Final Vendetta Switch Review

Do you fancy a trip down memory lane to the days when arcades ruled the roost? When the side scrolling beat ‘em up was king and you could spend all afternoon punching terrifying bad guys named “Greg” in the face?

If this is your jam, and why shouldn’t it be, then you may want to take a look at Final Vendetta. No, Final Vendetta isn’t a new title in the Final Fight series, though it certainly wouldn’t be out of place if it was. Final Vendetta is a trip down that memory lane into arcade land when you’d spend all your quarters trying to beat an improbable boss named Larry at the end of a dingy alley. It’s when giant yellow health bars let you know how much damage you were dealing, when goons dressed like punks from bad 80’s movies and the bad girls carried whips to let you know they meant business. Yeah, Final Vendetta is as unapologetically old school as it gets.

Developed by Bitmap Bureau, Final Vendetta throws you into the ass-kicking street shoes of three characters: Claire Sparks, Duke Sancho and Miller T. Williams. Claire’s sister has been kidnapped and she’s gonna have to brave the mean streets of London to get her back. Thankfully, she’s not alone because she’s gonna need all the help she can get!

And that’s pretty much it for story. Beat ‘em ups have never had the most in-depth narratives, despite our characters possessing backstory to let you know who they are. No, they’re about the gameplay. Specifically, the “kick someone’s face in” gameplay. And here Final Vendetta more than delivers.

Choosing one of our three protagonists, you’re popped into the first grungy street you can find and proceed to lay down punches and kicks with the best of them. Each playable character has their own fighting styles, move sets and speed. Miller is the tank of the group and as an ex-wrestler he moves slowly while Duke and Claire are much faster. Claire’s combos chain together faster while Duke feels like an all-rounder. You’ve got one attack button, a block which can be broken after time, a jump and an area clearing super. Double pushing in a direction lets you run. Throws require you to get in close and auto-activate. The game doesn’t give you a move list, just the basics you can do with advanced moves requiring experimentation on your part to find. But when you do, they become essential, such as the default throw turning into a rolling throw that takes down other enemies if you hold down the directional button in the opposite direction. And if you want to stomp on someone while they’re down, well you can do that too.

The game is all about screen management and positioning. Final Vendetta takes its enemy movements from classics in the series so you’ll find similar attack patterns and ganging up on you moves that permeate the genre. If you do happen to get stuck between punches, you can always use your super to clear the immediate area at the cost of some health. Breaking crates and barrels can reward you with life or money while the occasional weapon can be picked up to even the odds. Usually, they’re cumbersome to use so I never wasted my time with them.

Visually the game looks like it jumped right out of 1993 with great 2D sprite work and animation and large, colourful characters even if they do look rather generic in design. Stage design does look great as well. There’s the usual back alley, train station and elevator sections that we’ve come to expect from these urban brawlers. If it doesn’t look retro enough already, you can throw up a light CRT filter for a quick fix.

The game sports four game modes: Arcade, Boss Rush, Survival and Training, with the last three locked behind completing Arcade Mode. There’s also a two player mode and, quite frankly, these games are almost always better with someone else helping you out.

Final Vendetta is slavish to recreating these brawlers for modern audiences, which is both a compliment and a problem. While it brings the best of the genre with it, it also brings its worst elements.

Final Vendetta is incredibly hard until you learn to master its combat system through multiple playthroughs. The difficulty in itself is not an issue, but not embracing modern gaming amenities is. First you only have six lives to get through Arcade Mode with. There are hidden ones in the stages but I have yet to find them. There are also no continues or save states so you better be prepared to go the distance in one sitting if you want to complete Arcade Mode. The game feels like it was designed specifically for the arcades, right down to the punishing difficulty meant to suck away your quarters, which makes the lack of continues downright bizarre.

Finally, there’s that arcade design for enemy attack patterns and, what I would really just call cheapness. It’s easy to get caught in a group of enemies and be mercilessly pummelled until you’re dead with no way out except by using your super because once the punches start coming, you can’t do anything else but take ‘em. Enemies can interrupt your attacks and, in the case of some bosses, grab you right out of them.

While it’s all par for the course for this genre, it doesn’t change the fact that I wish we’d moved beyond this aspect of its design by now.

Final Vendetta isn’t reinventing the wheel. What it is, is a gloriously fun, though sometimes frustrating walk down memory lane that’s best played with a friend in tow. If you can get past the bad elements of its 90’s arcade design, you’ll find a fun, nicely animated 2D brawler that is worth the effort.

Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-games/Final-Vendetta-2212937.html

Developer: Bitmap Bureau
Publisher: Numskull Games
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and plenty more

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