when a lot of sprites are on-screen at once, they tend to flicker a little – this is more a limitation of the host hardware than a reflection on Xavier's coding skills (in fact, I've seen less technically impressive Mega Drive games with far worse sprite flicker than this).

There are still some minor bugs to squash here and there (I'm reviewing version 0.91b, which is apparently very close to being final), but nothing game-breaking – and the developer has been diligently fixing issues over the past few months, so I expect the final game to be near-perfect.