Final Fight 2

Final Fight on the SNES was pretty crappy, wasn't it? No Guy, no 2 player mode and it was missing an entire level among other things. Maybe Capcom were rushed to port it with the arrival of Street Fighter 2 (which came out in the same year as SNES FF) so in 1993 Capcom had plenty of time to make Final Fight 2.

Instead of releasing it in the arcade, Final Fight 2 is for the Super Nintendo/Famicon only. A kind of shame because I thought it would have been great if it came out on the Mega Drive but maybe Capcom didn't think many people would buy it because they had Streets of Rage 2.

The story to Final Fight 2 is all about how the Mad Gear gang have regrouped and spread to a global scale. Under the command of a new leader, they are much more powerful than before. And to make matters worse they have kid napped Rena and Genryusai. Who are these people? Well, Rena is Guy's girlfriend whilst Genryusai was a former Bushin master who trained Zeku (Guy's master)

Maki, Rena's sister, phones Mike Haggar to get him to help get Rena and Genryusai back and to have another go at destroying Mad Gear. Carlos, who was staying with Mike at the time, also wants to help. Luckily he's quite skilled in fighting and has a rather nifty looking sword.

Obviously the game is already looking better than the first one since there are 3 characters to choose from AND a 2 player mode. Haggar plays exactly the same way as before with all the same moves, which look as painful now as they ever did (his pile driver spins, for instance) Maki is basically a female version of Guy with similar attacks apart from a different special move and different looking combo, whilst Carlos is a completely new style of character with some quite cool attacks, like his throw.

Each character has a different fighting style. Haggar is still the slow big guy who is powerful, and has the moves to match like his punches, spinning clothes line and new look back drop. Maki is the weakest character but is still very good in the right hands and she's amazingly quick too. Carlos is the average fighter like Cody was, who is quite useful for beginners.

Yes, the game plays the same as before. You scroll through levels beating up opponents until you get to the boss, who is bigger and generally tougher than everyone else. There are only 2 buttons; attack or jump. Press them together to do a special move if you have the energy, or you can set this to an extra button in the options menu.

There are also now 6 levels, and they are all quite good. The locations vary greatly since each level is set at a different country, including England, France, Hong Kong, Japan etc. The levels all look quite a bit better than they did before with more detail, plus there are new features such as having the ability to move down the level, which was copied straight out of SoR 2. There are some cool things to look out for whilst playing the game, such as cameos by SF2's Chun Li and Guile.

Capcom have put some new weapons in the game, which you can use in the same way as before; simply press the attack button whilst standing over them. New to this game is the plank of wood, which Haggar is rather good with, and the Tonfa, which is a baton like weapon. Maki actually uses this weapon in Capcom Vs. SNK 2 as standard, like Rolento uses his cain. The other weapon is the knife, which works the same way as it did in the first game; pick it up and throw it into someone.

These weapons can be found in things like wooden boxes and barrels, which are dotted around the stages. If you don't get a weapon, then the chances are you'll get a helpful item. These include food, which restores some of your fighter's health, point items (such as coins) or rarer items such as Guy, which gives you an extra life when collected!

The enemies you get to beat up aren't quite as good as the ones in the previous game, but they sure look better. I'd say the best ones are the returning ones, these being Andore family and Rolento. Well, if you have only played FF SNES Rolento wasn't even in the game! For those who have fought him before you'll be pleased to know he still attacks in the same way as before and is still very good with grenades. The other bosses aren't so hot apart from the final boss.

Music wise the game is also quite good. The tracks used in the game do their job just fine whilst not being that memorable, but I really like the sound effects. When you hit someone you know about it because it sounds great. There are also many more voice speech than there was in the first SNES FF game.

Just like before there are bonus games after you complete certain stages. The first is a van smash, which is just like the car smash from the first game apart from it's a van...which looks very similar to the one seen in SF3 Third Strike, hmmm. The other game is the barrel smash where you have to break all the barrels but don't attack them if they are on fire unless you want to be burned.

The main advantage this has over the original SNES FF is that it has a 2 player mode, which is great. This is always the main way to play because it's much better and easier with 2 people taking out the trash. Thankfully there isn't any slow down what so ever, which doesn't ruin the action.

Any bad points? Well, game play wise it isn't really as advanced as SoR 2, and this isn't as good as the arcade original. But it's certainly much better than the first game on the SNES, and is one of my favourite scrolling beat 'em ups. In fact it's probably the 2nd best scroller on the SNES, with FF3 being the first.

If you liked the original in anyway, you should definitely get this. This is just like it but has more characters and a 2 player mode, plus it's longer and more challenging.