Vengeance of Mr. Peppermint

Ah yes. An Estonian video game that's based on a Korean movie that's based on a Japanese manga. Funny. The title is an amalgamation of two Korean movie titles, Peppermint Candy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, all while the game is heavily inspired by Oldboy. It's like calling your John Wick game Diehard Taxi Driver, and I also find the Mr. Peppermint name more fitting to the My Little Pony adaptation, but I digress. With slow movement and delayed attacks combat feels very heavy, and despite the number of combos you can perform they don't feel any different in practice. You can utilize some background props like a chair, discarded bottles and a meat hook which all act as instant knockouts for bottom rank enemies. The most disappointing thing is a great lack of usable weapons, there are enemies who use weapons such as baseball bats and wooden katanas but you can only really use them as finishers when the wielders are stunned. The famous hammer exists but it's not fully integrated into combat with its own moveset and simply functions as a finisher tool like any other interactables, one or two hits and poof. It's gone. Bummer. Once in a while you'll get your chance to initiate the sk…

Nice ode to Old Boy. Clearly a Korean game which the movie also hails from. I like the concept, but there is not enough variation in combos and the controls are realllly clunky. It isn't too punishing, so it is still enjoyable, though it will get old quite fast. Get at a discount. I hope the next game with this developer really excels as they have a lot of potential!

Frustrating controls, bad game, gets too difficult to fast.

I don't think I can recommend this game. It's stylish, and the inspiration/respect for Korean noir and action films is clear to see. Unfortunately the game doesn't play very well, it's stiff and the controls aren't super responsive, the combat is clunky and, while not difficult, takes a really long time. Room after room of well dressed blood-bags waiting to have the tar beaten out of them with the same combo and the same finisher that takes way too long. Notice by my playtime it's not a long game, I beat it in just over 2 hours, but it felt like forever. What more, while visually stylish, the translation is shoddy. I think I get the basic plot, but it's not really well told as a consequence of people speaking in really weird, stilted ways. I can't be too upset about it because English is hard and translation is hard, but nevertheless the effect on the game is negative. I wanted to like Vengeance of Mr. Peppermint, but I didn't. While I think it's a game made with love the finished product just isn't solid enough to satisfy, especially not for $20.

It looks fun, but it's really not. TL;dr 3/10 It took me 2.4 hours to beat the game. It doesn't really feel worth those 2 hours. It feels like a newgrounds game with a price tag. Not in a good way. The entire game is, Run right, fight goons keep running right, fight more goons. There's no progression you don't feel like you learn any new ways to fight it's just mash the bread and butter combo and use the finisher when it comes up. Not for any reward, but to kill the enemies faster. The combat, which is the main focus of the game is clunky and unresponsive (Xbox controller) If you try swinging after a roll or counter, half the time you're facing the wrong direction and it locks you into it. The guard is weird to, some of the big red flashy attacks you can block, some you can't you just gotta guess. If you press any other button when blocking you drop your guard and you have to press block again. Which got me damaged more times than the enemies actual attacks. No idea what the flesh abomination boss was about. That never came up again. Which is weird because it's the first bloody boss in the game.

I was pretty hyped about what turned into a meh side scroller. The animations are cool, but get repetitive.