Q] Why is this game so rare?

A] Final Fight 3 came fairly late on in the Super Nintendo's life span, and it seems that not as many copies were made. All versions of the game -Japanese, American and European -can be expensive to obtain, especially copies which are boxed with instructions. But the European version in particular is the rarest and most expensive of the lot. The company who published it in Europe, Laguna Video Games, apparently never made many copies of games they released -they also published some of Capcom's other later Super Nintendo games in Europe, such as Mega Man X3 and Breath of Fire II, which are also just as rare. As a Super Nintendo collector once said, "if you see something with Laguna Video Games on it, just buy it!". Boxed complete copies of this game and now going for hundreds of dollars on eBay.


Q] What was "Sims Inc."?"

A] In the cutscene shown after defeating Drake, the text mentions that the "only clue" is a manifest with the words Sims Inc. written on it. Unfortunately, this goes absolutely nowhere, and Sims Inc. is never mentioned in the game again. Does anyone know if this was mentioned in the Japanese version? I'd like to know.


Q] Why weren't the female enemies removed from the American version?

A] I'm not sure on the exact reason, but by the time Final Fight 3 was released, the Entertainment Software Rating Board had been created. The ESRB gave all video games age ratings, and Final Fight 3 was rated "Teen". Perhaps if Capcom/Nintendo wanted an "Everyone" rating they would have had to remove the female enemies as they'd done in the past, but not this time.


Q] What are the movie references in Final Fight 3?

There are a couple of references to the classic James Cameron movie Aliens in the final level. In the glass cabinets, you can sometimes see a weapon which looks just like a pulse rifle, the weapon the marines and Ripley mostly use in the film.

Sometimes in the cabinets you can see the legs and one arm of a power loader. Ripley uses a power loader to fight the alien Queen with at the end of the movie. The reason for these cameos is a possible nod to Capcom's Alien Vs. Predator, an arcade game released in 1994 which was also a scrolling beat 'em up.

In the first extra room in the fifth level, there is a canister on the table to the right of the room. If you throw an enemy at this, the canister will open up and you can clearly see what appears to be a robotic arm! This seems to be another reference to another James Cameron movie. In Terminator 2, Dyson enters a high security room and looks at the arm of the destroyed Terminator robot from the first movie. I'm not sure why Capcom would want to reference this, as the company has never made any Terminator games.

However... as seen in some prototype footage of this game, Dean originally had a cybernetic arm. It's possible it was a reference to Dean's original appearance.


Q] How did they get away with "Fuk"?

I have no idea. For those who haven't seen it, some of the chairs in the park path of the second round have the word "Fuk" written on them. These are in all versions of the game.


Q] Is Dean a cyborg?

A] Shortly after the game was released, rumors started going around between players that Dean might not be human, due to his electrical attacks. This doesn't seem to be true though as he mentions in the game that he has a (presumably human) family. However, it seems Dean was originally intended to have a cybernetic arm, as seen in some prototype footage of the game.


Q] Is Final Fight 2's Carlos a hidden character in Final Fight 3?

Some cheat code sites have this method listed for unlocking Carlos:

"Start a game with only one player, then press the start button exactly it signals you to start playing. Then, press Y three times, up, down, L, R, A, B, Y two times, X, select. The sound of a punch will confirm correct code entry. Carlos will jump in."

This code doesn't work, and I'm sure if Carlos really was in the game, someone would have found him by now.


Q] Is this game available for the Nintendo Entertainment System?

There is a bootleg version available for the NES. All of the characters are in the game, and the game can be played with 2 players -even the auto CPU mode is still in. However, some levels and moves are missing, and some of the enemies are really cheap. All of the music in the game is from Mighty Final Fight. Interestingly the text in this bootleg seems to the same as in this prototype, such as Dean referring to the Skull Cross as "bastards". This bootleg may or may not have something to do with another NES bootleg of Garou Densetsu Special -if you reset NES Final Fight 3, the game's title screen will change to this.