This fun action platformer is primarily played with numbers.
Published by The Arcade Crew, which also has titles such as Kunai and Infernax, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is an action platformer in the vein of Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man, with ample references to both classic games . The cyborg-like ninja you control, Moonrider moves and attacks smoothly, but his eight levels of challenging battles lack variety and are unlike anything you’ve seen before. is not.
Before diving into the main game, we recommend completing a short tutorial to familiarize yourself with Moonrider’s kit. It has a basic sword slash that can form triple-hit combos, a special move that comes with an MP meter, and the ability to jump off walls and navigate vertical space. In almost every stage you can find power modules that you can equip your Moonrider to add perks and buffs such as stronger armor, auto-MP regenerates him, and health recovery from defeating enemies. Most of these modules are often carefully hidden within secret passageways, so it’s important to thoroughly explore each stage.
A total of eight levels are divided into different areas and end in boss battles with enemies designed like Moonriders. As a result, defeating these figures will give you a new special move that you can select from his wheel menu. As you can imagine, some of these abilities are particularly effective against certain bosses in other stages. The levels themselves, other than some underwater areas and some bike segments, have such similar aesthetics that it’s hard to tell them apart. Luckily, there are stage choices after the first stage that opens the game, allowing you to return to each stage to improve your score, time, rankings, and find hidden power modules.
In terms of visuals and its soundtrack, Vengeful Guardian looks and sounds like a Sega Genesis or SNES title. For better or worse, even a little junk remains. What spoils the aesthetic is that nearly every level is dark and grainy, with lots of blacks, grays, and browns popping up on the screen. It is no longer easy to distinguish one part from another. However, the pumping music that runs through each stage helps alleviate some of the monotony.
Focusing on minute-by-minute gameplay, guiding Moonrider through corridors, elevator shafts, and platforms is mostly satisfying. Slicing and dicing enemies and using different beams and projectiles obtained from bosses work well and feel familiar to anyone who has played a game like this before. Contra 3, Mega Man X, and Shinobi III all come to mind. However, it’s much easier to just hit his ZR button, so hopefully it avoids some of the platforming headaches others have run into by rushing headlong into the game.
I have no complaints about Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, but in the end it feels very derivative. It does a great job of evoking the emotions and impressions of the 16-bit era, but fails to push the boundaries in any meaningful way. As far as action platformers go, it’s definitely a decent way to spend a few hours, and what fans of the genre, especially the retro-focused kind, are clearly in awe of. But for my money, I would have liked to see some twists and a little more risk taking on such a well-worn type of video game. While not a full Moonrider, Vengeful Guardian has enough features to make your rolling credits worthwhile.
