1119: Arcade Archives Vendetta PS4 \\ Options, & Sledge playthrough! (2P JP version)
0Through the Options, then single-player through the modern emulation of a 1991 Konami arcade beat-em-up in Arcade Archives Vendetta on PS4--2P JP cabinet mode, ie "Crime Fighters 2"--as Sledge!
My beat-em-ups playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZO3OPzPjIzMRdL46C-xoiG1dgqjvlgao
0:00 - start
2:30 - menus & options
5:41 - manual
9:08 - testing Power Blow energy use (can't see any)
15:36 - Sledge 2P INT play-through
29:07 - boss hair
34:10 - bat & pyro fun in a shop
40:25 - sawed-off pump shotgun trouble
55:36 - boss guns me on the ground; ending; boss rush
1:03:45 - loop
1:09:27 - Crime Fighters 1 (2P INT) for comparison
1:17:50 - wrap!
Vendetta, or Crime Fighters 2, goes to some pains to improve upon most of the weaker points of its prequel! There are four different playable characters, and it isn't really hard to hit stuff now--except with Sledge's ground attack, which was still really picky about exactly where I stood in relation to the downed opponent; couple that with them still having the ability to rise and attack immediately, without warning, and trying a ground attack can really get you busted up pretty bad. : P But you can actually hit multiple opponents on the ground at once--in the first game, you could never hit more than one opponent at a time, with any sort of attack!
On the other hand, enemies with guns will just shoot you as you lay on the ground. = ooo And they can shoot as soon as they get up (41:41), for quite the surprise! ; P
There's tons of stuff to pick up and blow up! Enemies (especially the pyromaniac flashers) will blow each other up; game gets wild. Hitting baddies with a spiked bat splats them against the back wall, just like one of the toughs in the prequel was always doing to you.
An upward punch, "Power Blow," replaces the prequel's pretty much useless neutral jump on Punch+Kick...and I didn't find a use for Power Blow, either, and promptly forgot all about it. : P It can knock regular enemies down, but its slow speed and mediocre horizontal range made it a bit of a pain. And you never really have enemies above you--a few times a guy will be standing on a raised platform, but you can just bash the platform's legs to knock the whole thing down, which seems much more satisfying. So I'm not really sure what Power Blow is for, I suppose I should watch a high score run or something.
Oh! And Wikipedia says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendetta_(1991_video_game) "every time this special attack is performed, it takes away one bar of energy from the character"--but I tried it in all four versions (2P JP, 4P JP, 2P INT, 4P INT), and it didn't see to drain my health, even when I hit people with it, in any version--so I'm not sure what Wikipedia's on about. Maybe that was an earlier (or later?) ROM revision?
Wikipedia also says the JP version has "dry humping" that was censored out of the INT versions, so I played through the 2P JP version--and my Sledge did NOT get dry-humped! Maybe it's uh subtle? Guess I'll just play the INT version (2P for less INSERT CREDIT flashing than 4P) next time. : P
Durn dogs! No dry-humping, and they aren't as fast as in the prequel but now they take three rather than one hit to KO, and they don't jump to punchable height as much, so they just kept grabbing my pant-leg repeatedly, grrr. Come to think of it though I'm not sure I tried just kicking them, that might've been the thing to do.
The boss rush at the end is no longer optional, but only a few attack you at a time, rather than eight. : P Also the bosses are in general way less cheap; actually in this boss rush the enemy who gave me the worst time was just a regular martial arts dude; in the prequel those guys were nearly impossible to knock down, but for most of this one they were push-overs--but in the boss fight, he'd spring over the bigger, more predictable bosses, kick me in the head or whatever, and jump back behind the bosses before I could get him! Ooohh!
Oh and the game loops, at a higher difficulty--indefinitely, according to Wikipedia.
Oh, "lowest recorded score" means that you have to score at least that point total to get an entry on the leaderboard. Not the clearest label for that, and doesn't seem like it should need to take up a full page--in a REALLY spaced-out table--in the in-game manual. ; )
9/17/22
#crimefighters #arcadearchives #vendetta #vendettagame #crimefighters2 #konami #ps4 #videogame #videogames #letsplay #beatemup #beatemups #playthrough #gameplay