version: jp - year: 1995 - developer: nec - publisher: nec - format: pc engine, cdrom - condition: mint, w/o spine - rarity: very
Backgrounds can be pretty cool
This boss isn't very hard...
Characters have a lot of frames of animation
Castlevania anyone?
The sword attack looks nice although it is strangely available only for aerial attacks
Renny Blaster is good but it is no Dracula X
This guy looks like count Dracula
bla bla bla...
The castle looks a bit strange and too small
The End
Review-Renny Blaster. A silly name for an extremely rare and obscure PCE game that came out late in the system's life-span.
If you take a look at the beautiful cover art, you'll notice it feels a bit like Dracula X. And this feeling is reinforced as levels change from the initial generic side-scroller type to a more elegant and distinctive gothic-themed setting.
Renny Blaster is an atypical game. It seems like the programmers were headed in one direction but half the way through, they decided to switch direction. The result is a weird mix between Double Dragon and Castlevania. In particular, this is visible in the intro and in the cut-scenes which all have a familiar Castlevania feel.
Graphically, Renny Blaster is somewhat uneven. Backgrounds can be plain and boring (like in the 1 st few levels) or beautiful and richly detailed (like the latter levels). The lack of any parallax effect gives to the game a bit of a static look though.
On the bright side, the main characters (you can choose between two) are big, amazingly drawn and animated and they can perform an impressive array of moves. The variety of attacks contribute to enhance gameplay which already flies at high levels.
The music is generally evocative and well done although voice acting (in Japanese) sounds a bit flat.
Oddly, Renny Blaster is affected by some audio-visual glitches, noticeable during boss fights. Spoken dialogues in there don't sound clear as they seem to have been recorded poorly.
Also, backgrounds sometimes don't seem to move quiet right but this doesn't happen often. Maybe Renny Blaster was put on the market earlier than planned as these slight imperfections seem to suggest.
All in all, Renny Blaster is a peculiar and interesting title as its appeal is given both by its qualities and its rarity. It is one of the rarest non-promo PCE games (a lot rarer than Sapphire for instance) and it represents a great addition to any serious PCE collection. For “connoisseurs” only!
Bottom line: uber-rare action game which offers some decent graphics and fair gameplay. 7,5/10
from retro to modern gaming 
