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If Avenging Spirit has taught me anything, it\u2019s that I\u2019ve been taking the wrong approach to my throwback arcade game collection. I\u2019ve generally gone for nostalgia, buying games I loved in the past. That often leads to disappointment, as the games I enjoyed in my teens haven\u2019t carried well into my\u2026not teens.<\/p>\n

Of Avenging Spirit, however, I had no knowledge before starting this review. The game was originally released to arcades in the \u201990s, then ported to Nintendo GameBoy and iOS. I finally caught up to it on the Nintendo Switch, and I\u2019m happy I did.<\/p>\n

This 2D action adventure begins when you die and your girlfriend is kidnapped. Nothing to be done about that, right? Wrong. Her dad resurrects you as a ghost so you can hunt down the mobsters who caused all of this and free the lady. Why doesn\u2019t dad just do this himself? Because it\u2019s the ghost powers that matter here.<\/p>\n

Your spirit body isn\u2019t much use on its own, so you have to inhabit other people in order to play the game. You select one of four host bodies at the start, but you\u2019ll be able to possess other bodies throughout the game.<\/p>\n

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Take them over and you get their powers.<\/p>\n

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You then have two life bars to manage: one for your ghost and one for your possessed body. The former depletes while you\u2019re in ghost form, so you\u2019ll need to stay in possession of an enemy in order to keep things moving along.<\/p>\n

The wide variety of enemies to possess keeps things interesting as you work your way through the game\u2019s six levels. As with all arcade games, Avenging Spirit isn\u2019t terribly long. That\u2019s fine, however, because the possession hook isn\u2019t enough to carry the player through a prolonged adventure. And beyond that, Avenging Spirit is pretty much what you\u2019d expect from a game of this era.<\/p>\n

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The platforming does stay interesting thanks to both horizontal and vertical travel. It\u2019s surprising how refreshing changing up directions can be, as you\u2019re otherwise relying on scenery and enemy variety to keep things compelling. Avenging Spirit does give you a lot to look at as it moves along, but it\u2019s the gameplay change-ups that\u2019ll keep you going.<\/p>\n

The graphics hold up pretty well, too. As with most 2D, sprite-based platformers, the game\u2019s visuals are colorful, charming, and fun to look at. Even if you\u2019ve never played this game before, players familiar with its era will feel welcome within its environment. The same goes for the controls, which take no time to get used to. That\u2019s not to say they don\u2019t feel clunky at times, however. You\u2019ll never die from not hitting the right button combo, but not hitting it at the right moment could be a thing.<\/p>\n

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Avenging Spirit has a few other features going for it, too, including a bunch of display options to help capture that \u201990s arcade feel. Most of these work pretty well in both docked and handheld mode, either of which are perfectly suitable for the game. There\u2019s also a two-player mode which allows for local co-op, greatly increasing the game\u2019s longevity. Multiple endings may do so, as well, if you\u2019re not happy with the first one you get. These compensate for the lack of other modern features, such as online leaderboards.<\/p>\n

If I\u2019d played Avenging Spirit before, I\u2019m not sure I would\u2019ve dipped once more into the well. It\u2019s a fine game, but probably not one that\u2019s worth reliving. That said, I enjoyed my first time through it. And at only $5.99, it\u2019s easy to recommend it for fans of classic action platformers.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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If Avenging Spirit has taught me anything, it\u2019s that I\u2019ve been taking the wrong approach to my throwback arcade game collection. I\u2019ve generally gone for nostalgia, buying games I loved in the past. That often leads to disappointment, as the games I enjoyed in my teens haven\u2019t carried well into my\u2026not teens. Of Avenging Spirit, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/purenintendo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/avengingspirit1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[576],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nintendo"],"yoast_head":"\n