Vendetta (arcade)
200x100 GFX Company: Konami
Genre: Beat 'em up
Released: USA: 1991 JPN: 1991
(from the game intro)
The Dead End Gang, who dominate Dead End City, are looking to expand their territory. Only their rival gang, the Cobras, stand in their way. The Dead End Gang kidnaps Kate, a protégée of Hawk, to trap the others into trying to rescue her.
Known as Crime Fighters 2 in Japan, this game isn't a continuation of the original Crime Fighters story but features a highly improved version of it's gameplay and humorous tone. Except for the lack of jumping, Vendetta has most of the standard beat-em-up attacks but includes many of Konami's signature features of the genre. Enemies can be swatted into the background with baseball bats, pieces of the stage can be punched to activate traps for enemy gang members, dropped foes can be beaten on the ground before they can stand back up and the Cobras aren't above hitting Dead Enders below the belt. This game is followed up by Violent Storm which is another non-sequel with the many of the same beatdown methods. The few censored things that don't appear in the non-Japanese versions are leather-wearing male characters who lick and rub up on the main characters and lamp posts and the attack dogs have been spayed and neutered into no longer humping you.

Want some useless trivia? Okay. Reference that everyone gets: all four Cobras are loosely based on live action stars. Ex boxing champ Blood seems slightly based on Iron Mike Tyson, martial artist Boomer is Jean Claude Van Damme, ex-wrestler Hawk is Hulk Hogan and military convict Sledge is based on Mr. T and his character B.A. Barracas from the A-Team. Reference that Konami fans get: the Rude Brothers use the same "short man on tall man's shoulder" technique as Frankenstein('s Monster) and Igor use from Castlevania. Although the little Rude Brother is named Frank, he rides on his giant brother's back like Igor did. Frank is also a speedy, stick-and-move pain-in-the-butt like Igor. For reasons unknown, Kate is referred to as Hawk's sister in the British flyer but only as Hawk's protégée in the game and U.S. flyer. The huge chunks of debris that fall from the building at the beginning of stage 5 spell out CR and IME as in Crime Fighters 2. Blood has a boxing stance similar to the one used by the hero from the first Crime Fighters game.
Player Characters:
Blood Boomer Hawk Sledge
Enemy Characters:
Buzzsaw Bravado Faust Joe Ohsugi Kruel Kurt Missing Link
Other Characters:
Kate
Screenshots (click to see full-sized):
Start screen. Story bit 1. Story bit 2 Pick a Cobra. Any Cobra. Boomer swats a chump into the background. Sledge's bottle recycling technique needs a little work. Hawk is about to lay a huge elbow drop on Buzzsaw Bravado. Boomer jumpkicks Buzzsaw Bravado. A hero hitting a dog with an elbow drop? Only in video games.
ScrollBoss Section Links:
Sprites - Vendetta sprites on the Crime Fighters sprite page.
Minus World - Minus World - Run, Woman, Run!
Custom Sprites - Crime Fighters gallery
Logos - Logo
Tips and Cheats - Hidden food in Rude Bros. fight.

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