Streets of Rage Series or Final Fight Series?

[leder]

Wouldn't really be fair to compare Street to raise to against an arcade version of a video game, would it?

I knew that most of the Final Fight fans were not playing fair when they started posting music from the Sega CD version of the game.

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I'm not really following your logic here. I don't understand how comparing the series' best versions is unfair here.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Not even a contest. Streets of Rage wipes the floor with Final Fight.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

Streets of Rage, easily. Final Fight is an important series, but SoR bested it in pretty much every way.

 

[Ororo]

I think Final Fight, but that's just my personal opinion, I only got more into Streets of Rage recently.
However, correct answer is Cadillacs and Dinosaurs

 

[ArjanN]

As a series SoR but that's mostly because Final Fight only has one great game.

 

[Beef Supreme]

Final Fight was the best for a while, then Streets of Rage 4 happened.

 

[Outrun]

SoR.

I think that the gimping on the SNES FF really swayed me to SoR, which its great gameplay, amazing music, and 2 player co-op.

 

[Aswitch]

Streets of Rage, easily. Final Fight is an important series, but SoR bested it in pretty much every way.

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This. Final Fight is the PUBG of Beat em' Ups while Streets of Rage is the Fortnite. Streets of rage wouldn't be what it is without Final Fight, but Streets of Rage basically near perfected the genre at the time.

 

[Freshmaker]

Not much of a contest. Arcade FF was great, SNES FF's never had enough enemies to not be boring. SoR was always better balanced.

 

[olubode]

SoR as a series obliterates FF, but there is nothing as iconic as Haggars move set from FF1.

 

[Teenage Fansub]

FF1 is better than SoR1, but SoR2 beats it and is much better than the SNES FF sequels.

 

[World B. SkiFree]

Similar to OP, I really enjoyed my playthrough of FF via the Capcom BEU Collection. I had played and owned other versions of FF but had not played it through to completion. I also liked the GBA version (very underrated) and Mighty Final Fight on the NES.

That said, I would give the nod to SOR as a series just because it feels like a more realized "series" in contrast to FF (I had only played FF2 and 3 a little though) and because the games are fantastic, particularly SOR2.

 

[skaertus]

I've been playing the Capcom's Beat Em Collection of late and just finished Final Fight. What a great game. I sucked as kid playing that game in the arcades and never played any the home ports to completion. This was the first time I completed it. Credit spamming of course! While it has a simpler moveset than SoR2, I quite enjoyed it.

In terms of music, SoR stomps on FF, even in the mildly received SoR3 which goes with a more experimental OST. However, comparing their top games, FF1 and SoR2, it's rather close now. Yet, SoR2 still beats FF1 as an overall package. FF1 is much stronger than I thought, though.

I do love how the trope of the last boss being in a tall skyscraper keeps getting used in these games lol. Die Hard influence?

So, what say you, SoR or FF?

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It's a tough call. Both series are very good, although I prefer other beat-em-ups.

Final Fight for Arcade would probably be my top choice if I were to choose. But it uses superior hardware and more resources, and this would make it sort of an unfair comparison.

As for the console versions, it is not that easy to choose. Final Fight for SNES was a very good game, but it only allowed for 1-player game, which is an unforgivable sin for beat-em-ups. The original Streets of Rage, while it checks most of the boxes, seems like a slow-paced and not very satisfying game.

Streets of Rage 2, released in December 1992, is close to a masterpiece. Sega played all cards right there. Very good and colorful graphics, great soundtrack, a variety of characters to choose from, several special moves. It was the first 16 Mb game for Genesis, and apparently Sega wanted to deliver something truly special. It seems to me that Sega made Streets of Rage 2 so it could be its answer to Street Fighter II, which had been released for the SNES on an exclusivity basis some six months earlier as the first 16 Mb game for the console. Streets of Rage 2 is satisfying, but mostly because of the quality of graphics and music, as I still think it has some slow gameplay.

Final Fight 2 is a very good beat-em-up from Capcom, but without all the special sauces that Sega used on Streets of Rage 2. It puzzles me why Capcom decided to make a SNES-only sequel to Final Fight, when it could have ported one of its several very good Arcade beat-em-ups instead. Final Fight 2 has good graphics and large sprites, although the soundtrack is nowhere near Streets of Rage 2. Technically, Streets of Rage 2 is a superior game in nearly every aspect. However, Capcom's know-how of beat-em-ups probably helped it a lot in Final Fight 2. I think the gameplay is fast and good, and overall better than Streets of Rage 2.

Streets of Rage 3 feels more generic than the second one. The graphics were improved and seem very realistic. However, the sound is not that great. Overall, the gameplay is faster. Final Fight 3 also brings faster gameplay, and improved graphics over the second one, although more cartoonish than Streets of Rage 3.

Overall, I think Streets of Rage is a much better series than Final Fight, from a strictly technical perspective. Sega made some very competent games and made the right choices. But I just prefer Final Fight, as I think it has better, faster and more satisfying gameplay. As much as I would like to prefer Streets of Rage, given all the effort Sega has put into it, I still prefer Final Fight.

I have to say none of them come close to my favorite beat-em-up, which is TMNT: Turtles in Time, which may not have as many moves and variety as some entries in the Final Fight or the Streets of Rage series, but provides far more fun.