Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider Cheats and Tips
A Quick Mega Man X-like
The game is set up like a Mega Man title or more precisely a Mega Man X title. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is an action platformer that begins on a demo stage before the world map opens up, giving players a choice of which stage to choose next. Bosses don’t bestow the player with cool power-ups unlike Mega Man X in his series, but there are upgrades for Moonrider.
These upgrades come in the form of chips which are hidden in capsules throughout levels. Two can be equipped at a time from the level start-up screen. For example, there’s a chip that can heal the special meter gradually. The game is only about two to three hours long, which is about the length of the Mega Man X entries on the SNES.
There Are No Difficulties, BUT…
A lot of action platformers from this era did not have difficulty levels. The same is true in Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, but there are ways to make the game easier or more challenging. For example, the first time players run out of extra lives they will be given the Armor Chip on the Game Over screen.
The Armor Chip reduces damage significantly at the cost of limiting players to a B rating for stage completion rewards. Alternatively, there’s a stage in the game with the Glass Cannon chip hidden in it. This will kill Moonrider in one hit, which is the ultimate hardcore upgrade that perfectly emulates the difficulty of some of the best 90s games.
Go To Asura’s Fleet First
Once the world map unlocks, players should head to Asura’s Fleet first. This stage has Moonrider fly in before he is forced to hop from battleship to battleship to make it to the flagship wherein the boss lies. In this beginning stretch of mini-ships, before the first scalable wall, players can jump down to find a small ship with a chip capsule on it.
This capsule contains the Reborn Chip, which revives Moonrider at half health. This is another chip that will make the game easier if combined with the Armor Chip. This Reborn Chip only works once per level though, so it’s not a godlike chip that will assist players to complete victory.
Learning Boss Patterns
As difficult as Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is, it’s not an impossible game. Enemies rarely pop out of thin air or respawn at wild intervals. They go down with only a few smacks of the sword as well which is the feeling one wants in a ninja-like game. This is true for bosses as well.
They may pop out of the screen in terms of their scale, but their attack patterns can be easily studied. There is usually a special trick to get through them. For example, the first boss-like encounter is a large gun. Instead of attacking it directly, players should trick this gun into firing at the sealed door which will end the encounter once it explodes. The only thing that is a detriment to studying bosses is when players run out of extra lives.
