Rendering Ranger R2 [Rewind]

Written by Joseph Moorer on 3/26/2025 for PS5  

I'm here to fall on my sword. I'm in my late 40s. I grew up playing some of the best run ‘n’ gun games, as well as the best shoot ‘em up games (shmups). It's why Contra is hailed as one of the greatest games of all time. It's why Gradius—more so its sequel, Life Force (Salamander)—is one of the best shmups of all time. It's how arcades ate your quarters. The arcade versions of these games were very challenging. They were no joke at all.

Their home versions were of a different breed. You needed codes to complete them, or else you started with three lives and a couple of continues, only to restart at the beginning of the level where you got destroyed. There were many games in both genres over time, but not too many that blended the two. It's why I loved Cuphead so much—and Cuphead had its inspirations. To this day, it still delivers.

All that to be said, I really enjoyed Rendering Ranger R2's re-release. I will also admit that I didn’t know this game existed.

The “cult classic” originally released in 1995, only in Japan for the Super Famicom (Nintendo). The game came out just months after the Sony PlayStation launched in North America that September. Needless to say, not a lot of people knew about it. Only 10,000 copies were released. I know not one person who played it.

The designer behind this game, Manfred Trenz, also designed the Turrican series. I hadn’t played much of Turrican—and besides flashy magazine ads, I didn’t know much about it. I played it, and THAT game is hard too.

So after doing my research on Rendering Ranger R2 [Rewind] and figuring out where it fits, I sat down and played it for the first time. I then realized: this is not a remake. This is not a remaster. It's the same exact game from 1995.

And I wasn’t happy… at first.

Ziggurat had acquired the rights to release the game for mass consumption. The following video is my first-time run with this game.

The Rainbow Arts and Virgin Games-developed title starts off with the run ‘n’ gun portion. I have a soldier and a gun, in a setting that looks like The Terminator. Lasers and explosions fill the background. War-torn buildings and ships fly around shooting at each other. If you’ve played any Super Nintendo game, you can immediately tell this was released at the tail end of the system’s life.

There’s no story. No intro screen with scrolling text telling you what you’re about to face. I’m off and running. Minutes later, my five lives are gone because I thought I could cruise through this game.

I could not. Because Manfred Trenz made this game. Creator of Turrican. And it is hard.

But I refuse to be defeated. This is my wheelhouse. This is a game from 1995. I am surely not going to let a game from 1995 defeat ME. I can beat Cuphead with one eye open.

(This is a lie. I cannot beat Cuphead with one eye open.)

I go back in. I shoot down those first robots because I now know what the jump button is. I know how to hold the button for rapid-fire shooting. The smallest skull enemies pour out, and I shoot them down with ease this time. They turn into color-coded power-ups.

The red power-ups are for your Vulcan cannon, and can be powered up three times. There are also blue power-ups—but I don’t know what those are for—until I realize I can switch weapons on the fly. So if one weapon isn’t sufficient, I can just push a button and voilà, I’m taking these things down with my blue laser weapon.

I should probably see what these other buttons do.

The blue laser turns into a beam with the push of another button, and it looks like I have three of them. I have one of these super-powered moves for each weapon I cycle through. I only have three total, but they charge up over time. I can take out some of the bigger enemies with that, but I don’t want to use them all—because I know how these games work. I want to save them for the big bad boss at the end of the stage.

I am cooking. Everyone is being destroyed by my newfound mastery. No one can stop me. My HP can be refilled by destroying more Skull-bots and collecting gleams of light. If I grab one at full HP, I get a shield. There are also rainbow versions of the power-ups so I can power up all my weapons at the same time.

And… I just lost a life because I fell in a pit.

Okay. So there’s a small amount of platforming. I do have to navigate over pits, and I get knocked back when taking hits. I then discover that with the shoulder buttons, I can lock myself in position and shoot at a diagonal, either up or down. Well, that’s refreshing. I’m getting good at the game.

All these enemies spawning everywhere, using all their different attacks, don’t phase me anymore. There are so many different enemy types that I can’t rely on memorizing just one or two patterns. I lose all my lives on the first level again, but now I’m determined. Now I want to get past this first level. I want to reach the boss with more than one life left.

I know where the ground’s going to be destroyed. I know where the big helicopter boss of Level One is going to shoot fire, and I can avoid it while taking minimal damage.

And I am triumphant. I’m good at the game. ™

Except… the next two levels are completely different. They are more brutal.

I still don’t know why I’m here. Am I here to liberate a planet from an evil force? Am I here to tear through alien ships and turrets while telling them I’m all out of bubble gum? Am I here to shoot everything that moves and run from what I can’t?

Yes.

And then it happens. My perseverance pays off. The game sees me go into a ship and blast off in a 16-bit-esque cinematic.

Then it turns into a shmup.

Now I’m flying a ship—still with the same power-ups available—but now I can get two additional shooters. Not only that, I can reverse my ship to shoot backwards, because enemies come from behind too.

What am I playing? Why was I so hard on this just being the original game? How did I miss all this exposition and let it get past me when I originally requested it from our Editor-in-Chief?

Because. And now—I’m glad I didn’t read up on this. It made the first-time experience so much cooler.

I went into this game totally blind, and I ended up loving it. If you have any experience in the genres, you’ll be fine. But this is an old-school challenge at its core.

There are nine total levels. Some have mid-level bosses, and once you start the shmup portions, the gameplay begins to alternate. There’s an especially cool section where the boss is on rails, and you have to chase it through the level on foot. During one of the shmup stages, you have to navigate through a fleet of ships.

And then there’s Level 8… which is one of the wildest stages I’ve ever played in any game. Ever.

Whoever said this game was great was absolutely right. At first, I was upset I didn’t do my research.

I have to reiterate: I’m glad I didn’t. Amazing game.

Now, Limited Run Games and Ziggurat have made it clear that this re-release isn’t just digital. They want you to have a physical copy, too. So much so, that there was an SNES cartridge reproduction of the game, with a fully translated physical manual. It has since sold out.

If you want a physical copy for Switch or PlayStation—they’ve sold out too. If you want an original Super Famicom cart, you’re going to pay a lot for it, so it’s probably best for your wallet if you wait for the Limited Run version to come back in stock. The digital copy is the cheapest way to go.

With the game, you have the option to change the screen ratio, filters, and your controls. You also get two game versions: the original Japanese version (fully translated into English), or the unreleased North American version (Targa)—also in English. Don’t ask.

The difference is just the button layout, and you can change both in the settings.

The other part is that if you lose, you can rewind the section you died in and try again. But you're not going to do that. You're going to use the password system like a true gamer, and go back to the beginning of the last level you were in.

We listen. And we don’t judge.

The game comes with a music player, too, so you can hear all the music you missed because you were too busy dodging bullets and getting shot down every five seconds.

All in all, for a game made in 1995, it holds up. And though you might beat it in one sitting, you will get destroyed many times.