I appreciated the spoof nature of the characters and story early on. When the nature of the story grew serious towards the end of the game, it didn’t throw me. I don’t expect beautiful writing from a platformer like this. I was waiting for that final tongue in cheek moment, though, something that would remind me that this was the same game that I started: the absurd, charming story of a janitor who steps in (with an arm-cannon) to save the world, because the world’s real Super Hero is boozin’ and floozin’ it up on vacation. It seemed like the tone shifted, perhaps as the designer got further into his process – and became more passionate about his creation.

My only real nitpick has to do with the bosses (I didn’t mind the enemy sprite design/animations; their AI was well designed). With the exception of the Skeleton boss towards the end, the bosses left me wanting more. Their patterns were short and predictable, and they did very little to change those patterns and force the player to change tactics multiple times mid-fight. Needing to use different weapons against different portions of the boss, for instance, would have been cool. To be fair, it’s a small complaint, and one that I remember having (even as a kid) with almost all of the Mega Man games.

I would put Vintage Hero easily into my Top 5 XBLIGs. It’s a great game, and I would gladly pay more than a mere dollar for its sequel.