Vigilante, a port of the arcade game, is a beat-em-up. And even if it's good or not, beat-em-up games are still fun ( to a certain degree ) for the mindless button mashing gameplay, so it can't be that bad right?...........Right?!
Story
A gang has taken over the city and you must fight back, but that's not all, the gang has also taken your girlfriend Maria hostage. Yeah it's the typical ''save you're girlfriend'' plot used in alot of games.
Gameplay
It's a beat-em-up game, so just like in every other beat-em-up the goal is to beat the crap out of anyone that comes into sight and make it to the end of the stage to fight the boss. Sounds simple, right? Well doesn't seem like it here where it becomes a struggle from the start. As soon as you begin, the enemy starts running out from each side of the screen for you to fight off. There's no brake to it, they just keep coming no matter how many you take out, so throughout every stage you can't even go more then 2 inches without a flood of goons attacking you. And what an unusual way some of them attack, the enemies that come running up to you don't hit or kick you, instead it looks like they're hugging you, yes hugging......that drains your energy! They just stick on you until you wiggle them off, not a pretty sight when a man on each side is ''hugging'' you and it looks like the player is freaking out when you wiggle o_O. There are other enemies in the game too that have weapons (guns,sticks, nunchakus), and as the game goes on these weapon carrying thugs get tougher to take out, unlike the hugging loving ( ok, ok, they're actually strangling you ) creeps that take one hit to knock out.
Once you actually make it through the chaos, you face the boss which in itself is frustrating. As soon as you get anywhere near them they start beating the crap out of you, and you usually end up losing a life. The boss fights can be really annoying especially when the bosses pull off cheap moves, but you CAN beat them, just get used to dying until you find a certain method to fighting each boss.
Your fighting arsenal is quite limited though, punch, kick and jump kicking ( this is all starting to sound familiar *coughMyHerocough* ). There are nunchakus in each stage that are your best bet in surviving, and are very useful in boss fights. Too bad you'll probably get hugged to death and lose them before you reach the boss though. You also have a huge life bar, but that don't mean jack when you're getting clobbered at every moment and reach the boss with very little life left. And since there are no power ups for ( or no power ups at all for that matter ) refilling energy, you have to try your best to make it throughout the levels without losing alot of energy.
Graphics
Despite the disappointing gameplay, the graphics are another story. Although obviously not up to par with the arcade version, the graphics in the game are very vivid and detailed for a Master System game. The characters look very nice and colorful and the same goes for the backgrounds. From city streets, the junkyard with tires and cars littered around, the city background and more, the BGs look very detailed, especially the signs which look impressive.
Sounds/Music
Nothing special with the sounds in the game, basically just a bunch of smacking noises. The music is okay, nothing memorable but it fits well with the game.
Replay Value
With the the way you're constantly being attacked by enemies that love to huggle and the cheap ass boss fights, you won't be coming back to the game much. Sure it has pretty graphics but that isn't enough to pull you back. And once you actually beat the game you'll see it isn't very long with only 5 short stages.
In Closing
I don't know if the arcade version plays the same, but like I said before, the graphics are nice but if the gameplay isn't up to par then there isn't much to this game to begin with.
Overall Rating: 4/10