Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight (1990). Play online

Summary

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight turned my expectations of the franchise on their head. Instead of a one‑on‑one brawler, it delivers a side‑scrolling action adventure set on the NES, starring a cyborg version of Ken. I spend each level hunting a specific target, gathering enough energy to open a transdimensional portal before the timer runs out. The control scheme is delightfully simple—one button to strike, another to jump—yet Ken can climb walls, perform flip jumps and fire a range of energy projectiles from his fists or kicks.

Power‑up capsules boost the projectile’s range and strength up to five levels, while damage can strip you back. The challenge spikes, especially when you have to master the backward‑flip jump to hit enemies from the air. Though its Japanese counterpart featured a different protagonist, the English localization tied it to the Street Fighter lore, a choice that reviewers still mock for its baffling plot twist. Despite the steep difficulty, retro fans appreciate the detailed sprites and the feeling of roaming an alien galaxy with only your fists to rely on.

Storyline

In 2010, interplanetary warp gates let anyone travel between planets. Ken, a former Street Fighter champion who retired 25 years earlier, became a gifted scientist and created a substance called Cyboplasm that grants superhuman strength.

After his lab partner Troy is murdered, left in a pile of gelatinous material and the Cyboplasm stolen, Ken implants bionics and uses an interdimensional transporter to chase the killer across the Frontier planets, where traces of the drug appear.

A mysterious entity begins to taunt Ken, and he feels a strange pain in his body. The culprit is revealed to be Troy, who faked his death, spread Cyboplasm to build an army of super‑human warriors, and injected Ken with the substance.

Ken defeats Troy, returns to Earth and works to contain the Cyboplasm pandemic.