Final Vendetta Review (Switch)

A genre whose popularity ballooned during New York’s violent crime rise in the 1980s, Final Vendetta is less interested in those origins than the games that reflected that reality. From swiping Streets of Rage’s sound effects to Final Fight’s hidden foreground objects, Final Vendetta isn’t shy about its lack of ideas but proud of its homage. Too proud, frankly.

Game Name: Final Vendetta
Platform(s): Switch (reviewed), PS4, PC
Publisher(s): Numskull Games
Developer(s): Bitmap Bureau
Release Date: Jun 17, 2022
Works with Steam Deck: No

There’s nothing original to Final Vendetta. The title, partly copied from an undervalued Konami arcade game Vendetta, even filters into the character designs. Final Vendetta’s Duke Sanco mirror’s Vendetta’s Blood red jacket and jeans accounted for. Then there are smaller touches like characters scaling in from the background, copying SNK’s bland Burning Fight, or the transparent club lights from Streets of Rage 3. References are endless, and technically flawless, certainly without the framerate chugging that often plagued games like this at home in the ’90s. It’s surprising the devs didn’t add some occasional sprite flicker just to complete the illusion.

It’s a hectic, tight brawler, eschewing the moderate pace favored by contemporary brawlers, River City Girls or Double Dragon Neon. Final Vendetta doesn’t shy on difficulty either, relying on the beat ’em ups strategic values that mix-and-match enemy types, demanding variance in play styles to thrive. Copious special moves factor into vividly animated combo strings, regularly hitting triple digits if time correctly. It’s gorgeously violent, elegantly drawn dot-by-dot. Faultless response time makes everything hit with satisfying crunch.

For the glossiness and thick, hard pixel lines (the aesthetic unmistakable from SNK’s Neo Geo glory days in the mid-1990s), Final Vendetta looks the part. It sounds as such, too, the driving musical accompaniment, mostly action dance rhythms, borrowed from former Sega composer Yuzo Koshiro. All elements are superlative in their loving reverence for the beat em’ up, yet the work is also sidelined by the satisfying, crisp fisticuffs beholden to the classics. Streets of Rage 4 exists, and by an unlucky coincidence, Final Vendetta releases alongside another throwback, that one carrying the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license and a far better game.

Final Vendetta does itself proud, but its identity exists in pieces over the decades. It doesn’t use the genre for any contemporary purpose; the story concerns a kidnapped woman and the gangland teardown to rescue her. As an aside, Final Vendetta capably passes the time and locks onto the brain’s nostalgia reward centers without a recognizable personality of its own. In due time, Final Vendetta will pass and exist as a minor entry despite the clear adoration put into it.