Renny Blaster (TurboGrafx-CD)

Developer:

J-Force

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Release Date:

1995

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Systems:

PC Engine CD

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Today on Super Adventures I'm ticking another title off my inexhaustible request list. It claims to be called Renny Blaster and I don't see any reason to doubt it. Maybe Lenny Blaster would've been a better way of reading the katakana on the box, but the title screen is pretty adamant it starts with an R.

It says 'TurboGrafx-CD' in my post title and labels for the sake of consistency (I strive for the highest standards of presentation for my jokey video game blog), but it'd make more sense to call this one a PC Engine game, as it never made it out of Japan. Just out of curiosity I did a quick calculation with the limited info I could find online in 3 minutes of half-assed searching, and it seems that less than a third of the console's library got a release on its American cousin. European fans of the console got it even worse, or to be more precise they got absolutely nothing. We may never solve the mystery of how the SNES and Mega Drive managed to outsell it four or five times over worldwide.

Oh right, I'm supposed to be writing about Renny Blaster. Uh...  it came out in 1995, so that's pretty late for a PC Engine game, even a CD one. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood pre-dates this by a whole two years, and I always assumed that was one of the last of them. The game's also likely to be entirely in Japanese, being a Japanese game and all, but I'm hoping there won't be much text to wade through this time.

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The game begins with the camera panning up to reveal a moody blue fortress atop a purple hill under a crimson sky. It's shown in widescreen, but I couldn't resist stitching some shots together to get a proper look at it. Wait I'd recognise that cyan castle anywhere!

It's Castle Dracula from SNES Prince of Persia 'em up Nosferatu! Almost.

Wait, don't click that link! I wrote that article in the second month of the site where I was still putting up two posts a day and they both sucked. If you're curious about this entirely unrelated game, you should read about it on VGJunk's site instead as he does a far better job of showing it off. Or better yet, you could keep reading about Renny Blaster, seeing as you're here. You don't need another open tab up there in your browser, taunting you, distracting you, as they do to me. Constantly.

Oh that's good, there's no text so far. Instead it has fully voiced dialogue! How am I supposed to type that into Google Translate? The acting doesn't seem bad though!

Plus I'm liking this moody green lighting. I'm sure that having their light source sitting right in the center of their meeting table at eye level can't be that pleasant for them, but you can't argue with the results.

There's plenty of lines being exchanged here at this sinister meeting, but everyone involved is represented by a static piece of artwork so there's no clues to help me to make sense of what's being said. I'm fairly sure some of these guys are vampires though, and I'm not just saying that because the art reminds me a little of Ayami Kojima's work for the Castlevania game. Actually I am.


ONE CONVERSATION LATER.

No idea what any of that was about. But I can recognise a character select screen when I see one.

I could try drawing that pixellated kanji into a translator, but we both know it ain't going to work, and I can already tell that neither of them are called Renny Blaster anyway.

Fujiro Yarai and Seishiro, there you go, I figured it'd be quicker just to look it up. But now I have to decide whether I want to be the tough looking guy on the left with the pink skin, emerald hair and the smirk, or the pale concerned looking gentleman on the right. Which one of these two looks like they'd do better in a fight, I wonder? Is a game with that intro even likely to have fighting in it? Maybe I've ended up with a VN here.

Lemming hair guy, I'm going with him.

Oh no, picking a character has only triggered more voice acting! Nice panning shot of the city though.

This is our guy, he's on the phone in a room. It's dark. He looks like a cross between Bruce Wayne and the Joker.

The more of I see of this scanned artwork, the less I think I like it. I mean the line work is good, but the poor PC Engine hasn't the resolution or the colours to really do it justice and it comes off looking scruffy.

Suddenly his call is cut short by a knock at the door...

Huh, so there's a guy on the phone alone in his dingy office, a long upwards panning shot of a woman walking in through the door, a jazz soundtrack... he's a hard-boiled private investigator isn't he? Hard not to recognise this set up. Hey maybe she's Renny Blaster!

From the moment the dame stepped through my door I knew she'd be trouble, that's just how the genre works. She was 9' with blue/blonde hair and more leg than a human millipede, and she needed my help.

I'd seen enough anime to recognise that she was speaking Japanese, though I never learned the language. I'd picked up enough to say hello, count to five and call someone an idiot, but every word she said slipped right over my head.

Fortunately the game wasn't out of panning shots just yet. Seems that she was telling me a story of Bishonen Dracula and his sinister secret shadowy cult from the pre-intro. The music explained that they're the bad guys, the visuals showed that they like to strike poses in the dark, but my attention jumped right to those nasty jagged outlines. I had a sudden urge to open up Photoshop and tidy them up a bit, but I pushed the thought aside for now.

The subject soon shifted to this guy with his blue goatee and glowing red eyes. A man so evil that he didn't even get music, and so stylish that I think he might have been traced from a clothes catalogue. Again I was shown nothing but character shots, the visuals betraying nothing of the plot.

With that the woman left, leaving our hero alone in his office to talk to himself. Which he did. And so the cutscene continued.

But his monologue was soon interrupted by a scream from outside and the sound of someone going through a window or two. Finally some plot I don't need to know Japanese to understand!

Damn, straight into more dialogue? They're deliberately tormenting me now. Actually wait, that's kana in that message box, I can translate that! Kind of.

"What! Omeichi-ra!?"
"You're It does not matter to you! Better hurry up and came back is because of the body!"
"The ne and shoud also go so!!"

Those... those aren't even real words!

And this isn't green hair!

Well at least the controls are straightforward enough to figure out.

My character has the standard array of beat 'em up techniques accessed by pulling different directions and hitting attack, but if I hold down attack and wait, his POW gauge fills up and I can release it to unleash one of three more powerful moves. Well, they're flashy looking anyway, I don't know if they actually do more damage. You can see above how I held the button long enough to flip past the orange symbol to activate the blue move instead.

Or I can just hold down attack and tap jump over and over again to do this well animated rolling kick. I don't even have to pull right, he handles that bit himself.

I think that guy at the end was supposed to be some kind of mid-boss, but it's hard to tell. I recognise that bridge though; it's the one from the panning shot of the city earlier!

Hey it's intro lady, here to push the plot along! Where were you when I didn't need you?

Well I'm just glad she's okay, and not pulling shards of shattered glass out of her hair and face.

I don't really need any more information from her though, now that I know I can just follow the trail of goons to their source, rolling all of the way. This kick even hurts people standing behind me, saving me the effort of turning around or paying attention to the screen. Not that it's a bad looking game, these are some pretty nice graphics for the system, but there isn't all that much going on.

Rolling kick denied! Seems that this boss has some kind of magic powder attack that freezes me temporarily and lets him get some free hits in. I'm going to have to quit screwing around and play this properly or else I could actually lose here.

Or I can just keep spamming the rolling kick and hope I can hit him a few times in the moments between being frozen.


A FEW KICKS LATER.

Spamming the rolling kick technique actually paid off in the end, but the drawn out battle has left me weak, wounded and weary. Just check my health bar up there on the left, it's not quite full any more!

Fortunately I kicked open some luggage and found a hot cooked meal inside, so I'm saved!

I figured I'd try to mix things up for the final airport boss, and bring out my ULTIMATE attack. This ground attack takes three full POW bars to unleash and can hit multiple targets from across the screen! It also seems kind of shit, but that might just be because I'm fighting a huge dude covered head to toe in a suit of magic medieval armour.

Well, 'fighting' might actually be too strong a word.

My reward for defeating the knight turned out to be more plot, as our hero catches a flight somewhere. Airport security apparently saw what he did to all those other guys and thought "It would be better for all of us if we stand back and let this guy go to whatever country he wants to."

Skip message box, skip message box. Skip, skip, skip, skip... wait! Crap, I think I just skipped past a choice just then. Fortunately I'm videoing this so I can rewind and see what was said.

"I join hands."                "Another action."

Whoa, Google Translate seems to be on the ball for once, though I skipped past the rest of the scene as well so I've no idea how the choice played out.

That's interesting, it seems that I might have unlocked an upgrade. Could've done with a diagram or something to illustrate what they do, but somehow in this game I doubt it matters. I am curious about what they say though.

"Car butt".
"Varuna beating."
"Rakan beating."
"Territorial blasting."

So close Google Translate, so close.


GENEVA.

And now I'm in Geneva, checking out the cellar in someone's house. This was kind of tricky staircase to get onto, but all that Castlevania practice I got a few years back has paid off, and it didn't take me long to convince him to switch tracks and go down.


SOME BEAT 'EM UP ACTION LATER.

Man, I know the walking dead are getting a bit over exposed right now, but I can't help but admire a zombie with enough self respect to dress well, even as the decaying purple flesh drips away from his skull. I mean I'm sure it's a big deal to the shambling undead that their insides are now hanging outside, but the rest of us, we don't need to see that. This guy is probably even considerate enough to use deodorant!

I'm still going to kick his ass though.


ONE LIFE BAR LATER.

Okay, that didn't entirely go to plan.

The man transformed the front of his body into an array of 6' long spikes... they never taught me how to block that in supernatural P.I. martial arts school. Still, this finally gives me a chance to find out what happens when I lose a life in this (I was worried I'd never get to find out). And the answer is... he gets back up and the lives counter ticks down by one. Fairly traditional then.

Oh of course. I should've realised that when I'm spamming moves to kill a zombie, I should always aim for the head. He was actually a pretty unusual and well animated boss, it's just a shame that fighting him was about as interesting as tapping a button.


LATER IN THE BASEMENT.

That's cool, they're breaking up the pacing a bit with some mediocre platforming to keep the game from getting too samey... oh, it's over already? Well, okay then, never mind.

I've only managed to catch one or two enemies on screen at a time in these screenshots so far, and for once that isn't because they ran into hiding whenever my finger went near the screenshot key. There really are only one or two enemies in each area for me to fight at a time. I'm never in danger of being truly surrounded, I never get to pick a guy up and throw him into his friends, and the whole game feels pretty empty.


SOON, IN THE ATTIC.

Whoa, where the fuck have I just ended up? I can't tell whether I've been miniaturised or teleported to the toy dimension. It's like I've wandered into Cool Spot by mistake.

Here's a shot of the entire stage stitched together because I think that the art's worth showing off. The room turned out to be a boss fight arena, putting me up against a deranged toy with spinning claws for arms.

I spammed the same move over and over to beat it.

Hardest part of the boss fight was spotting the guy against the background (and myself for that matter). I appreciate all the detail the artist has drawn into it, but it distracts from the ass-whooping going on in the foreground.

Now that Geneva is sorted out, I'm off to Copenhagen! Or maybe Zürich; the game's giving me a choice this time. I'm not sure if it's given me any reasons to choose one over the other though, so this is basically a 'flip a coin' decision for me.

Well Zürich's closer, and it's probably costs less to fly there, so I'll do my character a favour and save him some cash.


LATER, IN ZÜRICH.

Actually the game offered me a chance to switch characters as well, so for a change I'll be playing as the other guy for a bit. He's a 16th century fop with a fondness for purple and a ruff so big he looks like he's wearing a giant plastic dog collar to stop him licking his cuts.

That was a cunning lie. I'm really the magician wearing the red scarf and the cool 90s trenchcoat with rolled up sleeves. He prefers ranged attacks, but he basically controls the same way as the other character, and I still have to stand still and charge up my POW gauge to cycle through to the more interesting moves.

You can see how well the more interesting moves worked out for me though. Quick simple attacks keep the enemy off balance and denies them the opportunity to interrupt me, so really it seems more sensible to keep button mashing.


SOON, AT THE BOSS FIGHT.

Oh, so close! You can see me accidentally block a couple of times there, demonstrating that I can guard from attacks if I need to. Anyway, back to spamming...

Actually, no, I've got a better idea. This werewolf actually cost me one of my precious lives, and that deserves some proper retribution.

EPIC SLOW MOTION MAGIC SWORD SLASH!

It didn't really happen in slow motion, I just put the frame delay up on the GIF. Got the job done though. Shame his death scene took place with him hanging out of a computer tower. A tape storage system to be precise; this lycanthrope General has got some antique 60s tech running in this place. I'm just glad his clothes magically reappeared when he turned back human to rant at me.


BUT THEN, IN THE NEXT AREA.

Crap... I saw the gap (barely), but I didn't quite realise that I wasn't at running speed any more. I have to double tap sideways to run you see, it's not a button press thing.

Now there's a disproportionate punishment for you. If you make a mistake during the fighting parts of the game and you get a slap on the wrist (if that), but if you screw up here they chop your whole arm off! Metaphorically speaking.


SOON.

Well there goes a third life. I fell down a hole so hard that I tore a hole in space time and slammed into the ledge I started on. It's like he was trying to teleport to safety but forgot about the conservation of momentum.

I say fell down a hole, but it was actually a bit more deliberate than that. I'd assumed I had to drop down here because I didn't see anywhere to jump to (it wouldn't have been the first time I've had to make a blind leap into a chasm in the game). The game was nice enough to let me continue from the start of this level with a new set of lives, but I'm going to have to decline the offer.


CONCLUSION

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I don't really feel like I can say much about how Renny Blaster plays, because I don't feel like I've played it yet. There may be a way to get a satisfying fight out of these enemies, but I was rarely pushed to experiment and it seemed quicker not to bother. There's a respectable set of (well animated) attacks to pull off, but charging moves takes time; even longer when you're being interrupted.

I've heard that this is one of the easiest games on the PC Engine and I can believe that. Sure I managed to get a game over in it after falling off a ledge three times in a row, but I managed to get a game over in level one of Super Mario World the other day, so don't let that fool you. I feel like I should be ranting about the bad platforming and all the other things that annoyed me, but I wasn't really paying attention to any of it after a while. I just let it all drift by as I coasted through the levels. In fact I'm struggling to keep my eyes open right now.

Visually it's alright, the music's alright, the story... I don't actually have a clue about, but it might be alright! The developers do seem to have put in some effort there, to justify it being a CD game. I was starting to wonder if it was about to turn into Policenauts at the start there. Apparently the choice I was offered (and accidentally skipped past) would've later changed the ending I got, and there's four ways the game can end. Each ending has its own art and voice acting, so it seems like there's proper resolution there for anyone fluent in Japanese to find.

It's like the developers had spent ages colourising scanned art, animating special moves, recording dialogue and were just about to start working on the combat, when the publisher suddenly phoned up furious, saying "It's 1995 and you're still making this game? The PC Engine's successor has come and bombed already, the PlayStation and the Saturn have been out since last year, SNES games are all 3D rendered now, and no one gives a damn about brawlers any more anyway. Make the characters walk and punch and call it finished already."  Can't really recommend this one I'm afraid.

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I've basically given away what franchise the next game is from, though narrowing it down might be little harder for you.

As always you're free to leave a comment if you want to talk about Renny Blaster, my writing, my site, or something else along those lines. Communicate away.