Vigilante
System: TG-16
Release Date: November 1989
Developer: Irem
Publisher: NEC
Genre: Beat ‘em Up
Vigilante is back this time on the TurboGrafx-16. The story is the same as we saw in the Sega Master System. Your girlfriend has been stolen from you, but instead of Maria this time it’s Madonna. The skinheads have taken her and you need to go through 5 levels of punching and kicking action in order to get her back.
The game is a beat ’em up and just a different port of the arcade original. You punch with Button II, kick with Button I, and have to avoid getting caught by the skinhead huggers. The rank and file can be knocked off screen with a single punch or kick, but the special enemies take four strikes to take down. Buddy Rogers carries a nightstick and is easy enough to beat. The jerk with the gun can take you out in two shots if he gets lucky enough.
The bosses are hit point sponges. In the first level, you can back him up against the van with nunchuks and blast away for 30 seconds until you finally take him down. There is a dual boss in level 2, which suck to fight because they ignore getting hit most of the time. If I’m swinging nunchuks at your face or groin, they should do damage. The third level boss gets a free shot on you with a ball and chain, so you’ll lose your weapon if you have it. Then you have to switch up attacks in order to do damage. If you don’t hit him with the right attack, he just shrugs it off and then counter attacks. The level four boss attacks from above with dynamite and after jumping to the ground can knock you out quick with his clubbing blows. The final boss decided to stop taking damage from attacks when his life bar was half way down and was able to attack me with impunity, so I decided to leave Madonna with him instead of fighting an invincible enemy.
Graphics: 3.0
The best part of this game is the graphics. The sprites all look detailed and have good animation. The backgrounds are nice to look at, too.
Sound: 1.0
The music, digitized voice, and sound effects are all poor.
Gameplay: 1.0
Getting anything to work when you’d like it to is not going to happen. The game is sluggish and unresponsive.
Difficulty: 2.0
I can get to the final boss, but couldn’t get enough damage registered to beat him.
Fun Factor: 0.5
I made it to the final boss, but didn’t have any fun doing it.
Overall Grade: 1.5
Vigilante earns a C-. Vigilante may be the spiritual successor to Kung Fu, but it certainly isn’t anywhere near as good. Graphics carry this crappy game to a score higher than it deserves.