Rendering Ranger R2 / Targa (SNES) - Full Playthrough

Manfred Trenz, legendary developer from the C64 and Amiga days, also worked on other platforms like the SNES. Rendering Ranger R2, originally named Targa when the game was initially all pixel art, really does show off what the Super Nintendo was capable of doing. The game was then changed to have pre-rendered sprites à la Donkey Kong Country, which is unfortunate. I think it looks cheap, especially in the first stage, but it is what it is.

The game was only released in Japan and a prototype of Targa for PAL regions exists, but it crashes in the first stage so I could not record a proper comparison video. You switch between on-foot stages like Contra or Turrican and proper shmup stages and you encounter many bosses. I'm not sure what part is better or if there are good synergies with alternating the gameplay. It certainly is a unique game and not just for the impressive graphics.

This recording was in normal difficulty. There is also hard difficulty and I would have been interested in mastering that mode, but the game is not well balanced. It suffers from Gradius syndrome. If you die, your current weapon gets powered down to basic strength. You have other weapons, but they may not be ideal for the situation you are in and you also lose your options in the shmup sections. The game is generous with power ups, but until you get refilled, you might lose one or two more lives. And stage 8... is dumb.

00:00 - Start
00:24 - Stage 1
05:16 - Stage 2
11:22 - Stage 3
16:19 - Stage 4
24:03 - Stage 5
35:02 - Stage 6
42:06 - Stage 7
47:59 - Stage 8
59:45 - Stage 9
1:09:35 - Ending