A fresh take on ninja classics like Shinobi - Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider Quick Review
PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?
Play it if you’re looking for a fantastic pixel-art throwback to games like Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider plays like a love letter to classic 16-bit ninja action games of old. Just don’t go in expecting a ton of depth or replay value; this is a strictly old-school experience in every way.
TIME PLAYED
I spent two hours with Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, which was enough time to test out a few different levels and die a lot. More skilled players—or those who spend the time learning enemy placement and how to dodge each attack—can probably complete the game in about this long, or maybe even less if you’re really speedrunning.
WHAT’S AWESOME
• Old-school as a philosophy. For some modern games, pixel art is just a way to look cool without requiring the huge cost investment of more powerful, realistic graphics styles. For Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, though, pixel art lies at the core of the game’s reason for existence. From the classic level-based design to hidden bonus items that are just about making the game more difficult, playing this felt like I had just popped a cartridge into my Sega Genesis.
• Pace of gameplay. While some might be put off by the short overall run-time of Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, it feels fitting with the games it’s trying to replicate. More importantly, that brisk pace means that the game never loses steam. Whether I was busting out of a shady lab, wrecking a weapons storage facility on the moon, or exploring a city in the midst of destruction, I always had cool shit to do and never felt like I was just walking through the same corridors, fighting the same enemies over and over.
• That music. A lot of indie developers have figured out how to make beautiful pixel art, but I feel like it’s still relatively less common that they nail the simple catchiness of the early to mid-’90s era of video game music. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider absolutely gets this part of the formula right, with a high-octane soundtrack that I would love to listen to outside of the game.
• Boss fights. I was thrilled by both mini-bosses and the bigger end-of-stage encounters in Vengeful Guardian. Sure, these fights generally break down into needing to memorize the order of attacks and whether you should jump, duck, or sprint away from each attack type. But they’re balanced to feel both challenging and rewarding, and most importantly, they look badass.
WHAT SUCKS
• Precision platforming. The cyborg ninja at the heart of Vengeful Guardian has some satisfyingly cool-looking abilities, such as the ability to leap off of walls. But the controls are just stuff enough to make the degree of accuracy expected in some jumps more than a little frustrating. I found myself dying to devious jumping puzzles much more often than I failed against regular enemies or even bosses.
• Length. Okay, I defended it above, but maybe Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is a little too short. While its $16.99 asking price isn’t bad—and it’s sure a lot cheaper than similar games used to cost back in the day—Moonrider is likely to leave players wanting more. Especially if you’re better at the game than me and able to complete it faster.
💬 Are you planning to enjoy the old-school action of Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, or will you be skipping it? Let me know below!
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