Rendering Ranger: R2 [Rewind] review

When a console enters its twilight years, its release schedule will often become sporadic. Games begin to mysteriously vanish or are outright cancelled, titles move over to different systems before being reworked, and some software only gains release in a specific region – usually where sales remain relatively strong. We’ve seen re-releases of a few games victims of a late release – such as the cancelled Star Fox 2 and the Scandinavia-only Mr. Gimmick – and they always arouse much interest. Now we can add another to that list.

After creating controversial platformer The Great Giana Sisters and establishing the celebrated Turrican franchise, German coder Manfred Trenz turned his attention to the SNES. His intention was to create something that pushed the system to its limits, using his know-how to work around the system’s slow CPU. Development on a Turrican-style run ‘n gunner – originally known as Targa, but released as Rendering Ranger: R2 – began in 1992, presumably around the time of the SNES’ European launch. After three years of toil, it was finally ready for release in 1995…only for publisher Softgold to claim it looked outdated. Over those three years the market had moved on, and it was now having to compete, visually at least, with the likes of Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct and Star Fox. That’s before even factoring in the arrival of the PS1 and Saturn.

To bring it up to modern standards, Manfred Trenz and his team agreed to implement new computer-rendered visuals into Targa (hence the new snazzy name) only for Softgold to lose interest. Talks then began with Virgin Interactive to secure a publishing deal – but only for Japan on the Super Famicom, where it failed to find its audience. The number of units produced differs depending on sources. The product description for this re-release states 10,000 copies, whereas the in-game history page quotes 5,000…of which only 1,500 were sold. EDGE magazine once called it the rarest Super Famicom game of all time, and it’s certainly hard to think of another equally rare without bringing the likes of Nintendo’s not-for-resale competition carts into the equation.

Given the game’s heritage it’s surprising a re-release took this long.

While Rendering Ranger: R2 shares similarities with Turrican, clearly providing the groundwork, it’s a very different experience. The game’s nine stages alternate from 2D run ‘n gun action to side-scrolling space shooter sections, both of which have a few ‘boss rush’ style gauntlet runs.

Our hero carries a meaty firearm and is restricted to jumping (albeit almost to the top of the screen), ducking to avoid projectiles and aiming high and low – mapped here to LB/RB. That’s it for their move set, so don’t expect any acrobatic manoeuvres or ledge grabbing. It’s also all that’s needed to facilitate a fast-paced experience, with the action here rarely letting up. You’ll be holding down the fire button almost from start to end, with quieter sections being few. Easing you in, the first stage is deceptively straightforward, merely scrolling from left to right. Later stages are multi-directional; never maze-like, but often with the choice of heading in one of two directions. One boss battle even involves backtracking as it sets about spawning in different rooms, each with unique safe zones.

The difficulty level gradually rises from the second stage onwards, going from challenging to brutal. Even the ‘Easy Mode’ with 7 extra lives presents a stiff challenge. Health pick-ups are common – helping give a fighting chance, or perhaps the illusion thereof – while bonus lives are rare. No continues are given. ‘90s gamers must have had the stage passwords memorised by the time they reached the end.

The bosses here are a highlight, each being unique – even bordering on grotesque – while showcasing the rendered visuals. One has Mode-7 style scaling, fluidly rotating around the screen, while another sees our hero whizzing around on a moving platform. Most are tough but can have their health bars slashed quickly by using the appropriate weapons, with some more helpful in certain situations than others.

What’s neat about Rendering Ranger – in addition to its detailed visuals and relentless pace – is the constant stream of bullets emitted from the hero’s colossal hand cannon, including a multi-directional spread shot and smaller bullets that bounce around the environments without the framerate dipping. Each has a secondary function, varying from a smart bomb to a searing laser beam. If you’re dying often, chances are you aren’t using these abilities proficiently.

Flying shooter stages feature periodically – with the game’s middle half focusing heavily on this aspect – and incorporate the ability to change direction. Some bosses emerge from the right, and then back away before emerging from the left, prompting a directional change. Later, it becomes essential to change direction more often, such as to avoid colliding with a trickier boss who frantically spins. The rendered take-off scene remains impressive, showing the spacecraft rotating before launching. This would have blown SNES owners minds in 1995.

A few frustrations do arise when taking to the skies. Firstly, there are no indicators to show that enemies are about to suddenly appear from off-screen. This may simply be down to the game’s age, in the sense that this now-commonplace feature wasn’t quite so common in 1995. Secondly, a later stage has a memorisation-based tunnel sequence that entails piloting the ship through gaps not much bigger than the craft itself. Literally seconds are given to manoeuvre into position – an exceedingly tricky task, recalling Battletoad’s Turbo Tunnel. It’s almost enough to make you wish there was a spot of slowdown present. Thirdly, and less troublesome, the final stage uses a fast moving detailed cityscape as its backdrop. Playing on a Switch Lite, smaller hazards often became lost within the cityscape, resulting in taking a few hits. I can’t say whether this issue would arise when playing on a TV screen, mind.

Other faults are relatively few, including pits that can be difficult to spot due to the predominantly grey/brown colour palette, and a boss battle against a foe that spews brown projectiles on a brown backdrop. Thankfully, in this modern age most of the flaws mentioned can be overlooked due to the new rewind ability. Fall down a pit? Rewind. Misjudge a wave of bullets? Rewind. Collide into a boss? Rewind. As long as you leave yourself with one or two health points to get out of a scrape, victory is forever in your grasp.

Conversely, spamming the rewind button will see you blitz through this in less than two hours. Ignoring it completely will lengthen playtime significantly, although this is at the risk of its minor irritations becoming more prevalent. Damned if you do, etc. This isn’t an issue with Rendering Ranger itself, but rather almost every retro re-release with a rewind.

This re-release includes the unreleased Targa, which has a few graphical differences – such as the helmeted hero sporting a beard. Combined, the duo makes for a modest 3-4 hour playtime, even if the differences are mostly negligible. Also included are digital manuals, a music player, and a gallery of artwork/packaging scans. An online leaderboard may have helped with replay value and is the only major omission that springs to mind.

Rendering Ranger: R2 turned out to be quite thought-provoking. Had this been released in 1995, it would have likely scored well and would nowadays be mentioned alongside such genre greats as Contra III, Contra Hard Corps, Gunstar Heroes and Sunset Riders. It just never had that chance, remaining an import curiosity until now. This may even be your first time hearing of its existence. It would certainly be a contender for one of the best looking games on the system, with Manfred Trenz employing his technical skills to overcome sprite flicker and slowdown. We never thought the SNES was capable of displaying so many projectiles on screen at once, with the only compromise seemingly being the protagonist’s limited move set, ergo their reduced frames of animation.

Also impressive is how close it feels to a modern take on the genre. It has a few ‘90s tropes that feel dated – such as copious laser beams to avoid, and falling acid drops with patterns to learn – but otherwise it isn’t far removed from Iron Meat, Blazing Chrome, Prison City, et al. Sure, these games aped the classics of yore; but they aren’t called ‘classics’ without reason. Thirty years may have passed, yet it’s still easy to appreciate both the genre mastery and technical wizardry on display.

Rendering Ranger: R2 [Rewind] is out now on PS5, PS4, Switch and PC via Ziggurat and Limited Run. Original game by Rainbow Arts.