Final Fight Gold standard and champion edition by Pierwolf

[fredo46]

First of all : I'll use Damon Caskey's system for reviews (without poll) since I think it's the most relevant. I suppose he won't mind

Final Fight Gold by Pierwolf
Final Fight Gold Champion Edition by Pierwolf
Review Key:

5 - Beyond superb, a new standard has literally been set.
4 - Excellent, certainly the best among any offerings so far.
3 - Of average quality, not bad, but could be better.
2 - Poorly executed, and defiantly needs work.
1 - Shows almost no effort and is a perfect example of what not to do.

Creativity: New ideas, or the 15’th remake of the same game? Are features being used in a new way, or is it the same old punch, punch, grab N’ throw?
Execution: Offsets, collision detection, animation and editing.
Presentation: Cut scenes, graphic and sound quality.
Game play: In game mechanics, character moves, enemy stylistics, control.
Overall: The total package, NOT an average.


This Pierwolf mod was just an experiment, said his author. To practice some modder stuff, like offset, collisions, whatsoever. Well, turns out that this experiment, though not very original, turns out to be really fun to play !

Differences between Final Fight Gold standard and champion :
- FFG Standard : Haggar gets one more undocumented ultimate move : up, up, a. Just like his other ultimate, it's a spinning piledriver but he runs to grab the nearest baddie.
- FFG Champion : 4 new chars (fei long, guile, blanka and ken from street fighter)
- FFG Champion : rise up attack for all chars (not very efficient for all)

Now, the review :

Creativity - 3: There's nothing original in using Final Fight and Street Fighter sprites and background and making a mod. 3 classic (but useful) modes : Arcade, training and boss mode. There are 3 nice features though :
- this mod made me discover how nice it is to play in 16/9. I think it gives more possibilities for gameplay, without changing the basics. Just seeing the baddies arrive from further is cool.
- some branches, always nice for a replay
- the 4 caracteristics for chars : classics speed, strength and stamina + "skill" which is the speed the special bar refills up. This is interesting (see "Gameplay").

Execution – 3,5: For the goal of this mod, the execution is perfect in terms of collision detection, animation and so on. Different sprites have been well resized and colored. You just get the feeling you're playing the original Final Fight with something "more" which "completes" the original feeling Rythm and atmosphere of stages (and 2 -not that good- bonus stages) will keep you ready to fight til the end, though the game might seem a bit repetitive from time to time.
But the two main weaknesses of this mod are :
- the enemy AI : baddies are too predictable, seem to walk randomly and act only when they see you in the same z axis. BUT stupid baddies make fighting a horde of them easier and much fun !
- the "2 enemy bug" : quite often, when you get hit by 2 baddies at the same time, you'll just lose all of your life in a snap. BUT if you're 2 players or more, you can use it like a incredible "TEAM FATALITY" by hitting the same baddie (works with bosses, too !) together.

As you can see, these two weaknesses have a bright side, too. That's why I gave 3,5 : better than "average quality, not bad, but could be better" but not "Excellent, certainly the best among any offerings so far."

Presentation – 3,5: Cinematics and story are kept to a minimum, but who cares ? It's Final Fight, the story's been the same for 20 years . The "How to play" section is perfect and I always like it when in the Controls option only useful buttons are listed (and renamed). Music fits perfectly for intro, menu and gameplay but tends to be too repetitive sometimes. Graphical effects when making specials are perfect : light and beautiful.

Game play - 4: This is where the game really shines. With the 4 caracteristics, each player has the same basic gameplay with its own specialty. Examples : Haggar has both power and stamina but is slow and his skill bar refills slow, so he can't make specials very often. Lucia is weak but quick and has a quick refill so she can makes specials way more often than Haggar, making her potentially more powerful than Haggar if played well. Ken and Guile have their hadouken that can cross the screen, Blanka his rolling attack which can be used to escape enemies or cross the flames in the "Industrial Area"...

Overall – 4: Without the two weaknesses I mentionned I would have put 4,5 because it's not a "new standard" but it's a perfect mod if you're looking for an "enhanced old school" feeling. I think it is what I'm looking for by playing Openbor mods. Pierwolf, you made a great job on this. Just remove a bit of monotony (was a weakness of your Knights and Dragons, too), enhance baddies AI and you'll be the king of EOSF (enhanced old school feeling) mods And also, seeing the wip videos, upcoming utunnel's and DC's Golden Axe remake might become an EOSF reference, too. Love your work, all of you modders !

Thanks for reading !
Fredo46

[Hanzo]

I would give it a 4/5 just based on the old school feel of the mod and updated moves for each character.

[Pierwolf]

thank you fredo46 for your nice review! 

just a little clarification: the undocumented ultimate move of haggar was just an experiment i've tried during the testing of the game; i wasn't satisfied with it, but somehow i forgot to eliminate it before the release of the first version of the game.
however, i've deleted it in the final version of Final Fight Gold standard.

i know well the "2 enemy bug" you spoke of, i think it's a bug somehow related with the fastattack command, but even reading here and there in the forum, i've not found a solution yet. if someone knows how to fix it, let me know! 

[hellsburn]

street fighter + final fight.
yea aha ..
this game is fun to play..
lucia and ken are my favorite...
i like that it has the ol skoo game play feel
plus it has specials..its an upgrade fo the ol skoo
the graphics are not hi def but its solid
enemies were koo too..the clown lol..reminded me of the joker
havent passed the game but i think ill give it 4/5
bcuz the music could have been better..
hiphop beats get you pumped and they go hard
when will they come out in these mods

[ARGOROK]

Personally this MOD is perfect for me, I haven?t played final fight gold standard, because I tried with latest devbuild but it lacks when I completed stage 1, on the other hand, I have finished final fight Gold champion edition so I?ll give it 5/5, just the music would be better if pierwolf mixes several songs of several final fight games, but it?s perfect

[Jake RockStone]

- the "2 enemy bug" : quite often, when you get hit by 2 baddies at the same time, you'll just lose all of your life in a snap. BUT if you're 2 players or more, you can use it like a incredible "TEAM FATALITY" by hitting the same baddie (works with bosses, too !) together.

This isn't limited to OpenBOR. My friends in school and I used to use the 'team fatality attack' in Spiderman The Arcade Game. Try getting on both sides of a boss with 2 players or more and have everyone spam the attack button - watch that lifebar plummet to zero in seconds!

As for Final fight Gold, I downloaded this the other day and I thought it was great fun. Very reminiscent of Mr. Q's earlier FF mods (even down to the tribute boss dialogue!) especially in the way Pierwolf tweaked the attack times to make it 'feel' as much like Final Fight as possible. The pseudo throwing was acceptable, I can't complain, because I'm struggling to learn binding at the moment and pseudo slam is perhaps an easier alternative from what I gather. The bonus stages weren't brilliant to be honest. The potential was there but from what the authour said about this being a throwaway mod, I guess he didn't want to spend days tweaking them.

I was especially intrigued by the screen ratio. It's something other modders, including myself, may want to look into, especially when using bigger sprites, because it gives you a much larger playing field and more room to manouvere. A big nod must also go to the way that Pierwolf used background alterations that evoked the spirit of the original levels without just being copies of them, or feeling like you were just scrolling past the same panels again and again.

I'd give this game 4 out of 5. It's not ground-breaking in any real way and yet it does exactly what it should do, provide a solid, fun experience for fans of the genre. Good work sir, I raise a glass to you.

[fredo46]

This isn't limited to OpenBOR. My friends in school and I used to use the 'team fatality attack' in Spiderman The Arcade Game. Try getting on both sides of a boss with 2 players or more and have everyone spam the attack button - watch that lifebar plummet to zero in seconds!

Never said it was limited to OpenBor Golden Axe : The Revenge of Death Adder has a team fatality, too. It's just that it's a bug you can be victim of but you can use, too.

[bWWd]

This bug is irritating for sure , only way to avoid it is to remove fastattack in enemies anims.