Old games are like time capsules: they provide not only a glimpse of once popular genres and design conventions, but also a snapshot of pop culture at the time they were made. I was reminded of this as I began battering my way through the PC Engine and arcade versions of Vigilante, a scrolling brawler originally released by Japanese developer Irem in 1988. The action itself is repetitive even by the standards of the time: as a martial arts expert on the trail of your kidnapped girlfriend (called Madonna), you walk from left to right, kicking and punching the villains that plod onto the screen. Occasionally, you can pick up a pair of nunchucks to flail in your opponents’ faces. What keeps me engrossed in Vigilante, though, is how steeped in late-eighties culture it is. The game was released towards the end of an era that saw the release of such films as Death Wish 3, where American cities were depicted as crime-ridden battlegrounds where good citizens are forced to take the law into their own hands. But because Vigilante is a Japanese game, it takes a distinctly quaint, outsider’s perspective: the game’s head-smashing action begins, of all places, outside a lobster restaurant (which, in arcades, is called ‘Good! Friends’).
Where better to start an action game than outside a lobster restaurant? (PC Engine version shown.)
Who knows what’s sold in Maria? It’s closed today. (PC Engine version shown.)
“I’m a BIG.” (Arcade version shown.)
Anyone fancy a pint in the Pipi Room? (PC Engine version shown.)
Oddly, nobody in Vigilante thought of stealing one of these tubas and using it as a weapon. (PC Engine version shown.)
Vigilante’s set in the US, but there are huge adverts for Japanese double-act comedy dotted around for some reason. (Arcade version shown.)
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