American interpretations/reimaginings of Japanese media usually don't go well but this is the only game where I can face off Cammy & Andore while listening to Slipknot & MF DOOM so I'll let it slide just this once. It makes absolute sense here that a city that has been crime ridden for decades to just be this gritty & run down with the citizens acting Slimy & Edgy to each other. The dialogue and presentation is so committed to the edge that it can come off as unintentionally funny & cheesy at times. This game had a pretty short development time which is both impressive and very much explains why some segments just feel unsatisfying to go through. The approach is very weird on what it wants to let the player get away with and its so inconsistent that I can't tell if I cheesed a boss fight or just outskilled him with a solid combo. If I was a Final Fight purist I'd probably hate this game with a passion but its actually possible to have a good time here when you don't try to force yourself to be upset over a game that hasn't been canon in almost 2 decades. They gave Guy some seriously clean outfits here the Street Fighter dev team needs to take that white suit as an outfit if they ever return him.

Now I know what you are thinking. I gave this game 5 stars. But hear me out first. I get it for something that has the Final Fight name, its awful. However, if you have that rare ability to put that aside, you will find something fun and insane here. Not to mention funny and campy as hell. Almost consider it parody of the Yakuza style game just with a western setting.

No kidding, on one mission you are beating the shit out of thugs and then comes another where you wager against a random grandma at a game of darts lol

The combat in streetwise isn't too bad, it has the necessary umph factor that makes beat em' ups fun. The inclusion of a parry is cool except that it has a real tight window but when you land it it feels great. The instinct meter can also be used to parry. You buy moves and upgrades so collecting cash is essential. You could just do the main missions but I highly encourage you to do the side missions just to see how wacky they get.

Soundtrack is quite solid, some good jams. They use licensed music from rap and metal artist (mostly rap) but they are pretty good picks. There are some original tunes as well like the main town themes.

Some people consider streetwise to be a spiritual sequel to BeatDown: Fist of Vengeance, also by Capcom and yes I definitely see that.

Ugly in both body and spirit, but that's not important - what IS important is that the opening of this game sees you fighting in an illegal bare-knuckle match against a guy called Handsome Bob. Handsome Bob looks like the guy Brad Pitt fights in an illegal bare-knuckle match at the end of Snatch. And they pull the Snatch freeze-frame name cards for him (and every other character). Well, Snatch is a good movie, stealing from good movies is what games do all the time, so what? I'll tell you what. Handsome Bob is the name of Tom Hardy's character in RockNRolla which came out two years later. GUY RITCHIE HAS PLAYED THIS GAME AND STOLE IN KIND

No es tan criminalmente malo como te lo suelen pintar, y mientras no tomes en cuenta la franquicia a la que está asociada puedes incluso llevarte una sorpresa.

Final Fight: Streetwise tiene una estética genérica y una historia ridícula sobre drogas que transforma a la gente en zombies, la cual fue contada con un tono inconsistente que no se decide entre seriedad y comedia, en lo jugable tienes niveles poco interesantes de explorar con un mapeo confuso de momentos, una serie de enemigos que varían poco y un último tercio en donde el juego te tira grandes cantidades de enemigos para incrementar artificialmente la dificultad, además de una serie de jefes que se van poniendo peor hasta el final del juego. Entonces, ¿por qué digo que no es tan malo? Simple, EL COMBATE ES AUTENTICAMENTE BUENO: Tienes un sistema de "estilo" que premia tu habilidad, una mecánica para potenciar tus ataques mientras mantienes un botón (y tengas energía la cual se recarga luchando), un sistema de combos relativamente extenso, mejoras que puedes comprar y van desde nuevas técnicas hasta habilidades pasivas, pick ups que varían al combate y permiten crear nuevos combos o situaciones de combate (como el jefe que convierte al juego en un shooter), te puedes defender, evadir, hacer counters, parrys e incluso hacer "just defend", etc. Seguro, varios elementos pueden ser pulidos, pero en general el sistema de combate es complejo y entretenido, lo que termina cargando a las deficiencias del juego en los demás apartados hasta cierto punto, aunque ciertamente no lo suficiente para llamarlo bueno o decente. Lastimosamente todo esto solo deja a Streetwise como una de esas obras con potencial desperdiciado de las cuales muy posiblemente nunca veamos una refinación de sus buenas ideas y una mejora de sus defectos, por lo que al final solo queda darle su respectivo merito con las esperanzas de que alguien más se atreva a darle un vistazo y quede sorprendido ante su singular y prometedor acierto.