The Adventures of Mike Haggar (A $20 GOTW & Lost Classics Thanksgiving Special)

This past week was Thanksgiving, and we have a lot to be thankful for. Friends and family for being in your corner, Butterball and a bunch of dead turkeys for supplying dinner, and the staff at Powet for giving you the latest news, insights, and info. Castlevania fans have Konami to thank for finally releasing Dracula X over here, and they also have Sindra to thank for letting us know how awesome it was as seen below. Gamers on a budget have me to thank for giving them the lowdown on cheap games. Most importantly, the citizens of Metro City have Mike Haggar and his friends to thank for keeping the peace, and beat-em-up fans have Capcom to thank for allowing them to witness his adventures first hand, by way of the Final Fight series.

Here is where it all started. Metro city mayor Mike Haggar receives a phone call from the Mad Gear gang. The Mad Gears attempt to coerce Haggar into doing their bidding. Haggar naturally refuses, and that’s when they reveal that they kidnapped his daughter. Instead of backing down, Haggar gets ticked off. He calls up his friends Guy and Cody, and they are off to beat the snot out of a whole lot of people. This game pretty much established a lot of conventions in the beat-em-up genre. You had three main character types; the slow strongman, the weak but fast guy (in many beat-em-ups this would usually be a woman, but not here), and the balanced character (in most beat-em-ups, this would usually be the leader of the group, but not here). There isn’t much more to say about this game that already hasn’t been said. It had huge sprites, a variety of backgrounds and enemies, and several weapons. The only other beat-em-up series that made a significant impact in the genre on this level is Double Dragon.

By the way, as most fans already know, a funny thing, well, actually several funny things happened when this game was released as a Super Nintendo launch title. The game was cut down to only 1 player, and players could only choose between Haggar and Cody. Worse yet, an entire level (where you fought Rolento) had been removed. However, the most alarming change of all occurred when the female enemies known as Poison and Roxy had their sprites changed to the male characters Billy and Sid thanks to Nintendo of America’s strict censorship policies that forbid depicting violence against women. The developers tried to play it off by stating that the girls were actually transsexuals. Of course this was even less well received by NOA. Capcom attempted to rectify these changes with 1994’s release of Final Fight Guy. Unfortunately, all they did was replace Cody with Guy. It was still 1 player, there was still no Rolento stage, and Poison/Roxy was still Billy/Sid. At the least they managed to add some new items and clean up a few of the graphical problems that plagued the original SNES version. Thankfully, Sega released an unchanged port of Final Fight for the Sega CD, which even added voice acting, and a remixed soundtrack. Final Fight One, released for the Game Boy Advance added in 2-player link play, new dialogs, a redone soundtrack, and several unlockables, including Street Fighter Alpha costumes for Cody and Guy. However, Roxy/Poison was still Billy/Sid. Final Fight Streetwise features an unlockable version of Final Fight 1, although it has very poor emulation. For those who don’t want to play through a crappy game for an even crappier port, Capcom Classics Collection for Playstation 2, Xbox, and PSP features an arcade perfect port along with 19 other awesome games. The original SNES version of the game is available on Wii Virtual Console. Versions of the game have also been released on Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and other low-end PC systems, but the less said about them, the better.

In 1993, Capcom released a sequel to Final Fight. Instead of being released to the arcades, this was bought straight to the Super Nintendo, perhaps making up for the debacle with the first game. This time, Haggar had to battle Mad Gear around the world, particularly Europe and Asia. This time, Cody and Guy couldn’t make the party as they were away on a training mission. However, Haggar wasn’t alone, as he was joined by Maki (a female ninja from Guy’s clan), and Carlos (a tough as nails swordsman who just so happened to be boarding with Haggar at the time of the kidnapping). Haggar and his friends were tasked with saving Maki’s sister and father (who also happened to be Guy’s girlfriend and master respectively) with the newly rebuilt Mad Gear gang. You and a friend (that’s right, the game was 2 players this time) traveled to Hong Kong, London, France, and other places to bash heads worldwide. The graphics were improved over Final Fight 1’s already impressive visuals, and the control system worked quite well. It was pure bliss battling Mad Gear thugs in locations such as Italy. Rolento even made it back after being left out the SNES port.

That same year, Capcom also showed some love to the 8-bit NES as well. Might Final Fight, a super deformed version was released, featuring kiddie versions of Cody, Haggar, and Guy. The game featured an RPG-like experience system, which increased your stats and gave you access to new attacks.

In 1995, as the Super Nintendo was fading from the spotlight, Capcom re-upped with Final Fight 3. Mike Haggar was rejoined by Guy. Cody was again nowhere to be found, but replacing him were two newcomers: Lucia (a cop who was cleared of corruption charges by Haggar) and Dean (a mysterious former street fighter out to avenge his family). The quartet battled the Skull Cross gang, who took over after the Mad Gear organization was annihilated in Final Fight 2. New to this edition were special attacks and Super Street Fighter-style super moves. Some of the stages also featured alternate routes for a little variety.

What made this game special was that it, along with several other late-generation SNES games almost wasn’t released. In a rare display of fan support, Capcom decided to release it, along with Mega Man 7 and Breath of Fire 2 as part of a “Super Nintendo Lives” ad campaign. In 1996, Capcom gave us Marvel Super Heroes and Mega Man X3. This was the original “Capcom 5”; 5 Super Nintendo games that were originally slated to be canceled until Capcom decided to release them after all. Of course, this became the Capcom 6 when Nintendo published a port of Street Fighter Alpha 2 for the SNES later that year.

Speaking of Street Fighter, the two series take place in a shared universe. In fact, several characters from the series have shown up as playable characters in various Street Fighter games. Hugo has shown up in Street Fighter 3 second impact and third strike. Guy and Sodom have shown up in the Street Fighter Alpha games, with Rolento showing up in Alpha 2 and Cody joining the cast in Alpha 3. Maki became playable in Capcom vs SNK 2 and the portable versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3. Haggar was set to show up in Capcom Fighting All-Stars, but unfortunately the game was canceled. A shame too, because if any Final Fight character should be included in a Capcom fighter, it’s the mayor himself. However, Haggar is part of the cast of Capcom’s Wrestling series Saturday Night Slam Masters. Basically an ode to his days as a professional wrestler, Slam Masters features over the top maneuvers not unlike those in Street Fighter. While the first game in the series was more of a wrestler, the second game ended up being a fighting game with a grappling system.

Technically, there was a Final Fight fighting game, Final Fight Revenge to be exact. However, it was poorly received in the arcades, so I wouldn’t be in a rush to seek it out if I were you. Nor would one be in a hurry to seek out the Xbox and PS2 game, Final Fight Streetwise. This lousy excuse for a Final Fight game was yet another attempt by Capcom to make Grand Theft Auto. Evidently someone forgot to let them know that their last attempt at this, Beat down: Fists of Vengeance, didn’t work out very well either. Hopefully one day we’ll see a true sequel to Final Fight. Until then, we’ll no doubt be seeing various re-releases on Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network, and Wii Virtual Console.