Not only does the original highlight some of Streetwise’s gameplay flaws by showing just how dated it is, but the emulation isn’t all that good to begin with. The real kicker of the entire package is the inclusion of the original Final Fight as an unlockable. Rather than adding meaningful content to the game, side missions feel like pointless filler. One mission has you to stepping on roaches, while in another you’re killing rats. You walk to different locations, go through a painfully-dialoged cutscene then fight someone… that is about everything the game has to offer as far as gameplay goes.Ī number of absurd side missions are also available around the city. The opening fight is a good indicator of what to expect from the game as things never get much deeper than button-mashing your way through fights.

Somehow Cody has gotten himself involved with the drug, so it is up to Kyle to get him out of the mess.Īfter a “Fight Club”-styled fight that opens up the game, Streetwise opens itself up to a free-roaming mission structure. At the center of the story is a new, highly addictive street drug called “Glow” that gives users super-human strength. You play as Kyle, the younger brother of Final Fight’s protagonist Cody. Of course, there isn’t much to the story to begin with, but the profanity is really unnecessary. Voice work isn’t much better and relies on too many “sentence modifiers” (you know, those fun, four-letter words) rather than good writing. Music is outright bad and basically tries to fit the whole “street” image the game tries to build for itself. The audio side of the presentation is deplorable. Constantly having to stop the action to readjust the camera in order to see what’s around you tends to hamper the gameplay and leads to more than a few cheap shots from enemies. It doesn’t default to your back and instead requires manipulation. The camera doesn’t exactly help out all that much either. Gameplay doesn’t really help out the lack of scenery either since you spend a large amount of time backtracking through areas, as you beat up the same few thugs over and over again. Once you get past the first few areas, the “newness” of it all wears off and dullness sets in. When you first begin, Streetwise looks pretty good.

Like other games, Streetwise tries to make up for shortcomings in gameplay with gritty looks and the overuse of four-letter words. In other words, the same gritty, urban environment that has become the vogue with developers over the last few years. Final Fight: Streetwise takes place in a dreary, run-down city overrun by crime and gangs. But, when those demons come back to haunt them and their love is on the line, which instincts will they choose to follow this time. Brought together by fate or circumstance, Em and Jay find the kind of love neither of them ever expected. Sometimes, however, what’s lurking behind those white picket fences can be more frightening than any dark alley.īoth of them made the same decision when life got overwhelming-to run from their demons. Especially, a seventeen-year-old girl who’s never known anything but life in the suburbs. The city streets are dangerous and unforgiving to a new arrival. But when Em comes bursting into his life, in all of her disastrous glory, the rules go right out the window.Įmerson’s plan was simple. The rules of surviving life on the streets. These are the rules Jay has lived by for the past two years.

Final fight streetwise m rating