If you were a gamer growing up in the 80s, chances are you probably played and loved 1989’s Final Fight. For those too young to remember Capcom’s awesome side-scrolling beat-’em up, Final Fight had players roaming the gang-infested streets of Metro City. Gamers were able to choose amongst three players: Guy, Cody, and Haggar. While they all played very similarly, each of them had their own unique special moves. While not as popular, Capcom also released Magic Sword a year later. Magic Sword is also another 2D beat-‘em up, but takes place in Lord of the Rings inspired setting filled with armor, swords, magic and monsters. With the advent of popular online services like Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, Capcom is breathing new life into these classics in HD format with Final Fight: Double Impact.

While remastering beloved, old games seems like an easy enough task, it is possible to screw up classics by messing with the formula too much (George Lucas, I’m looking at you). According to Capcom, the developer didn’t want to “tamper” too much with the originals, since they were so well liked. Therefore, it wanted to do little things like tweak the graphics for the HD era and offer new additions such as tons of unique achievements and special un-lockables, none of which Capcom were willing to reveal to me. 

Aesthetically, Final Fight: Double Impact features two very colorful games that are bolstered by a new slew of visual options. Not only can the classic games scale to widescreen, but there are different filter settings for players to choose from. One setting featured both games in all of their pixilated glory and another mode smoothened out the jaggies and made everything look sort of like a water-colored comic book. While it may not amaze your jaded friends, it’s still pretty cool stuff. 

On top of the graphical tweaks are enhancements to the music. Some of the fine folks who worked on the awesome Bionic Commando: Rearmed soundtrack have been enlisted to recreate some new tunes for Final Fight: Double Impact. 

Wanting to recreate the pop-in-your-quarter-and-join-anytime arcade experience, Capcom has added online play to both games using the seamless GGPO technology that will ensure near lagless perfection. 

While I wasn’t able to test the game out online, I was able to play the game locally with a buddy of mine. While neither game is going to revolutionize the way we think about remaking old classics, both games are just as how I remembered them: pure, simple, fun. This is jumping, punching, throwing, and picking up weapons at its finest, kids. 

The collection will retail for $9.99 and will launch on Microsoft’s Xbox Live on April 14 and on Sony’s PlayStation Network on April 15.