Video Game / Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider

"At the beginning, there was chaos and riots. So the Commission created us, the guardians, to stop criminals and restore peace and order. But I soon realized that my purpose of creation was evil. I was made to repress the people and keep them from pursuing justice. Something inside me tells me I will only truly be free when all humans are equally free. So that's what I will do... or die trying."

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is a retro action platformer developed by JoyMasher (Oniken, Odallus: The Dark Call, Blazing Chrome) and published by The Arcade Crew.

Moonrider takes place in Penrai, a brutal dictatorship led by the Commission. The strongest of their tools of violence is the guardian, a type of biomechanical Super-Soldier. Moonrider, one of these soldiers, realizes the evil of the regime he serves one day and decides to rebel. After breaking out of the laboratory holding him, Moonrider is faced with the task of defeating his fellow guardians to set the people free.

The game features a Mega Man-style structure with six levels which can be played in any order (following an introductory stage) with a boss as well as at least one Mini-Boss each, and which rewards the player with a new ability upon completion, followed by a multi-stage finale. The game also contains an element of exploration, as secret upgrade chips that make Moonrider stronger can be found hidden throughout the stages.

The game was released on January 12, 2023 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and PC.

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This game contains examples of:

• Animesque: The game takes inspiration from gritty sci-fi anime from the 80s and 90s. In addition to the art style, it takes place in a cyberpunk dystopia, it's about mechanical samurai having brutally violent fights, and it even features Japanese voice acting for the launch trailer.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Stormdiver calls out Moonrider for staining his hands with the blood of patriots, Moonrider questions her if it's a good revolution when she has to oppress those who oppose her, and that her hands are even more soiled because of this. This causes her to hesitate a bit in her response and internally question her motives to the point where she hightails it out of the fight instead of dying when beaten and saves Moonrider in the ending.
  Stormdiver: You are trying to sully the Golden Revolution with your hands bloodied with patriots' blood.
  Moonrider: Is it that great a revolution if you must continuously oppress those who oppose you? Your hands are dirtier than mine.
  Stormdiver: It is... a small price to pay for order and peace.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Done by Moonrider on the "area clear" screen at the end of each stage.
• Badass Biker: The game's Unexpected Shmup Levels have Moonrider riding a motorcycle. Outside of those, he's also seen riding it at the start of the Laser Research Base and in the cutscene after he takes out his third guardian.
• Body Horror: The Lost Ruins stage has hapless soldier mooks parasitized by fleshy horrors that burst out of and replace their heads.
• Boss Warning Siren: A big "WARNING" message flashes before a boss is introduced.
• Bullfight Boss: Geocrusher's stage features a recurring miniboss in the form of an armed vehicle with a face that frequently tries to ram Moonrider.
• Chest Burster: Darkchaser's stage contains two varieties of Mook infected with some kind of fleshy parasite. One type launches its head at Moonrider, while the other can turn its head into a fleshy spout that fires out yellow projectiles.
• Conspicuous Electric Obstacle:
  • The first level introduces surfaces covered with electrodes with visible electricity flowing on them. This type of obstacle is common throughout the game.
  • Asura's fleet electrified flashing spheres in the autoscrolling section.
• Crate Expectations: Lunar Research Base features destructible crates that usually block the way.
• Dark Is Evil: Darkchaser is a Guardian with the power of Darkness and she's The Social Darwinist who only cares about following tradition and the natural order at the expense of the people.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Moonrider has perhaps the most fearsome appearance of all the guardians, with a menacing horned helmet and a pair of demon-faced Shoulders of Doom. Unlike the others, however, Moonrider winds up rebelling against the tyrannical Commission in the name of the people.
• Dash Attack:
  • Moonrider can perform a very powerful forward slash attack if he attacks while dashing. This deals much more damage than his basic attack, enough to one-shot the mooks that normally take 3 hits to go down.
  • After beating Photondrifter, Moonrider gains Photondash, a fast dash that grants invulnerability frames and damages enemies he runs into.
• Death Throws: Defeating human enemies with regular slashes knocks said enemies off the screen.
• Desperation Attack: Some of the Guardians pull one out once their health meter is halfway depleted:
  • Hydromancer kicks his Teleport Spam into overdrive, repeatedly attempting to charge Moonrider, flying offscreen, and then reappearing.
  • Flamestalker launches into the air a barrage of fireballs which then rain down.
  • Stormdiver creates a tornado around herself and attempts to draw Moonrider in.
• Didn't Need Those Anyway!:
  • Genoqueen can lose her hands if you attack them enough.
  • The robot minibosses in Iwondolino City lose their legs after taking enough damage, at which point they continue fighting by using their arms to hop around.
• Diving Kick: One of Moonrider's main techniques is a dropkick that can be aimed straight down or at an angle.
• Dynamic Entry:
  • Geocrusher makes his entrance by crashing through a damaged portion of his boss room's ceiling and crushing two terrified scientists while giving an Evil Laugh.
  • Photondrifter is introduced running up on foot to the vehicle his boss fight takes place on before leaping onto it.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Moonrider sacrifices himself to kill Sunseeker and prevent him from becoming another tyrant. While this is happening, with the guardians all either dead or AWOL, the rebellion is able to launch an attack on the Commission and take them out. The Stinger reveals that Moonrider survived the final battle, and the last shot of the game is him, Shinjen, and a redeemed Stormdiver overlooking the city as day breaks.
• Easy-Mode Mockery: The first time you get a game over, a Defense Module will be unlocked. It caps the Gameplay Grading at B.
• Elemental Personalities:
  • Flamestalker is the fire-element Guardian and has the destructive personality of a bully.
  • Geocrusher is the earth-element Guardian who is stubborn in his ideals, insisting that Moonrider is a part of the Guardians and the Golden Revolution. When Moonrider refuses any part of this, Geocrusher doesn't take it well.
  • Stormdiver is the air-element Guardian who questions her motives internally and later saves Moonrider in the end after an Armor-Piercing Question by Moonrider.
  • Hydromancer is the water-element Guardian and has the cold, orderly personality associated with ice, an element often associated with water.
  • Photondrifter is the light-element Guardian who's in it for the glory.
• Elemental Powers: Four of the Guardians have Water, Earth, Fire, and Air as their powers. The other four are Light, Darkness, Sun and Moon.
  • Flamestalker uses fire abilities like a fire boomerang, a flaming Shoryuken, and a rain of fireballs.
  • Hydromancer uses water abilities like shapeshifting into water, or shaping water and throwing them like projectiles.
  • Stormdiver uses wind abilities in the form of tornadoes and flight.
  • Geocrusher uses earth abilities like a ground punch as well as sending shockwaves across the floor.
  • Photondrifter uses light abilities such as firing lasers and bolts of light.
  • Darkchaser uses darkness abilities which take the form of opening portals of darkness that spawn fleshy tendrils or appendages.
  • While not a Guardian, Shinjen uses lightning attacks in the form of firing bolt projectiles and summoning lightning bolts.
  • Sunseeker uses sun-based abilities like waves of fire and energy balls.
• Elemental Shapeshifter: Hydromancer is capable of turning into water to teleport around and avoid attacks.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Asura's Fleet includes one shortly after Moonrider infiltrates the main ship. Unsurprisingly, a lengthier one later takes place in the Duas Space Elevator.
• Energy Ball: A few enemies shoot balls of energy like the submarine.
• Evil Counterpart: At the end, it turns out that the guardian Sunseeker has defected from the Commission just like Moonrider. However, while Moonrider wants to set the people of Penrai free, Sunseeker wants to replace their dictatorship with a reign of terror of his own.
• Flame Spewer Obstacle: A few flame emitters can be found in Fallen City and Asura's Fleet.
• Flash of Pain: Enemies and structures flash either light orange, white or light green when damaged, depending on the enemy.
• Flight: Hydromancer, Stormdiver and Darkchaser are all capable of flying in their battles.
• Full-Circle Revolution: Penrai is an authoritarian dystopia that overthrew the previous regime in the "Golden Revolution." According to Shinjen, the old regime was even worse to live in than the present one. Sunseeker wants to cause another one of these, but Moonrider doesn't let him.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Any humanoid enemy that isn't reduced to Ludicrous Gibs by Moonrider's attack is usually going to die this way.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Stormdiver is one of two female Guardians and the only one to hesitate when her motives are questioned. She's also the only one to survive and escape from Moonrider and even saves him in the ending.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Moonrider seems to die in a massive explosion while fighting Sunseeker. He's shown to have survived in the ending, however.
• Gameplay Grading: The player's performance is ranked on each stage, with the highest rank being S. It will be capped at B if the player uses the Defense Module, but luckily there are also plenty of exploits that aren't punished by the game.
• Glass Cannon: Subverted by the Module called by this exact name, which turns you into a One-Hit-Point Wonder. It doesn't increase your attack damage at all, and is meant to be for challenge seekers.
• Glory Hound: Photondrifter's main motive for murdering Penrai's enemies is for the glory. He appears to be bringing in a nuke into Iwondonilo City to blow several innocents up, all for said glory.
  Photondrifter: You cannot stop the glorious path of the Golden Revolution. All those rats against Penrai must be swiftly eradicated.
  Moonrider: Is it that easy for you to eliminate other peoples' lives?
  Photondrifter: If you die defending the revolution, your martyrdom will live on. If you oppose the regime, you no longer deserve to live.
• Ground Punch: Befitting his name, one of Geocrusher's attacks is a fist slam on the ground that produces energy around him. Moonrider gets a similar ability after defeating him, although Moonrider's takes the form of projectiles.
• Immune to Bullets: At the end of Stormdiver's stage, Moonrider confronts the fleet captain who shoots at him with a pistol, and the shots do absolutely nothing to him at all. This only appears to be for small arms fire, for the heavier weaponry that the basic mooks use can hurt Moonrider.
• Jerkass: While many of the Guardians have unpleasant personalities, Flamestalker is by far the most abrasive one towards Moonrider, acting like an insulting bully towards him.
  Flamestalker: You came here because you are a dipshit that can't do what he was told. "Oh, I can't stomach a little blood and needed to be reprogrammed", grow a pair!
• Justified Tutorial: The game's tutorial is depicted as a "reboot session" inside Moonrider's mind intended to recalibrate his movements before he can be properly reactivated.
• Laser Sight: You can tell where the Snipers are just by looking at the red laser.
• Levels Take Flight: Stormdiver's level, Asura's Fleet, is a giant airship surrounded by smaller flying vehicles.
• Light Is Not Good:
  • Photondrifter is a guardian with the power of light and he's a Glory Hound who kills the Commission's enemies for the glory and honor. From the giant missile he's transporting, it seems like he wants to blow up Iwondonilo City. Moonrider outright calls him a murderer.
  • In contrast to Moonrider, Sunseeker is a golden-coloured Guardian with sun-based powers, who wishes to replace the current regime with his own reign of terror.
• Ludicrous Gibs: If a flesh-and-blood enemy gets killed by one of Moonrider's stronger attacks, like his dashing attack or Moonspear, this is likely to happen.
• Luke Nounverber: The guardians all have names structured like this, with their respective elemental power as the noun.
• Metropolis Level: Iwondolino City, Photondrifter's stage, is a bustling city that consists of an auto-scrolling bike level followed by a Locomotive Level segment.
• Mirror Boss: Sunseeker starts out as a Moveset Clone of Moonrider before gaining his own attacks later in his boss fight.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The guardians are mechanical samurai with elemental powers.
• Not the Intended Use: Geocrash, the ability that Moonrider gets from defeating Geocrusher, makes Moonrider slam the ground to create a burst of projectiles and also gives Moonrider a short period of Mercy Invincibility for the whole attack and after it ends. Many players use the invincibility for speedruns or for a No-Damage Run, such as avoiding Collision Damage from a (mini)boss, or getting past the traffic signs in the final section of Photondrifter's stage. It certainly helps that Geocrash deals a huge amount of damage too.
• Old Soldier: Shinjen is an old man who is capable of fighting on par with a Guardian without the need for mechanical parts or augments.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: The Glass Cannon chip, when equipped, causes Moonrider to die in one hit. There are no mechanical benefits, and even the description notes it's just for players who want an extreme challenge.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: Moonrider is a Super-Soldier who winds up rebelling against his creators after realizing their tyrannical nature.
• Player Death Is Dramatic: Dying causes the screen to turn black with the camera centering on Moonrider as he explodes into light.
• Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: Bosses and mechanical enemies die this way with minibosses in particular producing series of explosions.
• Power Copying: When Moonrider beats another Guardian, he gains one of that Guardian's powers.
• Recurring Boss: Shinjen is fought twice: first in Geocrusher's stage, and then another time as the Pre-Final Boss.
• Revenge Before Reason: Part of the reason why Shinjen fights Moonrider and even tries to aid Sunseeker is due to his love Fumiko being killed in the previous revolution. Moonrider fortunately sets his priorities straight by sparing him and telling him to end this corrupt regime for Fumiko's sake.
• Rise to the Challenge: After finally killing the miniboss in Flamestalker's stage, its explosion starts a rising inferno that Moonrider has to flee to a higher part of the building from.
• Roaring Rapids: Desalination facility features player-pushing flowing water.
• Sentry Gun: A few enemies are autonomous surface-mounted guns such as Gatling guns in Asura's Fleet.
• Sequential Boss:
  • Darkchaser initially can't be damaged until Moonrider destroys the artifact crystal floating around her. Once that's down, she absorbs it, using more powerful moves but becoming vulnerable.
  • Once his first health meter is depleted, Sunseeker manifests a pair of energy wings and gains an entirely new moveset as his health bar refills.
• Shout-Out:
  • The ability to select a level and obtain the weapons from defeating a boss is based on the main gimmick of the Mega Man franchise.
  • The tutorial boss bears a huge resemblance to Sigma's virus form in Mega Man X2.
  • Geocrash, the special move gained by beating Geocrusher, is functionally identical to Zero's recurring screen-filling technique in the Mega Man X series.
  • Stormdiver's purple tornadoes bear a huge similarity to the Storm Tornado weapon from Mega Man X. Her Desperation Attack resembles the Charged Attack version of the move.
  • Photondrifter's entrance is a Racing the Train scene almost identical to that of Slash Beast's from Mega Man X4.
  • The brain miniboss in the Desalination Facility is very similar to Mother Brain, being a Brain in a Jar that fights with turrets that fire orange energy rings.
• Slow Laser: Many enemies fire projectiles laser projectiles that are very slow.
• The Social Darwinist:
  • Darkchaser believes that everything must follow tradition and the natural order, and anything that deviates from it is an unnatural freak that must be eliminated.
  • Sunseeker believes that as superior machines, he and Moonrider have every right to rule over humanity.
• Solar and Lunar: Moonrider and his Evil Counterpart Sunseeker.
• Spikes of Doom: Spikes are one of the more common hazards in the game.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: The second boss Genoqueen is invulnerable until she opens her hands or mouth to attack, leaving herself vulnerable.
• Technicolor Death: Each of the guardians dies in an explosion of light that engulfs the entire screen (except Stormdiver, who escapes rather than dies at the end of her boss fight). This includes Moonrider himself, should he be defeated.
• Temporary Platform: The game has platforms that disappear shortly after being stood on.
• Thinking Up Portals: Darkchaser's main gimmick is creating portals of darkness to either pop out of to attack, or summon fleshy tendrils/arms to strike Moonrider with. Moonrider gets this ability after beating her, allowing him to summon a tendril of darkness from a portal.
• Token Good Teammate: Moonrider is the only Guardian who has a properly functioning conscience and fights against the others, although his Armor-Piercing Question to Stormdiver makes her question her motives too, allowing her to save him later on.
• Two Girls to a Team: Stormdiver and Darkchaser are the two females out of the eight Guardians.
• Underground Level: The Lost Ruins, Darkchaser's level, begins as a subterranean cave before morphing into a nightmarish Womb Level midway through.
• Unexpected Shmup Level: The first half of Iwondolino City changes the game into a Rail Shooter where you fight the Commission's forces on a motorcycle. The game's finale begins with another such segment.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Moonrider gains one of the other Guardians' abilities after killing/defeating them.
• Walk, Don't Swim: The player character cannot swim underwater.
• Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: Varad Duas, the leader of the Commission, is a mere human with authority and the powerful Guardians at his disposal. After the Guardians are taken out or go AWOL, he goes down effortlessly when the revolutionaries storm his office and shoot him dead.

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