Nearly all non-boss enemies are destroyed with a single sprint attack, and those that aren’t usually only require an extra slash or two. The only real issue with the combat is that it is too easy. And this is before getting into your Special Attacks and other modifiers, all of which create a surprisingly robust combat system. There is a standing combo, a running slash attack, a downward kick, and a crouching attack, all useful in different circumstances, and all coming naturally. Not only is this incredibly satisfying, but the developers found a way to take a single melee weapon and give it a lot of variety. Of course, then, the combat is ludicrously fun and bloody, centering primarily around slicing up enemies with your katana. In Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, you play as a robot samurai created to be a killing machine by the government in order to oppress the population. Let’s start with the true highlight of the game: combat. If you miss the bombast and grit of the 90s, this game is for you, an ideal blend of every game (and a few other things) that made the 90s what they were. But, while these flaws do keep it from becoming the pinnacle of modern retro platformers, what it does right is enough to easily earn it a spot alongside other greats of its genre, and it is unique enough that it is worth experiencing in its own right. it inherits many flaws from its predecessors and has a few unique to itself. And then it adds something special to finish it off, some Chemical X that the team at JoyMasher adds that makes it its own, despite its similarities. It takes a dash of Contra’s game feel, a pinch of Robocop’s themes, and a heavy dose of Megaman’s structure and progression, and coats it all in the bombastic biomechanics of Metroid and Quake. Instead, it expertly stirs them together into a complete package that takes just the right bits from each property. The 90s had more than just Sonic and Megaman, after all they also had such grungy classics as Contra III, Quake, and Castlevania.īy mixing these inspirations, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider could’ve easily ended up as an incoherent mash-up of ideas. What Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider might bring to the table, though, is grit. Shovel Knight, Rogue Legacy, Metroid Dread, and countless others are working from the same cloth. They are, in fact, a dime-a-dozen, even if we only count those that strictly adhere to the 90s design ethos (spike traps, speed, and turning everything up to 11). Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider isn’t the only game that seeks to emulate 90s platformers.
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