Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
182A playthrough of Raya Systems' 1994 run-and-gun edutainment game for the Super Nintendo, Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon.
The massive SNES library has always been known for the diversity of its offerings, and Rex Ronan certainly does it's part to uphold that reputation. Between 1992 and 1995, Raya Systems commissioned and published a line of "edutainment" games for the console to inform consumers on a range of health-related issues. Rex Ronan: Experimental Surgeon, developed by Sculptured Software, was intended to educate gamers about the dangers of smoking.
I'm not even going to try to paraphrase the setup since the intro does a masterful job it already:
"Jake Westboro thought he had it all. A successful sales career with Blackburn Tobacco Company, a beautiful wife, a great car. Jake started smoking when he was 15, but now he's DYING from smoking the cigarettes he once sold.
Jake's only hope is Dr. Rex Ronan, a brilliant experimental surgeon. Dr. Ronan will shrink himself to near-microscopic size, and enter Jake's body to fight Jake's diseases.
Blackburn Tobacco Company is afraid that if Jake lives, he'll tell the world how dangerous smoking is. They will do anything to stop Dr. Ronan. Time is running out, Dr. Ronan must hurry...
DEADLY MICROBOTS FROM BLACKBURN TOBACCO COMPANY HAVE ENTERED JAKE'S BODY. USE CAUTION!"
So what does all of that mean? Essentially, Jake's innards, in addition to being ravaged by cancer, play host to a shameless, inept Contra clone.
You travel through the mouth, the respiratory system, and brain trying to save Jake by clearing out bad breath-causing plaque buildup, gummy tar deposits, and clouds of nicotine. With a flamethrower.
Because a flamethrower is apparently safe to use as a pressure washer inside the human body.
And because power-washing alone does not a fun game make, you also have to fend off an army of big tobacco's killer nanomachines, but for whatever reason, instead of using their bombs and missiles to kill Jake outright, they all target you, Dr. Rex Ronan, to prevent you from saving him. Talk about convoluted, campy (but nonetheless amusing) video game logic. Somewhat less entertaining than the set up, unfortunately, is the execution.
Har, har.
Each main stage is setup like a run-and-gun shooter, and "smart bombs" can be used to clear the screen while teaching you random facts about the dangers of smoking. Your flamethrower is good for clearing bad body stuff, your blaster is intended to handle the robots, and each are upgradable. You can't freely switch between them, though, so some of the later levels become really frustrating if you have the wrong gun equipped and no way to change it. The platforming is also somewhat less than refined, with Rex's comical leaps easily getting him stuck on invisible obstructions that can only be cleared by purposely forcing his sprite to clip through the floor. This often happens while you're being swarmed by things lobbing rockets at you, which is as not ideal as you might imagine, and the laggy controls don't improve those prospects.
Between these stages, you travel to different parts of the body in a pseudo-3D rail shooter sequence a bit reminiscent of Sewer Shark, sans grainy FMV footage. These sequences are short but brutal, plagued with terrible collision detection and short draw distances, resulting in endless frustration until you realize the safest bet it to park yourself on the edge of the screen hammering the fire button as fast as humanly possible.
The game serves a noble cause, but it just doesn't feel good to play. And who was the game's target audience? Smokers that needed to spend $60 on a cartridge to learn the same things that could be read in a pamphlet from a doctor's office? Not really an appealing proposition, is it?
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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