Nostalgia always brings about the best gaming experiences. So it comes as no surprise that a large number of releases of Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA) are games that bring back memories spent at the arcade. Final Fight: Double Impact is no exception to the ever growing list of nostalgia-powered gaming experiences, but it certainly isn’t just in it for the cash, Double Impact is all kinds of awesome. The game gets its name from the fact that it contains both Final Fight and Magic Sword, both of which were released as arcade cabinets as well as numerous releases on various platforms. As most know, Final Fight is one of the best brawlers ever created, while Magic Sword has you scale 51 floors, using melee and magic attacks to fry demons, sorcerers and the undead. Both games are equally fantastic but much like the title, Final Fight really steals the show overall. The port of each game was handled flawlessly, maintaining the same great gameplay that you may well remember while remaining untouched. Visually, plenty of options have been added including a cabinet mode, which makes the game look like you’re playing the game on an arcade cabinet which looks great, even if it’s just a cool addition and not anything that will sway your opinion. The soundtracks have been remixed for each game, both remixes are excellent, but fear not; the original soundtracks are included with an option to change between each on the fly.
The best part of Capcom’s release is the drop in, drop out co-op feature in each game. Whenever you boot up a game on Double Impact it defaults to having your game open for someone to randomly drop in if you aren’t already playing a game. So you could be halfway through either game playing by yourself when a random player will join and help you finish out your quest. There is a very brief loading message when somebody drops in and an even briefer one if they drop out. This all occurs without the game grinding to halt or causing you to have to start the level over or any other ridiculous penalty for gaining or losing a player. The only real downside to enable Online mode in your game is the lack of the ability to pause the game, even if you are the only person playing. This caused a few minor frustrations as the times that I was playing by myself; I forgot the set the game in offline mode so no pausing for me. As long as you keep this in mind when playing the game, it certainly won’t ever ruin your play through as you will most likely notice the game is still going right after you pause.
Both games used to be mercilessly hard, and you can tell that each was created with the idea of eating your quarters in mind. But the game quickly nullifies this fact with unlimited continues. You can die as much as you want without penalty. It sucks most of the challenge out of beating each title as they were meant to be played through, but luckily Capcom added in a robust challenge system not unlike achievements that add some difficult objectives throughout the game, such as beating each using less than 18 continues. They are a welcome addition, that make you forgot the unlimited continues for the most part. There are also timed challenges for beating certain levels in FF in an insane amount of time whereas MS has challenges for finding secret warps and levels. Each challenge extends the replay value by quite a bit, since you most likely won’t be able to complete every challenge in a single play through. The best part of the challenge system is that each challenge unlocks a piece of concept art, pages from Capcom comics as well as various other unlockables. With plenty of goodies to unlock in each game, Capcom certainly didn’t skimp on bonus content.
Double Impact is a great package that should be a reference for future nostalgic arcade releases. It packages to great arcade games together for the low price of 800 MSP ($10) while maintaining the same great gameplay within each game. The co-op also really shines as it is completely painless to add another player at any point in the game. Finally, Capcom topped it off with a challenge system that makes you forget the nerfed level of difficulty that comes from having unlimited continues in each game. Double Impact is a stellar buy, easily worth the cash especially for those who have ever come into contact with either game in their youth and even if you haven’t ever played either, they still hold their level of awesomeness after all these years. In a dry spell of arcade releases, Final Fight: Double Impact is a must download.
