Conventional wisdom says good things come in threes. We can point to numerous movie trilogies from The Dark Knight to Godfather to The Lord of the Rings, but video game trilogies have their place, too. The big difference is most movies go three-and-out, but if a video game merits enough success for two sequels you can usually squeeze out a few more. Of course, not all such games are created equal. And thirty years ago the SNES saw the conclusion of a trilogy that’s now regarded as a genre-defining masterpiece.
When Final Fight 3 exploded onto the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in late 1995, it arrived not as a blockbuster successor to the arcade legend that preceded it, but as a swan song for Capcom’s 16-bit beat ’em up efforts. The game, released as Final Fight Tough in Japan, was the third developed exclusively for the SNES. It had the smash-your-way-to-the-right energy fans expected alongside some new innovations that showed Capcom was still at the top of its game, even if the genre wasn’t.
