 When you take a look at the side-scrolling run-and-gun games on the Super Nintendo, you have to admit it's a bit lacking. Sure you've got great ones like Contra 3, Sunset Riders, and the Super Turrican games, but after that there's really not that much there. Compare that to the Genesis, which had stuff like Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier, two of the best ever, not to mention their own Contra game, which was pretty good, and they arguably had the better editions of the Earthworm Gym games, in my opinion anyway. The reason why it's such a bummer that Rendering Ranger R2 never came out in the North American or PAL regions at the time of its release, because it fits right there alongside with all the great 16-bit crazy-ass action platformers like the stuff I just mentioned. You in fact play as a Rendering Ranger, named as such due to the game's pre-rendered graphics, and yeah, therein lies the game's biggest strength. It looks freaking incredible, and no slowdown here at all. Everything is very smooth. It's also worth mentioning real quick that the developer behind Rendering Ranger R2 is Manfred Trends. Also known as the guy behind the Turrican series, and yeah, this game definitely has a Turrican kind of feel to it, but just on a bigger scale, if that makes sense. The Turrican games for SNES have kind of a cartoony vibe to them, whereas Rendering Ranger R2 is much darker and more chaotic. This is the closest any SNES game comes to replicating either of the treasure-developed games on Sega Genesis. And obviously you can see that from the footage, you don't need me to explain the gameplay here, it's just as you'd imagine based on the footage. That's what's fun about Run and Gun games, it's simple and there's no bullshit. There's a lot of low stuff up, and in this game you get to do it both in a side-scrolling run and gun format, and in a shoot-em-up format. So it's a little bit like Cybernator in that sense, but it's causing a thousand times more carnage. And you do it with a total of four weapons, the sprite gun, the laser, which might as well have been directly yanked from a Turrican game, the yellow pulse weapon, and the weapon I like to refer to as the Gemini Man weapon, like from Mega Man 3. You can upgrade these weapons, but if you die, you only lose the upgrades from the weapon you had equipped. The other three remain at the same level, so that's nice. You also get bombs as well that regenerate over time, as you can see on the bottom of the screen here, so you don't have to worry about wasting them at inopportune times. What takes rendering Ranger R2 up a notch, though, is the unexpected variety. There's branching paths in some levels, for instance, so not everything is quite so linear. And of course there's the variety in the gameplay between the side-scrolling platforming and the shoot-em-up levels like I mentioned earlier. In addition, though, the game does put a little bit of emphasis on using the right weapon for the right part of the game. So yeah, while the game invites you to cause as much mindless carnage as possible, it does help to put at least a tiny shred of thought into what you're doing. So this all sounds well and good, right? So what's the catch? No, the catch is that this is one of the hardest games you'll ever play, to the point that I feel like an idiot putting Donkey Kong Country 3 over this game on my hardest SNES games video. As fun as this game is, it's comically tough, to the point that it kind of holds the game back a bit. The difference between this and the treasure-developed games on Genesis is that those games are a bit more accessible to the average Joe. You don't have to be a gaming ninja to play them for a while, but rendering Ranger R2 right from the first level, good God, man. And the levels are long and relentless. The boss fights are seemingly just as long as the levels and intense as hell. So yeah, rendering Ranger R2 is great fun, but it comes at a price. A couple smash controls you spiked into the ground in frustration. But even so, this game is a technical marvel. You'll never find a game that looks and sounds like this on the SNES. The problem is, this has long been one of the most expensive import games because it's actually legitimately rare. They only made a few thousand copies, according to Wikipedia. So yeah, flashcards and emulation to the rescue. Despite the difficulty, rendering Ranger R2 is a game that knows exactly how to maximize carnage with a variety of weapons, unlimited bombs, crazy enemy and boss design, and some of the best graphics and sound on any SNES game ever. Go find a way to play it anyway you can.