GC22: Vengeful Guardian Moonrider Played in Full 16-Bit Glory – News

JoyMasher, the makers of Blazing Chrome (im Check) are back with another game with plenty of retro power. Where said title strong cons-Vibes are the models for the new work Vengeful Guardian Moonrider title like striders or the first Ninja Gaiden. The author of these lines does not know these titles from his own glorified memories, but the 16-bit graphics with scanlines and a slightly distorted frame à la tube monitor make Moonrider look like an old game that was just discovered today.

The level of difficulty is crisp, I already bit the dust several times in the tutorial, but soon I found myself and apart from weaknesses in detail with dive kicks from the air, which liked to go straight down if I wanted to trigger them diagonally in the direction of the enemy below, controlled themselves short and long hops, sword slam combos and wall hops very accurately.

In the first level, the cyber ninja hero breaks out of a laboratory. A nice opening animation with in-game graphics shows him slicing himself out of a cryo tank and taking out two guards. The two researchers who were tampering with his tank then run away screaming. As I make my way through the somewhat monotonous facility (a preview level created for the fair), I kick and slice through firing facilities, enemy ninjas, and guardians. There are separate death animations for kills with dash punches or combos, accompanied by flickering pixel blood.

The enemy at the top of the picture is the boss of the first section and the design (not negatively) also reminds of old times: only when the head or the hands attack do they come to the fore and become vulnerable. The boss shares very violently, which the developers want to make a little more merciful.

The final second level of the allusion version turns up nicely in terms of design. First, I start hanging on a ship and think it stays that way for the whole section, like in some Contra levels. But I have to jump onto the vehicle, unlock a double jump and fight my way through an airship armada, using many smaller airships as platforms. On the last meters of the level, a cruiser appears in the background, which now shoots laser beams from the sky. It is now a matter of waiting in the right place when the targeting of the attack is locked and then hopping to the next ship, while the old one slides a little further after the shot and then crashes. You still have to work on enemies with your sword while wonderfully driving synthwave beats play. So the demo left me wanting more. Challenges Friends of action with a retro flair should keep an eye on the title, which will be released at the end of the year.