Final Fight - Development

Development

Yoshiki Okamoto cites the arcade version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge as his basis for Final Fight. Final Fight was originally shown at trade shows under the title of Street Fighter '89. According to Okamoto, the sales division of Capcom originally requested a Street Fighter sequel, so his team decided to promote Final Fight as a Street Fighter sequel at trade shows (going as far to refer to one of the main characters as a "former Street Fighter"). The title was changed to Final Fight before its official release after feedback from operators stating that the game was nothing like Street Fighter.

According to the developers, many elements from the game and its plot were inspired by the 1980s action film, Streets of Fire. Many members of the production staff are fans of the movie. One of the main characters from the game, Cody, was even inspired by the hero of the film, Tom Cody, who was played by actor Michael Paré. The story of the movie also dealt with the kidnapping of an attractive young woman by a city gang. The street gang the player faces in the game, the Mad Gear Gang, takes their name from a 1987 overhead racing game by Capcom of the same name. The game was released as Led Storm outside Japan. Many of the characters are named after 1980s rock musicians such as Axl Rose, Slash, Gene Simmons, (Sid) Sid Vicious, (Billy) Billy Idol, (Abigail, named after King Diamond's 2nd album and also dons facepaint similar to King Diamond) King Diamond, Roxy Music and Poison, with another being from the game Forgotten Worlds.