If you’ve thought it was a Capcom lovefest around these parts thanks to the ongoing discussions regarding Jetpack Attack, Mega Man 10, and Cody’s inclusion in Super Street Fighter IV, prepare for one more round of the warm fuzzies. As promised, our interview with Robby Zinchak, Associate Producer, Final Fight: Double Impact, who kindly filled us in on the upcoming title and the franchise as a whole.

Final Fight is considered by many, myself included, to be the face of beat’ em ups along with Double Dragon and River City Ransom. What’s allowed this game, and franchise, to be continually beloved after all of these years?

I think Final Fight has endured through the years because it features simple gameplay that’s a lot of fun. You can put a quarter in the arcade and immediately know how to play, no instructions required. Playing through the game with a buddy is a great co-op experience. Final Fight’s nostalgic gameplay still holds up, even today.

Final Fight: Double Impact oddly pairs the original game with the relatively less popular, but fun, Magic Sword. Why did you decide to go that route instead of releasing Final Fight with its sequels?

I’m hoping that users will discover some more of our classic Capcom games. Magic Sword is a completely different genre, but features the same core of beat-em-up gameplay. In fact, Magic Sword offers some more advanced features for its era, like Captives, who you can rescue and will fight by your side. It’s even got a character leveling system. So, this is a really good opportunity for fans to play one of their old arcade favorites alongside a great one they might have missed.

Tell us a little more about the package. Will Final Fight: Double Impact be a straight port of the original Final Fight or can we expect few new features or additions?

The core games themselves are the same – we’ve not tampered with them. However, we have added a lot to keep you playing: we’ve built out a system called the Vault, which basically challenges you to perform various feats, and then rewards you with all sorts of goodies: original concept art, professional Udon artwork, a Final Fight animation, and even artwork created by fans.

We’ve also added HD filters so you can optionally play the game in beautiful high definition. There’s some really cool optional effects as well: the game can be embedded inside an arcade monitor bezel, complete with CRT-style scanlines and phosphor burn. Multiple options for the HD Filters are provided and it can all be toggled to your preference (even to disable everything and play ‘pure’).

Finally, we didn’t just add extra gameplay and visuals, we also worked with the creators of the highly acclaimed Bionic Commando: Rearmed soundtrack to create remixed music for both Final Fight and Magic Sword. These can also be toggled back to the original mixes, but after you listen to how great the remixes sound, I think you’ll want to keep them enabled.

You can take the game online as well. We’re using a technology called GGPO to provide a smooth online experience that’s as good as playing in the arcades (frame-accurate netcode). Plus we’ve got Achievements/Trophies and Leaderboards. So there’s plenty available here that extends the original games.

Cody and Guy have frequently made appearances in Street Fighter games, and are returning for Super Street Fighter IV. Why have those characters made appearances in Street Fighter while the arguably most iconic FF character, Mayor Mike Haggar, continually sits on the sidelines? If it’s due his similarity to Zangief?  His fighting style could be tweaked to so that he could be the “Ken” to the Big Russian’s “Ryu”, yes?

Haggar is a pretty busy guy – being the mayor of Metro City is tough! How bad is a city’s crime problem when you walk down the street and dozens upon dozens of criminals attack you? No, Haggar has already got his work cut out for him.

Final Fight: Streetwise was a let down to many longtime Final Fight players. Is that why we haven’t seen a Final Fight game since? And what are the prospects of a new original Final Fight title?

Yes, I definitely think that was related. While I respect the hard work of the Streetwise team, I also don’t think that we came out with the best game that we could have. Now I think it’s time for us to go back to basics, and focus on what makes the original shine, learn from that, and make it even better. Where we take it from there in the future… it’s all up to what the fans want.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey L. Wilson’s love of all things shiny/digital has led to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for 1UP, E-Gear, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, PC Magazine, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. Besides overseeing the editorial content at 2D-X.com, the Brooklyn College grad hosts New York City’s monthly Bits and Bytes video game media and public relations meetup. You can find him at a bar sampling foreign beers, or on Twitter doing twittery things.