A playthrough of Capcom's 1993 beat 'em up for the NES, Mighty Final Fight.
This video shows the game being completed with each of the three playable characters:
Haggar 1:25
Cody 27:43
Guy 56:17
Rather than posing as a port of the 1989 arcade classic, Mighty Final Fight serves as a satirical adaptation that infuses the original’s game play mechanics with a sense of humor that remains firmly tongue-in-cheek throughout.
Instead of saving all of Metro City, a "well-known crime capital [that] has been ruled by violence and death for many years," the goal in Mighty Final Fight is to save Jessica. According to the intro, her beauty "radiates throughout the city and gives the citizens the power to survive," but the cyborg leader of the Mad Gear gang, Belgar, has fallen for her and wants to keep her all to himself.
Playing as Haggar (mayor of Metro City, ex-professional wrestler, and Jessica's father), Cody (Jessica's thug boyfriend), or Guy (the friend-zoned ninja), it's your job to rescue Jessica from becoming Belgar's personal flashlight.
Though it's running on 8-bit hardware, Mighty Final Fight replicates the feel of the arcade game nearly as well as its SNES counterpart ( • Final Fight (SNES) Pla... ). All of the characters' moves and combos have survived the transition intact, so the gameplay doesn’t feel watered down - you can still kneedrop a bad guy, punch him in the stomach a few times, and then throw him over your shoulder into someone else.
The biggest difference is that Mighty Final Fight replaces the traditional scoring system with a levelling mechanic. Beating up bad guys nets you experience points, and the amount is determined by how you finish them off - a simple punch is only worth 1 point, but a flying piledriver will earn you 8. Level ups give you access to new moves (like in the NES version of Double Dragon) and life bar extensions, so it's worth the effort to milk your enemies for as much experience as possible.
The graphics underwent a huge stylistic overhaul in the move to the NES, and though I'm not a fan of the SD style, the chibified sprites are clean, smoothly animated, and loaded with humor. The sound is pretty good too - it reminds me of the Mega Man games with its catchy melodies and over-the-top sound effects.
By making some smart cuts and compromises, Capcom did a phenomenal job of cramming the gameplay of the arcade game into an NES cart. This is top-notch stuff.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!