konami

Vendetta, known in Japan as Crime Fighters 2 (クライムファイターズ2 Kuraimu Faitāzu 2?), is a 1991 side-scrolling beat 'em up video game developed and published by Konami for arcade platforms and the second installment in the Crime Fighters series. It is the sequel to the original Crime Fighters, although it was marketed internationally as a standalone game with no previous connection to it.

The game was included on Arcade Archives on July 21, 2021 for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Plot

Evil is lurking in Dead End City. In a turf war, the Dead End Gang has kidnapped Kute Kate from the rivals, the Cobras. The Cobras set out to save her and stop the expansion of the Dead End Gang in Vendetta.

The Dead End Gang is looking to expand their territory, so the Cobras must infiltrate every area around the city. First, they must gain entrance to Dead End City. Relying on their fighting skills, the Cobras face a multitude of enemies. However, each member is up for any challenge from the Dead End Gang. The Cobras are a powerful team consisting of: Blood, an ex-prize fighter; Hawk, a former professional wrestler; Boomer, trained in the martial arts; and Sledge, an ex-military convict. Together they must destroy members of the Dead End Gang to get to the leader, Faust, who knows where Kute Kate is being held.

With fists of fury, the Cobras make their way through various areas of Dead End City. They search the construction site for Kate, battling the human weapon The Missing Link to gain information. From there, they are sent on futile chases through other sections of the city, including downtown, the waterfront, and the slums, where the final confrontation with Faust takes place. Throughout the game, the Cobras can pick up special weapons and food for more energy. Each player also has his own 'special attack' method to help defeat the toughest enemies.

Once Kute Kate is rescued and Dead End City is liberated, the Cobras victoriously start back to their home turf. However, much to their surprise, the entrance to their town is blocked by Dead End Gang bosses. The Cobras must gear up once more for the ultimate showdown to restore peace to Dead End City.

Gameplay

The four men of the game's hero gang, The Cobras, fight through waves of enemies to rescue Kate, The Cobras' fifth member, who was kidnapped by the Dead End gang. As with most beat 'em ups, the game features primarily side-scrolling action. Player score is based on number of opponents eliminated.

The option of attacking an enemy while they are knocked down is kept from the previous game. The game uses 'punch' and 'kick' buttons rather than 'jump' and 'attack'. The special punch-plus-kick attack is the only aerial attack. Every time this special attack is performed, it takes away one bar of energy from the character. The players can also use different weapons that belong to enemies or are hidden inside boxes, like a shotgun (with limited cartridges), baseball bats, knives and bottles. Players can also double-team enemies and vice versa.

The game doesn't end after defeating the Big Boss at the end of all chapters; instead, the player then enters a special final stage where they once again have to fight all of the bosses in a massive final fight, and if the player defeats them all, then Vendetta's story starts from the beginning with an amped-up difficulty level.

Characters

The Cobras

The Dead End Gang

Regional differences

Japanese version

The original version Crime Fighters 2 contains enemies clad in sadomasochist leather costumes and acting with according mannerisms, as well as perverted dogs which perform perverse actions on the four Cobras such as grabbing a hold of the character, pressing himself to the body real tight, then licks and starts dry-humping the character. Each hump takes away a lot of energy. Even if you are lying on the floor, you might be attacked in the same "heavy petting" kind of way. If you dodge them often enough they even start dry-humping the street lamps that are standing around. Thus they seem to be a danger for any bystander. Then there is a dominatrix that wears leather and swings a whip around. Not too much about her was altered, except for the fact that she stops your character with her whip so that the dry-humpers can easily attack the character.

Also, there are canines who hump the leg of the player characters.

International version

The edited worldwide release re-titled as Vendetta was censored outside of the Japanese market due to controversy involving mature themes.

But not only the game now has exclusive 2-player versions of the arcade units, but it also has 4-player arcade units, the character selection is locked to player positions in the four-player version (Blood is P1, Hawk is P2, Boomer is P3 and Sledge is P4) while players are free to select any of the four cobras like in the two-player version.

The 4-player version also allows players to insert additional credits both before they start and during gameplay to add to their stock of lives (although the counter only goes up to 99, it can go beyond that if players keep inserting coins and if it has an upper-limit it's very high indeed) whereas the 2-player version gives players one set of lives per session and nothing else. Finally, the health bar is longer in the 2-player version, this is purely visual- every bar of health in the 4-player version is represented by two bars in the 2-player version, so as an example grabbing a bottle of milk gives P1 one bar of health back in the 4-player version and two in the 2-player version.

Quotes

Buzzsaw Bravado

Missing Link

Rude Bros.

Kruel Kurt

Faust

Gallery

Screenshots

Packaging artwork

Promotional artwork

Miscellaneous

Trivia

References

  1. ↑ Restored by Pedro Soares. @peachflavor3d at X (July 28, 2025).

External links