Final Fight: Streetwise

Final Fight: Streetwise is a 3D beat 'em up game produced by Capcom, released in North America and the PAL region for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2006. An installment in the Final Fight series, it is a non-canon sequel to the original Final Fight, developed by the American team of Capcom Production Studio 8 (the developers of Final Fight Revenge and the Maximo series).

Final_Fight_Streetwise_Trailer_2 — Final Fight Streetwise Trailer 2

Trailer

Gameplay[]

Final Fight: Streetwise is a 3D beat 'em up game. The story mode, which is exclusively single player, has ten minigames, including cockroach stomping, arm-wrestling, slide puzzles, shooting contests and the classic car bash. Players earn money through pit fights and side missions, upgrading Kyle's moveset by training in various gyms in Metro City while progressing through the game. An 'instinct' system allows players to counter opponents' attacks, as well as make their attacks more powerful.

The arcade mode is a no-frills 3D brawler for 1 or 2 players. It does not have upgradable movesets, counters or instinct abilities. Kyle, Cody, Guy and Haggar are all playable characters in arcade mode. However, the game is over when the life bar is empty.

The game's save system can only be used once the player decides to quit the game. Progress will resume at the last checkpoint rather than the character's last position.

Characters[]

Kyle

Cody

The Weasel

The Stiff

Blades

Father Bella

2-Ill

Vito Bracca

Dr. Chang

Mike Haggar

Guy

Vanessa Sims - is the girlfriend of Kyle and the owner and bartender of the Barfly Lounge in Metro City. When Kyle’s brother, Cody, is taken captive by The Stiff in her bar, Vanessa does her best to provide information and ideas to Kyle to find Cody. She also has her brother on the MCPD in aiding Kyle in his search. During the GLOW-induced riots in Metro City, Kyle and ex-Mad Gear member 2-Ill (formerly known as Two P) saved her life. Kyle eventually saved Cody and the city, but the end result cost her the bar and the life of her brother Sergeant Sims in the final battles. While Vanessa tends to Kyle and Cody in the hospital, she keeps her brother’s badge as a remembrance.

Sergeant Sims - He is a deep cover cop for the MCPD (Metro City Police Department). By the request of his sister, Vanessa, he assisted her boyfriend, Kyle into looking for his missing brother. He wanted Kyle not to get involved due to the danger Cody was in. Sims also sought to arrest Cody for using GLOW, a highly addictive drug that increases the physical attributes of the user. When Sims traced the source of GLOW to a church in Little Italy during the city riots, Sims along with Kyle and whatever officers he had left attempted to storm the church. Unfortunately Sims lost all his men after Father Bella, the mastermind behind the drug, threw grenades at them while simultaneously a small army of Glowheads attacked them. Only Sims and Kyle were left when they were able to enter the church. Fr. Bella sent out his two of his four horsemen to take care of them. Kyle defeated the Horseman War, but was only seconds too late to save Sims from decapitation by Famine.

Madame Celeste - She is a fortune teller in Kyle’s neighborhood. Vanessa sends Kyle to her psychic parlor to get information on Cody’s whereabouts. The mystic asks him to play a magic card matching game, before she tells him the future. Once Kyle is successful, Madame Celeste tells Kyle some information and gives him Cody’s house key. It is insinuated that she and Cody had been intimate. Afterwards, she appears in various parts of the city with Kyle having the option to play the matching game again, in which she’ll allude to what Kyle will have to deal with in the near future.

Paco - He is a tattoo artist that lives in the same building as Kyle, and is trained as a boxer. If paid $100, he’ll help Kyle save 2-Ill at the beginning of the game. He also helps Kyle by telling him about Lou "The Skin" designing the tattoo on the mysterious person in Cody’s picture. He also trains people for money in Tiger’s gym. At one point in the game, he asks Kyle to get rid of the cockroaches in his infested apartment to keep the health inspector away. Apparently, he "smells as bad as a bum at the Barfly, but at least looks like he can throw a punch".

Pestilence - is a giant, GLOW-induced monstrosity created by Dr. Chang. Chang felt that, despite all the bad she had done by making GLOW, Pestilence was her ultimate creation. Initially, Pestilence fought very slowly by spilling acidic GLOW in the nearby area, throwing one of its many limbs and firing out explosive GLOW bubbles at Kyle. Kyle defeated Pestilence a first time but Pestilence changed, blowing off its shell and degrading into a slimmer, more humanlike form. In this form, Pestilence used fighting combos, energy blasts and acquiring church pews as weapons to defeat Kyle. Kyle finally defeats the monster and it melts into nothing. Dr. Chang was very fond of Pestilence, to the point of calling it "sweetie" and babying the monstrosity. It, in turn, protected her and attacked Kyle at her command. Unlike the other Horsemen, Pestilence doesn't seem to be anyone the player has met previously: he could be entirely Dr. Chang's work.

Thugs - are the basic enemies that Kyle faces during the course of the game. One of the thugs wears a tank top and blue jeans with a bandana over his mouth. While another group of thugs wear jersey-like T-shirts and fedora styled hats. They attack Kyle in a number of ways. They perform a two punch combo or they can pick up a bat and whack Kyle with it.

Jersey Thugs - are another group of thugs that terrorize Metro City. They usually wear jersey-like T-Shirts as mentioned above, as well as donning hats. These thugs can pick up knives and use a variety of attacks. They can slash Kyle, stab him or throw the knives at him if he's far away. While unarmed, They throw punches and do a jumping double smash that knocks Kyle down.

Punx - are group of bloodthirsty thugs who terrorize the Pier District. They are seen with mohawks and biker jackets. They can attack with a headbutt that knocks Kyle over or they can use a bat or knife. With the bat, they can hit or choke Kyle, holding him for a bit while allowing other Punx or thugs to hit him. They also stab with the knife.

Glowheads - are the citizens and thugs of Metro City infected by the drug "GLOW". One Glowhead can attack kyle by punching or hitting him with a bat. Another attack is a grab move which requires the player to mash the buttons for a quick escape. The Glowhead "hugs" Kyle which deals damage, It also sets up a free hit. Another Glowhead is one of The Weasal's Blue Ballers. He can either perform a suicide attack with a grenade. If Kyle is too close, he will take a lot of damage. The Blue Baller Glowhead can also perform a spinning claw strike which knocks Kyle backwards. His final attack is a grab move where he chokes Kyle and violently wrenches his head back. If Kyle has little to no health, the Glowhead will kill him by tearing out his heart.

Fight Club opponents[]

The pit fighting in Metro City offers Kyle a chance to make some extra money by facing six opponents, some of which are quite dangerous. Upon winning a Pit Fight, the player is given a Rank, which will determine how much cash is won. The fighters are listed below, along with a brief description of them (if not covered elsewhere). All opponents may be challenged three times (except Lou "The Skin", who can only be fought twice) before the end of the game. In most cases, certain conditions must be met before they are available.

Hugo Andore

Cammy

Handsome Bob - is a big burly brawler who, when knocked down, gets up with a rising hook punch. He is the first pit fighter. After Bob's defeat, Kyle is attacked outside by his posse looking to avenge him.

The Locksmith - is the second opponent, only slightly quicker than Handsome Bob. The Locksmith has a flip kick which may be blocked, but he usually follows this up with a forward kick which cannot be.

The Ghost - is the third much tougher pit fighter Kyle faces in a fight arranged by Vito. The Ghost uses a Muay Thai style, has a low kick attack which cannot be blocked, and his speed is lightning fast. If the player blocks too much, Ghost will grab Kyle and knee him twice in the stomach and once in the face.

Lou "The Skin" - is, by far, the most difficult challenge yet. If he is hit more than twice, he will react with a flying donkey kick. He may also come over to Kyle and violently flip him over, landing him on his back. Full of tattoos and multiple body piercings, Lou is also the most intimidating-looking rival. Though not Japanese, he has come to be embraced by the people of Japantown as one of their own, and has a strong relationship with Guy. Besides being an accomplished fighter, Kyle mentions that he's possibly the best tattoo artist in the entire country. He also says, "There's a fine line between genius and insanity. Lou just happens to re-ink that line from time to time." When Kyle walks into Lou's parlor for the first time, He shows Lou a picture of the tattoo on Guy's arm. Lou recognizes the tattoo and drops the picture, When Kyle bends down to pick it up, he is ambushed with a blow to the head from a cash register. Which leads to the fight with Guy's henchmen.

Story[]

Kyle and Cody Travers survive on the hard streets of Metro City. Kyle is a fighter in the underground pit fighting circuit with Cody as his cornerman, and makes ends meet from brawl to brawl. Cody has given up fighting since his knees have grown arthritic. After Kyle wins another pit fight, Cody disappears for an hour, then meets up with Kyle in a local bar. Mobsters follow Cody to the bar, eventually kidnapping him, and rendering Kyle unconscious. Over the course of the game, Kyle hunts around the city for Cody, running into both friends (Guy and Haggar) and foes along the way (Vito Bracca, Stiff and Blades).

He discovers that Cody, desperate to fight again, is using a new designer drug that is sweeping all of Metro City: Glycolauric octanol, or "GLOW", which acts as a highly addictive steroid. Addicts have glowing green eyes, and increased strength, muscle mass and uncontrollable anger as a result of their abuse. With the help of Guy, Kyle destroys the drug manufacturing plant. With the assistance of Guy and Haggar, Kyle soon finds the people responsible for this drug outbreak and chaos: Father Bella, a psychotic priest who wants to bring Metro City into chaos and armageddon, and Dr. Chang, a scientist. Bella forced Chang to create GLOW, which he sought to use to bring about the Apocalypse by recreating the four horsemen. After Kyle defeats the four horsemen, Kyle confronts Father Bella on the top of his church. Bella then introduces a new horseman. Labeled as "Death", a mutated Cody was serving Bella after being given a highly concentrated amount of glycolauric octanol. Bella then reveals that his last name is not Bella, but Belger. Bella is actually the younger brother of Belger, who was the final boss in the original Final Fight.

After a heated conversation between Kyle and Belger, Kyle then battles between both his older brother and Father Belger. Soon afterwards, Cody then snaps out of his drug hallucination and throws both Belger and himself over the rooftop of the church. Kyle rushes down to find an unconscious Cody and Belger, who was hurt badly from the fall. After Kyle disposes Belger via gunshot, he rushes towards Cody's side as they both wait for help to arrive.

In the game's ending, Kyle and a detoxified Cody share a hospital room, and discuss their next pit fight. Cody states that as a result of the concentrated GLOW dosage, his knees feel better than ever.

Development[]

Before Streetwise entered development, Capcom Studio 8 worked on a separate game for the PlayStation 2, titled Final Fight: Seven Sons, which had different characters, a different gameplay system, a simulated "railcam" and cel-shaded graphics, the latter two of which served to mimic the aesthetics of Final Fight and its SNES sequels.^[1]

A promotional comic that contained concept art, illustrated by artist and lead voice actor Trent Kaniuga, was included with preorders of the game.

As seen in the promotional comic, Sodom and Poison were initially planned to be in Streetwise but were excised. It is unknown what their intended roles in the game were, or why they were cut from the final version. Additionally, Mike Haggar and Guy were supposed to have more screen-time, but several cutscenes featuring them were eventually removed.^[2]

Soundtrack[]

As well as remixes of the original game's themes, the soundtrack was provided by RZA, Mos Def, Fear Factory, Slipknot, Soulfly, Dub Pistols, Shadows Fall, Opeth, Lil' Flip, Nappy Roots, Dujeous and Gizmachi.

Reception[]

Upon release, the game received largely negative reviews worldwide, with an average score of 47% at GameRankings,^[3] and failed to achieve mainstream success. Many video game review websites and magazines, including IGN,^[4] GameSpot,^[5] GameSpy,^[6] and Game Informer,^[7] have made several complaints about flaws in the game, usually ending with an unfavorable review. Many reviewers claimed that, while the game offers a simple and functional gameplay in the same vein of the original arcade game, it is easily overshadowed by the flaws in other departments. ScrewAttack named Final Fight: Streetwise as 6th on their list of "Top 10 Worst 2D to 3D Games" and also placed the game in the number five spot on their "Top 10 Worst Reboots or Remakes" list. Despite the negativity, it received mixed reception from fans.

Trivia[]

This is the only game in the Final Fight series to have never been released in Japan.

While Final Fight: Streetwise is generally considered a non-canonical installment in the Final Fight series, Kyle is mentioned in Cody's Shadaloo C.R.I. profile. The English version states that he has yet to appear in a game, possibly indicating that Streetwise is not considered canon.^[8] The original Japanese version, however, has no such line, simply indicating he's Cody's brother.^[9] Kyle later got a profile of his own as well.^[10]

The name of some Street Fighter characters can be seen in posters and other places, including Cammy, Ryu, Vega, Balrog (misnamed as "Barlog" in the yellow posters from Tiger's Gym), Dudley, Rolento, Sagat, Necro, Blanka, E. Honda, Dhalsim, Chun-Li, and Zangief (the last four are only seen written in Japanese, outside Japantown's music store).

A poster of Ōkami and Sengoku BASARA can be seen in the Japantown stores. Also, the corridors from Guy's mansion has several paintings from Ōkami.

If the player goes to any soda machine, it will say "Capcola", a portmanteau of the words Capcom and Cola.

Capcom of Japan closed Capcom Production Studio 8 soon after the 2006 release of Streetwise. Contrary to public belief, the game's poor sales did not cause the studio's closing. This was already planned before Streetwise's release.^{[citation needed]}