8 Video Game Reboots That Failed TWICE

Not every franchise that has a major impact on one part of gaming history is going to be able to maintain its prominence. In fact, there are a lot of titles from the side-scrolling beat-em-up era that have fallen into relative obscurity.

Capcom’s Final Fight was a trilogy of reliable thug-stomping simulators in the 90s that gave us the likes of Mayor Mike Haggar and gaming’s first trans representation in Poison. Notably, the game first started as a spin-off of the Street Fighter series before finding its own identity which is ironic since, by the end of the decade, Final Fight was forced to reinvent itself as a traditional fighting game.

1999’s Final Fight Revenge was hobbled from the get-go. Releasing exclusively in Japan, on the Sega Saturn but after the release of the Dreamcast, and having to compete with so many greats of the time (some of which were also released by Capcom). This sluggish, unsatisfying brawler felt several years behind the curve even before players hit the credits in disappointingly record time.

Therefore, for the next game, Capcom took Final Fight back to its brawling roots for 2006’s Streetwise whilst, at the same time, completely updating the tone for the modern age. That is to say, Streetwise is one of the worst examples of trying so hard to be edgy and urban that it’s almost physically painful. Its cheap use of curse words and a largely grey aesthetic were a far cry from what fans wanted, and its half-baked plot and snoozefest gameplay meant that it was never going to bring in new players.

Revenge took Final Fight to the edge and Streetwise gleefully kicked it off, and now the series is largely a memory and a nostalgia pull for Street Fighter DLC.