If you’ve ever desired to be transported to a 2-D world where you spend your days and nights beating up thugs, bashing through backdrop scenery and procuring tasty barbecued meats from the most unlikely of places, then go track down a copy of Final Fight.
But if you’ve already played the seminal beat ‘em up; worked your weary way through Double Dragon and Streets of Rage; and found you still have a taste for animal flesh straight from the rusty oil drum, then Burning Fight just might be your ticket… especially if you have a willing buddy who shares your enthusiasm.Let’s be honest: Burning Fight is a Final Fight clone (down to the appearance of its main character) and a pretty poor one at that, at least in terms of gameplay.
Sure, the basic beat ‘em up formula is all there — it’s a sidescrolling 2-D game, you control a martial artist traveling from one screen to the next, you must break everything and everyone in your path with a flurry of punches and kicks in order to proceed… But compared to its 1989 Capcom predecessor, SNK’s brawler lacks substance.
There are fewer levels, fewer foes, and fewer martial arts techniques with which to knock the living bejeezus out of those foes. The game suffers from a host of beat ‘em up clichés, ranging from the begrudgingly acceptable (palette-swapped baddies and disappearing weaponry) to the completely absurd re-use of formerly defeated bosses to arbitrarily ramp up the difficulty at game’s end. To say the story takes a backseat to the action would be a gross understatement, as Burning Fight has neither intro nor ending, and not a line of code even references a story. With few exceptions, the enemies are either incredibly cheap or mind-numbingly easy (regardless of difficulty setting) and given practically unlimited continues, most dedicated solo gamers will be able to complete Burning Fight in two hours or less. I know I did.
But SNK’s clone does has one tremendous advantage over the Capcom original, because the Virtual Console port of Final Fight lacks the most compelling part of a good brawler: co-op play. And believe it or not, once I’d successfully recruited a buddy to join my indeterminate cause [the manual mentions something about New York detectives chasing a crime syndicate in Osaka], most of my criticisms melted away.
As a single-player experience, I’ll admit, Burning Fight is more chore than game, with frustrating cheap deaths lurking around every corner and your only reward a chance at the high score. But as soon as you drop player two into the equation, schadenfreude ensures that such frustration is replaced by laughter — and once we started laughing, my buddy and I began to notice all the other ridiculous little things Burning Fight has on tap. Like the whole roasted pig that popped out of a broken trash can. The disturbing dancing hobo that fellates you in level 3. The optional bonus stages where our respectable New York constables were tasked with destroying furniture, convenience store shelving and antique porcelain. The fact that more often than not, the knives we threw ended up in each others’ backs. Intentionally.
If you are solitary and poor, Burning Fight will seem nasty, brutish and far too short for an investment of 900 Wii Points. But with a good buddy — and perhaps a well-crafted drinking game*, you might just find it worth your while.
*I recommend shots at every hidden reference to SNK and/or Neo-Geo you discover in the game’s excellent Japanese backdrops. (GameCyte does not condone underage drinking, please drink responsibly, etc.)
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July 3rd, 2008 at 8:30 am
[...] last week’s two-hour tour of Burning Fight barely steamed my knuckles, I was hoping there might be some more satisfying SNK [...]
July 9th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
[...] “Sure, the game’s a chore to play through all by your lonesome,” I’d find myself writing, “but wait till you check out the hilarious co-op mode!” [...]
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