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Having served his time and made it to the top as a professional wrestler, the mighty Haggar decided to find himself a quieter career.

Now, while most people would have chosen to work in the local Supermarket (or to get a job as a game reviewer on The One), Haggar instead decided to run for Mayor! What's probably more surprising is that he actually got the job.

It seems as though he's made a few enemies in his new post though - not least of which are the Mad Gear Gang who have just kidnapped Jessica, his sweet cherub-like daughter.

Haggar cannot and will not tolerate criminal actions - especially when they're committed on his own family, so he decides that the only course open to him is to go out and rescue her...

This is no easy task though, even for an ex-wrestler who's built like an ox, so Haggar calls upon his old buddies Cody and Guy to help out. Now the threesome are ready to go - and all that's left is for you to decide which one to be and hit those streets.

Each player has his own 'special move'. Haggar is armed with a handy Pile Drive and a Back Drop, both of which are activated by pulling down on the joystick and pressing fire (the Pile Drive comes into action when the opponent is in very close range). Cody and Guy are armed with the same 'special move' - the mega-destructive Circling Flying Kick.

The Slums are full of evil hoodlums, hiding in doorways just waiting for their chance to put you in a world of pain. You're not unprepared though, because the tremendous trio are armed up to the teeth - mostly with their arms and their teeth! So that you can keep up with how much damage you're causing to each other, there's an energy bar prominent at the top of the screen - allow this to run out and you've wasted another of your precious credits.

If you find kicking and punching your victims to death a bit tiresome, you can always pick up some steel piping or a knife and use that to break the monotony (and, of course, a few skulls). These weapons are concealed in the barrels and are revealed by - would you believe? - more brute force. Watch out when you're using a knife though - the bad guys can use them too.

There's more to this town than the streets. At one stage you have to step into the ring to battle it out with a Samurai Swordsman. This may sound a little daunting, but with the backing of razor-sharp hands and steel-piercing feet you've got no worries - unless he hits you first. This is just one of the end of level big guys, others come in the shape of bent policemen and wrestling 'wire-heads'.

Dad goes to rescue daughter, takes a few mates with him and meets half the world's criminals along the way! Not exactly a tale of everyday life, but it's as good a plot as you're going to get for a beat-'em-up. Final Fight is a great coin-op, the size of the characters, the quality of the visuals, the variety of the moves and the differences between the three main heroes make it stand out from the pack.

The conversion doesn't quite capture all of these elements: while the graphics are excellent and all of the three characters are included, some of the original's features have had to be left out.

For example, some of the more complex fighting moves have disappeared and there's no real difference between the three (while in the coin-op there are some characters that can only be beaten by one or other of the gang). That said though, the computer version is a good blast in its own right, the graphics are great, the music and sound effects top notch and it's action all the way. As you'd expect, when you put characters of this size on a screen, there is occasional slowing down of the action, but this only happens when there are numerous opponents on screen at once, so if you kill them all quickly this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Despite the fact that there seems to be a new beat-'em-up released every month, there aren't very many around that actually stick in the memory. The only one that readily springs to mind is IK+ - and although Final Fight doesn't quite reach the dizzy heights which that classic basher attained, there's little doubt that it's going to stick in the memory.