NES port of Renegade is really good, too, controls well and is one of the very few good beatemups in the system, the others being River City Ransom from the same series, Double Dragon and a few Ninja Turtles games.
The game's ending is an infuriating cherry on top, where your girlfriend saves your ass and the game then tells you that all of your efforts were in vain. In other words, the game itself tells you that it's not worthwhile and entirely pointless.
i recall the ending being different in some versions, where you save your girlfriend but are stranded in the future after your time machine breaks down.
I think there is something a bit hillarious that, after so many beat em ups where the plot is literally just "They stole yur gurl !", there is one where she ends up rescuing herself.
In the early-90s, CU Amiga (*) ran an article on the inflation (i.e. rising average) of games review scores, saying "publishers 'expect' a high score, and if they don't get it, many are not averse to pulling ads, haranguing editors, or refusing to release software for future reviews". They went on to say that one company forced them to pull a review and threatened them with an injunction for only "awarding the game a healthy 88% and a CU Screenstar"(!!!) So... make what you will of that, and what it says about the late-80s/early-90s gaming industry. It wasn't innocent, even back then. (*) CU Amiga magazine, July 1992, "Scores on Doors", p178 (had looked it up again online!)
I like how Captain Caveman & the boxing dinos are so impressed & enthralled by your jumpkick, they just freeze & 👀! (Yes I know it's a graphics limitation lol)
10 GBP in 1989 would, in August 2023, equate to ~35-40 USD adjusted for inflation. In 2008 when this video was first uploaded, the exchange rate was closer to 28-30 USD.
My guess is the publisher dropped some pound notes in some reviewers pockets, or took them to an all-you-can-eat strip club that served food on solid gold plates and had drinks straws made of pure cocaine. It *WAS* the 80's, remember?
I wanna see more stuff by Jon Blythe. The whole, "angry-yet-inadequate shoe," part had me rolling. So good. Ashens, as always, was great as well. Larry is always great too.
Renegade 3, NOOOOOOOOOO! I remember rushing over town the day it was released, after the awesomeness of Renegade followed by the best beat em up of the generation (Target Renegade) how could it be anything other than a masterpiece? Not possible! Then i loaded it.
The sonic games had those steps, at least the modern games do. Step 1- Sonic Adventure Step 2- Sonic Adventure 2 Step 3- Sonic Unleashed (World Tour) Step 4- Sonic Colo(u)rs (In Space) Step 5- Sonic Generations (Through time)
For some unknown reason, the Sonic the Hedgehog games luuuuurve time travel as a plot device. There's Sonic CD, Sonic 2006, Sonic Generations, and with some interpretation the Sonic Storybook series.
I had the C-64 version, the most fun I had out of this game was shouting "Captain....... CAVEMAAAAAAAAAAAAAN" Every time they appeared.I had a lonely childhood.
I like how the orange shirt the bloke from peoww is wearing makes him look like a prison inmate. Well, I guess you could have someone admit to the worst crimes if the sentence was a few years in prison in which they'd have to finish Renegade 3 every day.
Interesting how sequels to beat em ups tend to improve things. Double Dragon II on NES? Better control, more moves, better graphics, added 2 player co-op. Streets of Rage 2? Better graphics, better music, vastly improved special moves. Renegade 2 on old computers? The improvements Ashens listed. Hell, the only 2 that I can think of that wasn't an improvement was Final Fight 2, unless you think of it as an improvement over the SNES version of Final Fight (which it is) as opposed to an improvement over the arcade original (which it isn't).
Probably because soft science was well established in TMNT at the time (time travel isn't that far removed from alternate dimensions, after all), and Turtles in Time is an excellently made beat-'em-up.
Ah! The memories. I saved my pocket money for this and even washed a few cars to make up the difference. When I bought it I spent 7min looking at the cassette loading and mad with excitement. Then I spent the next 7 min wondering playing thinking wtf, wtf, wtf...... broke my keyboard in disgussed, cried, then stormed out of the house with my skateboard :)
I was recently given a Spectrum 128 and a box full of crap games by my girlfriends parents. Just had a look and found all 3 Renegade games. Looks like you weren't the only person burned!
15 years later, history repeated itself when Atari bribed PSM2 and Xbox World to give 9/10 scores for DRIV3R, which led to the infamous Driv3rgate scandal.
To be fair, it's not like direct player word-of-mouth can be trustworthy either. Things like fanboy bias, buying into hype, damage control, and trying to offset any sense of buyer's remorse all play into how someone might assess a game for you if you asked them. You never know what you're dealing with...
Because of you, I was able to find Target Renegade. My most favorite game as a kid. I know it sucks, but I love it, and it was actually one of my first NES games. So, Ashens.. I thank you!
i told myself i wasn going to watch that all, but you are just so consistently amusing, entertaining and all round funny that i watched it all... Even tho i had to mute my luaghs because its 33mins past 11pm here and my Granny is asleep... :S
Fantastic video man, thanks a lot! As C64 fanatic, Renegade part 1 was only thing I envied spectrum owners. C64 had strange control scheme I managed to comprehend 30 years later, haha.
I just like to know..... Who was the person that thought "You know those renegade games with dark grungy street punks..... how about for the third game we drop all that and plonk the main hero in the most cartoonish looking game and make him stand out like a sore thumb?"
Remember playing Renegade and Target Renegade and loving both. The 3rd does look strangely familiar but I think if I ever played it I've blocked it out of memory.
This is a spot on review, i felt exactly the same. Renegade 3 was one of the biggest disappointments of my life , and i can actually vividly remember seeing it for the first time. I couldnt believe how they failed to see that people didnt want dinosaurs, just more of the same from Renegade 1 and 2
MSX version was just the ZX spectrum version but with different colors, loading, no music, and if there is music (one to be precise and that was before the stage starts) it was a horrible sound of trumpets and drums. Basically a prototype of a ZX spectrum or a horrid conversion of the 48k ZX spectrum version instead of the 128k ZX spectrum version that was horrible to begin with quite frankly due to the MSX's version having the stage start tune sounding like it came from the 48k ZX Spectrum.
I have seen this one before, but I'm very glad you've finally posted it onto TH-cam as I like the original video, but I couldn't remember where the original one was posted nor could I find a link to it, but of course I didn't look heard enough, typical me.
9:13 And that's why you should never trust professional review sites like IGN or Gamespot to review video games. Look at what happened to Sonic Unleashed, it got an unforgiving score from both sites for the Xbox 360 & PS3, while the PS2 & Wii versions, for some weird reason, got a higher rating. Same goes for Gamespot's review of the XBLA/PSN re-release of the Simpsons Arcade Game by Konami.
The PS2/Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed were actually different to the PS3/360 versions, the open world run around bit was cut (among a few other things).
Germany had really good and somewhat objective game mags in the 90s. (Some of them still exist today but are not too relevant any more, for obvious reasons).
The third warning sign for me was that the piece of garbage didn't even work. I went through two copies, my own and a friends, neither of which would ever load. I guess I should be thankful for that. In fact I never even got to play the game until 2003 or so, when I downloaded it for an emulator. I gave it up after about three minutes and played Dynamite Dan instead.
For one, it's hakusho. And yes, he really does. I could have sworn I saw Kuwabara in there somewhere too. I now know where the show came from, and it saddens me.
Oh boy. I remember getting this for the C64. Despite protests from a friend, I bought it because the cover looked great, the reviews were positive, and it was a Renegade title (I really enjoyed Target). Boy, did I feel like a right numpty when I put this on. Awful looking characters, spotty hit detection (which also meant), infuriating difficulty, and the health system on the C64 version made this the biggest con I came across as a kid. Still, a great video review, Dr. Ashens!
Curiously, on 8:00 (or by pressing 8), you can clearly see that Spectrum Magazine gave Renegade 3 a 92% somewhere in the review, despite there clearly not including it anywhere in the final score. Hmmm. Also, it appears the section that received the review was called "STUART". Interesting.....
If anyone wants to play any of the ZX renegade games nowadays, the best way I've found is to actually play them on ZXDS, a nifty little Spectrum emulator for the DS. Runs at full speed, keyboard on the touchscreen for when you need it, as well as physical controls to replace your wrangling of the joysticks. Try it, if you can.
A pleasant surprise on this video when both Guru Larry and Jon Blyth showed up on this video. What is the name of the book that Jon Blyth wrote? I'm intrigued ...
Today this video is a decade old and I’m still coming back to it. Absolutely love it.
Today, I see that I 👍 your comment 4 years ago, but I'm back bc YT keeps suggesting this again lol
Sorry Stuart, I worked on Crash at that time. I didn't write the review, but I feel guilty by association :)
+Mark Caswell and so you should, it scarred him for life after all.
+OK But it taught him a valuable lesson.
+Lee Morris diluted by about 5 billion liters of water.
+Mark Caswell Legit question: how do you think it happened?
+Mr.Aptronym +Mark Caswell "How much money?"
Renegade 3 was apparently bad enough to not warrant an NES version. Yet the NES DID get Renegade and Target: Renegade.
NES port of Renegade is really good, too, controls well and is one of the very few good beatemups in the system, the others being River City Ransom from the same series, Double Dragon and a few Ninja Turtles games.
The game's ending is an infuriating cherry on top, where your girlfriend saves your ass and the game then tells you that all of your efforts were in vain. In other words, the game itself tells you that it's not worthwhile and entirely pointless.
Kochiha Maybe Imagine was trying to invoke Torch the Franchise and Run?
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TorchTheFranchiseAndRun
Almost foreshadowing, because in the most recent addition to the River City franchise the normal protagonist’s girlfriends have to save _them_
i recall the ending being different in some versions, where you save your girlfriend but are stranded in the future after your time machine breaks down.
I think there is something a bit hillarious that, after so many beat em ups where the plot is literally just "They stole yur gurl !", there is one where she ends up rescuing herself.
I miss these type of videos on this channel.
All the small businesses near me during 1989 were run by grasshoppers. Trouble is they had no opposable thumbs to aid them working the checkout.
@@15-Peter-20 don't be.
We didn't get them in the states until 93 at least
In the early-90s, CU Amiga (*) ran an article on the inflation (i.e. rising average) of games review scores, saying "publishers 'expect' a high score, and if they don't get it, many are not averse to pulling ads, haranguing editors, or refusing to release software for future reviews". They went on to say that one company forced them to pull a review and threatened them with an injunction for only "awarding the game a healthy 88% and a CU Screenstar"(!!!)
So... make what you will of that, and what it says about the late-80s/early-90s gaming industry. It wasn't innocent, even back then.
(*) CU Amiga magazine, July 1992, "Scores on Doors", p178 (had looked it up again online!)
That makes so much sense.
I guess humans sometimes never change...
I'm naming my band Mr. Jumpy and the Sharkos
I want to name my child BMX Ninja after my grandfather
Mine will be Night Walk
Please do more 'Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of'! One of the best mini-series on TH-cam there ever was...
He should upload Nightwalk & Oriental Hero on TH-cam!
Thanks, man. I hadn't heard of those two - they're darn good fun, especially Oriental Hero!
I know. Hopefully he'll upload Oriental Hero soon. I saw that one a few years ago, along with Nightwalk.
Ivan Simpson 1 month later, they're both uploaded. Congratz! You are now a future predictor!
*Now get to work on next weeks lottery numbers.*
Great video Doctor.
I like how Captain Caveman & the boxing dinos are so impressed & enthralled by your jumpkick, they just freeze & 👀!
(Yes I know it's a graphics limitation lol)
10 GBP in 1989 would, in August 2023, equate to ~35-40 USD adjusted for inflation.
In 2008 when this video was first uploaded, the exchange rate was closer to 28-30 USD.
My guess is the publisher dropped some pound notes in some reviewers pockets, or took them to an all-you-can-eat strip club that served food on solid gold plates and had drinks straws made of pure cocaine. It *WAS* the 80's, remember?
I wanna see more stuff by Jon Blythe. The whole, "angry-yet-inadequate shoe," part had me rolling. So good. Ashens, as always, was great as well. Larry is always great too.
Renegade 3, NOOOOOOOOOO! I remember rushing over town the day it was released, after the awesomeness of Renegade followed by the best beat em up of the generation (Target Renegade) how could it be anything other than a masterpiece? Not possible! Then i loaded it.
The sonic games had those steps, at least the modern games do.
Step 1- Sonic Adventure
Step 2- Sonic Adventure 2
Step 3- Sonic Unleashed (World Tour)
Step 4- Sonic Colo(u)rs (In Space)
Step 5- Sonic Generations (Through time)
If you count the educational games and shuffle the games around, this is sorta true with the Mario franchise as well, only not really XD
For some unknown reason, the Sonic the Hedgehog games luuuuurve time travel as a plot device. There's Sonic CD, Sonic 2006, Sonic Generations, and with some interpretation the Sonic Storybook series.
maltheopia
At least Sonic 2006 was kind enough to erase itself out of continuity.
More importantly 4/5 of those games are unplayable and Sonic Adventure was only okay.
Stephen Walker
This is the kind of blind fan loyalty other companies can only dream of.
(Maybe except for Square)
3:11 "An excellent graph"
An Excellent Comment.
I had the C-64 version, the most fun I had out of this game was shouting "Captain....... CAVEMAAAAAAAAAAAAAN" Every time they appeared.I had a lonely childhood.
"didn't much jump the shark as jump up and down on the shark yelling look at me I'm Mr jumpy sharko"
MarkExists That bit reminded me of Blackadder
I was wondering if he cribbed that from Yahtzee myself. Guess that's just standard British humor at work.
Not only a giant potato, but a giant potato that bounces at very precise intervals!
I like how the orange shirt the bloke from peoww is wearing makes him look like a prison inmate. Well, I guess you could have someone admit to the worst crimes if the sentence was a few years in prison in which they'd have to finish Renegade 3 every day.
Interesting how sequels to beat em ups tend to improve things.
Double Dragon II on NES? Better control, more moves, better graphics, added 2 player co-op.
Streets of Rage 2? Better graphics, better music, vastly improved special moves.
Renegade 2 on old computers? The improvements Ashens listed.
Hell, the only 2 that I can think of that wasn't an improvement was Final Fight 2, unless you think of it as an improvement over the SNES version of Final Fight (which it is) as opposed to an improvement over the arcade original (which it isn't).
Anything with a baby throwing a giant potato is worth my money.
Funny... the TMNT arcade games skipped from step 1 to step 5 and were still succesful
Probably because soft science was well established in TMNT at the time (time travel isn't that far removed from alternate dimensions, after all), and Turtles in Time is an excellently made beat-'em-up.
@@liamkelly6382 Damn it, this comment makes me feel old :,)
I was still in College in that time, becoming a teacher
Corruption in video game journalism before it was cool.
László Szerémi GamerGate 1989. Only difference is Zoe Quinn wasn't fucking moot to gain influence.
Well and there was actual corruption, not just people whining about jews and women.
This was the first exposure I had to Larry.
3:53 Don’t forget, the Mario & Luigi series skipped straight to five after only the *first*
11:08 - Larry's expression is worth a Million Words.
Renegade World Tour could have involved fighting various national stereotypes like with Human Killing Machine.
Ah, the kunio-kun games on the NES were really good...
Ah! The memories. I saved my pocket money for this and even washed a few cars to make up the difference. When I bought it I spent 7min looking at the cassette loading and mad with excitement. Then I spent the next 7 min wondering playing thinking wtf, wtf, wtf...... broke my keyboard in disgussed, cried, then stormed out of the house with my skateboard :)
I was recently given a Spectrum 128 and a box full of crap games by my girlfriends parents. Just had a look and found all 3 Renegade games. Looks like you weren't the only person burned!
dude i think i worked out the magazine review mystery
Game Developer: "Hello magazine! Here is a big sack of cash!"
Magazine: "Best in the series!!!"
15 years later, history repeated itself when Atari bribed PSM2 and Xbox World to give 9/10 scores for DRIV3R, which led to the infamous Driv3rgate scandal.
To be fair, it's not like direct player word-of-mouth can be trustworthy either. Things like fanboy bias, buying into hype, damage control, and trying to offset any sense of buyer's remorse all play into how someone might assess a game for you if you asked them. You never know what you're dealing with...
3:54 - That's a joke worthy of a Zero Punctuation video.
The first Renegade on the Spectrum was an absolute masterpiece.
5:08 theres a baby throwing a giant potatoe!
I laughed mybrains out when you mentioned the giant potato
Renegade III was also developed for Amiga but never released. Someone made disk image and it's easy to find and play.
Look at me, I'm Mr. Jumpy Sharko!
There was also an Amiga version which didn't quite make it to the shops,...thank god!
Take a look as i've uploaded it "RENEGADE III (AMIGA)".
The repeating screenshots in the Sinclair User review made me LOL.
It's great when a game review is much more enjoyable than the game itself :D
3:54 Ashens briefly channels Yahtzee Croshaw.
Want to know how broken the Flying Kick TRULY is?
Watch when he accidentally does it at 4:38, and look at the captain caveman below him.
Because of you, I was able to find Target Renegade. My most favorite game as a kid. I know it sucks, but I love it, and it was actually one of my first NES games. So, Ashens.. I thank you!
Target renegade sucks? I was gonna give you a thumb up but then you said it sucked and...
...Whatever here you go, for mentioning it at least.
i told myself i wasn going to watch that all, but you are just so consistently amusing, entertaining and all round funny that i watched it all... Even tho i had to mute my luaghs because its 33mins past 11pm here and my Granny is asleep... :S
After Renegade 3...a legend was born...
Actually if we have learned anything from the Ninja Turtles, it is that the time travel game is the 4th in the series.
Fantastic video man, thanks a lot! As C64 fanatic, Renegade part 1 was only thing I envied spectrum owners. C64 had strange control scheme I managed to comprehend 30 years later, haha.
I would TOTALLY hang out with that grasshopper, have a beer, talk about winter supplies and sale discounts.
Dude you're not an idiotic nobody, I love both you and Larry like brothers of the internet
I just like to know..... Who was the person that thought "You know those renegade games with dark grungy street punks..... how about for the third game we drop all that and plonk the main hero in the most cartoonish looking game and make him stand out like a sore thumb?"
Remember playing Renegade and Target Renegade and loving both. The 3rd does look strangely familiar but I think if I ever played it I've blocked it out of memory.
That noise is perhaps the best rating I've ever heard.
This is a spot on review, i felt exactly the same. Renegade 3 was one of the biggest disappointments of my life , and i can actually vividly remember seeing it for the first time. I couldnt believe how they failed to see that people didnt want dinosaurs, just more of the same from Renegade 1 and 2
Couldn't help noticing the reviewer gave the game 92%, but it got 91% overall at 07:54
The reviewers were paid off, kinda like modern day game magazines. Also, the game reminds me of Time Lord.
MSX version was just the ZX spectrum version but with different colors, loading, no music, and if there is music (one to be precise and that was before the stage starts) it was a horrible sound of trumpets and drums. Basically a prototype of a ZX spectrum or a horrid conversion of the 48k ZX spectrum version instead of the 128k ZX spectrum version that was horrible to begin with quite frankly due to the MSX's version having the stage start tune sounding like it came from the 48k ZX Spectrum.
This is the best channel EVER!! Great content!
i gotta admit, I like the music. at least on that dinosaur stage
I have seen this one before, but I'm very glad you've finally posted it onto TH-cam as I like the original video, but I couldn't remember where the original one was posted nor could I find a link to it, but of course I didn't look heard enough, typical me.
9:13
And that's why you should never trust professional review sites like IGN or Gamespot to review video games. Look at what happened to Sonic Unleashed, it got an unforgiving score from both sites for the Xbox 360 & PS3, while the PS2 & Wii versions, for some weird reason, got a higher rating. Same goes for Gamespot's review of the XBLA/PSN re-release of the Simpsons Arcade Game by Konami.
+Ivan Simpson The same can also be said about IGN, Gamespot, Joystiq, and Kotaku's venomous reviews for Splatterhouse 2010.
Yes, it was horrible how they treated that game.
The PS2/Wii versions of Sonic Unleashed were actually different to the PS3/360 versions, the open world run around bit was cut (among a few other things).
if you grew up in the 80's or 90's, you know not to trust any big game reviewer. it's word of mouth or nothing.
Germany had really good and somewhat objective game mags in the 90s. (Some of them still exist today but are not too relevant any more, for obvious reasons).
your commentary always cracks me up xD
It's like they fell asleep watching the crystal maze and when they woke up, they had 15 minutes left to make the game
3:50 Repton had good games at those steps:
Around the World in 40 Screens
Repton Thru Time (why the US spelling of 'through' was used I've no idea)
One of the earliest examples of corruption in game journalism.
Gotta love the eye straining shade of yellow
I just realised something Larry Bundy Jr. should have gotten points for correctly saying 'Hanna-Barbera'. :D
Oh, you mean like anyone with human speech is capable of?
Serana You'll be surprised at how many people (in Britain at least) still says it like the woman's name 'Barbara'.
David315842 That's weird, there's clearly an E in it
Serana But many people in the UK still say 'Hanna-Barbara' incorrectly instead of 'Barbera', hence points goes to Larry.
I always pronounced it correctly since I first heard of it...
The whole thing about magazines giving high scores to bad games rings true to this day, especially when it comes to the new DmC.
Renegade on the spectrum, and crash magazine, god this takes me back :)
Nice review
4:06 They've nicked the robot in the background with his hands out from somewhere and it's driving me mad trying to remember where from. Anyone?
i can barely understand any of what the 2nd guest person on here is saying. its like he's talking with a mouthful of bread.
The third warning sign for me was that the piece of garbage didn't even work. I went through two copies, my own and a friends, neither of which would ever load. I guess I should be thankful for that. In fact I never even got to play the game until 2003 or so, when I downloaded it for an emulator. I gave it up after about three minutes and played Dynamite Dan instead.
+gosunkugi Damn ! now I gotta play Dynamite Dan on Speccy XD
Edit: Either Dynamite Dan or Exolon XD
"Look at me i'm mister jumpy shark-o"
For one, it's hakusho.
And yes, he really does. I could have sworn I saw Kuwabara in there somewhere too.
I now know where the show came from, and it saddens me.
Oh boy. I remember getting this for the C64. Despite protests from a friend, I bought it because the cover looked great, the reviews were positive, and it was a Renegade title (I really enjoyed Target).
Boy, did I feel like a right numpty when I put this on.
Awful looking characters, spotty hit detection (which also meant), infuriating difficulty, and the health system on the C64 version made this the biggest con I came across as a kid. Still, a great video review, Dr. Ashens!
I had to pause the video because I was laughing so hard when the Captain Caveman clones started walking onscreen.
yes I had the feeling too. His called Kuwabara, the games looked like when he was always fighting in school
Curiously, on 8:00 (or by pressing 8), you can clearly see that Spectrum Magazine gave Renegade 3 a 92% somewhere in the review, despite there clearly not including it anywhere in the final score. Hmmm. Also, it appears the section that received the review was called "STUART". Interesting.....
If anyone wants to play any of the ZX renegade games nowadays, the best way I've found is to actually play them on ZXDS, a nifty little Spectrum emulator for the DS. Runs at full speed, keyboard on the touchscreen for when you need it, as well as physical controls to replace your wrangling of the joysticks. Try it, if you can.
Hahaha! Great video. Renegade and Target Renegade are two of my favourites on the Speccy. I really do feel your pain!
In Target Renegade , the fighting choreography is not good.
Oh so now you post this, what's next the BMX Ninja review....wait a minute...yeah that's what's coming next isen't it. :D Love this vid!
Cheers! I've had Renegade on ZX-Spectrum and it was one of my fave games
wheres the image at 0:18 from?
xj0462 hahaa hulk hogan once atarted a restaurant called pastamania. the joy.
Ashens should get a guest spot on CGR. Him and Mark both have reviewed the vectrex.
*and grasshoppers ran small business.*
I want to see that. Grasshoppers are interesting little insects
Its about freaking time you make another video!!!
I've played the MSX version. It's basically the Spectrum version without music.
Do more videos like this, i liked it a lot. i rate it 91%.
A pleasant surprise on this video when both Guru Larry and Jon Blyth showed up on this video. What is the name of the book that Jon Blyth wrote? I'm intrigued ...
that guy near the end had the most entertaining script
Watched ashens play renegade, a different version, in a stream from the future
I reviewed Renegade on NES. That game makes me sick.
Larry's lost so much weight since this; good for him :)
neketsu koyo noko kun (or whatever) was supposedly the first game to ever use the term "BOSS" for an end level enemy.
This is the greatest game of all time
Love your videos EPIC. I demand you make more lol
All shall fall against my angry, yet inadequate shoe!!