COUNTDOWN: Top Ten Switch Games I Played in 2023 #8 Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider
If Nintendo had not had one absolute banger of a 2023, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider would have ranked much higher on this list. Playing like some kind of lost SNES gem, this one came out of nowhere and absolutely handed me my ass.
Not it a bad way though, in good kind of ass-handing way!
On the surface what we’ve got here is yet another entry in the aforementioned long line of indie developed retro inspired action platformers. But while a lot of those games kinda go with one gameplay style and run with it, Vengeful Guardian looks, feels and plays like a greatest hits of the 16-bit era. You’ve got your selectable stages available from the outset, each featuring upgradable moves and attacks ala the Mega Man series. Your primary attack gives off some heavy Strider vibes, the controls have Shinobi-like precision and the pixelated presentation along with a rocking soundtrack screams Konami at its finest (Contra III in particular).
Welp turns out, a stew like that yields some badass results. In fact, if I had to take this game down a notch for anything, I guess it would be that the “story” is fairly generic but honestly, I certainly hope nobody out there plays this kind of game for it’s literary value. Vengeful Guardian also shines in the challenge department in that it is just about perfectly balanced in my opinion. A lot of these indie studios like to ramp up the difficulty to a degree that borders on sadistic which takes a good chunk outta the…y’know, fun factor. But that is nowhere near the case here, Moonrider really has it going on.
What a good time!
