This is a fighting game. More accurately, a 3D fighting game. This particular game was developed by Capcom as a Saturn exclusive (aside from the arcade port) and released only in Japan. It is the only fighting game in the Final Fight series, which normally features beat'em up games. Final Fight has come out with a great number of beat'em up games that have received a great deal of acclaim in both arcades and console versions.
This game, again their only fighting game, is a bland experience. It is so by the numbers and so mediocre that there's really not a whole lot to talk about here. The stages are beyond bland and the fights are about as unimaginative as you can imagine. Imagine that! It's not that it's terrible, there is just nothing to write home about. The graphics are decent for 32-bits and the character designs made a good conversion over to 3D from their 16-bit counterparts. That's about all the good that can be said about it.
The fighting is boring. You fight the opponent, they block a whole lot, and you spend the entire time trying to get around their blocking. In hard mode, that is accentuated to a glaring degree! It's not hard, it's tedious! Some of the characters control terribly, because they lack the drive to move forward as they attack, making their controls sluggish!
One thing that other fighting games have going for them is that they either have cool special moves, fancy footwork and interesting martial arts styles to keep the gameplay fresh. This game does not have any of that stuff. There are punches, kicks and grapples. The best you have to mix things up is Poison with her whip and a few other characters with weapons. Oh, and Guy has shuriken that he throws en mass in hard modes. Woot...
That's the real problem with this game. It looks and plays as bland as white bread and the AI for your opponents does nothing but spam block and throwing attacks while also shooting off their ultimate attacks. The ultimate attacks are about as good as it gets when it comes to the aesthetics, but they are teeth-grindingly cringeworthy when you've seen them for the seventh time.
The most noteworthy aspect of this game is that your final boss is a zombie. It's a zombie version of Horace Belger. That's it. There's nothing interesting about this other than he falls into pieces and throws those pieces at you while they explode. Yeah, that's pretty cool but when it's your only trump card, it's pretty sad. Yeah, he does the Michael Jackson Thriller dance in the credits but by this time, you've already gone through six lackluster fights against people who spam block and grapple moves. It's cute, but too little, too late.
If you're looking for a 3D fighting game, there are obviously worse out there. This was made by Capcom, though and you would expect a lot more out of them. Obviously, there were problems with the production. This game screams "Under Developed" and it was obvious that they either did not have their prime talent on this game or they were not given nearly enough time to polish it and make it any good. It's boring, predictable and not worth going out of your way to pay the scalping price. This game became one of those rare, expensive relics that people ask way too much for. Just skip it and try something else. Try some water, it's more exciting.
