Final Fight Speedrun

[Mr. K]

Is it possible?  I've been playing it a lot.  A deathless run, if it is possible seems like it would be slower than one that wasn't.  I haven't found any TAS playthroughs, but I did find this boss video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj5zXeNBnZg
That punching trick with Cody from the arcade does work in the SNES.  It's hard to do.  The thing about Final Fight is that it is extremely random, from the way that the enemies move to how long you can hold enemies after you grab them.  But can you imagine how much pummeling you would have?

[mikwuyma]

Is it possible?

I don't see why not, though I'd prefer a run on the PS2/Xbox Capcom Classics Collection Volume 1. 

A deathless run, if it is possible

It is. There are MARP score replays that are deathless IIRC.

seems like it would be slower than one that wasn't. 

No. What you're probably thinking is that a deathless run would be very conservative (read: lack of planning), and a run with deaths would be going in fists flailing (again, lack of planning). Being conservative means you don't have enough knowledge in the game to be confidently aggressive, and going in fists flailing while dying means you don't have enough knowledge in the game to predict enemy patterns

A good beat 'em up speedrunner will memorize the enemy positions and the boss patterns so he can hard and strike often. He will also group enemies so that he doesn't get surrounded and he can hit multiple enemies at once. Is it easy? No, but it's definitely possible.

I haven't found any TAS playthroughs

That's because most people on TASvideos would say a run of this game would be too boring.

[Emptyeye]

I didn't think the punching trick was that hard to do on the SNES version.

Anyway, I've actually tried to get into a groove to do the Capcom Classics version. Currently, my plan is to take what I've learned (Suffice to say that my current skill at the game isn't nearly what it should be for a speedrun) and apply it to FF2 and/or 3 on the SNES, which I would think would be much easier than the arcade version of the original.

Anyway, if you can pull it off, that'd be great too.

[LordLocke]

A deaths allowed run can be faster for Beat-em-ups because in some, waiting for 'safe moments' is more time consuming then the price of death- I know there's a run of a TMNT run out there that dies at Krang because going slap-happy in his face and losing a life is way, way faster then trying to safely jump-kick him to death after attacks. 

That said, I can't think of a lot of places in Final Fight where that'd work.  Certainly not in the normal levels (grouping enemies and smacking them as a pack is both safe and fast) and the only boss I can think of where a reckless assault might be faster is Sodom/Katana (Because the safe methods of Cody jabjabturnjab or the standard way of trying to draw him into charging from the edge of his range then counter-throwing him are both pretty slow).  Maybe shave a couple of seconds off Belger, too. 

That said, I gotta wonder who the best character would be for this.  Cody's got jabjabturnjab which turns most bosses into trivial exercises of execution and patience, but it makes the Katana/Sodom fight take forever, but I can't help but think between his longer reach and higher damage, Haggar might get through the actual stages quicker (and possibly do some of the bosses faster- besides Abagail, I can't think of any boss that'd be definitely outsped by Cody through jabjabturnjab.  It'd be a lot harder, though)