Target: Renegade (1988). Play Free Online

Summary

Target: Renegade arrived on home computers in the late‑80s as Ocean Software’s first original sequel to the arcade classic Renegade. Granted an option to spin off from the licensed arcade conversion, Ocean used the freedom to create a five‑stage beat ’em up that let one or two players control a leather‑vested, jeans‑clad street fighter seeking revenge against the crime lord Mr. Big.
The box art—a mash‑up of martial‑arts legend Joe Lewis’s book cover, tweaked to match the game’s tough‑guy aesthetic. Depending on the platform the play feels different: the NES version mirrors Double Dragon’s side‑scrolling, while the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad releases toggle between smooth scrolling and flip‑screen rooms. Notably the NES and C64 lack a two‑player co‑op mode, a quirk that set them apart from the home‑computer twins.
Critics loved the home computer versions, earning scores such as 90% in Crash and a perfect 10/10 in Sinclair User, and Your Sinclair later ranked the Spectrum edition 13th in its Readers’ Top 100. An unofficial Windows remake titled Target: 2006 extended multiplayer to six players, proving the formula still thrills retro fans today.

Storyline

Target: Renegade drops you into a gritty city where the crime boss Mr. Big has seized your brother, Matt, and locked him away in the notorious Big’s Pig Pen on the town’s upper side. The streets are swarming with rival gangs hunting you, so you must fight your way through the urban maze to rescue him. You play as the lone streetfighter known only as Renegade, armed at the start with nothing but your fists, but you can scavenge improvised weapons like baseball bats and garbage cans as you progress. The game plays as an arcade‑style side‑scrolling beat‑‘em‑up, supporting one or two players, and the core goal is either to avenge Matt’s murder or to free him from captivity, depending on the version you encounter.

Edited by Maya Carter