Released in Germany as just 'Target'. If I remember correctly, when I loaded up my disk copy the game was called Target Renegade on screen and the loading picture was the same. Seems bizarre to only change the name on the disk sleeve. I am guessing it was something to do with censorship or how the words translate into German ?? Who knows !

Love the music, but the gameplay is far better on the Spectrum version.

Target Renegade

+ Alrighty graphics, good animations
+ Memorable music from a lesser known composer

- Dealing with the same enemies all the time is extremely monotonous and repetitive
- Requires too much haste, timing and precision for a casual beat 'em up
- Too difficult and frustrating in general
- The whole game feels rushed, unbalanced and unfinished

5/10

Game is broken, they had to finish it and cut the development. This is why level 1 is so fine and the others are just empty, unfinished and repetitive. Collisions are broken. In Spectrum is a top 10 but in Commodore is not, sadly.

I tried the game again today and managed to finish it (must be some 30 years since I did it the last time).
Level 4 is a bitch with time running out, I found the best way was to try to constantly move towards the end of the level by beating up the enemies coming from the right fast and give the opponent coming from the left a few hits and then move on to the right with the "left enemy" following you until you face another "right side enemy".

The Double Dragon/Renegade genre of scrolling slap em ups are ten a penny and this is another one. A shallow, rather dull game which covered up its shortcomings with great presentation. The graphics are great with good use of colour and lovely character sprites. Sound is also good. However, the gameplay is lacking. There is basically only one way to complete each level and a mis-step will see you wiped out very quickly. A shame the game doesn't match the presentation.

Only spoiled by lack of enemies and no Two player.

It was an alright beat 'em up, though it was more about timing your punches than mastering the gameplay; if you failed the timing, you lost your lives in a matter of seconds. Really great music, cartoonish but well-done hi-res sprites, good backgrounds. Not great, but enjoyable once you get the hang of it.

I had Target Renegade on my famous compilation cassette courtesy of the man.
This game was often discussed in the playground at school, we were so into it that we were late to class a few times. Great graphics and music, varied stages and addictive gameplay. The eyes at the bottom ala Last Ninja helped connect you to the action. Sure they could have added a couple extra moves but honestly Target Renegade is right up there among the best beat em ups for your commodore.

I never understood what some people found so exciting about this game, except for the music, which is brilliant.
Repetitive gameplay (only 2 type of enemies per level, except for level 1, which has ONE type of enemy), bad hit detection (you need to get your timing very skillfully, otherwise it immediately gets frustrating and you get quickly beaten up), good but cartoonish graphics, only one weapon (usable in level 1 only)...
Only the final enemy, Mr. Big, is impressive, if he grabs and strangles you, OUCH!

Terrible collisions, tacky graphic style, few characters on the screen.

Good game - great graphics and fantastic music. Sound FX not too bad. Playability-wise it's quite frustrating as the fighting require precision timing and it drags a bit, especially level one. Not my favourite game but good fun and has atmosphere. I remember playing this as a 10 yr old and feeling it was quite bad-ass taking out punks with a baseball bat. Such violence that now seems pretty tame in comparison to today's gaming.. !

One of the very best C64 games ever made. Classic arcade beat em up action. Miles better than that dross original.

Much better graphics than the spectrum but doesn't play so well. Still much better than Double dragon. Music is awesome too. 7/10

Strange game, almost like they put the effort and variety in the first level and then were rushed into finishing the rest of it. First level - Variety of enemy dynamic - kicking off bikes etc, Weapons - the baseball bat - not present in any other levels, and the lifts. After this level same old monotonous same-move to defeat enemies etc. Had a load of promise, looked great. I remember seeing the review and the baseball bat featured in further levels but every version I had only had it on the first one

A Good Remake and Info here:nexus23.org/warfare2/target-renegade-remake/

@ZXSpeculum128 - pot calling the kettle black mate!

Every single one of your game comments are troll statements.

LOL.

The graphics were great, and the music (especially the title music) were brilliant and memorable to me even today.

Unfortunately it all falls apart in the playability department. It's nice to score baseball bats in the first level, but any other weapons are missing on other levels, and replaced with samey action instead. Essentially the game then boils down to punching (its the only move that works reliably) and getting the timing of them correct... And that's all there is to it.
There are no two-player options, and the enemies aren't very intelligent.

As others have said, by the time you're midway through the game, you're somewhat bored. Beyond that, the game is simply a war of attrition trying to get to the end.

Saving grace: It was better than the official Double Dragon conversion, and that counted for a lot back then.

Graphics are the only saving grace on this game. A number of your moves are just plain useless and don't properly connect with the enemies. Some enemies attacks will repeat until you lose all of your life bar, with no chance of interrupting them. The first level drags on seemingly forever as you fight the same group of guys over and over. Repetitive, simplistic, and boring. Original Renegade on C64 is far more fun.

The music was great. However playability was mediocre, always the same stuff and few enemies on screen.

Nice work on the GFX side.

I own this one since I was a kid, and I played it constantly until I finished it. It wasn't very difficult, a bit boring too.

This was certainly better than the first Renegade on the C64, the graphics being an obvious improvement over the first game's Duplo sprites. As for the Spectrum comparisons, to be fair (and this is coming from someone who bleeds C64) the ZX version did benefit from a 2 player mode (which this one does not have) and more enemies on screen. With this version, it gets very repetitve, constantly fighting the same 2 enemies per stage as they close in from opposite directions and follow you up and down the screen on the same plane. Again, the Spectrum version feels a lot less "on rails" in that regard. Overall, the C64 version is OK, but could've been much better. 6/10.

Zxs128; i have lot's of praise for the speccy. I like many of the games on the format. I used to love jetpack and psst - the ultimate games to name a few. But to compare this game with it's opposite on the spectrum - it's night and day, one got colours the other not. It's like comparing c64 with vic20. A few games looks identical, but to compare them on a general basis is just wrong. That's what bothers me with people comparing spectrum titles to the c64 versions. If they are not ported (like fairlight, great escape, dandy or ranarama) it's not really worth comparing. Having better screen resolution, colour modes and sound capabilities are more important than 10-20% faster cpu speed. And let's not forget hardware scrolling and moving objects like sprites - which reduce the need of using processor speed on software solutions to do the same things. Sprites shows objects on different layers - compared to colour clashing on just one layer using software sprites. A dedicated hardware interrupt request for detecting sprite collision with other sprites and background graphics - frees up processor speed to do other things. The list goes on. You're right in that most genres work better on this platform, because of it's hardware. Adventure games genre on spectrum and c64 had (to one extent) the same conditions and could be rightfully compared. On tape format that is.

@hbhzth
Still fighting those 8-bit wars of yesterday?
Seems so...
Oh, I thought we were way beyond this.
There are excellent games of every genre for all 8-bit platforms available.
More than any of us will ever be able to play.
Certain genres work usually better on different platforms.
And a ZX Spectrum has the advantage of having a faster CPU - good for simulations and 3D - Starglider, anyone?
Bottom line:
Just behave and spare the retrogaming scene your limited mindset.
Thank you in advance!

Great graphics, and perhaps the best sprites ever on C64. Gameplay is average because of repetition and all the same enemies per level, and bad sense of collision while punching opponents. First part rules in that department. Anyhow, one of the decent and memorable games for Commie.

Bucksby; I hear this sometimes from speccy fans, so I tested this on a spectrum; the graphics are shit, movements are slow, sound is bad, move with keys - How can you say that it is better compared to the C64's visual feast of a game. Where you get instant feedback from joystick movement, great sounds and graphics AND gameplay is good/similar. I just don't get it. Spectrum games are like comparing VIC20 to C64. It is two different worlds. Amstrad is something else. C64 vs Amstrad meets on almost the same ground.

This is one of my fav C-64 games.

Average game, it becomes very boring! I could never keep playing this! I had no urge to see the next level.

Technically far superior to other versions of 8 bit, but still lower than gameplay, a miss in the most important.

Fantastic collection of stereotypes for baddies.
-Bikers
-Skinhead
-Pimps
-Bouncers
... And the Beastie Boys

Cracking cartoony graphics and simple, fun gameplay. Lacks depth regarding the range of moves, but the challenge is in timing and not losing your weapon. A few hours fun to be had from this one.

Exciting soundtrack! A shame that Gary Biasillo made only a few. The game itself is OK, with nice, detailled graphics. By any means the best of the three Renegades.

I agree with you Takumaji: once you get the correct timing down for punches and kicks, the frustration will turn into addiction and you'll come back for more! the scoring glitch can be performed with all baddies only punching them at the borders of the screen when scrolling stops... Quite useless a hiscore contest, yep anyway a good sidescrolling beat'em up for the

Heh, just came back from playing this game one more time and found a scoring glitch in level 4 (shopping mall) but I'm sure it works in other levels as well. After getting rid of one of those nasty dogs with three low punches, I trapped the guy with the baseball jacket in the left corner and kept kicking him. When his energy ran out, I could see his dying anim (he goes down on his knees) but could still kick him for score (some 300 points per hit, IIRC). Did this several dozen times before I grew tired of it... Hiscore contests for this game thus seem quite useless now, eh.

Cool beat'em up with nice presentation, great graphics and a decent title tune. Thankfully the dev'ers gave the controls a major overhaul and got rid of the sometimes annoying keyboard commands of the first part. Battle your way through five levels to reach Mr Big, a (stereo)typical and rather nasty BmU boss. Difficulty level seems quite high even for advanced BmU players but can be downright frustrating for newbies, at least during the first few runs - once you get the correct timing down for punches and kicks, the frustration will turn into addiction and you'll come back for more. This makes TR one of the best beat'em ups the C64 has to offer. 8/10.

Wish they were up attic so I could sling them over the hitmans way coz u pissing me off putrid one coz I aint got them anymore

My vile mate bought this off me 20 years ago along with my C-64 and many games now he's slung them all up his attic to rot what a pitty, he's pure vile

Ok, the graphics were great, the sound even better and the action was unstopable but I think it was a little bit repetitive. The best game of the trilogy 9/10

First time I saw this game my eyes nearly poped out of my face. After a while of playing it I wanted to pop them back in and go to sleep. Yeah it looks fantastic but I found the original renegade more of a challenge (maybe because of the cumbersome control method). Completed this on my second go where as renegade I forgot how long it took me to complete that thing. Swapped it in the end for platoon (what a deal!).

Best of the Renegades on the C64 but sad to say not as good as the Speccy version.

The commie version was the best visualy, but I too didn't feel much impact when you landed a blow onto a enemy, they just got pushed back instead of reacting to the puch or kick.

But the animation was hilarious and of course the music very jolly indeed, although (and this applies to all 3 versions )a bit out of place!

Still prefer the Amstrad and Speccy versions though, for the "oomph" factor alone.

The best kick ass game for the 64 by a mile a bit like double dragon on MAME

Until I played streets of rage this was the daddy of side ways scrolling beat em ups. The other two renegade games were poo though. Anyone remember vigilante?? That was also good.

The best game of the trilogy and surely the best beat'em all on the C64!

Cracking GFX and nice gameplay although the combat became far too similar for my liking. Nice music as well.

I loved the music actually. Did you know on the first level on even-numbered floors you could just walk to the left to the next lift without kicking the bike?

One of the better punch'em up style games for C64. Beats the hell out of that rubbish Double Dragon conversion.

The best vertically scrolling beat'em'up on C64. Enuff said...

I didn't get any feeling of impact when I clocked someone in this game. Moves didn't look like they hurt. Everything felt a little mushy. Past that I found the game a little limited and quite a lot boring. Oh yeah, the music also annoyed me.

I loved this game. Played it right through quite a few times. It was a bit repetitive but the graphics were great (whoever thought of the hires overlay idea was a genius!). Some of the music was pretty cool too. I experimented trying to rip thev Jonathan Dunn (I think) loader music with my Expert cartridge, and noticed that the loader writer had left a nice greeting in memory for nosey people like me!

I just loved this back in the day. I completed it over and over just to see the great end of game sequence. It is too easy, the music is quite annoying, but the graphics are lovely. Looking at it now, there's no getting around the fact that the gameplay is _very_ repetitive and uninspired. Still, I look at it with quite some fondness and I think this is surely the best in the Renegade trilogy. Not a great trilogy after all

Love the hires overlaied sprites of the characters... And that's about all really. Game play wise, I'd give it about 3/10

I remember liking this a lot and enjoying the great ending sequence after pummelling my way through all the levels. But after trying the game again after many, many years I couldn't understand what I saw in it back then. Yes, graphics are nice but the gameplay is badly dated.

This game is much better than the "Double Dragon I" conversion for C64(BLEAAHH!!! I ate it!!!).
Anyway, you could fall in sleep before finishin' it.
Nice, after all.

Excellent graphics... But extremely monotonous gameplay: fight 2 opponents all the time and there are very few moves avaliable. Renegade is far much better.

Finaly I did not need another joystick to punch or walk. Now I enjoyed the game. No more fights between me and my friend who controlled the punches.

Here is a COMPLETE renegade game controlled by one joystick. Great sound, graphics and game-play. Brilliant game!

If you had the gameplay Renegade the graphics of Target Renegade the and the music of Renegade 3 you would have the ultimate renegade

Well - I had Double Dragon fever too when buying this game and it satisfied my thirst for DD in a way. But it was realy monotonous. And quite easy.

Like the first Renegade better. Havent played Renegade III.

Yes, yes... I know. Once you get up to the level where you're in the park, you're pretty much over this game. But seriously - how good were/are the graphics? This is the closest the C64 ever came to a truly decent, raw and focussed side-scrolling beat-'em up. Sure, it's no Streets of Rage. Bet then, Streets of Rage is no Target Renegade. However, once the adrenalin fuelled from killing bikers, using the weirdly animated baseball bat and doing back-kicks had worn off - we could always fall back on that little novelty that worked it's way into the Wolfenstein/Doom games of later years: The moving and flinching eyes at the bottom of the screen. A sweet game in my book. Damn, I love a good book!

Good looking beat-em-up that is worth a bash despite samey gameplay.

A reasonably good beat em up with decent graphics .

The music in this game is pretty good too!

The game has some of the most well drawn sprites I have ever seen to the C64, very cartoonish graphics. The game itself is quite good, I remember I had "Double Dragon" fever when I bought the game

COMMENT: "I produced the music and sound effects for the C64, Spectrum 128k, and Amstrad versions. Jonathan Dunn handled the 48k Spectrum version which was a completely different set of tunes. I really enjoyed working on this. Paulie Hughes wrote a new C64 driver as Martin had just left Ocean, and nobody could understand how to use his driver." (GB)