Re-release this: Ranger X

A complicated, but rewarding, mech action game, that somehow hasn't resurfaced in a meaningful way in ages.

This column is “Re-release this,” which will focus on games that aren’t easily available, or even available at all, but should be once again. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.

I always forget that Ranger X released in 1993, which is Ranger X’s own fault. The problem — well, “problem” — is that it doesn’t look like a Sega Genesis game released in 1993. It looks and animates like a Sega Genesis game from the very end of the system’s lifecycle, like the kind of game that’s pushed the system to its limits in one way or another, owing to years and years of experience the developers have gained from working on the hardware through its existence. Ranger X didn’t release in 1995, though, like Ancient’s Beyond Oasis, with its massive sprites and detail that gave you a glimpse of just how special the 32-bit era of sprites was going to be. It released in 1993.

The developers, GAU Entertainment, claimed in an interview with Dengeki and Marukatsu Megadrive (translation courtesy Shmuplations) that they didn’t put any extra effort into the graphics, specifically, for Ranger X. However, the graphic designer, Toshio Yamamoto, did say that, “because we placed so much emphasis on creating a game that was very polished overall, the graphics ended up having a lot of shine too,” though, so it’s no wonder that it looks like the game traveled back in time. They wanted to stand out, to look different, for the animation to go beyond the possibilities of simpler human characters. As Yamamoto would go on to say, “My feeling about ‘movement’ is that it shouldn’t be reduced to simple, repeating patterns. It should be more complex and reactive than that. We worked hard to create as much animation as possible for them.”

Looking good is one thing, but Ranger X also feels great to play. Once you figure out how to play it, anyway. Like the movement of all the robots and mechs in the game, Ranger X is intricate: you control a mech with some of the buttons on the controller, and with others, in quite a few levels, you also control an assault bike. You can control them at the same time, independently, or as one unit where the mech is riding the bike. You can let the bike follow your movements on its own, you can take more control of it yourself when you want to, and figuring out when to do which is significant, as it can be much more active and useful when you’re controlling it, but it’s also impervious to damage when it’s just out there doing its own thing, so there’s a strategic balance to be struck.

Image credit: MobyGames

You don’t always have the bike with you, as, in a few levels, you instead have an aircraft/mobile platform that you operate off of if you choose to, one that provides air support while you go around the level in your mech suit. These stages are enjoyable and all, but the true highlights are with that assault bike, as it just opens up the gameplay in some fascinating ways that further differentiates Ranger X from the likes of other side-scrolling mech action titles, like Assault Suit Leynos and Assault Suits Valken.

Ranger X is best played with the Genesis’ six-button pad, as it leaves the A, B, and C buttons for your mech, and the X, Y, and Z ones for the assault bike. While you use the D-pad to walk forward or walk backward, it’s the face buttons that determine what direction you’re facing while you walk, as well as your shooting direction, and they also control which way the assault bike is going to drive in while you’re not personally driving it as the mech. A fires left, C fires right, and B uses whatever special weapon you have equipped, which you can change on the bike or aboard your aircraft. You start out with a pair of special weapons, but discover more through exploration as you play through the game: these use up a different amount of your special weapon meter depending on what they do, and those actions are contained within a range that’s as basic as “spread shot” to as complicated as “screen-consuming massive explosion you can only do once per bar.” Your special meter recharges over time if you’re exposed to solar rays and as you defeat enemies, and it’s not just for those weapons: you can also use the power within it to repair your mech at some rare, designated locations in various levels. You’ve got quite a few considerations in place when it comes to going to your more powerful weapons.

Ranger X is a little on the short side, but it makes up for that brevity with plenty of difficulty and the kind of learning curve you’d expect from a game where you’re controlling two entities independently of each other with face buttons. There are six stages, but each has a couple of distinct parts to it as well as a boss fight, so everything feels longer than that number implies. The stages all have a similar setup of “there are X number of targets to destroy, so do that,” but the stages themselves are all designed wildly differently both environmentally speaking as well as layout, so this doesn’t feel like a constant rinse/repeat setup. Sometimes the targets are mobile, sometimes they’re in one place, sometimes they’re trying to kill you pretty aggressively or defending themselves, or just tucked away behind hordes of enemies who will do the same. Things change enough to feel fresh, and the design doesn’t wear out its welcome.

The second stage is maybe the greatest example of how these levels feel so different from each other. It’s very clearly a tutorial for what purpose your bike even serves beyond just riding it, and about how to understand the power levels for your special weapons and health recharge. It’s a lengthy stage, in terms of pure distance you’ll cover, and it’s one that separates you from your bike on more than one occasion, meaning you’ll be (1) stuck with whatever special weapon you’ve got equipped and (2) unable to rely too heavily on the fact that you’ve got separate health bars to help offset some of the damage you might take while using your mech as a mech. Since you’re in a cave, there aren’t any solar rays to recharge your special meter, which means your resources are finite, both for refilling your health at the designated stations, and for using your more powerful attacks. However! There are places in the cave where you can blast through the ceiling, causing some sunlight to spill in: this is the moment where it can click for you that it’s not just enemies recharging your special meter. Assuming you don’t have access to the manual, anyway, which, let’s be real. That’s going to be most people in 2024.

To go back to what most people end up taking away from Ranger X for a moment: What’s maybe most impressive about the game’s visuals can be seen in the above video. There’s so much happening with each mech, robot, enemy, whatever, in terms of animation. But the backgrounds are alive, active, full of life and death, full of explosions and movement and depth. There’s just so much going on in the foreground and in the background, and all of it seamlessly and impressively. It’s a wonder to behold even over three decades later, and it helps, too, that GAU figured out how to push the Genesis’ limited color palette through “subtlety” and skill so that it looked like there were more colors than there actually were available to them.

GAU Entertainment was formed by ex-Wolf Team developers, and then merged with Nextech a couple of years before it was acquired by Sega. It later spun out into third-party development as Nex Entertainment following Sega’s departure from console production. In addition to Ranger X, they developed Crusader of Centy on the Genesis, which was also published as a first-party game by Sega, and Linkle Liver Story on the Genesis — another game that really wowed with what it did on the visual side, in no small part because of the quality of the animations and attention to detail in the environments. GAU et al worked as a contract developer, making games for Sega, of course, as well as Namco, Capcom, Taito, Square, and more. The number of games you’ve played that they either developed, co-developed, or ported is a lengthy one: various Time Crisis titles, including their arcade originals, Shenmue, ports of titles like Dino Crisis and various Resident Evils, co-development of Shining Soul games with Grasshopper Manufacture, Children of Mana, multiple titles in Level-5’s Guild01 3DS series (Crimson Shroud and Weapon Shop de Omasse), Shin Megami Tensei: Nine on the Xbox, Bayonetta on the Playstation 3… they just kept going until they finally shuttered in 2016.

The rights of their games tend to sit with those who contracted them to make them in the first place, which explains why Crusader of Centy and Ranger X both appeared on the Sega Genesis Mini 2 in 2022. Still, it’s odd that Ranger X hasn’t received more time in the re-release spotlight from Sega, given how regularly they send out compilations full of Genesis games, not all of them obvious critical or commercial darlings. Ranger X isn’t on the Genesis portion of Nintendo Switch Online yet, for instance, and it also wasn’t included in this generation’s Sega Genesis Classics collection. It’s too late for them to add it to the latter, since that’s a done deal, but it could be added to NSO, at least. Should be added to it, in fact, given Ranger X is basically perfect for that format as a lesser-known game that’ll draw attention simply for being on the service.

In the meantime, you can either pick yourself up a Sega Genesis Mini 2 — they haven’t shot up in price, since Sega seems determined to keep them in production even as they limited the initial stock in comparison to its predecessor — so you have access to Ranger X, or, you know. Handle it the same way you do anything else that the rightsholders refuse to re-release. It’s up to you, but Ranger X is worth the effort, regardless. It’s short, sure, but it’s as much fun to play as it is to look at, especially once all the movement and firing and multi-vehicle control clicks for you.

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