Vengeful Guardian: MOONRIDER - Part 1: Opening & Tutorial Stage
6I stumbled upon this cool indie game when I saw previews of it on Twitter. It feels like a combination of Shinobi III, Strider, Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man X, and other games.
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So here's the story:
The nation of Penrai was ruled by a corrupt government that was trying to recruit new soldiers, while claiming that a ragtag gang of freedom fighters that were trying to liberate the nation were actually criminals and terrorists. Many brave lives were slain as a result of this defiance.
This game is about a high-tech ninja robot, the Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, himself, realizing that he was being built just to further carry out these corrupt laws... and rejecting them!
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Let me start this game out with a its handy tutorial.
To me, the controls and moves Moonrider has in this game immediately remind me of those of different 16-Bit ninja games. He can slash like Strider (and extend it to a 3-hit combo), he can jump like Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa, and he can dash like Shinobi's Joe Musashi (and even has a running slash like he does in Shinobi III).
Moonrider has even more Shinobi like moves. He can wall jump, and he can divekick, either straight down or diagonally down.
Moonrider also has a Mega Man X-esque special weapon system. He starts out with his own signature attack: Moonspear, but when he defeats other Guardians, he gains their own special attacks to use for himself.
The most significant difference between this and Mega Man X, however, is that all of Moonrider's special weapons use the same exact energy meter, and both weapon energy and health can only be found from containers (though there are certain ways around this).
The tutorial will let you travel through it with unlimited energy to use your Moonspear as much as you want, but don't think that the real game will grant you this same privilege.
You even have to fight a boss to finish this tutorial off before you're whisked back to the title screen.