Developed by Bitmap Bureau and published by Numskull Games, Final Vendetta is a side-scrolling beat-em-up which feels like the long-lost cousin of Streets of Rage. The pixel art style makes the game looks like it was lovingly plucked from the 90s, but the graphics are not the only nostalgic elements plucked from the past. Final Vendetta has a cool set of backing tracks to accompany the melee carnage on the screen. They have also decided to make the game painfully difficult with no option to continue should you lose all your lives.
I was not expecting the story to contain a lot of meat as these types of games are more known for their solid action. This is no exception as the story has as much meat as a half-eaten chicken wing. Your party consists of Clare Sparks and her two friends Duke and Miller. Clare’s sister has been kidnapped by the syndic8 gang and she is out to get her back with her two friends helping her and that’s about it.
The 3 characters you can choose from do feel like reskinned versions of characters from Final Fight and Streets of Rage. I know sometimes it can be difficult to be inventive and bring something fresh to this genre and give a nod to its predecessors, but these characters are a little too samey. Clare is pretty much Blaze from Streets of Rage, from her athletic kicking ability to the small hadoken special move. Duke is a merger figure of both Adam and Axel; he has a similar look to Adam but he has Axel’s quick punch combo move. Miller reminds me more of Haggar from Final Fight. He is a big brutish figure who has a special move of cracking the enemies back.
As I mentioned before the game is very tough and what is more brutal is that they start you on the hard difficulty. There is no normal difficulty, you can only set it down to easy and there is an ultra difficulty but you have to complete the game on Hard to unlock that. But don’t let easy mode fool you as I didn’t notice anything easier, I just had some more lives. There is also the option for a CRT shader to give things a more retro feel, but I am not a big fan of this filter in general so this implementation didn’t do anything for me.
The gameplay will tickle the nostalgic bones of those who remember the Final Fight and Streets of Rage days as it feels very much of that ilk, albeit just not as refined. There is something not quite right about the attack reach of your character compared to the enemies. Your character’s attack speed just seems a smidgen too slow for my liking and it leaves you vulnerable too often. The enemy AI is way more switched on too as they always come from both sides and most of the time you can do very little to stop it. They have added a block button which is a rare inclusion in this style of game, but it doesn’t help when enemies attack from both sides.
Every character has a normal attack, a back attack, a special attack and a sort of signature move. Your special attack can be used at any time by pressing X+A but at the cost of health. If you fill up your super bar by hitting enemies you can then do a special move without losing health. Your signature move is done by pressing B&Y together and this is useful and also does a signature grapple move if you lock up with an enemy by moving into them. The back attack is what it says, it’s to hit enemies trying to sneak up on you but you to press X+Y to do it which isn’t the most comfortable combination. The thing is the Y button on its own does nothing, the bumper buttons do nothing and the trigger buttons, yep you guessed it, do nothing. There are some things you can improve from the old games and having more buttons to map to is a no-brainer. Even if it was an option to just map it yourself in the options so you have the choice would have been nice.
All the other things you would expect from this genre are here. Tough bosses, eating food you broke out of a dustbin or off the floor, weapons and items of value like jewellery or gold bars. The music on each level is pretty decent too it’s just a shame it is so hard and with no continues. On the hard difficultly I couldn’t even get past the first boss. On easy, I just about made it to level 5 and I think there 6 levels in total plus a bonus stage. The game would be made easier if you played it with a friend and unfortunately it only supports local coop so you would need another pro by your side. This is not a game for the weak and it uses the logic of the older games that you have to memorise each enemy’s weakness and move set and plan accordingly to survive. But even if you did finish the game there is very little to bring you back other than the ultra difficulty mode for the sadistic. There are other modes like survival mode, boss rush mode and training but you have to complete the game to unlock them.
Conclusion
Final Vendetta is exactly what it wanted to be; a side-scrolling beat-em-up that can sit with the likes of Streets of Rage and Final Fight. And it does a pretty good job in doing so. The graphics have a great retro feel, the music is great, and the characters have different and interesting moves. It’s just a shame it’s so hard, missing continues and lacking online play.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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