Mini Review: Arcade Archives VENDETTA – Konami’s Finest Belt-Scrolling Brawler? You’d Better Believe It

Cleaning up the streets.

Back when belt-scrolling brawlers were the arcade genre of choice for millions of players worldwide, Capcom’s output was considered by many to be the gold standard. Titles like Final Fight and Alien Vs. Predator pulled in an astonishing amount of revenue during this period, but the company didn’t have the genre all to itself; Konami was one of several rivals who set out to challenge Capcom’s dominance.

When you discuss Konami beat ’em ups, then the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Simpsons: The Arcade Game are obviously going to crop up, but when viewed without the assistance of rose-tinted spectacles, both of these games are actually quite simplistic in terms of gameplay mechanics. Vendetta (known in some parts of the world as Crime Fighters 2, linking it to Konami’s earlier side-scrolling fighter), on the other hand, is Konami’s attempt to genuinely inject some innovation into the genre, and it’s a much more accomplished offering than the company’s licenced efforts of the period.

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