Renegade (NES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Taito’s 1988 beat ’em up for the NES, Renegade. Played through on the L2 difficulty level. Renegade is a port of the 1986 coin op title, and this version of it was the first NES game Technos developed. It’s noteworthy for a couple of big reasons: 1. It is the first arcade beat ’em up to establish the “Double Dragon“ style gameplay, using a perspective to provide “depth“ to the playing field, and giving the player a whole host of chainable punch/kick/throw moves. 2. It marks the beginning of two major game franchises - Technos’ Double Dragon and the Kunio (River City) series. Mr. K is called Kunio in the Famicom version. Though it’s extremely simple by modern standards, we have Renegade to thank for establishing the foundation for later classics like Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Battletoads... the list is nearly endless. It is to beat ’em ups what Mario was to the platformer, or Dragon Quest to the RPG. For such an early effort - the original arcade game dates back to 1986 - Renegade is surprisingly solid. The controls are easy to master (once you’ve figured out the inputs for each move), and the enemies generally require some strategy to take out. The graphics are fairly plain (though they’re still perfectly fine for the time it came out), and despite some censored elements, the backgrounds are fairly detailed. The music is... is it going for rockabilly? I can’t really tell. It’s odd, but it is catchy. There are tons of secrets to be figured out, and you’ll need them if you plan to see it through to the end. It might be short, but Renegade is certainly not an easy game. Enemies can be cheap, but usually, if you’ve had sufficient practice and are familiar with the stages, it isn’t too frustrating. Well, except for that maze building. Ugh. Renegade was an incredibly influential game, and it’s still easy to see that influence in games thirty years later. It might not be the most polished or impressive NES cart to ever be released, but as the progenitor of two storied franchises and an entire sub-genre of gaming, I’d say it managed to do pretty well for itself. _ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete () punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games! Visit for the latest updates!