By: Joel DeWitte
Back in the day before the time of high-speed internet and two dozen different streaming services, there used to be these places called video rental stores. You’d enter the store to shelves of movie cases, walk the aisles to pick a movie or two, and then check-out with a handful of overpriced candy. The beauty of the experience is seeing in-person a litany of new releases, older classics, and the also-rans that tried to piggy-back bigger name titles (A Bug’s Life vs. Antz). Most of them were outright bad, but it’s the space where some older action stars like Jean Claude van Damme and perpetual B-Tier players like Stephen Segal existed in. Bloody, uncomplicated stories of revenge that had little pretense or elaboration meant to be a kicking-off point of a murder carousel. That is the space Vengeance of Mr. Peppermint sits, a side-scrolling beat-em-up that brushes up the limitations of my violence comfort level.
This is a flat 2d side-scrolling brawler. No walking through the background or foreground. Visually, think more Super Mario Bros. than Final Fight. The format of levels is walking through separate rooms or hallways until you’re stopped by thugs that halt your progress until they’re dispatched, encounter a boss midway through with some dialogue and a short skirmish, then kill your way to the boss at the end. The levels are unfortunately indistinct save interactable items in the backdrop that Mr. Peppermint can employ against enemies, including chairs, pots, and even bloodier choices like hooks from the ceiling. The style amps up in the actual combat, with different finisher moves that end in enemies beaten to a bloody pulp with kill animations. The animations are outright shocking, including gruesome 10 second stab sequences, bat beatings, and sledgehammer limb breaking that veer into mean-spirited territory. It fits with the tone & tenor the game is going for, but often I would wince at the spectacle.
The game’s biggest strength is the combat itself. Mr. Peppermint has a limited toolkit – light & strong punches, dodge roll, parry, and a grab when enemies are weakened that lets you complete a finisher, toss into the ground, or hilariously push across the screen knocking down everyone. Attacks need to be precise – you can quickly turn yourself around the wrong way, and once you throw a punch there’s a wide window for enemies to attack. As you rack up the kill count, a vengeance meter fills that when full refills health. This is the only way I saw to heal which makes a loop of needing to kill to keep healing to kill more. Enemies will fill the screen to the point of chaos. If you’ve seen Oldboy and its infamous hallway scene, that’s the kind of quantity you’re looking at. There’s not a great variety of enemy types. Most will be suit clad gangsters fighting with their fists or other weapons. They pepper in some more distinct mini boss style enemies that require some more nuanced inputs, but not consistent enough to paper over a bit of the monotony.
Vengeance of Mr. Peppermint is that Stephen Segal movie – short, visceral, with action movie dialogue and a thin premise meant to be a launchpad for the upcoming brutality more than a substantive narrative arc. You’ll find the combat itself fun if stiff, but level design which could have used some more variety as well as a bigger murderer’s row of enemies. If you’re a big beat-em-up fan like me, there’s still a lot of fun to be had, but others might want to think twice before crossing paths with it.
Score: C+
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