Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider - A love letter to retrogaming and Japanese culture

Greetings Moonriders,

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider will be launching tomorrow! To celebrate its upcoming release, we’d like to tell you more about JoyMasher and their newest love letter to the retrogaming and Japanese culture.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1942010/Vengeful_Guardian_Moonrider/

Who is JoyMasher?

JoyMasher is a Brazilian studio founded in early 2012 focusing on delivering video games with strong retrogaming vibes. Their gaming ride started with Oniken (2014), an action-platformer strongly inspired by the greatest hits released on NES.

JoyMasher marked the following year with Odallus: The Dark Call (2015), an action game that pays homage to the best and undisputed action classics such as Ghosts’n Goblins, Demon’s Crest, and the one and only Castlevania.

A few years later, the studio gave birth to a new action-loaded run’n’gun gem called Blazing Chrome. This dark tale about humanity being at the edge of extinction gathers everything Contra and Metal Slug fans love but in a post-apocalyptic setting.

Their next gem called Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is about to slash its way onto PC with eight challenging stages, rough pixel-perfect graphics, and genuine retrogaming and Japanese cultural influences.

What is Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider about?

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is a quest for revenge. The story begins with a totalitarian state that created an army of super soldiers to maintain order with an iron hand and subdue other nations including its own people.

In this oppressed world where despair reigns, an incident has awakened the Moonrider, one of the super soldiers, who rejects its intended purpose and seeks revenge on its creators and fellow guardians. By turning his back on the state, the Moonrider became an unlikely hero but also a glimmer of hope for humanity.

A project built with childhood memories and cultural influences:

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider creator, Danilo Dias, picked and added a bunch of Japanese cultural influences that marked him as a child born and raised in Brazil at the end of the ‘80s. At that time, the Japanese culture had a more significant impact on the country with the introduction of video games, manga, and anime.

A Brazilian channel on TV used to broadcast Kamen Rider (仮面ライダー), Jaspion (巨獣特捜ジャスピオン), or Spielvan (時空戦士スピルバン) (cult classics from Tokusatsu and Sentai era) that became his favorite series and inspirations.

Years passed and his interest in Japanese culture never stopped growing and left its mark on Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider's art direction. On the one hand, the characters' designs were strongly inspired by supernatural entities and spirits (Yokai, etc.) from Japanese folklore.

On the other hand, sci-fi horror movies such as Alien (1979) inspired JoyMasher to recreate this gloomy ambiance in Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider. This dark and oppressive atmosphere ends up being beautifully enhanced with pixel-perfect graphics and incredible attention to detail.

What can I expect from Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider?

The ultimate retro side-scrolling platformer experience with challenging, deadly stages that will make you sweat, and the satisfaction of bringing some justice to this oppressed world. Furthermore, powerful modifier chips are hidden and guarded throughout the adventure and will allow you to customize your Guardian’s fighting skills on the battleground.

Last but not least, the genuine retrogaming vibes that emerged from the gameplay, the pixel art graphics, and the game’s incredible soundtrack sound like a love letter to the Megadrive era and the greatest action platformers that marked generations of players.

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🤖 Wishlist Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider if you haven't:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1942010/Vengeful_Guardian_Moonrider/

💫 You can also catch us on social media:

@JoyMasher
@TheArcadeCrew