Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Final Fight: Streetwise moves the classic side-scroll brawler into a fully 3D playground. You take control of Kyle Travers, an underground pit fighter, navigating Metro City’s tangled alleyways, rooftops, and seedy clubs. The shift from linear stages to a non-linear world gives you freedom to explore, backtrack, and tackle objectives in your own order. This open-ended structure can feel refreshing, though it occasionally leads to aimless wandering if you’re not following mission markers closely.

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The new combo system lets you customize Kyle’s fighting style as you progress. Between brawls, you earn currency to unlock moves—everything from aerial juggles to brutal ground slams—so your attacks grow more varied over time. Basic punches and kicks feel responsive, while advanced maneuvers create satisfying, cinematic flare when you string them together. Some combos require precise timing and stamina management, adding a layer of strategy absent from earlier Final Fight entries.

True to its arcade roots, Streetwise encourages weapon usage. Pool cues, lead pipes, and even shotguns can be wielded against thugs with gory flair. Environmental interactions—flipping tables, kicking enemies into dumpsters, smashing street signs—keep combat unpredictable. These improvisational elements give brawls texture, although occasional camera collisions in cramped corridors can obscure enemy positions when you’re juggling foes near walls.

Beyond the main quest of rescuing Cody Travers, side missions involving local shopkeepers, street racers, and undercover informants break the monotony. Helping an NPC retrieve stolen goods or participating in impromptu street fights not only deepens Metro City’s ambiance but also nets you extra health boosts and cash for combo upgrades. While some side quests feel repetitive, they offer welcome detours from straight-ahead beat-’em-up action.

Graphics

Streetwise’s visuals aim for a gritty, modern take on Metro City. Character models exhibit solid polygon counts for the era, with scuffed leather jackets and textured denim that catch the glow of flickering neon lights. Facial animations during cutscenes can veer into stiff territory, but in-combat expressions—gritted teeth, stunned blinks—sell the impact of every heavy blow.

The environments pulse with atmosphere: rain-slicked streets shimmer under broken streetlamps, graffiti tags and drifting trash give each district its own character, and abandoned factories resonate with echoing pipes and steam vents. Some locales reuse assets more than once, leading to a sense of déjà vu if you backtrack too frequently, but overall the city’s verticality and hidden alleys reward exploration.

Combat animations are generally fluid, with combo finishers feeling weighty and satisfying. Weapon swings register well, though occasional clipping occurs when multiple enemies converge in tight spaces. Frame rate dips are rare on consoles of the time, but when large gangs appear, you might notice a brief stutter—hardly a deal-breaker, but enough to pull you out of the action.

Lighting and effects heighten the mood. Sparks fly when metal meets metal, muzzle flashes momentarily blind foes (and you), and the dynamic day/night cycle subtly shifts enemy behavior. While the overall visual fidelity can’t match today’s HD brawlers, Streetwise holds its own as a stylish snapshot of early 2000s 3D beat-’em-up design.

Story

Streetwise places you in the shoes of Kyle Travers, brother to series veteran Cody Travers, who has been kidnapped at the dawn of a new plague in Metro City—a powerful street drug decimating the population. The premise is simple but effective: rescue your sibling before the city falls entirely under the drug’s sway. This personal stake fuels the urgency of each mission, whether you’re raiding a rundown motel or infiltrating a gang-run warehouse.

The narrative unfolds through in-engine cutscenes and voiced dialogue. Kyle’s tough-guy quips land more often than not, though supporting characters occasionally lapse into beat-’em-up clichés: the mysterious informant, the double-crossing lieutenant, the psychotic enforcer with disproportionate biceps. Still, the pacing is brisk, with missions leading cleanly into one another and story beats tying back to the escalating chaos engendered by the new drug.

NPC interactions serve both as world-building and optional lore drops. A street vendor might warn you of a rival gang’s ambush, while a distraught mother pleads for help retrieving her son from a junkie hideout. These diversions flesh out the city’s darker corners and occasionally reward you with unique gear or combo points. Though not every side quest resonates emotionally, they broaden the plot beyond a simple rescue mission.

The climactic showdown against the drug’s kingpin and his bio-engineered lieutenants provides a suitably over-the-top finale. Boss fights demand you leverage the full span of Kyle’s moveset, turning your purchased combos and scavenged weapons into a satisfying crescendo. While the final cutscene ties up most loose ends, Streetwise leaves open the possibility for fans hungry for more Metro City mayhem.

Overall Experience

Final Fight: Streetwise represents a bold reinvention of the beloved franchise. It trades the original’s straightforward stage progression for non-linear exploration and RPG-style move upgrades. This evolution broadens the scope of combat and world interaction, offering more variety than any prior Final Fight game.

However, the transition to 3D isn’t flawless. Camera angles can hinder visibility in close-quarters brawls, and some mission objectives rely heavily on waypoint markers rather than in-world hints. These rough edges may frustrate purists expecting the tight, side-scroll immediacy of earlier titles.

Despite its quirks, Streetwise delivers an engaging beat-’em-up experience that rewards exploration and experimentation. The purchaseable combo system and diverse side missions keep progression feeling earned, and the narrative drive to save Cody Travers gives every street skirmish real stakes. Fans of the original series will appreciate the nods to classic mechanics, while newcomers can enjoy a standalone brawler with ample content.

In summary, Final Fight: Streetwise stands as a daring chapter in the franchise’s history. Its modern trappings—3D freedom, combo customization, NPC side content—offer fresh thrills, even as they introduce occasional technical hiccups. For anyone seeking a beefy, street-level beat-’em-up with a bit of open-world flair, Kyle Travers’s journey through a drug-ravaged Metro City is well worth the walk.

Retro Replay Score

4.7/10