Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider
There ’s nothing quite like a retro action platformer . Thelikes of theCastlevaniaseriesand theShinobigames have left an unerasable target on the remembering of many , and their ascendant can be see through to modern day titles likeDead Cells . It ’s certainly a music genre of biz that developer JoyMasher hold snug to its heart , andVengeful Guardian : Moonrideris proof of this .
Vengeful Guardian : Moonrideris the studio ’s follow - up torun - and - gun shooterBlazing Chrome . In this rubric , the musician takes on the part of the Moonrider , a cybernetic warrior created by a totalistic state to squelch rebellion . However , Moonrider takes on a life of its own to defeat other super soldiers , using its own skills against those that produce it .
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If this floor feels a little similar - a cybernetic soldier go around the humanity defeating evil ' automaton passe-partout ' if you will - then the structure ofVengeful Guardian : Moonriderwill come as no surprise . The player is capable to choose from five level in any monastic order , much like thebest from aMega Mangame , get the better of the fellow super soldier at the end of the stagecoach and acquire their signature weapon . Meanwhile , much like theMega Man Xgames , there are secret upgrades to be find among the stage that the instrumentalist can find , such as regenerating particular weapon power or the ever - utilitarian double start .
That aver , Vengeful Guardian : Moonriderdraws influence from far more than theMega Mantitles , act almost as a greatest hits of the action platformer flower . It ’s most standardized to the 16 - bit action games of the 1990s , stark with a cyberpunk aesthetic and a similar feel of animalism to Moonrider ’s melee attacks . It perhaps feels close tocult classicHagane : The Final Conflict , through both its ocular design and its combat - perhaps a small too close for comfortableness .
When it come to said visuals , vindictive Guardian : Moonriderwill finger like a plate off from habitation for those who grew up in the SNES or Sega Genesis era . It ’s chock - full of chunky fairy , peculiarly when it comes to its particularly large and detailed grinder - bosses . There are also hints of biomechanical and trunk horror in some of the stage , as was often the fount in the nineties , although there is occasionally a horizontal surface of graphic fierceness that probably would have made Nintendo go sick had it tried torelease on the Super Nintendoduring the timeframe of its influences .
From a gameplay view , there ’s a surprising level of variety to be found inVengeful Guardian : Moonrider . Although traditional activity platforming is the norm throughout , the deed of conveyance shakes things up with either smaller sections with different gameplay or testing the player ’s skill in different ways . Just some examples include a Mode 7 - esque racing combat department , a flying section , and a memorable level where the player is being chased by a party boss in the distance .
One of the key memories players may have ofnineties action platformers is the difficulty , and hereVengeful shielder : Moonrideremulates but does n’t copy the styles of the time . Vengeful Guardian : Moonriderisn’t a walk in the park , with some challenging section and a requirement to memorise boss patterns , but it ’s scarcely as hard as some of its 1990s peers . There ’s some sympathy to the found with the player here , such as losing health when fall into a perdition rather than a life loss , meaning that the title comes across as ambitious but just overall .
This does mean thatVengeful Guardian : Moonriderfeels a little on the brusque side . There are a total of eight stages in the plot , and although its finale could keep the player going for the longest it ’s still potential that the player will be done with their playthrough in a twosome of hour . Thankfully there is some replayability to be ascertain in getting a serious score or fill in stages in a faster time , and it ’s fair to say that its structure is pretty perfect for speed running .
Overall , revengeful Guardian : Moonrideris an awful band of fun . Those who apprise the platforming biz of yore will get a nostalgia kick that feel very close to those senior deed of conveyance , with some subtle tweak to make thing more playable . It may not be a game with a lot of longevity , but what ’s here is very enjoyable .
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Vengeful Guardian : Moonriderreleases 12 January 2023 for PC , PS4 , PS5 , and Nintendo Switch . Screen Rant was provided with a PC download computer code for the purposes of this recapitulation .
