| smbhax [sys=SNES; cat=Beat_em_up; reg=JPN] |
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Played on the default Medium difficulty in the Mesen emulator, with a ROM I dumped from the cartridge using a Sanni Cart Reader V5 (see entry 1526).
The regular enemies are kinda tiny compared to the player sprite but the boss sprites are just amazing designs. Music pretty good, kinda noodly. Sound FX are fantastic though. ^_^
This is a beefy beat-em-up! The two-button play is really solid and I didn't get the feeling of cheap difficulty like I did with FF1 (arcade port) the last time I played it (on PS3). Well, okay, the last two bosses have too much health; those battles went on for so long! = PPP
Fights against even the regular enemies stay pretty interesting because of the variety of behaviors they have: one type really tries to flank you, another slowly approaches and blocks and grabs, another does long diving jump-ins, another bull-rushes you, etc. You're always having to make choices about which way to move or attack, which is just what you want in a beat-em-up.
Maybe could have been more weapons to pick up. Not sure about the way Carlos wields that 2x4. ; )
As far as I've read and watched, the US version differs from this JP version in a few ways:
- The two regular female enemies get turned to male enemies in the US version
- First boss Won Won doesn't have his cleaver in the US version
- US version has English text instead of Japanese for the story bits, of course
- US version has more screens at the end saying to play on a harder difficulty
- The JP version has Expert difficulty available from the start, whereas GameFAQs etc say you gotta beat Hard to unlock Expert so I guess that's for the US version?
Had neglected the Mesen emulator setting that forces the NES and SNES to run at 60 fps instead of their native 60.1, so there are some dropped frames in this video wherever that extra .1 fps got choked up trying to fit into a 60 fps recording, or something. : PPP |
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Cheat - Infinite lives:
DDCE-1D6B
Shortcut:
C:\downloaded\mesen\Mesen.exe "C:\downloaded\mesen\roms\Final Fight 2 (Japan).zip" --preferences.gameSelectionScreenMode=Disabled --snes.Overscan.top=23 --snes.Overscan.bottom=16 --snes.region=NTSC --doNotSaveSettings |
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C:\downloaded\mesen\Mesen.exe "roms\Final Fight 2 (Japan).zip" --preferences.gameSelectionScreenMode=Disabled --snes.Overscan.top=23 --snes.Overscan.bottom=16 --snes.region=NTSC --fullscreen --audio.masterVolume=50 --doNotSaveSettings |
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C:\downloaded\mesen\Mesen.exe "roms\Final Fight 2 (Japan).zip" --preferences.gameSelectionScreenMode=Disabled --snes.Overscan.top=23 --snes.Overscan.bottom=16 --fullscreen --video.aspectRatio=Auto --audio.masterVolume=50 --doNotSaveSettings
^ "Auto" should work for most games; GB games stay unstretched. (One exception is Tetris, 'cause I like how the blocks look unstretched--in NTSC their component squares aren't quite square!) |
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"Playing as Maki"
Maki playthrough
Ah, 2 is pretty dull, and even Maki in her "this is how female ninjas dressed historically right?" Mai Shiranui-rip-off costume (Mai first appeared in Fatal Fury 2, 1992; Maki first appeared in THIS FF2, Final Fight 2, in 1993) doesn't liven it up. I forgot how long it is! Too much standing in different brown rooms with your back to one mostly identical wall while 1-3 NPCs sort of mill around you, punctuated by a few really annoying bosses--"Rolent" and the UK clown--who take ages to get a hit in on. Some gross backgrounds and downright bad at times music.
Played on Normal difficulty. I used an infinite lives cheat in Mesen (DDCE-1D6B, for the SFC version) 'cause I didn't want to stress about possibly running low on lives/continues and having to resort to boring save scumming like I did in my Carlos playthrough https://youtu.be/0agoagHvKew . ": P |
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"Expert" difficulty w/ Infinite Lives cheat
3:15 - Haggar
23:49 - Freddie
40:08 - Bratken
1:24:56 - OH super power bomb
1:33:46 - boss
1:37:00 - ending & credits
1:39:14 - wrap & reading GameFAQs reviews 'p'
Aside from the rare opponents who can jump on your head--mainly the female thugs and most of the bosses--or the rather annoying several thugs who can grab you, you can mostly just stand still and mash punch. The music and backgrounds are mostly drab. Even regular enemies later in the playthrough, at least on this highest "Expert" difficulty, get multiple differently colored unmoving health bars for a while, making you just have to spend more time mashing at them. ; P So the main opponent is unrelenting boredom. 'p' Even Haggar's super power-bomb, which I didn't find until late in the playthrough (move into enemy to grab them, press jump, press attack in mid-air, try to guide them down into other enemies) can't really shake off the doldrums.
And why so stingy with pick-up items? Maybe one or two point items per stage, and maybe one weapon--and the weapons tend to disappear the first time you get knocked down. ; P Sheez.
There IS a romhack--"Final Fight 2 Readjusted" that increases the enemy onscreen limit from 3 to 5, allowing groups of enemies to come out faster, at the price of a very minor amount of sprite flicker. It doesn't work with my Super Famicom version though. 'p' I don't think it's enough to make me pony up the dough for the US version; it doesn't change how stand-offish the enemies are, so while the game probably goes slightly faster since once in a while you can take more of enemies down at once, it doesn't look like it makes a profoundly dull game into a good game. The most exciting thing in the game is the Chun-Li background cameo on stage 1! 'p'
I forgot to look at prices for Super Famicom carts of FF2--they're about 1/4 the price of the US version; I got mine for $20 (shipped) a few years ago.
FF3 SFC is currently going for even more than the SNES version. Also, I think most of the complaints about FF3 ("Final Fight Tough" in Japan) may come from people who played it 2P--or 2P "Auto" with friendly fire :p AI helper (although that is NOT the default, contrary to what I incorrectly state in the video 'p')--because 2P in that game definitely has some gnarly slowdown. Plus, the AI helper seems to draw most of the attacks away from the player, which would make the game a lot easier. 1P though at least LOOKS quite brisk...so my hope for that cart on its way to me isn't quite dead. ^ _^
(There's a romhack for FF3--"Final Fight 3 Optimized 1.1"--that appears to eliminate just about all of the slowdown in that game! I'll have to try that out. = D)
Oh and FF2 DOES have a 2P mode--the select comes up in the menu AFTER the main menu. It was the FF1 SFC/SNES port that only had 1P; same with the "Final Fight Guy" follow-up, which replaced Cody with Guy...; oddly though the GameFAQs reviews by and large don't mention those things. Hm it's almost like I shouldn't read GameFAQs reviews. ; D |
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4:13 - Final Fight 2 (Super Famicom) |
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