Ranger X

"All Killer, With Filler"

Ranger X

Every now and then there comes along a game that amazes everyone. Whether it is for its amazing graphics, luxurious audio, or smooth-looking gameplay, people become attached to this game like peanut butter and jelly. The hype continues to build until the game is released, and soon everyone who was amazed with that specific game will now own it and either be somewhat disappointed or amazed, in one way or the other. Ranger X was one of these games. In 1994, Sega’s homemade Genesis console was going to an abrupt end, much thanks to the Super Nintendo console, which had far superior hardware then Sega’s Genesis. And to go out with a bang, or with style, Sega went to work on the publishing duties to Ranger X. However, even Sega themselves never had a clue as to how this game would turn out, and as to how the fans will react once they saw it.

The time was nearing for the game’s release date. Many were already stunned by the awesome graphics, but were shunned as to what this game was; a side-scrolling robotic fight fest that was more on the lines of Streets of Rage and Rolling Thunder, instead of Thunder Force and R-Type. Would this sort of display work? Well… come release date it did work, though reaction was different on all sides. It was hard what to make of it, or refer to it, as at the time (and still to this day) Sega was king of taking said games and making them work in weird, unique, and/or creative ways; or to be more blunt and precise, Sega was, and still is, the king of innovation.

Herein you play the part of Ranger X, a special combat suit used to fight the opposition. The reason why Ranger X is in battle against enemy squads is because the Free Galactic System Council in the Home World was sneak-attacked by the Rahuna, an Edge zone coalition of planets. It seems that the Rahuna have been envious of the System Council for some time now, and many believed that their plans were to topple the government, and to also bring the galactic systems under their rule. Whatever the Rahuna’s demands are now, it does not matter, as the lone mechanical outlaw that is Ranger X is ready to kick some ass.

And kick some ass he will; in pure 16-bit, 2-d side-scrolling glory (Oh, Yeah).

Ranger X did not come in battle alone; weapons he will need, and weapons he must have. From the outset you are already equipped with a pulse rifle, which can fire both ways—left and right (though you will have to position yourself in order to fire in what direction you will want to shoot at, though, you shouldn’t worry as this is easily done by pressing a button on the Genesis pad). The pulse rifle does a limited amount of damage, though it doesn’t always have to be used thanks to you having special weapons. Your first special weapon, in fact, is actually a flamethrower, which, once used, fires a stream of flames at all oncoming opponents. Later on, Ranger X will even acquire Seeker Mines and Seeker Charges, which hit anything that moves, and the Seeker Falcon weapon, which sticks onto enemies and keeps attacking them till they are destroyed.

Using special weapons comes at a price; though. At the bottom right of your screen is a power bar and once special weapons are used, a little bit of your power bar energy will get depleted. Continue using them and soon you will have no power energy, which can prove really bad since Ranger X will need, at times, to use some power to levitate to the sky once his thrust pack (which I will get to next) is out of energy and Ranger can’t fly in the sky anymore. You will also need to use your power energy when it comes to the health chargers, strewn around in some hard-to-find areas in some levels. The health chargers recover lost health, but they need power energy to do so. So, remember, only use special weapons in cases where they must be needed; like on one of the powerful, gargantuan bosses.

The thrust pack is the booster on the back of Ranger X, and the thrust pack is what gives Ranger the ability to fly around aimlessly. Flying comes in handy in many of the levels; it can help you by getting you out of a bind, or you can use it to go over water—a huge weakness to the powerful Ranger X (Some sense of robotic reality in a Genesis game? Ok). However, you won’t be able to fly forever. Also at the bottom right of the screen there just so happens to be another meter, and this meter tells you for how long you can fly. Once the meter reaches its maximum, instead of flying you will fall down to the floor. This can be very dangerous in some levels—like the one where you are going up a huge building with enemies shooting you all the time—but it doesn’t always guarantee a death in some way. The reason why you fall down is because your thrust pack has to cool off; the cooling process is fast, though, so you do not have to worry too much; however, if you are being attacked when you are waiting for it to cool off, then I guess it could rouse up to be somewhat of a problem.

Your health is also something you should pick up on every now and then because it could lead you to your unsatisfying demise. Ranger X comes equipped with a hard shield and every time that you get hit, your shield will get damaged; your shield’s available power is shown on a meter at the bottom left of the screen. Once your shield has taken a lot of damage, Ranger X will then be powerless, meaning that it is Game Over time. Though, you do have a few continues you can use in this game, so don’t think that you will be stuck with one life the whole way through.

Accompanying Ranger X in battle are vehicles, or ex-ups. An ex-up is a moving vehicle or aircraft that follows you nearly everywhere and you can either continue to let it follow you, or you can go on top of it and ride it. The ex-up that you use throughout most of the game is the Ex-Up Indra. The Indra is a motorcycle (or unicycle, as some say) that moves much faster then Ranger, can go down small and tiny tunnels, and is equipped with an auto-targeting pulse rifle. The Indra proves much useful against some of the earlier bosses, and can even be your best friend against the tough final boss. The second vehicle you use is the Ex-Up Eos. The Ex-Up Eos is a huge airship that fires immense lasers that attacks all the enemies that it targets. However, the Ex-Up Eos cannot be moved once you get on it, and when you are not on it, it moves very slow making it temporarily useless in the few levels in which it accompanies you in.

This game features six huge levels in which you fight enemies. However, going on a monotonous enemy killing spree is not what you must do all the time. Before you begin a level you will be introduced to a polygon-like interpretation of the objective of the level; a.k.a. the specific enemy you will have to kill if you want to progress. Each level is made up of about six or seven targets, enemy structures, et cetera, that you must kill. The targets aren’t exactly hidden in the levels, more then not many of them appear in the open, though they are carefully guarded. If you by any chance can't find these ''targets'', then this radar at the top corner of the screen shows where you are—a small dot—and also shows where the nearest targets are—the flashing yellow dots. At the bottom of the radar there is even this counter, which tells you how much more of these targets you will have to take down, and drops by one every time a specific target is destroyed.

Ranger X is also what some may call a hard game. While the first few levels can easily be passed without a single live lost, the game starts to get harder and harder the more you progress. In fact I find it almost impossible as to how anyone can beat this game without losing a live as this game is painstakingly hard and you have to watch both your health, and your vehicle’s health if you want to survive and make it to the end. The bosses are no pushovers either. Though the first and second bosses are easily defeated thanks to your Ex-Up Indra, the rest are more of a challenge. The final boss is the toughest of them all; he has various attacks, one even drains your health at a really fast way. To somewhat decrease the amount of challenge in this game you can go to the Options Menu, where you can choose over Easy, Normal, Hard, and Heavy difficulty settings.

Aside from some difficulty nitpicks, Ranger X also suffers problems on keeping its players entertained the whole way through. As you progress, the levels seem to get more monotonous then the last. In fact, till this day I still find the first level of this game the most exciting out of the others; mostly due to it focusing a lot more on action then on finding huge machines scattered amongst levels with enemies carefully guarding them. While somewhat of a turn of events is made in the end, it is not really worth it in my opinion. Ranger X also has two endings. The first ending is given to you if you beat this game on the Easy difficulty option. And this one, well… I wouldn’t really call it an ending as it shifts everything and tells you to try this game on Normal difficulty, much like a few other Sega Genesis games have done. The second ending (or should I say the “official” ending) is a cinema that shows your character meeting alongside a “special person” (play the game if you want to find out who); with no dialogue whatsoever as to give you any clue as to what is really happening. It truly is or it can be confusing, and it brings the story down considerably as the ending makes little to no sense.

Graphically, this is the reason why one even owns a Sega Genesis. Every thing in this game is just so painstakingly detailed that one will be impressed right from the beginning (or the opening cinema even). Ranger X, himself, looks very detailed, as do your vehicles, which follow you everywhere. Enemies are also something to behold. Each enemy in this game is very carefully designed; the same goes with the bosses; which impressed me to the full extent (especially the opening and final boss). The backgrounds are great, too. Many even implement nifty 3-d tricks to further add to the eye-candy goodness. The colors are great, as well. While there are some unstable purples and grays, the rest don’t need any mention, as they are simply just grand and amazing. Explosions are even more of a sight to behold (they are MESMERIZING, really).

Sega even threw all these little details everywhere. Example, in stage 4 when you are going up the side of a building, there will be enemies in rooms and they will shoot you if you don’t attack them. However, once you hit the part of the building where the enemies are in, little details like broken, flying glass from windows and parts of the structure from the building will fall to the floor. Details like these prove that the Genesis can imply some magnificent graphics. Finally, there is no slowdown whatsoever in any of the levels. And this I find extremely hard to stomach as there is simply a lot of things that appear on screen; from your fired shots, to your enemies fired shots, to the enemies themselves, to the ex-up, and all these little things which push the Sega Genesis hardware to its limit—something that only a few games have been able to do.

Aurally, this game is a mixed bag. The soundtrack is comprised of urban-techno tunes that, while great to listen to at times, failed to impress me. Many of the tunes tend to get repeated a couple of times, and then there are even some tunes which make you wonder why they are even in a game like this in the first place. The sound effects are also nothing special, either (though I kind of do like the noise made when something huge explodes).

Finally, Ranger X is a great game, (it really is) which pushes the aging Sega Genesis hardware to its limit. Though the game does have its healthy share of problems… and when this game plummets down to the ground, it falls down hard and tremendously. The things that will even attract players to playing Ranger X, is Ranger X himself; and the stunning graphics, which beat almost anything previously seen on the Sega Genesis console. If you have got a Genesis lying around with some extra cash to boot, then you owe it to yourselves to give Ranger X a try (Internet stores should chip you five to ten dollars for this game). Hopefully once you get it and stuff it into your Sega Genesis console you will [hopefully] like it and then maybe you can be like me and write a long review for…

Ranger X

*P.S. This game is titled Ex-Ranza in Europe (so when I say Ranger X, I mean Ex-Ranza). *

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/02, Updated 09/03/02