Avenging Spirit Nintendo Switch Review

Over the recent months we have been lucky enough to have had the chance to play some classic retro games thanks to Ratalaika Games. The latest game was originally a arcade release which was later released to mobile and handheld platforms. Avenging Spirit is a 2-player platformer which is now available on current consoles for all to enjoy with some enhancements to make it feel modern.

I Shall Be Avenged!

Avenging Spirits story is an interesting one about a man who was out with his girl when he was killed by a gang and Gennifer was kidnapped. Looking to avenge his death and save the love of his life, he teams up with her father who is studies the world of the paranormal to help rescue her. When you start you will probably find it slightly difficult as the learning curve is steep and will find yourself getting killed, a lot.

I Expect you to Die!

To help with the dying aspect unlike the original 90’s game you have infinite continues. This is a tremendous help and the enhancements don’t stop there. You also have save states, which has been added to a lot of the recent retro game releases. And another feature which is most commonly see in games like Forza is a rewind so that you can go back a few seconds and avoid the mistake you made first time around. Video settings can be added to give the game a CRT scanlines look, which has been a common feature found in recent games of this style.

The game is your standard retro-style beat’em seen in classics like Streets of Rage. As a ghost you can enter the bodies of nearly all the enemies you encounter and use them to take out the other bad guys until you get killed. The only exception to this is that bosses can’t be controlled, so look for the strongest to use so that when you reach a boss, you can defeat it easier. But the enhancements I mentioned above help with this a lot.

The game has been brought to the Nintendo Switch perfectly and it looks just like the original arcade release with the added scanlines. You have the option as well to play with black borders or stretch it to the screen size of the switch screen, depending what mood you are in at the time of loading up. It might have been nice to have had the Gameboy version included, but to be fair monochrome visuals might not be to everyone’s taste. The one feature that was in the Gameboy version which was missing in the arcade was the ability to switch out of one body to another.

Final Thoughts

Avenging Spirits is a fun game that brings an arcade retro classic to the modern consoles for everyone to enjoy. Yes, the game is hard and you will die a lot. But features like rewind, save states and infinite continues helps to make it easier to play. For the price this is then buy this game, you will have hours of fun and taste of the arcades back in the day.