Jessica needs your help!

I don't know very much about this crazy world but when a buffed up ex-wrestler turned Mayor of Metro City requests my aid to rescue his beautiful daughter...friends, I'll be standing shoulder to shoulder with that guy and bringing the pain to the thugs of the Mad Gear gang!

At least I answered that call when I played Final Fight: Double Impact this morning on the Xbox 360. Capcom has released a double package of classic 90's arcade fare, it went online last week I believe, and it is worth its 800 points. Just think about it as spending 400 points for Final Fight and 400 points for Magic Sword with some nice bonus material thrown in to boot.

I'll get to Magic Sword tomorrow or perhaps Friday because we need to spend time chatting up Haggar, Guy, and Cody.

I had a ton of fun playing Final Fight to completion today, it helps now that you don't have to keep shoving quarters into the hungry coin box every minute and a half. I spent all of time playing as Cody but back in the day I used Haggar as my digital avatar. The gameplay is as remembered, move left to right, one button for jump and one for attack, press both to unleash a devastating attack at the expense of losing a portion of health.

The basic gist of the game is that you need to beat down an army of generic street trash...well, maybe not so generic...there are acrobatic ladies in high heels, Andre the Giant clones, large Asian men who head butt you and lots and lots of guys in leotards who throw Molotov cocktails and knives. All this is done to rescue Jessica from the clutches of the Mad Gear Gang's evil boss, Belger, whom happens to be in a wheelchair and uses a crossbow against you in the final round.

Cody is the all around go-to character, nice movement speed, okay damage. Guy is incredibly fast with his attacks but lacks the stamina of Cody. Haggar is pretty slow...cut him some slack, he's a Mayor now...but his attack are very strong and its always fun to lariat someone with your big old arms.

Each level has a specific challenge you need to complete to unlock various bits in the vault where you can look at original artwork, fan art, a Street Fighter/Final Fight cross-over comic...which I've only been able to read a few pages and I'm already trying to find the collection at my local comic shop, and a full episode of the Street Fighter cartoon which focuses on Metro City and Guile coming to help out Cody and Guy, kind of neat even if the animation is just atrocious.

Ahem, the challenges can range from beating a specific stage in under a certain amount of time, obtaining a specific score, to only losing 3 lives on a certain boss. Some of them are obviously very, very hard to accomplish. Beat the entire game with only 18 lives lost...a second player might be the only way for me to see that goal done.

By the way, check out that Final Fight arcade flyer up above...Cody is standing there over Andre's bloody body...only in the 90's could that have been your artwork to get arcades to buy your game.

Below I've included the trailer for Final Fight:Double Impact which shows you a few of features available to you. As usual click the window to be taken straight to the source. Enjoy.



Mega Man 2 - Minibosses