Final Blow

Final Blow is a Sports game, developed by Taito Corporation and published by Storm, which was released in Europe in 1991.

Up until now, the only semi-decent boxing sim has been the humble Spectrum version of Elite’s Frank Bruno game. However, in converting Final Blow, Storm have taken the risk and, to an extent, pulled it off. Somehow, though, Storm have managed to inject a modicum of playability into the Amiga game, creating a repetitive but playable conversion.

The original coin-op sported five boxers, each of whom had to be beaten before the title was yours. Storm’s game, however, now sports a tournament, a two-player mode and an expanded gym of ten would-be champs. The actual bouts against these guys takes place over two rounds within a horizontally-scrolling ring, with the player’s on-screen persona represented by one of the largest sprites the Amiga has housed.

There are a variety of punches available, ranging from uppercuts to head blows and blocks, and these are all easily accessed using the joystick and fire button. In addition, if you’re coming off worse during a scuffle, the ref will come in and break you up or you can leap out of the fray.

What’s there is well done, however, somehow I get the feeling that, even if Storm had added more moves to the existing ones, the game would still boil down to the same thing. Entertaining enough in the short-term, and undoubtedly better than the coin-op. Final Blow is the best of its kind but a feather-weight in the lasting appeal department.

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