With beat ’em up undergoing a renaissance of late, it seems like a new title enters the fray every other week. While some attempts use IPs like Double Dragon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to grab attention, others rekindle the magic of the genre with original ideas. Enter Nuala Studio with Vengeance Hunters, a fledgling project known for its development platform, the Neo Geo, a 34-year-old piece of arcade hardware.
Revenge hunters do not shy away from clichés. Its introduction moves across an imaginary city skyline as it describes a dystopian future threatened by “High rolling suitmen”. Captains of Industry. Bastards of the upper crust.” Vaguely political, then. Enter the three protagonists, awkwardly named Candy, Golem and Loony; an athletic woman, a bulky robot and a muscular half-cyborg man.
One thing that is sure to impress you is the graphics of Vengeance Hunter. The artists at Nuala studio really put in a lot of effort here. The backgrounds are full of detail, with superb color casts and palette mixes that form the game’s far-reaching reaches. You wander through forests, wastelands, city streets and your obligatory (and probably less interesting) company headquarters. Tonally it feels like an 80s cartoon with bite, something in style POLICE OFFICERS or Bravestarr: grown up enough with its vibe, occasionally bursting with blood, while retaining its traditional arcade game roots.
It also looks good in motion, with large, well-animated sprites that move across the screen in unique and interesting ways. As for the sound, it’s good enough, very synthy, evoking a pseudo-80s sci-fi feel – but lacking a certain edge and authenticity. In some places it sounds like it wants to be Streets of Rage, but it’s softer and more ambient, less impressive or memorable.
The combat system has some clever nuances, and while it’s not as combo-heavy as something like Winkysoft’s Guardians (1995), there are a few unique elements that draw from more modern ideas. Each character has a weak and strong attack, a jump and a signature move that can be used endlessly. Pressing both attack buttons double activates the traditional breakthrough move, which is paid for with a portion of your life bar.
However – and we really like this idea – instead of directly losing your health, the part you’re gambling on a breakthrough is grayed out. If you successfully lay down your opponents without interruption after that, you can beat that gray back to stable yellow. It is a smart and efficient way of managing the old middle of the genre, and it brings with it greater strategic dimensions.
The combined system is also flexible. In fact, there are juggling options that, if you’ve got the reflexes, resemble certain advanced fighting games, allowing you to jump into the air on repeat to mark punches before following up with a powerful standing attack or signature move. Candy is the weakest of the three characters. Compared to Golem and Loony, she’s just not that interesting and underpowered. Loony has the benefit of a signature projectile move, capable of firing his robotic arm across the screen, utilizing his relatively slow speed to keep attacking enemies at bay.
Golem, the robot, is the best for our money, with muscle power and speed, with a signature move that allows you to grab enemies both on the ground and in the air, and swing them forward or stab them backwards. There are also charged special moves that can be added to strings or juggles, and each character can double-tap forward to run and attack.
Overall, Vengeance Hunters is a good project with some depth. We like the fact that the bosses have different patterns, and there are also secret subsections and story variations depending on who you play. At one point you get on your bike and start riding through the desert wastelands, dodging poison barrels and squid-like creatures; while elsewhere you challenge the boss in a one-on-one virtual fighting game in an arcade cabinet. These new additions are good for breaking the loop and encouraging replayability.
Despite the good positives, there are a few areas we have issues with. The difficulty is well balanced, fairly challenging on default settings, and encourages learning and experimentation. But, at the same time, there are aspects that are a bit strenuous. For some reason, there are a bunch of things that explode in the game: barrels, bombs, box bombs, pipe bombs, and even enemies. Things seem to explode everywhere, and frankly a little too regularly. You can learn to avoid these incendiary hazards, but since you can’t pick up bombs, it becomes frustrating when an explosion keeps either throwing you out of your flow or you have to interrupt your attacks to avoid one.
Additionally, there are secondary weapons to wield, but they are strange. Instead of the usual swords and barrels, these come in the form of cannons that hover above your character’s head and fire isometrically. This means you have to stand slightly above and diagonally to catch enemies with them. It’s hardly impossible to put them to good use, but it’s one of those ideas that might have looked better on paper, since they’re not very satisfying to use. Compared to the amazingly excellent guns available in something like Capcom’s The Punisher, they don’t improve the gameplay.
Crucially, the combat, while organized in such a way as to make experimentation worthwhile, falls short of the solid connections in many ’90s arcade games of the same mold. It works, but the feedback isn’t quite on the same level. Combined production is good, but the overall weight is lacking.
However, one of the strangest omissions is the inability to grab anyone. We feel like grapples are an integral part of a belt scroller as they allow you to herd, and while one could argue that Vengeance Hunters is going its own way, the absence is still strange. This is especially noticeable when playing as Golem, who is probably the most enjoyable character in the game mainly due to the fact that grappling is his main move.
There are five rather drawn-out stages to go through, but learning them and the accompanying boss encounters will take some time. It might seem odd to start the game in the rainforest fighting Amazonian zombies — especially after the futuristic cityscape of the opening story — but at least it’s interesting. Some of the later locations are not quite as original. Finally, local co-op is available for two players, but there is no online play here.
Conclusion
Vengeance Hunters does many things well. Its pixel art is outstanding in every aspect, with some very cool enemies. It also has a lot of interesting ideas in its combat mechanics that allow experienced players to dig deep. It’s a game that ranges from impressive to occasionally questionable. The repetition of enemies starts to get a little annoying, but then the excellent and imaginative boss fights balance it out. We’re not exactly comfortable with the lack of grappling, the odd format of his secondary weapons, or his rather overwhelming number of explosive obstacles, but we can’t ignore that he’s competent and well-executed in many other key areas. Important? It may be just below that, but for fans of the genre and those who revel in the possibilities of mining combos, there is a bright, solid and sometimes quite clever belt scroller.
