Burning Fight

Developer	SNK
Meg Count	54
NGH #	018
Release	Neo Geo MVS - 5/20/1991 Neo Geo Home - 8/9/1991 Neo Geo CD - 9/9/1994
Producer(s)	Eikichi Kawasaki
Designer(s)	Naoto Abe
Programmer(s)
Artist(s)
Composer(s)	Yasumasa Yamada
Genre(s)	Beat 'em up

Burning Fight is a beat 'em up game created during the heyday of other similar games such as Capcom's Final Fight and Sega's Streets of Rage.

Gameplay

Burning Fight follows a formula and concepts commonly seen in titles of this genre, such as Streets of Rage, Double Dragon and Final Fight: balanced character selection, objects and weapons found on the ground cause greater damage to opponents, and semi-interactive environments (players can damage objects like phone booths and street signs along the way). The game is set in a fictional version of Osaka city (during a train station scene the platform even shows an "Umida" station sign).

There are three playable characters, each with their own levels of strength, agility and special moves: Ryu is quick but weak, Billy is slow but very strong, and Duke is a more balanced hitter. One element that helps the game stand out from its competition is mini-stages, where the player must defeat some enemies in a short period of time in order to win prizes.

Antagonists are members of Heiwa-Gumi, a Japanese yakuza gang, though there are a few Caucasian bosses and mid-level bosses (including three wrestling characters, Tom Anderson, Gary Powell and the Mad Dilly, modelled after Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage), and the final boss is Italian mob boss Castella (Casterora in Japanese). Moreover, the game has no individual endings, no matter which character has been chosen. After defeating Castella, players are presented with various scenes of the game along with the credits, and finally a group picture of the main characters.

Story

Duke and Billy, two popular and renowned New York City Police detectives, are hot on the trail of a dangerous Japanese crime syndicate. Their investigation has led them to the mean streets of Japan where they meet a police officer and martial arts expert named Ryu. Ryu agrees to join the NYPD detectives as they track down the crime syndicate bosses and end their reign of terror once and for all.

Characters

Playable Characters

• Duke Edwards
• Ryu Saeba
• Billy King

Bosses

• Yujiro Heike - He is a member of a Japanese yakuza gang known as Heiwa-Gumi and Azusa Heike's husband; he appears as a boss in stage 1 then as a mid-boss in the final stage together with Azusa.
• Tom Anderson - A Hulk Hogan look-a-like wrestler that appears in the second level. A recolored variant of him appears in the final level as Mad Dilly which bears a resemblance to Macho Man Randy Savage.
• Azusa Heike - She appears to be one of the members of Heiwa-Gumi and Yujiro Heike's wife; she appears as a boss in Stage 2-B with her bodyguards named Harold Carr and reappears as a mid-boss in the final stage together with Yujiro.
• Gary Powell - A wrestler-like enemy that appears in the third stage. He is a spriteswap of Tom Anderson, but his head is different.
• Nitou Ryuji - He is possible to be a leader of  Heiwa-Gumi; he appears as a boss in Stage 3 then as Nitou Ryugo in the final level of the game.
• Marshall - He is a vicious punk and Duke's rival; he appears as a boss in both Stage 2 and 4 then as a midboss in the final level.
• Casterora - He is the final boss and Italian or Spanish mobster who is responsible for the crimes in Osaka city.