NES Beat Em Up Mighty Final Fight Arrives on the ZX Spectrum

Mighty Final Fight was originally a NES game way back in 1993, the cuter home console cousin of arcade beat ‘em up Final Fight. And now, thanks to the combined talents of Alexander ‘Sanchez’ Udotov, graphics wiz Eugene ‘ER’ Rogulin and Oleg ‘n1k-o’ Nikitin on the AY chip, it has made a triumphant appearance on the 128k ZX Spectrum.

Mighty Final Fight is mighty simple to play, but being a bit rubbish at beat ‘em ups in general I forgot all the special moves and repeatedly got my Chibi butt handed to me on a monochrome plate before making it out of the first level; this will not be a comprehensive review!

What I can tell you is that you can choose from one of three playable heroes to tackle this potentially impossible mission, each bringing to the table his own fighting style leading to, legend has it, his own unique end game (or in my case, unique way of getting thrown repeatedly to the floor until he can take no more).

You must battle your way through five city districts to rescue the Mayor’s daughter and, apparently, giver of life to all in Metro City. Each level brings three stages full of glorious technicolour backgrounds, fun animated characters, and ridiculous attention to detail - animated pigeons, mysterious eyes peeking out of mouseholes and similar background animations - all to an unsuitably jolly background tune.

In short, the only thing I can find fault with in this game so far is my playing ability. Mighty Final Fight can be downloaded as a tap or trd file, or if you understand these things, the source code.

Review by Steve Trower
@SPTrowerEsq
Steve Trower is the author of the retrogaming inspired series The Ambivalence Chronicles - a Sci-Fi Comedy in 8 Bits.