The Final Round

The Final Round is an arcade boxing game released by Konami in November 1988. It is the export version of the Japanese title Hard Puncher — Ketsumamireru no Eikou and carries the designation GX870.

You box through a series of opponents and train between fights, which was the standard structure of sports coin-ops at the time: climb the ladder, raise your stats between bouts, and get regularly encouraged to insert another coin. Konami's animation quality and sprite work were among the best in the business in this period, and The Final Round shows it — punches have weight and opponent reactions read clearly.

More interesting than the boxing, though, is what happened to the game in export. Konami renamed every fighter: Rocky Smith became Jabbin' Jim, Joe Vulcan became Gentleman Joe, Mr. Mohican became Knockout Nick, Mark Rentz became Steel Fist Fritz, Avege Hidev became Bronx Bruiser and Marvin Cobra became Harlem Hit Man. Most of the voice samples were re-recorded from Japanese into English.

Above all, the American release lost several Easter eggs the Japanese version had: a flock of birds appearing in the ring at the start of a fight depending on damage taken, an alternative referee head in the form of a Moai statue triggered by time, a hidden bonus in the Power training session, and two different game modes unlockable through a particular joystick input at the start of a new game. So anyone playing the export version is playing a reduced one.

It has aged like a period coin-op: fights repeat, the difficulty ramps steeply and the design exists to beat you. For fans of eighties Konami it is nonetheless an interesting and little-known corner of the catalogue.