Vigilante

Vigilante is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up originally released by Irem in arcades in 1988, considered a spiritual sequel to Irem's earlier Kung-Fu Master. You play as a lone martial artist who becomes a vigilante to rescue his girlfriend Madonna after she is kidnapped by an evil gang called the Skinheads (or Rogues), led by the fearsome Giant Devil. The game takes place across five New York locations: city streets, a junkyard, the Brooklyn Bridge, a back street, and a rooftop under construction. You fight using punches and kicks against enemies armed with knives, chains, and rifles. Nunchaku can be picked up and used as a weapon. The game supports single-player only.

PC Engine

Released in Japan on January 14, 1989 and in North America by NEC . This version was developed and published by Irem themselves as a HuCard . Often hailed as the most faithful home conversion, the PC Engine port features large character sprites, well-animated combat moves including punches, kicks, and nunchaku attacks, and surprisingly good music that some critics feel sounds better than the arcade original . The game received a "Silver Hall of Fame" award from Famimaga magazine, with the color palette considered more vibrant and three-dimensional than the arcade . However, compromises include simplified colors, scratchier voice samples, a censored intro, and missing animations such as the gang's van driving away at the end of stages . The ending sequence remains uncensored. Runs on the 8-bit NEC hardware as a HuCard.