Vigilante
Reviewed by Inkhands
Once upon a time there was a plot line. This plot line
wasn't particularly smart, but it was very popular. When
makers of video games needed something to use as the story
in their game, they would turn to the tried and true, albeit
simple, plot. They either thought gamers would simply not
notice, or would just not care. As long as their game was
fun to play, who cared about story? Time passed and this
plot became nothing more than a remnant of older, much
simpler times. However, it's legacy continues in games both
classic and incredibly lame.
In fiction, all stories are comprised of at least one
character and a goal that this character wants to
accomplish. In a short story, these characters do little but
attempt to attain their goal. Novels are much longer, and
therefore have more twists and turns along the way, before
the character reaches his or her goal. Some video games are
like short stories and others are more like a novel, only
less literary of course. Others, like this one, is more like
something a 4th grade student thought up in two minutes one
morning when he realized his English writing assignment was
actually due that day.
Vigilante's simple story is as follows: your girlfriend,
Madonna, has been kidnapped. She was on her way to a concert
at Madison Square Garden when she was stuffed into a dark,
moving van. The vile people responsible for this atrocity? A
gang of street thugs, known only as the Skinheads. It will
be interesting to note later that most of these characters
do in fact have hair and we are merely witnessing a misnomer
at work.
The boyfriend, named Vigilante, was therefore a bit bummed
out. He did in fact have a front row seat and a backstage
pass. However, he was going to just go home and then he
realized the thing he needed to do was to save Madonna.
Mainly because she had his wallet and he wanted it back.
Kids had always pointed and laughed at his name when he was
a child, but now he was living up to it. He quietly thanked
his parents for naming him Vigilante and went out to save
his wallet, and maybe his girlfriend too. After all, at
least his name wasn't Milkman.
Vigilante is one of those side scrolling fighting games in
which one character beats up about 186 other characters,
just because they happened to be standing in his way. It
just leaves me wondering why so many street thugs care about
the kidnapping of one guy's girlfriend. Vigilante only has a
few different moves he can use on these characters. The ever
popular punch and kick are at his disposal. He can also jump
and crouch, which will basically allow him to jump and kick
or crouch and kick as well. Occasionally he can pick up some
nunchucks to use against these buffoons. He can swing these
around and they will wipe out the enemies much faster.
There are different types of enemies in this game. Just
because they are thugs, doesn't mean they don't have their
own skills. Some of these guys are stranglers. They will
grab the main character and hold him, draining down his
energy, as other thugs beat him senseless. There are enemies
that walk around carrying large boards to smack you around
with and a guy with a chain that he can swing around quite
easily. Most of these characters will only take a mere
punch. However, there are a few enemies that take more than
just one punch or one kick. There is a man with a gun and
one bullet will kill you instantly, unless you have a near
full life meter. Otherwise, it will only take around half of
it off. There is also a guy with a knife and one enemy with
no weapon, other than his hands, but it still takes a while
to knock him down.
Vigilante's setting is New York City and it presents you
with five stages to make your way through. Unlike in other
fighting games, in which the player can move up and down on
the screen, Vigilante is such a man set on completing his
mission that he only walks in a direct and straight path.
This means he can only move forward or back, no hiding
behind a stack of tires for this man. Basically all you see
of the girlfriend in this game is of her falling down a lot
in between stages while riding around in a back of a van.
Some text will tell you where the van is going and you must
hurry to save her before time runs out.
The opening stage is a restaurant filled street and the
second one is a junkyard only slightly more expansive than
the one on Sanford and Son. The third stage takes you across
a bridge, complete with the Statue of Liberty in the
background. At the beginning of this stage you must contend
with men on motorcycles who will happily kill you by running
over you. If you do manage to kick them off, the motorcycle
will blow up and that can kill you too. The final two stages
take place downtown and then then the big boss hideout. You
have only a few continues and only around three lives per continue.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of all in this game are
the final bosses. They will take off more by hitting you
once than you will punching them seven times. They all have
a huge life bar and it takes around five minutes to finally
put them out of business. This means defeating the ending
enemies actually takes longer than getting through the rest
of the stage put together. It takes too long, it's easy, and
it's boring. The one interesting thing about it is, you are
free to move through the entire stage with this enemy.
However, if you kill him way back at the beginning of stage,
you'll have to walk to the very end of it again before it
will say the stage is clear. More enemies will appear along
the way as well.
You will most likely find this to be far from challenging.
The control is rather simple, because the Up button allows
you to jump and the Down button allows you to crouch. One of
the other buttons will punch and the other one will kick.
You have to crouch down to pick up those nunchaku things or
whatever. The main problem with the control in fact is the
lack of movement your character has. You have absolutely no
freedom in moving up and down and after a while it gets
pretty annoying to just walk to the right or left.
Challenge wise, all these stages are short. The ending
bosses are not hard to beat, it just takes a while and it
will try your patience more than your reflexes. Most of the
regular guys are gone in one punch. In fact I was being
followed once by three enemies. I turned around, punched,
and it took out all three of them at once. The game is only
for one player and there is no difficulty setting. The
challenge is low and this game can be beaten easily in less
than an hour and less than five tries, no matter what your
skill level at fighting games is. This one is about as
straightforward and mindless as they get.
Vigilante walks around with blue pants, black hair, and he
doesn't exactly look like the menacing type of person. I
hate when he walks, the nunchucks seem to disappear out of
his left hand. When you actually try to use them though,
they are still there, but some continuity would help. What
is he doing? Pulling them out of his pocket only when he
needs them? This guy is actually fairly small, as are the
other characters. The enemies at the end of the junkyard are
twins. They only difference is the color of their coats.
They also both happen to be wearing purple pants. I'm not
sure they really match well with the junk they are jumping
around on, but I guess that's what happens when they dress themselves.
The backgrounds are very simple, but they are probably the
best thing about the game. The shops on main street are
mostly restaurants. However, there is a music store of some
sort with a trombone in the window. This level is perfect
for those fighters who like to do a little window shopping
while taking on a half dozen bad guys at once. The third
level has the skyline from the bridge. The junkyard, which
interestingly enough is probably my favorite setting of the
entire game, has a lot of garbage stacked around and some
broken down cars and trucks. Overall, the graphics are
fairly well done in this game. The sound effects are pretty
basic. Just kick and punch, which both happen to sound more
like a drum beat, than actual kicking and punching. The
music is highly annoying. It tries to be very tense, but it
just turns out to sound like some mood music, without
actually adding to the mood. The overall quality of the
sound in this game is very poor.
It's very unlikely that anyone would bother to play through
this game again after beating it once. It's a very short and
easy game. I don't recall having fun for even one second of
it. I got fairly frustrated with the main enemies and some
of the regular enemies take too long to beat up as well.
They all have the high advantage over you, since they can
either strangle you, shoot you, or beat you with a chain.
They also take much more of your life meter off with one
punch than you do with one punch. The 's ave your
girlfriend' plot may have been simple and popular, but this
game is a good example of what can happen to a game when
that plot is actually used.
Graphics - 6/10
Sound - 4/10
Control - 6/10
Challenge - 4/10
Appeal - 4/10
Game Play - 4/10
Replay Value - 2/10
Overall: 4 out of 10
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