Sony's 128-bit Emotion Engine that powered the PS2 quickly became infamous for being, simply put, a pain in the ass to develop for, and what Criterion wound up doing was update RenderWare so that it became a way to more easily develop for the PS2, and its cross-platform support made it possible to port games over to the likes of the GameCube, Xbox, & PC with little fuss. So, starting with Take-Two's City Crisis in 2001, Criterion licensed out RenderWare to any & all interested companies, & even after EA bought Criterion from Canon in 2004, old contracts were still honored & new licenses continued to happen. While EA stopped supporting the engine around 2007, due to its lack of power for the likes of the PS3 & Xbox 360, supported games continued to come out through 2013, plus a one-time return in 2018 for Burnout Paradise Remastered; in total, somewhere over 200 games were developed using Criterion's middleware engine. Still, that RenderWare logo appeared on so many iconic games from that era, whether it was the Burnout franchise, the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise, Manhunt 1 & 2, Sonic Heroes, Bully, Persona 3 & 4 (plus their respective updates), Crackdown, or Black. There were also tons of games you probably at least heard of but didn't know were developed using RenderWare, like Suikoden III, DreamMix TV World Fighters, kill.switch, Max Payne 2, RoboCop [2003], the pre-HD Mortal Kombat games of the 00s, killer7 (at least on the PS2), & even Fate/unlimited codes (a rare arcade appearance for the engine!).
Still, this is Obscusion B-List, so allow me to bring up some Japanese games you likely never heard of in the first place that utilized RenderWare!
After airing on & off throughout the 70s & 80s, Toei's iconic Kamen Rider series of tokusatsu shows went on an decade-long hiatus from TV following the end of Kamen Rider Black RX in 1989; the only things to come out during the 90s were a trio of divisive one-off movies. That all changed in early 2000, when Kamen Rider Kuuga debuted & revived the franchise, which has continued to run to this very day, without taking a single break. It's not like the series lay fully dormant, however, as video game featuring the franchise came out on a regular basis during the 90s, with probably the most well known being The Great Battle, a series by Banpresto which saw Kamen Rider fight evil alongside Ultraman & Gundam. Come November of 2003, the new "Heisei Era" of Kamen Rider was four shows in, with no signs of slowing down quite yet, so Banpresto decided to create a game where the new generation could team up with the old in their never-ending battles against evil. The end result was Kamen Rider: Seigi no Keifu/Genealogy of Justice.
Oddly enough, though Kamen Rider 555 was the show currently airing at the time of release (& only about two months from finishing), it's Kamen Rider Agito that gets representation, even though that series was already two years old by the time of this game's release; to be fair, Ryuki would be too tough to implement, while Jo Odagiri was likely too expensive for Kuuga. Anyway, the plot involves time travel, allowing Agito & Gills to eventually meet up with & fight alongside Kamen Riders #1, #2, V3, Riderman, & Black in a battle against the time-manipulating Evil Eye. Easily the most interesting, or curious, thing about this RenderWare-powered Kamen Rider game is that, while primarily an action game, it plays more like your standard survival horror game of the time, so you have pre-rendered environments, fixed camera angles, & "tank controls", ala Resident Evil. The end result is that this has kind of become a rather obscure & forgotten entry in the Kamen Rider franchise, even though this does seem to be the very first time Heisei & Showa series ever crossed over in any fashion. The fact that it uses Criterion's iconic engine makes it all the more curious, so maybe one day I'll take the time to give it a go, & see how it wound up.
Okay, to be fair, one of these is easily the most well known of the games in this B-List, but I still doubt most people knew either used RenderWare. Amusingly enough, while Geneon's release of the original Hajime no Ippo anime was a notorious sales disaster, the video games made during that time must have been decent sellers, at the very least, because three of them saw release outside of Japan! The first, known abroad as Victorious Boxers: Ippo's Road to Glory, originally came out on the PS2 by ESP in late 2000, followed by an international release by Empire Interactive in late 2001. We don't really care about this game, however, as it wasn't made using RenderWare. Some of the staff of developer New Corporation, though, left to form their own studio, GrandPrix, and would be the team behind the next two sequels, both released in Japan in 2004. The first, January's Hajime no Ippo 2: Victorious Road, would remain exclusive to Japan, but Empire would release the next game, December's Hajime no Ippo: All-Stars, internationally in late 2005 (late 2006 in North America) under the name Victorious Boxers 2: Fighting Spirit, obviously to tie in with Geneon's anime release, which was finishing up at the time & used the name "Fighting Spirit". And, yes, both games utilize RenderWare.
Much like the first game by New Corporation, these two GrandPrix-developed games follow the plot of George Morikawa's original manga, and you play through Story Mode in order to unlock characters for use in things like Versus Mode; it's easy to see why we only got the second game, as it likely had a much fuller roster to play with. I actually remember playing Victorious Boxers 2 a fair bit with a friend back in the day, because we were both fans of Hajime no Ippo, the roster was pretty extensive (going well beyond what the anime had covered up to that point), and the gameplay was fun & easy to get the hang of. That being said, it's not like these were exactly the most technically sound boxing games at the time, and that might have a little something to do with the use of RenderWare. For example, moving characters around while punching can result in all sorts of awkward-looking situations, due to sometimes bizarre collision, and there were some "Sunday punches", i.e. special moves, that the engine simply didn't know how to properly handle. The most infamous example of this is easily Ryuichi Hayami's Shotgun Punch, which is effectively Ippo's equivalent of Fist of the North Star's Hokuto Hundred Crack Fist; it's a wild flurry of punches. Should the opponent guard against it, & the player using Hayami moves around, you wind up with Hayami's upper body contorting all over the place because the punches are still being delivered; it wasn't hard to make Hayami essentially break his spine while doing the move.
Still, it's not like boxing games were a common thing to see attempted using RenderWare (in fact, these might have been the only two), and overall the games still remain fun titles for those who still play PS2 games. As for GrandPrix, it'd continue to develop Hajime no Ippo games, including one for the Wii early on that used motion controls & saw international release as Victorious Boxers: Revolution, before going bankrupt in 2012.
This next entry is a bizarre one, because I can't find any definitive proof that either of these games actually were made using RenderWare, because their original Japanese versions don't mention the engine at all, either on the back cover (which they should, if they used RenderWare) or in the copyright section. However, there's plenty of indications that seem to point otherwise, & I think that's worth writing about. In 2003, Idea Factory entered into a partnership with Taiwanese developer XPEC Entertainment, with the end result being four games in the IF Neverland franchise that were developed by XPEC & published by Idea Factory. One of them was 2004 hack-&-slash Bakuen Kakusei: Neverland Senki Zero/Explosive Awakening: Record of Neverland War Zero, which later saw English release only in Europe in 2006 by Midas Interactive under the name Realm of the Dead; just look at how gloriously terrible that European cover at is. The weird thing is that, while the Japanese release makes no mention of RenderWare being used, the European release proudly includes the engine's logo on the back cover, alongside crediting the engine as being the property of Canon... Even though EA had owned Criterion, & RenderWare by association, ever since 2004. Unfortunately, the credits for the game have never been uploaded onto any database, like Mobygames, nor is there a video online showing the end credits, so I can't verify anything that way.
What's bizarre is that there is no also indication online whatsoever of RenderWare being used in relation to the original Japanese release... Except for one. By being very specific with what to search for, I came across the LinkedIn profile for Honny Chen, a Chinese software engineer & programmer who worked for XPEC for a little over two years. In his resume, he lists having programmed games for the developer by way of RenderWare, and not only does he list Baken Kakusei, he also lists another XPEC/Idea Factory joint, 2004's Specrtral Force Chronicle. Similar to the first game, this strategy RPG "digest" retelling of the old PS1 Spectral Force games makes no mention of RenderWare anywhere on its packaging, and the credits don't make any mention of it at all, either. However, a third game that Chen mentions, XPEC-original Daemon Vector for the PC, does indeed credit RenderWare & Canon. I highly doubt Honny Chen would lie about developing using RenderWare while at XPEC, so that leaves one of two options. Either XPEC never had an official license to develop using RenderWare, as I'm pretty sure the game(s) would have to mention the use of said engine somewhere, or Idea Factory was the one that made the choice to not credit RenderWare anywhere, seeing as they never had a contract to use the engine, in the first place. I mean, there's also the chance that neither Bakuen Kakusei: Neverland Senki Zero nor Spectral Force Chronicle actually used RenderWare, but if you look at footage of either game, they both seem to have some of the trademark visual stylings of being RenderWare games. However, to be fair, there are other games that looked to have used RenderWare in some fashion, only to not fully credit it. For example, Headhunter: Redemption, from around the same time, is listed as a RenderWare game online, but the credits only give Special Thanks to Criterion Software & some staff, never mentioning the engine by name.
This also makes me wonder if Black Stone: Magic & Steel (Ex-Chaser in Japan) for the Xbox & Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage for the Xbox 360 are also uncredited RenderWare titles, as XPEC also made those games, with the latter utilizing essentially the same exact engine as Spectral Force Chronicle.
While RenderWare was utilized primarily for PS2 development, it did support all other consoles of the time, so here's the sole GameCube-exclusive entry in this list. Banpresto's Super Robot Wars franchise has been one that focuses on delivering battle animations by way of 2D sprites & hand drawn animation, and that's still generally true to this day. Polygonal graphics have seen use once they started to become more prevalent, but usually only for the on-field graphics when you move units around, or even for the backdrops that the sprites animate on top of, though even that depended on the game. In fact, it wouldn't be until 2004 that Banpresto truly went "full-3D" for the battle animations, and that entry was Super Robot Wars GC; amusingly enough, though, the on-field graphics in this game are all flat, 2D sprites. In terms of roster, GC houses one of the most unique in franchise history, because it has a specific focus around it: 80s mech anime. Series like Blue Comet SPT Layzner, Dancouga, Trider G7, Metal Armor Dragonar, Heavy Metal L-Gaim, Universal Century Gundam, & the entire J9 Series take center stage here, alongside outliers like Matchless Raijin-Oh, the Mazinkaiser OVA, & Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo. This was only one of a handful of SRW titles from the 00s that featured similarly thematic rosters, alongside Compact 3's cavalcade of obscurities, D's focus on darker & mysterious stories, W's early semi-attempt at appealing to a non-Japanese audience, K's attention towards reboots & the 00s, & finally Neo's deadeye for super robots & early 90s chibi mech anime. Ever since Bandai Namco took complete control over the franchise, there really hasn't been an SRW game with as strong a thematic focus as something like GC.
As mentioned earlier, RenderWare games often wound up having a specific visual style to them, likely due to limitations within the engine itself; some games managed to avoid it with certain art directions, though. I bring it up again here because SRW GC definitely looks like your generic RenderWare game, with basic polygonal graphics for the battle sequences, and an overall lack of extra polish from Banpresto really doesn't help things; even the UI looks rather bland, admittedly. Still, I'd say the game manages to hold up well to this day, and that's mainly because of what it tried to do differently from most SRW games. All units have secondary health meters, which allows for more strategic gameplay, as you can take away an enemy's ability to use certain attacks by destroying their arms, restrict movement by taking out the legs, or lower accuracy by damaging the head, and likewise the same can be done to you; sadly, this doesn't show on the models themselves, outside of smoke & short-circuiting. You can also capture enemy units to either use as your own or to scrap for more money, which is neat; it's just a shame piloting is limited to pretty much only real robots. Still, I will say that if you wanted to play this game, you should really just find a way to play Super Robot Wars XO, the HD remaster that came out for the Xbox 360 in 2006. XO is literally everything GC is, only with improved visuals, a better presentation, and more content, like extra attacks for some units & even online play. However, it doesn't look like XO was actually made using RenderWare, or at least I can't find definitive proof of it, so it only gets a quick mention here, at the end.
If you want more info about Super Robot Wars GC & XO, I reviewed them together way back in 2012.
This game only ever saw release in Japan & Europe, and even then it became forgotten almost immediately, though that's not exactly too surprising, considering that it likely just got lost in the shuffle amongst the other games Konami was putting out around the same time. I mean, you try standing up against a few Castlevania games, various Metal Gear Solid titles, Nano Breaker, & Suikoden V; sure, not exactly the strongest year for Konami, but not exactly a weak one, either. Originally released in Japan as Oz: Over Zenith in June of 2005, renamed Chains of Power in Korea, & released in Europe in early 2006, The Sword of Etheria is a third-person hack-&-slash game, with some RPG elements, in which your actions can result in multiple endings for each chapter of the story. And, yes, as the Japanese title indicates, there is a strong Wizard of Oz influence, with the main character, Fiel, being on a mission to save his sister Dorothy, and he has the support of Dorothy's cat, Toto, which can give Fiel powers similar to that of the godlike "Katena".
Unfortunately, this is a game that I have no experience or familiarity with, but looking at footage it honestly seems to be a neat title. It's definitely a 3D hack-&-slash game of the era, complete with amusingly awkward English dubbing, but it definitely has potential; it's a perfect example of how great artistry can mask RenderWare's usual visual style. It's also got a solid staff behind it, with Junichi Murakami (Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow) directing, character designs by Fumi Ishikawa (Suikoden II), & music by the legendary Michiru Yamane. While the reception for its European release seems to have been a bit mixed, and Konami's 3D action titles of the time were equally mixed, I still think it's a shame that The Sword of Etheria got skipped over for a North American release, because this does look like a game I would have snapped up back in the day; I enjoyed games like Castlevania: Lament of Innocence & Nano Breaker, so I likely would have enjoyed this, too. It's also just kind of surprising to find out about a Konami game for the PlayStation 2 that saw release in Japan & Europe, but not North America; I knew of Ikusagami/Demon Chaos, but not this one.
Finally, we end on a bit of a paradox, because it's not like Neon Genesis Evangelion is some obscure Japanese franchise. That being said, though, there are simply so many different spin-offs & alternate universe takes on Hideaki Anno & Gainax's seminal 90s mech anime, especially in video game form, that it's extremely plausible for individual products to get lost in the shuffle. For example, Eva fans know about the Girlfriend of Steel games or The Shinji Ikari Raising Project, but not as many know about games like mid-2007's Battle Orchestra (a.k.a. "Eva meets Smash Bros.") or the final entry of this list, early 2007's Detective Evangelion. Similar to those more well known AU stories, the game re-imagines things so that Shinji winds up being as much of a boy detective as he is a giant robot pilot, with things getting started when Shinji sees Rei killed by a humanoid monster (don't worry, there are Rei clones to replace her), and the game itself has effectively no action-oriented gameplay whatsoever. Instead, it looks to follow two gameplay styles.
First, there's a menu-oriented system where you can go to different areas, interact with other characters & ask them questions regarding the mystery at hand. Second, there's a point-&-click system where you investigate the scene of the crime in order to find clues, and eventually come to the conclusion, usually relating to the Angels, in some fashion. Going off of footage you can find online, it's a very cutscene & conversation-focused game, almost entering into visual novel territory, while the plot seems to be a mix of the more serious Eva fare, while also having no problems indulging into the downright bizarre. For example, you literally see Eva Unit-01 dress up like a doctor, while Eva Unit-03, with Touji inside, is tied up onto a cricifix by Asuka & Rei, in their respective Evas, against a wall in the NERV hangar, because his unit has been infected by a small Angel; I am completely serious. As for the visuals, they definitely look the part of your standard RenderWare game, with character models looking like the iconic Eva cast, but having some animations to them that just look really floaty & awkward today. Oddly enough, while Broccoli used the engine for this bizarre game, which also had its own manga adaptation (because of course it did), it was not re-used for Battle Orchestra, even though Broccoli also developed & published that game later the same year. As it is, Detective Evangelion is definitely a strange take on the iconic franchise, which really says something considering what else has come from Eva, and it's status as the sole game made using RenderWare kind of just adds to the oddity.
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| Look, I know that Evangelion AUs can get weird... But I think this takes the cake. |
And that's a general look at a bunch of Japanese video games, even if two were technically developed in Taiwan, that all used RenderWare, with all but one being related to some sort of long-running or iconic franchise. While today the middleware engine is looked back at being essential parts of things like Grand Theft Auto, Burnout, Mortal Kombat, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, & Persona, it was also a part of stuff like Hajime no Ippo, Kamen Rider, Super Robot Wars, & even Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's especially shocking at how readily supported it was over in Japan, as history has generally shown that Japanese studios would rather make their own proprietary engines first, and only start utilizing the work of others as a last resort when their own engines have essentially either failed to succeed or have outlived their usefulness; just look at how long it's taken for Unreal Engine to finally see heavy support in Japan. If anything, that shows just how relevant & important Criterion Software was in the evolution of video game development, & especially in regards to the PlayStation 2, during the 00s; RenderWare essentially WAS "video games" for an entire generation.
Kamen Rider: Seigi no Keifu © Ishimori Pro・Toei © Ishimori Pro・TV Asahi・ADK・Toei © Banpresto 2003
Hajime no Ippo 2: Victorious Road © George Morikawa/Kodansha・VAP・NTV © 2003 ESP/Kodansha
Victorious Boxers 2: Fighting Spirit © George Morikawa/Kodansha・VAP・NTV © ESP/Kodansha
Bakuen Kakusei: Neverland Senki Zero © 2004 Idea Factory/XPEC Entertainment
Spectral Force Chronicle © 2005 Idea Factory/XPEC Entertainment © Idea Factory 10th Anniversary Project
Super Robot Wars GC © Ashi Pro © Movie International/Shigeo Tsubota © Sunrise © Sotsu・Sunrise © Dynamic Planning © Toei © Banpresto 2004
Oz: Over Zenith © 2005 Konami
Detective Evangelion © Gainax・Khara © Broccoli
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