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Play it on:<\/strong> just about anything<\/p>\n Current goal: <\/strong>Bring some justice to the streets<\/p>\n Lately I\u2019ve been on a kick of revisiting Capcom\u2019s incredible beat \u2018em ups of the late \u201880s through the mid \u201890s, or in some cases playing through them for the first time. This past week, a friend and I played the company\u2019s excellent pair of licensed Dungeons & Dragons <\/em>brawlers\u2014Tower of Doom <\/em>and Shadow over Mystara<\/em>\u2014via the compilation Chronicles of Mystara<\/em><\/a><\/span>, <\/em>and I was so impressed by their satisfying combat, their bevy of secrets and alternate pathways, and their incorporation of inventory systems and magic items. Now, this weekend, I want to go back to the game that kicked off Capcom\u2019s genre-defining run of beat \u2018em ups: 1989\u2019s Final Fight<\/em>.<\/p>\n When I think of the quintessential beat \u2018em up, I think of Final Fight<\/em>. I remember how incredible it was to see this game in an arcade or at a nearby laundromat or convenience store back then; those massive sprites, those crunchy digitized voice samples, that hard-hitting combat. It was one of those games that you knew instantly would change a genre forever, transforming and refining the core principles established in earlier games like Double Dragon <\/em>and Renegade<\/em> into something more immediately accessible, appealing, and unforgettable. I haven\u2019t played Final Fight <\/em>in many years, and the friend I\u2019ve been playing these games with lately never has. So this weekend, I think it\u2019s time for Metro City Mayor Mike Haggar to once again hit the pavement, pile-drive some members of the Mad Gear gang and, before all is said and done, confront the true source of evil: a wealthy and powerful man, overseeing his criminal empire from the top of a glass tower, far above the dilapidated streets and subway cars that define Final Fight<\/em>\u2019s incredible depiction of a city on the brink of ruin. <\/em> \u2014 Carolyn Petit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n