Verdict Guilty

Genre: Fighting

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

.

Review:

Verdict Guilty is a Fighting Game released on PC in 2016 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2023. Set in the run-down dystopian city of Neo Seol, Verdict Guilty has a “cops versus criminals” theme, with the game’s signature mechanic being that every combatant has some sort of projectile weapon with limited ammo that needs to be reloaded, as well as a grab move that leaves their opponent in a compromised state. In particular, this game’s cop characters can slap a pair of handcuffs on their opponent, limiting the moves that opponent can use and making them easy prey for follow-up attacks.

So… I think we need to take a moment and recognize the fact that a game built around the concept of cops putting someone in cuffs and then beating them unconscious or even outright shooting them while they’re defenseless… yeah, that’s pretty messed up, and it may well hit a nerve with some players. The game is mostly bloodless in its depiction of violence, and the “criminal” characters include a suicide bomber and a guy who throws vials of acid on opponents, but I’m not sure any of that makes this less problematic. On the other hand, apparently handcuffs in this universe are made of cheap plastic, because anyone trapped by a pair will be able to break out of them within a few seconds or so, after which their opponent will need to take a moment before they can use that ability again.

While the depictions of police violence may raise ethical concerns, this handcuff mechanic adds an extra risk/reward element to combat. It’s not always easy to get close to an opponent, and ducking opponents can’t be grabbed, but if you can manage to catch a standing opponent up-close for a moment, you’ll be free to do some serious damage here.

Otherwise, Verdict Guilty features a pretty minimal move set for its characters, with only 4 non-throw attack buttons and a small handful of special moves for each character. This works well enough to mimic the 16-bit era of Fighting Games that Verdict Guilty is clearly trying to evoke, and this game sets itself apart from many of those games by being relatively fast compared to those games, and regardless of your character you’ll find a single jump is often enough to close the distance to your opponent.

The gameplay isn’t without its problems though. Hit detection here is a real crapshoot at times, and the game’s detection of your control inputs for special moves leaves something to be desired. What’s more, the game mechanics here seem ripe for exploitation – you can attack multiple times in mid-air to sap away even more of your opponent’s health, and if you can get in close, you can often quickly down even an opponent at full health by ducking down and spamming one of your attacks. In addition, the content here seems somewhat limited – in particular, players can only choose from eight playable characters (plus unlockable palette swap characters, as well as a handful of non-playable boss characters).

In terms of presentation, Verdict Guilty uses pixel art visuals inspired by the 16-bit era of games (including blinking “Insert Coin” text at the start, a nice touch), which looks decent, but I feel like the colors are somewhat muted here, and the game could use more visual variety, as well as some better animation. These visuals are backed by a few brief but decent voice clips, and a synthesized soundtrack that does a good job evoking the era this game is inspired by, but not being very memorable beyond that.

It definitely has its fair share of flaws, but for only $9, Verdict Guilty is a fun Fighting Game with some unique mechanics. The limited roster and sloppy gameplay design mean this isn’t likely to be a game with a lot of staying power, but Fighting Game fans may want to check it out to see an interesting take on the genre. At least, as long as the questionable content isn’t too offensive for their tastes.

tl;dr – Verdict Guilty is a Fighting Game with a cops vs. criminals theme, with a unique mechanic involving slapping handcuffs on your opponent to leave them vulnerable for a few seconds. Some may find this game’s themes problematic, the character roster is a bit small, and the gameplay is somewhat sloppy, but despite these issues, this is still a fun and interesting take on the genre.

Grade: B-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}