Developer: Irem Publisher: NEC Release: 1989 Genre: Beat em up
Irem’s Kung-Fu had a tremendous impact on me growing up. The NES port available at the system’s launch taught me a lot about game design without me realizing it. The way it paced its enemy encounters, their combinations and placement, and even boss patterns. All of these elements I learned subconsciously from that game and carry with me to this day. Sadly Kung-Fu never received a sequel, at least in the US. But in the arcade Irem released a spiritual successor named Vigilante. The Turbo Grafx-16 was the lucky recipient of a home port but things did not turn out as well as expected. This is a heavily flawed game and should be avoided.
My initial thought upon seeing Vigilante is that it was a brawler like Final Fight. In practice it is more or less an arcade sequel to Kung-Fu. Those of us that were there at the NES launch have an idea of what to expect. But to the less initiated it means a single plane with waves of enemies, often arranged in different groups to increase the challenge. Vigilante certainly looks better than Kung-Fu but I found it less compelling. The Turbo Grafx port has flaws that were not in the arcade that bring the experience down. It certainly looks good but whether you’ll want to play it is another matter entirely.
Like its predecessor Vigilante is a simple game. The Vigilante is armed with a small complement of punches, kicks and jump kicks to protect himself. I can tell you right now that punches are effectively useless in this game. They suffer from short range which is a killer in this game. At least once per level you can find nunchakus which greatly increase your range. One hit and they are gone but you have to really screw up to lose them early on.
What made Kung-Fu great was how it would mix up enemy types and the way you had to deal with them. Knife throwers hang in the back while the useless thugs would bum rush you and so on. You get some of that here. In fact while they may look different many of the same enemy “types” appear here. The generic thugs will grab and choke you for prolonged damage. You have guys with guns who avoid you at all costs as well. Yet somehow it isn’t as nuanced as that game. There are many niggling factors that add up to make Vigilante a chore. The shoddy hit detection is one. The lack of clear progression is another. Even though Kung-Fu took place in one location each floor of the Pagoda presented new challenges. By the beginning of the third level you have seen all the game has to offer.
The ridiculous difficulty is also another factor. Beat em ups have always had issues in terms of the damage enemies deal but Vigilante is on another level. If you are grabbed you can lose massive chunks of health in seconds. Taking a bullet is a near death sentence as well. Granted that is realistic but massively unfair in this game. The bosses can kill you in two hits which is absurd. Even identifying their weak spot is task. You don’t even have the option to slowly figure it out. Not only is there a strict time limit but they regenerate health when left alone! It’s insane!
The over the top difficulty hides the fact that this is a less than ten-minute game. Each level is incredibly short, but you wouldn’t know it due to the waves of enemies. If the hit detection were not so screwy you would breeze through each stage in less than a minute, at least until reaching the end level bosses. The hit detection on the bosses is so out of whack that I still don’t understand where their weak points lie. I somehow kept attacking and won, usually with seconds left on the clock. Granted this is after continuing an ungodly number of times. It is thoroughly bad game design and I’m amazed the game was released like this.
In Closing
Side-scrolling brawlers were few on the Turbo Grafx-16. But even with that in mind you are better off avoiding this one. Vigilante is too frustrating and short to be entertaining to anyone.
