Capcom Games:
It is no surprise that the X68000 featured some of the best
ports of Capcom arcade games since Capcom used this
computer as their workstation for many CPS games. By
the time Strider hit though, the X68000 was on par with
the hardware used so it was still capable of a near perfect
port but this is apparently the last of the line of near
perfect ports from Capcom. As usual, the Capcom games
are some of the best on the system, made better by the
power of the X68000.
Final Fight is another ar cade por t that got a lot of attention in North America, this time it was for the Super
Nintendo and came directly from Capcom. The SNES
port was riddled with problems from the get go though,
lack of two player support, Guy got lost on the road to the
living room , Poison had a sex change and a complete level was lost.
Strider was one of those system selling games that
caught the attention of the gaming world when Sega
announced it was coming to their Genesis system in an 8
meg cartridge (the first of its kind). The Genesis version
was the best home conversion available, at least in North
America garnering a lot of attention from the press and
gamers (I bought the game before I had a Genesis just to
secure my copy).
Gamers let their voices be heard but Capcom could do
nothing about it for those that bought the game already
(this was before the age of releasing a patch to fix
problems). Sega licensed this one too, this time for their
Sega CD platform (why not on cartridge, I will never
understand) which addressed many of these problems but
it was way past the popularity of the arcade game by then
and the Super Nintendo had Final Fight 2, and the third
part was well known to be on it’s way.
The X68000 suffered from none of these problems,
probably resulting from the close relationship Capcom
had with the hardware at the time. This version was
nearly perfect and again could have caused more than a
few waves had gamers known about it.
Levels were restored, the full arcade introduction made it
home and Poison continued to wear the short half shirt
that caught many a gamer eye in the arcade and Guy was
still a force to be reckoned with. While the Neo Geo had
arcade perfect ports of it’s games, easy when you simply
repackage the hardware over for the home market, the
X68000 held the title of best arcade ports for years
without resorting to cheating.
At no time did the North America press mention the
Sharp X68000, not a single word about it, even though it
was available in Japan and gaining market share.
Honestly, had there been a comparison of the Sharp
X68000 version with the Genesis version, Sega would
have probably not sold near as many Genesis consoles
and copies of the game. While the Genesis version is a
respectable home port, the X68000 blows it away with a
nearly arcade perfect port of Capcoms futuristic action
game.
Final Fight has seen arcade perfect emulation ports on the
Playstation Portable, Playstation Network and Xbox Live.
For retro gamers though, this is the best version of Final
Fight that can be played on true retro hardware, just check
your credit line at the bank before pursuing on Ebay.
Strider on the X68000 is, for all intents and purposes, the
arcade game.
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