Developer: Micronet Publisher: Extreme Entertainment Release: 1994 Genre: Action
Revengers of Vengeance is in the running for dumbest video game title of all time. Why they did not use the Japanese title (Battle Fantasy) is beyond me. But outside of its stupid name the game is mostly remembered for its catchy magazine ads that are full of goofy slogans and carefully picked screenshots to sell it as a hardcore fighting game. All the good marketing in the world cannot hide a dog of a game and Revengers of Vengeance is simply bad.
Revengers of Vengeance tries to be a jack of all trades and is a master of none. The game has numerous modes and is a combination fighting game, RPG, and vertical shooter. It sounds appealing doesn’t it? Trust me it is not. I can see the potential in certain aspects of the game but their execution is lacking. Normally I would say if they had focused on one genre maybe it would have turned out better. But considering the developer’s track record (especially in the primary genre) I think it is safe to say this would still be a turd. It had potential at least.
The fighting portion of ROV is the core of the game. All three modes in the game use it to some extent so it stands to reason that it should be good right? Unfortunately this is a textbook example of how not to make a fighting game. Revengers of Vengeance looks impressive at first. The fantasy setting is unique for the genre and the anime aesthetic helps it stand out. The roster has ten characters that look straight out of Dungeons & Dragons. There is a ninja, a dwarf, an elf, two palette swapped knights, and even a werewolf. The sprites are large, especially Psybart, a massive armored rhinoceros. The game has a decent number of cutscenes for every character as well. But within a few minutes it becomes apparent the game has problems.
To sum it up the fighting engine is a complete mess. The most critical element in fighting games, hit detection, is terrible. Attacks fly through you opponent left and right. It is disheartening to see a 100% connect completely whiff. The hit boxes are all over the place with certain moves like Talon’s spread eagle spin being broken. A lot of the special moves look cool but in practice serve little function. I will give the game credit in that the inputs are mostly simple. But the game’s sluggish pace makes them less than satisfying. In fact the game’s wonky framerate makes it feel worse. Someone realized this as there is a code to disable character shadows which improves the framerate somewhat. You might chain one or two attacks together but they are lucky accidents rather than a feature or feat of skill.
Unfortunately the fighting engine permeates the rest of the package. The most interesting part of the game is the Quest for Venum. Here the game takes the form of a RPG. The basic story is that a demon named Venum is about to be revived and you have 200 days to build up your character in preparation. Each character has an intro cutscene detailing their reason for fighting as well as an ending which is cool. You gain experience and gold in numerous ways to buy weapons, items, and training to boost your stats. You can fight the other characters on the world map using the fighting engine. Unfortunately their stats in this mode vary and can be completed unbalanced. It also means you must tolerate the fighting engine.
The most expedient is taking on guild quests. These are in the form of a simple vertical shooter like Elemental Master or Phelios. As sad as it sounds this is the most rewarding part of the game, probably due to its lack of ambition. The levels are brief, the waves are predictable, and the bosses are simple. The only problem is there are only five guild quests and while you can repeat them it grows old fast.
Once again while the quest mode is interesting at first its execution is awful. Once you have done the guild quests a few times you will have more than enough gold to avoid doing more or participating in awful one on one matches. While the various items will let you customize your character in terms of stats they are not necessary. You can spend all your time in the gym cheaply raising your stats. At this point the only reason to participate in the other activities is to earn experience to level up and waste time until Venum appears. It is not that I was expecting this to be a 30 hour epic. But like the rest of the package it is half baked at best.
The Arena of Death is the game’s multiplayer mode and is a cool idea in theory. You can import the character’s you have built up in quest mode for some two player action. But it also means you have to invest more time in to the game than it deserves. No amount of character customization can make up for the game’s half-assed combat.
In Closing
Revengers of Vengeance is a game big on ideas that lacks the skill to do anything with them. In a vacuum the number of features is impressive. In addition to the three modes there is also a pong/breakout clone hidden in the game. It says a lot that I would rather play that than the main course. Between Heavy Nova, Black Hole Assault, and this Micronet completed the hat trick of awful fighting games. Let this one fade in to obscurity.
