The Vengeful Guardian

In Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider you are a robot soldier who has been programmed to defend an authoritarian regime, but for some reason refuses to fulfill his duty and rebels against the dictatorship, destroying everything and everyone that protects it.

The game, which is a 16-bit side-scroller, was produced by Brazilian studio JoyMasher, responsible for hits like Blazing Chrome, published by The Arcade Crew and has a release date of January 12, 2023, for Steam, PlayStation, Switch, and Amazon Luna.



Moonrider's revenge

The narrative of the game is quite straightforward: A totalitarian regime has created fighting machines to subjugate humanity, but their plan is threatened because one of these warriors rebels and decides to wage a battle against their creators and their army of super-soldiers.

This premise is enough for us to know what our mission is: To destroy anything and anyone that comes our way!



The game's story doesn't go any deeper than that, which is not a problem given that the game clearly has the gameplay and its features as its main focus.

In addition, because it is a reference to the classics of the 16-bit generation, it makes sense that the narrative does not present itself as a central element, as did the games of the time. 

Slicing machines and riding motorcycles

Moonrider carries in its essence the challenging gameplay of the classics of the late 80s and early 90s, such as Shinobi 3, Nighstriker, and Contra Hard Corps. Its precise and heavy movement requires coordination and constant attention from the player.

In addition to the fact that it will be almost impossible to finish a stage without repeating it at least a few times. The pace of combat is frenetic, although it is paced. For players used to this game genre, Moonrider will be a pleasant and positive surprise.



The game also has features to improve skills through special chips that give our warrior new attacks such as fire boomerangs and water shurikens, and power modules that can extend our attack distance, increase the regeneration of life, and double jump, among others. 

The game lasts about two hours and has eight stages with different bosses that can be played in any order, just like in the Megaman game series. The stages, although short, put a lot of pressure on the player to act and do the right thing, otherwise, the consequences will be harsh. 

Each of them has its own peculiarities and can cause some frustration for a player not very experienced in the genre since the challenges overlap frequently and can overwhelm the player who is unprepared, especially if he leaves combat with few points of hp and energy.

So if you haven't done very well in the fights and if you don't have extra lives to continue after being defeated, I'm sorry: you will need to replay the stage.

This level of difficulty makes Moonrider a game that demands perseverance, just like Shinobi 3 and others. However, destroying everything with our hero-ninja robot-killer and progressing with new and powerful abilities makes the game a positive experience.

What about riding motorcycles, which I talked about earlier? Well... you will be riding a motorcycle and will be shooting at various enemies in a scenario that mixes Nightstriker and F-zero.

You didn't expect that in a side-scroller, huh?  Yeah, me neither! I am sure you will have as much fun as you were surprised. Oh, and you'll be a little bit angry too, okay? Just to make sure. 

It's worth mentioning that during my gameplay, I didn't encounter any bugs or glitches of any nature.



Crispy graphics, as they should be. 

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider brings the player a truly retro experience. The 16-bit graphics are truly reminiscent of some of the games I mentioned here in the text.

The visual effects, the colors, and even the construction of the scenarios and menus take us back to the times when we needed to tune the TV to channel 3 if we wanted to play our games.

And if that wasn't enough, in the configuration menu we have the option to display the game as if it were being played on a tube TV. Wonderful!



The soundtrack is frenetic. It contributes a lot to the feeling of nostalgia and to all the ambiance that the game proposes to build. It alone is capable of making you die several times because you will get excited and want to run out and kill everyone. Take it from me, I did. 

And a word of advice: Don't do it. 

For this review, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider was played on PC through the Steam platform. We thank The Arcade Crew who provided the game key and the agency Masamune for the intermediation. Without their support, this work would not be possible.