Currently Playing #14

Final Fight 2 (SNES)

Some time ago, I downloaded Final Fight 2 off of the Virtual Console. It wasn't until yesterday that I started playing it, so I'm pretty sure it's been years since I've come back to this baby. I went through the entire game yesterday on Easy with Maki. I think I used about three continues getting through with most of my deaths coming from the hands of thugs getting hits on me when I was very low on health. It was a good way to kill an hour or two and it felt great to return to the beat 'em up genre.

 Now I'm going through the game on Normal as Haggar. I rarely play as Haggar when I play a Final Fight game and I regret that because I was reminded how much of a tank he is. Sure, he's a bit sluggish, but he hits ever so hard. Doing a Spinning Pile Driver on the Mad Gears or simply throwing them as Haggar never gets old.

I think the toughest boss for me in Final Fight 2 is Rolento. He was abscent from the SNES Final Fight but he's here for the sequel and he's insanely fast. And I just loooooove how he throws those grenades when he starts getting low on health. As if his fighting stick and speed weren't enough to deal with.

Punch-Out!! (Wii)

Nearly 2 years after I bought this game, I finally opened it up and decided to play it yesterday. I'll knock down that backlog yet.

Playing the Wii version of Punch-Out!! is like meeting up with an old friend. In many ways, this game feels like the the NES Punch-Out!! and the SNES Super Punch-Out!! Glass Joe is still a joke and I had no problems beating him. A lot of these boxers have the same moves and patterns they did from the old games. It's very gratifying to know that the most of the same techniques I used to beat King Hippo nearly two decades ago still work on him here. I say "most" because I'm positive King Hippo never used that nasty headbutt that causes a ton of damage before this game. Piston Hondo (yes, Hondo, not Handa) was my first real threat. It took me some time to learn how he opperates and he seems much faster than he was in the NES game, but on upgraded hardware, I guess that's to be expected.

Right now on on the Major Circuit and it Great Tiger is proving to be one tricky dude. His mirage punch or whatever it's called is hard for me to avoid even when I look at the real deal. I didn't think I'd have this much trouble on him so I can only imagine what Bald Bull and Mr. Sandman will be like.