Capcom is one Japanese developer that gets nostalgia. Whether it’s throwing in classic franchise characters together in games like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom or the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom 3, or purposefully “de-making” new eight-bit games like Mega Man 10, it’s always a company with fan service on the brain.
Traditionally, this has also included its arcade compilation discs. The last console generation saw a number of arcade and retro compilation releases, throwing together damn near every coin-op classic Capcom’s ever released, from 1942 to the original arcade port of Bionic Commando in slick packages brimming with bonus material.
Think of Final Fight: Double Impact as the downloadable successor to these discs. Although the game only sports the titular Final Fight and the close-to-completely-unknown Magic Sword, the presentation here is top-notch.
Each game is presented in a recreation of its original arcade cabinet, complete with a re-mastered soundtrack, trophy/achievement support, new challenges to unlock and, best of all, new visual modes.
Like the recently released Dreamcast/PS2 port of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Double Impact’s visuals have been re-tweaked for modern high-def screens. If you want, you can play each game full screen in all their originally-pixilated glory, or smooth or sharpen the graphics.
However, the pièce de resistance comes from playing the game in its original arcade monitor mode, complete with fluorescent lighting, scan lines from the re-created picture tube and the arcade cabinet art flanking the sides. Nostalgia nuts will love this, and rightly so—Capcom’s basically set a new precedent for what should be available in any retro-cade release from here on out.
In terms of gameplay, Final Fight and Magic Sword’s styles are both tried and true. I won’t mince words: These are straight-up late 80s to early 90s arcade titles, and they play like them. However, despite their relative simplicity, both hold up pretty damn well.
As a beat-em-up, Final Fight is still pretty fun after all these years, getting the formula and balancing down better than almost any other notable entry in the genre (barring a few of Konami’s big genre competitors, at least). For those that have been around since the arcade’s infancy, this will likely be a nice little trip down memory lane.
Magic Sword, on the other hand, will be new to most players. It may look like Golden Axe (which in and of itself is just a brawler reconstituted in fantasy skins) but without screen depth, it’s actually much more of a traditional 2-D hack-and-slasher, albeit with one with better aesthetics and a hell of a lot more crap going on onscreen at once.
What may be the best feature of Double Impact, though (aside from the arcade monitors) is the inclusion of online co-op. If you’re signed on to PSN or XBLA, someone else can jump into your game at any time, which really brings home the arcade feel.
For players that want to relive the glory days of their youth, or simply catch up on some vital artifacts in arcade history before Street Fighter II, Double Impact’s ten-dollar price tag isn’t a lot to ask, particularly with all the unlockable art, comics and other goodies that are included.
Just be warned: If you’re more comfortable with the era of constant checkpoints, or worse, have never even set foot in an arcade, this one’s nostalgic charms from an age long past may be lost on you.