The omission of a two-player co-op mode damages this arcade classic.
Characters are suitably larger than life, and attacks look meaty in the kind of satisfying way you can only get from such an over the top game. Throw in a few weapons and the obligatory food pickups to restore health and you've got a winning formula right? Er...
In the original arcade version there were actually three available players: Haggar, Cody and Guy, and as with all good beat 'em ups, it was a two-player game. This made boss fights and dealing with hoards of enemies manageable, but as Guy and the two-player option are omitted altogether from this incarnation, it makes the game incredibly frustrating at times, and takes a lot of the fun out of it.
Hamstrung by its single player experience, Final Fight is an opportunity missed. You also can't help but wonder why some quality control hasn't been put in place on the Virtual Console, as the once-expensive arcade version would now be cheap and small enough to make it a downloadable game. It's this nagging feeling that unfortunately makes Final Fight nowhere near as enjoyable as you remember it.