So we recently reviewed a retro-inspired 2d platformer, but this one is more inspired by the likes of Megaman and Ninja Gaiden. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is a pretty simple game, but with extremely tight controls and fluid mobility. The game is structured similarly to classic Megaman stages, with bosses and personalized weapons to inherit once completed. The toolset, while somewhat simplistic, really does the job with a flashy aerial dive kick, an advancing dash attack, and solid ground and crouching slashes. Traversal feels great with wall climbing, wall jumping, a breezy movement speed, and well balanced hit detection. The game is overall on the short side, clocking in under 10 hours, but I think it does such a good job capturing that classic arcade feel. Every level feels unique and handcrafted in a way that there’s really zero fluff. And completionists will likely need a few replays to find every little secret there is to find.

So Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is broken into stages, each with their own theme and set of mini-bosses/main boss. It’s really reminiscent of Megaman in the way that you can tackle stages in any order you wish. I wasn’t aware if there’s a clear order to approach these, but I found it rewarding regardless of which path I took. There’s very little fanfare between levels outside of the occasional equipping perks that you unlock between stages. Once you drop into a stage, there might be a little cutscene or whatnot to go into the story, but other than that it’s straight into gameplay. Like I said, your moveset starts off mostly full, with some options you can unlock later in the game, but it’s really not a metroidvania. I had a lot of fun experimenting with the different boss weapons that you get access to after completing each level. Enemy designs are varied from stage to stage, and I never saw a duplicate or felt like the game was running out of ideas to show me. And the background and art design is peak pixel design; extremely gorgeous. There’s a good balance between auto-scrollers, vertical and horizontally designed level layouts.

Enemy placements don’t feel cheap and there isn’t a sense of crazy knockback into death or auto-gameover sort of situations that often frustrate me when it comes to these retro inspired indie games. I think checkpoints are also quite generous, while still pushing you to learn each room and master the mechanics. There are secret pickups that enhance your energy and stamina, and they can be pretty well hidden from my experience. I think the bosses – both mini and stage bosses – feel really good to figure out their patterns. The stage bosses have a lot of really cool dialogue that can be surprisingly deep and philosophical in a way I never expect coming from these sorts of games. And the fights themselves are really fun – good balance between reflexes and pattern recognition. Replay value is a bit limited, although as I said, I don’t think it’s easy to find every collectible in a first time playthrough, so there may be some room for optimization on that front. Also, the game was made for speedrunning, so if you’re into that sort of thing or chasing high scores on each stage, have at it!

That’s really all I need to say about this one. It’s reminds me of my review for Death’s Door: you’ve seen a lot of the essence of Vengeful Guardian in gaming’s past, but it’s still nice to see it so clean and well-presented. I think it has a great balance in terms of difficulty, and there’s a flow in terms of navigating each level that can feel really smooth and fast-paced. You really embody a badass robot ninja effortlessly slicing through the metallic baddies. Not much more to say: pick it up!

Vengeful Guardian Moonrider is developed by JoyMasher

Available on PC, Switch and PS4/5 for $16.99. Steam, PS, Switch,

Free steam review copy provided via devs

Hellfirebam has unanimously awarded Vengeful Guardian Moonrider the Indie Gamer Seal of Approval.