A mediocre beat em up that takes inspiration from the generic popular early 90s beat em ups and ends up copying or creating even more amateur gameplay decisions while having less content.

The syndicate has kidnapped the sister of a woman they attempt to blackmail who instead attempts to rescue her with two friends. Each of the three characters has a similar moveset but with different combos. You have an attack, jump attack, super move escape attack that knocks enemies away and gives you brief invulnerability but takes away health unless you charge up a super meter by hitting enemies, dash, dash attack, grabble attacks and throws, up and down dodge by hitting either direction twice, attack that aims behind you or does a more powerful forward attack if used while advancing, and a special move that can also be used for an alternate dashing attack, and the more unique attack to hit enemies when they are knocked down. There is a button to block, maybe one out of every 10 games has a well functioning block feature and this is not one of them as it is too slow and limited in how it can be used to be of much use even more so because you will likely end up getting hit from behind eventually anyway. It is nice that they did bind the block button to a trigger as well as the behind attack and the super moves to the shoulder buttons as that ends up being a faster and easier way to use them then to hold B or hitting button combinations. Your attack variety is fine for a simpler beat em up in this style but each characters feels too similar.

You play through six short stages without much variety in your enemies, nothing particularly interesting about the locations or artstyle, and some of the worst and easiest bosses I've seen in the genre. There are some hit detection issues where it won't look like some attacks should be able to hit you but will, a lot of enemies can start a move that makes them invulnerable. You don't react fast enough to alternate between hitting enemies on both sides of you making you have to rely on the super move to get out of danger. Many enemies have an attack they do while they are getting up that limits the use of your attack to hit downed enemies. You can find a few melee weapons like a pipe, sword, and some wooden object that all handle in the same way and shorter range knife, these aren't interesting or that fun to use but I have to give them credit for making the knife do a decent amount of damage when a lot of games in the genre tend to make picking up feel like a handicap. On a first playthrough there are stage hazard warnings that give you no meaningful information for what you should do to avoid a threat. A warning flash might mean some barrels are going to be thrown at you from the side of the screen, a fast moving hook that may or may not seek your location (I couldn't really tell in three playthroughs) coming towards you, explosives being thrown in two places from up above, or a falling large crate that is about to land on you and will take up a good part of the screen.

You can unlock a boss rush and survival mode but these do nothing to give the game more life. The bosses aren't fun to fight and survival mode just sets you on the first screen of the game and sends generic enemies at you while dropping the occasional healing item or weapon.

The soundtrack is good.

It's like a Streets of Rage 2 that doesn't feel as good to play and with less content and character variety and while it can be an ok playthrough there are a lot better beat em ups out there now even ones that go for a similar 90s style feel that make this hard to recommend.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1759067225875726559

Pela mesma mão da Bitmap Bureau, estúdio conhecido pelo Xeno Crisis, vem Final Vendetta, um side scrolling beat ‘em-up cheio daquela deliciosa energia retro e indie que apaixona tanto fã por essas consolas fora. Esse é o ponto chave, aliás, considerando que esta nova aposta relembra em vários pontos os grandes nomes da época: Streets of Rage ou Final Fight.

Vou mais longe: Final Vendetta é um claro tributo ao género em que se insere, aproveitando todos os bons pedaços dos seus bolos para cozer algo que consegue ser completamente novo.

Porém, por todo o meu incessante elogio não deixa de ser, muito honestamente, uma recomendação difícil. Final Vendetta traz consigo algumas modernices, mas outros tantos aspetos fazem dele uma venda difícil a 24.99€ esta quase pré-histórica. quando experiências semelhantes já existem em compilações por um preço mais rechonchudo e com modo online!

Na dificuldade mais fácil, ainda assim imensamente punitiva, só há acesso a sete vidas (sem continues) e assim que terminadas visita-nos o ecrã de Game Over. Contudo, cada inimigo tem uma fraqueza a explorar e assim que esse clique manifesta, ao mesmo tempo que aprendemos as nuances da nossa personagem, fica uma experiência ligeiramente mais concretizável.

Feitas as contas, o saldo recai sobre seis curtíssimos níveis numa Londres à Americana, três personagens amplamente diferentes, modo survival e boss rush, uma excelente banda sonora, um desafio considerável a nível de Achievements e um grafismo pixelizado lindo de morrer e chorar por mais.

Final Vendetta é um videojogo frustrante até para amantes do género, mas ainda assim consegue ser divertido devido ao seu combate sólido e ao claro amor com que foi todo construído. Só dá pena o preço e a janela de lançamento a coincidir com o igualmente espetacular beat ‘em-up das Tartarugas Ninja.

| Plataformas | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
| Género | Beat ‘Em Up
| Estúdio | Bitmap Bureau
| Publicadora | Numskull Games
| Preço | 24,99€

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See more @ https://dummies.pt/iddummies-fornada-no2-de-indies/
Mini-review written in European Portuguese
Played on Xbox Series S
Published on 29/06/2022

As a fan of the Beat Em Up or Brawler genre, I tend to try out anything that seems close to my favorite games of that kinds, TMNT, Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Rival Turf and so on. This game fits pretty squarely between a mix of Final Fight and Streets of Rage but not the newest of each game.

The graphics are actually pretty good, they remind me quite a bit of how SNK animated their characters, when you play the game you'll see the characters take quite a bit from Streets of Rage, the settings tend to be closer to Final Fight, and the game's jank is very much like Rival Turf, it's actually a pretty good mixture of all those things, but comes with the issue of lacking it's own identity.

The gameplay definitely feels closer to Final Fight more so the third game. It lacks the speed and combat flow of the Streets of Rage game and I honestly believe that's what holds it back the most. While the levels are a bit on the short side, the enemies do vary quite a bit, but the three character though they play different...are kinda bound to having a small move pool which makes them feel the same mechanically. The game does play well, but it lacks when being compared to it's predecessors.

I believe the game's best feature to it is the great music. This is where it's most unique and does sound like any game and fits quite well, I can't say it's better than TMNT's music or Streets of Rage 4, but it does stand on it's own and sounds great.

All in all, this was a decently solid game, could have used a bit more in places, but for an indie Brawler, this was definitely a great experience and would love to see a sequel to this.

Je me suis enfin mis à Final Vendetta, et je dois dire qu'après 3 ou 4 heures de jeu, j'ai du mal à accrocher.
Je le trouve un peu chiant en fait, je sais pas d'où ça vient car il y a clairement un rythme soutenu sans temps mort, mais j'ai cette impression de m'y faire chier.

Il y a pourtant beaucoup de choses que j'apprécie :
- le rythme, soutenu
- la durée d'une partie, moins de 30 minutes ça rentre pile dans mes contraintes actuelles
- le pixel art, le design et les animations (je dois être le seul plouc à aimer ces aspects du jeu d'après les retours que j'ai pu lire)
- l'OST à tendance hip hop


Et a contrario il y a peu de points négatifs que j'arrive à identifier (le stage du port peut-être, qui use un peu trop de "pièges" à éviter), et pourtant je n'accroche pas, va comprendre...

Edit : en fait je viens de refaire un run, et je pense que j'ai identifié ce qui me gêne. Je trouve le jeu très frustrant à cause de certaines imprécisions :

- Les hitbox me semblent bizarres
- Surtout celles des grabs, à de nombreuses reprises mon perso n'attrape pas l'adversaire alors que je suis DESSUS. Comme le jeu est punitif, ça ne pardonne pas
- Je n'aime pas trop les BTU avec des actions contextuelles, comme savater un adversaire au sol. Mais ici, comme les hitbox sont particulières, il m'arrive régulièrement de ne pas réussir à déclencher l'attaque contextuelle, donc l'ennemi se relève et me punit
- Le perso avec une cravache, qui balance des flying kick au 2/3 de l'écran... je sais que j'ai du mal à évaluer la profondeur et ainsi identifier la lane sur laquelle je suis et la lane de l'adversaire. Mais là sans déconner, les hitbox, elles sont toutes pétées, j'ai pas d'autre explication (mon skill est impeccable, impossible que le problème vienne de là )


Bref, je l'ai terminé en Difficile (je crois que c'est son appellation, en gros la difficulté Max quand on débute), et je ne poursuivrai pas l'aventure. Je n'ai même pas envie d'essayer un autre perso (j'ai joué Duke), alors que ça fait pourtant partie des plaisirs de base d'un BTU.

Je ne sais pas si j'en attendais trop, si je suis passé à côté ou si je suis pas dans le bon mood pour un BTU, mais je suis grave déçu.

Is it too easy to say “for fans of the genre” and move on? Probably.

The pace here might be Final Vendetta’s greatest strength; I think it’s a stage too short (though that might be because at 6 stages, I’m just thinking on how it falls just shy of GoufyGoggs's list) but it puts other titles to shame by being something you can clear in 30 minutes. I imagine it’s a byproduct of having designed the game around the 1CC mentality, so it seems conscious of the fact that you'll be playing through the early stages a lot and that it shouldn’t be something you need to like, plan your day around.

Especially compared to something like Streets of Rage 4, where half-an-hour in you still feel like you’re warming up, this is a huge improvement. Some criticism just falls by the wayside when the game moves this fast; bosses are generally pretty weak, but they do their job as pace-breakers between the rapidly increasing complexity of the standard enemy encounters- really does get into the heart of the action with an appreciated speed.

And speaking of Streets of Rage 4, in looking over interviews with the developers, I haven’t seen any reference to it, but it seems like it was on the mind during development- the big hang-up when I go back to that game is how punitive the scoring system is, where one stray hit can negate your entire combo, and in a game where scoring and survival are so fundamentally linked, makes those innocuous failures seem all the more disastrous. Final Vendetta adopts a pretty similar system, but you’ll only lose your combo if you’re knocked down, making those stray hits far less annoying, and your failures feel more justified; the result of poor positioning or a bad read on your part.

There's a great interaction that capitalizes on this, where you have a dedicated button for attacking enemies on the ground, but those same enemies often have wake-up attacks that can knock you down in turn- so there’s always the temptation to push your luck and go for a bit of extra damage. It all comes together remarkably well, particularly love the mobility options you can use to cover the entire screen, though it did get me thinking more on some of the constraints of the genre.

This applies to beat ‘em ups/belt scrollers more broadly, but Final Vendetta is the most trouble I’ve had with gauging whether or not I was going to be hit by an enemy that was slightly above or below me- StrayCat noted that it could be an issue of layering, and it makes me think that your defensive options are more of a necessity than they might initially appear, giving you enough distance that you’ll unambiguously clear of an enemy attack. The weird lane system of Guardian Heroes also makes a great deal more sense after considering this more, giving you total clarity as to whether or not attacks will connect. The more I get into this genre, the more I become vividly aware of this as an issue: maybe that means we need more deviations like Guardian Heroes or Ninja Warriors, maybe that means that there’s some approach yet to be taken.

(I don’t know, maybe something akin to Natsuki Chronicle’s bullet-trail warnings would help to highlight the range of enemy attacks, though that might veer too much into “red light, green light” combat design.)

Anyway, that’s a lot to place on a single game: intensely scuffed, but the more time I’ve put into it, the more I see the intent and the passion behind it. If we live in a world where something can quietly release that’s this solid, then nature is healing.

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Stray thoughts:

- Pixel art is nice, but disconnected, like you're fighting the spritesheets from 20 different ArtStation accounts. This is also one of many titles that would benefit hugely from taking place dusk or night- I can't totally get behind a game that's set at 1:00 in the afternoon.

- Enemies are also uncommonly versatile; wait around long enough and they'll toss out a surprise ranged attack or gap-closer. It's a good kit, but I wonder if does make them a little homogeneous with each other, like they all roughly require the same level of prioritization. More research required.

Final Vendetta reminds me a lot of Final Fight and similarly Streets of Rage. The graphics are similar to those games which is fine, but doesn't quite standout for me.

The story is very minimal. Other than the background prologue and the cutscene at the end of the game, there isn't any other cutscene in between (which is a lot like Final Fight 1). Stage transitions don't make much sense to me due to a lack of dialogue and cutscenes so I don't know why did they go to Stage A to B, then C, etc...

The characters have decent designs, but due to the lack of dialogue and cutscenes in general, there really isn't much to get out of their personalities or actual character.

The combat is decent which has the basics down, but doesn't quite have any unique flair to it.

The music is surprisingly good though.

Overall, the game is a decent beat-em up game, but doesn't have much that stands out among the others in the genre. It's also quite short since it took me about 40 minutes to finish one playthrough.

Final Vendetta feels like a Jr. Version of Streets of Rage. Sometimes it's copies it a little too much. I mean Claire is practically a replica of blaze in design and combat. That may sound like a knock at it but it's honestly not. While the gameplay isn't exactly perfect with some slight jank here and there, the bread and butter of combat does feel really good. Graphically it's okay but it emulates the classic 90's art and enemy design really well. Hits feel good and has just enough varity in it's short arcade mode. Only 6 stages. I would have liked to seen just one more stage. The last stage doesn't really feel epic or grand and kinda fizzles out in the end. Dispite all of this it's a very enjoyable 1 hour long ride that's perfect for short burst playthroughs and a weekend of completing all the challanges. Final Vendetta is a really good indie brawler that misses it's mark ever so slightly to keep itself from hanging with the big bros but surely stands out amongest it's peers.

Platinum #147