Avenging Spirit

A Returning Challenger?

Avenging Spirit is a simple game on the surface, a 2d platformer about a man who loses his life and girlfriend all in one brief moment. With decent art and a solid gimmick, the game pulls you in quickly with such an exciting start. After dying in the beginning, the main character is brought back from the dead for the purpose of saving his girlfriend from the group that had originally killed him. As a spirit, this has granted benefits such as the ability to fly and travel through walls but, the big bang for your buck mechanic, is in the possession. Allowing the player to control any active sprite on screen with the touch of a button, adds a lot of exciting ways to engage a level.

Running like a classic platformer, each segment of the game is a level with a boss at the end. My first playthrough of the game took a little over an hour and a good amount of continues. Being a fan of classic titles, it can be easy to get sucked into this game since its ability to change from level helps keep the game fresh. All the different enemies present in the game make for plenty of ways to engage oneself in the levels. Taking this and combining it with the mechanic of player’s choices as the perfect counter for bosses, the game takes an interesting turn where changing becomes less of a want and more of a need. This is where I believe there is a decent spark to this game, since the choices you make for what you play really begin to matter. In base levels (and boss rounds) you do have an unlimited amount of continues. This will allow for proper experimentation before trying to get the perfect run.

Final Thoughts

Thoughts on the title are generally positive for a couple of reasons. The release on Switch has created two modes for the game: the console version, and the arcade version. The console version allows for one player and multiple difficulty options – ranging from easy to hardest. The arcade option reflects on its roots and only has one difficulty, but two players are allowed for this mode, making playing with a friend possible.

Overall this game is simple, a deeper look can reveal interesting elements but, ultimately reveals just that – one strong mechanic. Only backed by a large number of enemies to play, the simplicity of the game’s mechanics gets only more interesting with the more enemies you get to try. With only a $5.99 USD price tag, classic arcade fans, as well as platformer fans, will find something to love in this title. Now I have spirits to avenge…