Genesis - Ranger X Review

Overview

Ranger X is one of those robot games where you play a powerful robot going around blowing all the enemies up. Basically, not much different from most platform games.

Gamplay 8/10

Ranger X as you know by now is a robot and what makes this such a cool game is the high speed and manuverability of the main character, Ranger X, amongst other things. Besides walking around and shooting, ranger can fly using his jet pack although he has a time limit to how long he can fly. It is quite useful being able to hop around the enemy deftly avoiding their shots.

Of course, speed is not everything. Ranger X has his trusty bike-vehicle thing to help him, firing shots at ground level. The bike is not just an obselete piece of the game however. You can stand on it like a skateboard or hope in for a ride. Once in your shots start to "track," that is you automactiacally fire at where the enemy is. If you decide you need a bit more firepower you can switch your secondary weapondry in your vehicle.

Speaking of which you have a wide variety of weapons, starting from the flamer and working your way up to a cannon with an energy blast as big as you.

Some bad points about Ranger X though concerning gameplay. You can not actually fire your secondary while in your vehicle and you have only two vehicles. Although the first vehicle, the bike, is quite useful, the second, an air ship is just silly. All it does is follow behind you, firing slow moving lasers at the nimble enemies, worse still when you are sitting in the ship, you are a sitting duck.

Graphics 2.5/5

The graphics here are quite average although I'm probably being somewhat harsh. The images are somewhat rough on the edges and the colours somewhat too dull for my taste. Something noteworthy, they have 3-D images during the level briefings composed out of dots which I have never seen done before on the Sega Megadrive, it brings back nostalgic memories of 1980 computer graphics.

Level design 4/5

I have to say the first four levels are fairly well designed. Each has a uniqueness about it somehow. Whether it is in the open air, tunnels or in the city levels. Unfortunately, the last two levels although cool-looking and futuristic are a bit too hard in fact it took a lot of work just to survive the traps, not to mention the enemies.

Music & Sound 3/5

Once again pretty average on a whole although there were some moments like in the city where the alarms being set off by my prescence really creeped me out (you would be creeped out too if you just knew how powerful those "security guards" sent to investigate were).

I especially enjoyed the powering up and firing of the powerful green cannon, reminds me of the "Death Star" in Star Wars.

Longevity or replayibility 2.5/5

The way this game was programmed I would say you would spend a fair amount of time playing this before getting bored. The whole atmosphere of the game only holds you for that long. Still if you like fast action robot games you should be fairly hooked.

For: Fast, quick furious and highly manuverable character

Many unique weapons

Against: Sometimes too fast and furious and difficult.

Graphics need some work