Vendetta, known in Japan as Crime Fighters 2 (クライムファイターズ2 Kuraimu Faitāzu 2?), is a 1991 side-scrolling beat 'em up game, part of the Crime Fighters series, developed and published by Konami for arcade platforms. It is the sequel to Crime Fighters, although it was marketed internationally as a standalone game with no previous connections.
The game was included as part of Arcade Archives on July 21, 2021 for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
Plot[]
Dead End City is a place controlled with a firm grip by the "Dead End" gang, comprised by an endless group of violent criminals. Their only obstacle is the opposing hero gang, "The Cobras". The Cobras numbers five members: Blood (P1), Hawk (P2), Boomer (P3), Sledge (P4) and Kate (NPC).
One day, Kate is kidnapped by the Dead End Gang under the leadership of Faust, who is looking for the leadership of all street gangs in an attempt to take full control of the city. The four men go to the enemies' territory to save Kate, fighting through the waves of enemies that are sent against them.
Characters[]
The Cobras[]
- Blood: A former prizefighter, his signature gang color is red and he wears white boxing hand wraps, and he has a passing resemblance to Mike Tyson.
- Hawk: A former professional wrestler, his signature gang color is blue and fights with bare knuckles, and he has a passing resemblance to Hulk Hogan.
- Boomer: A martial artist, his signature gang color is gold and wears black fingerless gloves, he is possibly based on Jean-Claude Van Damme.
- Sledge: A military ex-convict, his signature color is green and wears forearm cuffs made of steel, and he has a passing resemblance to Mr. T.
- Kate: The damsel in distress, described as Hawk's protégé and wearing a blue shirt similar to his.
The Dead End Gang[]
- Buzzsaw Bravado: A vicious mohawk punk in a black leather jacket wielding a huge buzzsaw. Fight occurs on board a speeding semi-truck bed.
- Joe Ohsugi: An American-Japanese man wielding a kusari-gama and star shuriken. His name is a reference to martial arts star Sho Kosugi. Fight occurs on the construction site uptown.
- Missing Link: A monstrous, animal-like hulk with a wild beard and dreadlocks hiding his face. His wrists and chest are adorned with iron chains. Appearance probably based on Bruiser Brody.
- The Rude Brothers: Two twin brothers and owners of an underworld casino in a seedy part of Dead End City. The bigger of the two brothers is a brawler, while the smaller brother is a skillful acrobat and knife-fighter. Both work as a team whenever possible.
- Kruel Kurt: A bald thug who lurks aboard a barque in the harbor district. His preferred weapon is a heavy iron anchor.
- Faust: The supreme leader of the Dead End Gang. He likes to blow a green dust into his enemies' eyes to incapacitate them, and in his hideout he has a submachine gun which he uses against intruders if he is allowed to reach it.
Gameplay[]
The four men of the game's hero gang, The Cobras, fight through waves of enemies to rescue Kate, The Cobras' fifth member, who was kidnapped by the Dead End gang. As with most beat 'em ups, the game features primarily side-scrolling action. Player score is based on number of opponents eliminated.
The option of attacking an enemy while they are knocked down is kept from the previous game. The game uses 'punch' and 'kick' buttons rather than 'jump' and 'attack'. The special punch-plus-kick attack is the only aerial attack. Every time this special attack is performed, it takes away one bar of energy from the character. The players can also use different weapons that belong to enemies or are hidden inside boxes, like a shotgun (with limited cartridges), baseball bats, knives and bottles. Players can also double-team enemies and vice versa.
The game doesn't end after defeating the Big Boss at the end of all chapters; instead, the player then enters a special final stage where they once again have to fight all of the bosses in a massive final fight, and if the player defeats them all, then Vendetta's story starts from the beginning with an amped-up difficulty level.
Regional differences[]
Japanese version[]
The original version Crime Fighters 2 contains enemies clad in sadomasochist leather costumes and acting with according mannerisms, as well as perverted dogs which perform perverse actions on the four Cobras such as grabbing a hold of the character, pressing himself to the body real tight, then licks and starts dry-humping the character. Each hump takes away a lot of energy. Even if you are lying on the floor, you might be attacked in the same "heavy petting" kind of way. If you dodge them often enough they even start dry-humping the street lamps that are standing around. Thus they seem to be a danger for any bystander. Then there is a dominatrix that wears leather and swings a whip around. Not too much about her was altered, except for the fact that she stops your character with her whip so that the dry-humpers can easily attack the character.
Also, there are canines who hump the leg of the player characters.
International version[]
The edited worldwide release re-titled as Vendetta was censored outside of the Japanese market due to controversy involving mature themes.
But not only the game now has exclusive 2-player versions of the arcade units, but it also has 4-player arcade units, the character selection is locked to player positions in the four-player version (Blood is P1, Hawk is P2, Boomer is P3 and Sledge is P4) while players are free to select any of the four cobras like in the two-player version.
The 4-player version also allows players to insert additional credits both before they start and during gameplay to add to their stock of lives (although the counter only goes up to 99, it can go beyond that if players keep inserting coins and if it has an upper-limit it's very high indeed) whereas the 2-player version gives players one set of lives per session and nothing else. Finally, the health bar is longer in the 2-player version, this is purely visual- every bar of health in the 4-player version is represented by two bars in the 2-player version, so as an example grabbing a bottle of milk gives P1 one bar of health back in the 4-player version and two in the 2-player version.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
Packaging artwork[]
Promotional artwork[]
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Trivia[]
- The title of this game, Vendetta, translates from Italian as "Revenge".
- Another beat 'em up game also called Vendetta was previously released in 1989 by System 3 for home computers of the era (Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum), although it is unrelated to this game.
- Other unrelated games also called Vendetta have been released over the years; a light gun game in 1994, and a MMORPG in 2004 (Vendetta Online).