REN and STIMPI: Nickelodeon’s madness

To the current Nickelodeon It can be treated differently. I sincerely hate them for what they did with the ninja turtles, but at the same time I love it for the hours and watches in front of the screen watching the cartoon block on TNT. But we must admit that the one once bold, ready for experiments, the company lost all the teeth and became an unremarkable conveyor of ordinary animated series and show for children.

That is why we will recall only the golden years of this mulsenserial mastodon, then cartoons and games shown to them based on their reasons. And we will start with the most controversial, crazy and strange “Show Rena and Steampi”, which I, frankly, almost always switched. But in vain or not – we will discuss in this issue. In addition, we find out what is common between The Rolling Stones and this animated series, games Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy’s Invention And Vectorman, And also get acquainted with one song, which, as befits such muck, will come in your head.

The animated series “Show Rena and Steampi” is a concentrated sur and idiocy, which, it seems to me, did not set up in the right place. And among the moralizing series “Hey, Arnold!”, The crucible” Oh, these children “and pink -blade” As the Ginger says “, Ren and Steampy looked extremely strange.

But how they got there? Well, in fact, there is no big intrigue here.

John Chrisfalushi – Animator and multiplier, whose full -fledged big work began with the clip The Rolling Stones “Harlem Shuffle” And the animated series “Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures”, In which there was no hint of the future author’s style, because the cartoon looked like the usual entertainment for children.

In 1988, John founded his modest animation studio to work on the Rena and Steampy show. A year later, a pilot release was completed, thanks to which Nickelodeon was sold to the show.

The cartoon himself told short stories from the life of a good, naive and stupid cat of steampy and evil, greedy, sociopathic Chihuahua Astmatika Ren.

We happened to observe their trip through various universities, their work as firefighters, a service in the army, many household sketches and many-many others. But what distinguished this series from others – humor on the verge, which was not always suitable for a children’s audience, unusual animation and drawing. But all this was the conflict of the bosses Nickelodeon and Chrisfalushi.

The creation of one episode took from two to eight months, which sometimes led to breakdowns of the terms of premiere shows. This was even devoted to a joke in one of the episodes Simpsonov (Season 4 Episode 19).

Excerpt from m \ s Simpsons (season 4, Episode 19)

There were also many disputes about individual scenes, where, according to the channel, there was too much cruelty, or humor went beyond the scope of children’s perception. And these disagreements eventually led to John’s instructions on the door and removal from work on the further series of the show. John himself calls the reason for his dismissal episode “Man’s Best Friend”, Namely, the scene of Ren’s beating of his newly made owner, which greatly outraged Nickelodeon producers. But here, to be honest, it is difficult to believe, because this scene did not particularly stand out against the background of the rest of the things shown in the series. But the fact is one – John was fired, putting another person in his place. And according to the fans of the animated series, the creator’s departure was noticeable. The humor has become worse, the animation became worse, the rating, respectively, also confidently crawled down.

Excerpt from the episode “Man’s Best Friend”

As a result, the animated series in the original form lasted until 1996. Why in “original form?”. The fact is that in 2002, Chrisfalushi again returned to work on Ren and Steampy, but with a certain nuance. Now the animated series was aimed at the entire audience, which meant the complete absence of brakes in the topics for humor and shown things on the screens. And the creators use this without constraint.

The themes of sex appeared, including homosexual, and between the main characters! In the frame, you can now see anuses, boobs, shit, guts and other things delighted with an adult. But all this charm lasted only six episodes from the planned nine. For me – well, okay. Watching the adult version of Ren and steampy is not just not funny, but simply not pleasant. And I tell you as a lover of Gryffin.

The game of game in the adult version of Ren and steampy is the best as possible this cut

As for the original series – many consider it a disgusting. I will not say what kind of business, but almost all repulsive tricks in the future were repeated and other popular animated series. But Ren and Steampy often likes to joke more adults on topics, and the animation as a whole is clearly not intended for a wide range of spectators. This cartoon, even without 18+ adaptation, would organically look at Adult Swim’e than among the rest of Nickelodeon creations. And as I already said, in childhood he almost always switched during his show and he remembered me just like a vile, strange, not avoiding cartoon.

And now? Frankly, I would not touch him again, if not for the game on the seg. I will say even more honestly – I exploded like a sea horse in some moments of individual series. And if earlier it was only good for the empathy, but the fool of Steampy and even then with a stretch, now you involuntarily begin to associate yourself with a Ren, which longs only money, healthy sleep, eat and less communication with anyone. Well, how can you not recognize your external and inner copy!

But to advise for viewing now, and even to everyone and everyone, I definitely will not become. Still, the animated series turned out to be a specific. The sense of humor has different, different tastes and preferences, because everyone will perceive the “Rena and Steampi show” in their own way. But if you dare, it is better to watch in the original voice acting. In extreme cases – Paramount Comedy, which was when showing at MTV. The dubbing with which the series was shown on TNT completely kills all the charisma of Ren, namely, it is interesting to listen to and observe most of the time.

But what, most likely, the majority will perceive favorably – the game on Sega! Here we are finally crossing her! But we will return to the series more than once.

Let’s start, so to speak, with sweets. Let them tell us in childhood that it is harmful. True, they silent that living on the salary of a state employee is even more harmful ..

I tried this game even in distant happy years, but I could fully try this project only a couple of years ago. And I will say honestly – I was surprised. After all, I did not remember my feelings from the game, but from the animated series – quite. And here we have such a tightly knocked representative of the forces and even with a cool cooperative that I was left in complete delight and I want to share it with you.

The Ren & Stampy Show: Stimpy’s Invention advertising video

The plot is simple: Steampi created the next interesting invention, which can process household garbage in food. If something like this was done in Skolkovo, our life would be much better … But according to the laws of the genre, and as some not very stable programs like to say, something went wrong. When turning and installing the power “No Way!»The device explodes and we have to collect all fragments scattered around the city and return them to place.

In search of the necessary components of inventions in the form of a TV, sensor, giddle, another thing and beaver, we will visit such locations as: the back yard, kitchen, refrigerator, zoo, aviary, city streets, ring, ring, surreal forest, and after getting into the invention itself! Agree, the list is considerable.

Moreover, the game every now and then changes the mechanics of passage. That is, after passing several levels as a familiar platformer, your heroes are pumped up with air and you will have to fly in level, baking by asshole in order to give acceleration and direction to the character.

Then the usual gameplay will be returned again, but now you are already racing on a bicycle from the service of dogs of dogs, holding the desired speed so as not to fall into the hands of the pursuer and not crash into the cars going ahead.

And again, a pair of run-in-jumping locations that change sharply to the ring, where you dodge the asshole technique of this powerful gentleman.

Another respite and right in the middle of the level is persistently offered to use a flying bicycle! The vehicle of transportation is certainly dubious, but still more comfortable and safer Yandex taxi economy.

But whatever it may be, Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy’s Invention – First of all, a platformer, whose representatives in those days were dozens, or even hundreds. And bringing something new to this genre is quite difficult. But let this game a little, but was able to slightly push the framework of the usual gameplay, at the same time embarrassing me with this at the first acquaintance with it. And the matter is all in the wealth of actions and management.

Accustomed to three buttons, most often responsible for the attack, jump and special. action, at first I didn’t even think that in this case the same buttons could activate much more techniques than it seems at first glance. You just need to click on a, b or C, while holding the arrow in one of the directions. And what combinations in general are there, you ask? Well, again I will be happy to satisfy your silent curiosity.

To destroy opponents by default, lumps of the wool \ Chihuahuyov boomerang if the heroes are next to each other, and toilet paper / flyboid if they are separate. Combining the attack button with arrows, you will get tossing up the nasal of steampy, or Rena whole, as well as an attack on the bottom, turning one of the hero into a ball. Yeah, just like our beloved blue hedgehog.

By combining the jump and https://nonukgamblingsites.co.uk/european-casinos/ the “Up” button, you can get a little higher, making a helicopter from Rena or from steampy an earth-air rocket in a perch.

And the “action” button is responsible for overcoming distances both into the distance using a jump or run, and deeper, for which you just need to combine it with a “down” button and a light movement of Ren turns into a convenient shovel, and steampi into a powerful jack ofhand.

And by pressing “up+action” we activate a funny, but useless animation of belching, or a clever.

And all this wealth of the mechanic, landscapes, actions and events occurs in less than half an hour. That is, one location is allocated from 30 seconds, up to four minutes! And here you can argue whether it is or just right. For those who bought a cartridge and having come home, waiting for the time of passing like other similar games, it will immediately reach the credits – it will not be enough. And to everyone who touched this game of playfulness by exchange of cartridges with a friend or having already gone in modern times on an emulator – just right. But the fact is one – the game lasts about 25 minutes and does not represent a special challenger.

But at the same time, she does not have time to get bored and does not give a single chance to get bored or get tired of passing. A lightning speed of the surrounding environment strung on a seemingly familiar, but capable of giving a new experience of gameplay, seasoned with interesting unusual situations creates a dynamic, cheerful and exciting video game attraction.

And it doesn’t matter if you play one or together with a friend. This does not change interestingness, but in the case of cooperative passage, slightly complexity, laughter and disputes are added. After all, this is one of the few games where it is really important to act together. You need to navigate very quickly and decide how and with the help of whom to pass certain areas. After all, it is worth hesitating and arguing for an extra second who will be a flying tool in order to deliver both to a high platform, as you will be attacked by enemies. Or crushed by a heavy press, if this second does not decide who the path will go down down. Well, or miss all bonus objects, while catching all the stone balls if you do not coordinate the actions on a flying bike.

In general, the game clearly deserves space among the best games for two. But it can also be and worth passing it alone. If you were a simple game lover of any year of release or a fan of this cartoon show. Moreover, in the second case, you will receive an additional portion of pleasure from references.

And yes, it is the references. Developers from Bluesky Software (Yes, the same ones that will do two years later Vectotman’A) They did not copy any series on the forehead, but came up with their simple history, took separate places of action of the series, slightly changed, expanded and polished them for game standards and pointedly placed recognizable objects and characters. So, for example, the level in the kitchen we begin, seeing the owner of the house in the face of the horse, which appeared in many series. For example, Fire Dogs And “Rubber Nipple Salesmen”.

In the same series, the head of the fire station was also found, which is represented in the game as an ordinary enemy.

The appearance of the monkeys in the enclosures straight from the series “Monkey See, Monkey Donmet”, From there, the costumes of monkeys were migrated, which were hung in the urban level.

Dog lifes, as well as a dog shelter, as an environment came from a pilot episode “Big House Blues”.

You can find out the ring and these two pumped up by watching a series “Mad Dog Höek”.

And strange landscapes of the fifth level send us to several episodes at once: “Black Hole”, “Marooned” And “Ren’s toothache”, where the rear background and atmosphere of schizophrenia were taken from the first, from the second trees with eyes, and from the third – the theme of teeth, sick and healthy.

Also in the very first screensaver, in addition to the Sega logo, a log meets us. And the log is the best toy for children! Well, at least this is what the advertisement shown in the universe of the show.

And a banner with the name of the levels helpfully shows us a superhero-man from “”Powdered toast Man “. He will return the heroes if they fall into the abyss, or one of them will move too far from the second.

Well, the very name of the game, the song in the final credits and the idea that the stupid steampi is the inventor a direct reference to one of the most popular series “Stimpy’s Invention “. And this series is popular primarily thanks to the song that sounds there “Happy Happy Joy Joy” which we will encounter in this material more than once. And if your brain loves to memorize stupid, but prefixing songs – better do not turn on.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

And as for Seg’s, the game on this animated series was only one. Much richer the list of such on SNES. True, some of them were no longer so accurate with the number of Easter Easter shoes, some went into a rather interesting genre, and some of the extremely greedy for content. But the main thing is whether it was interesting to play in them? Let’s figure it out with you!

The game transfers 4 series of shows to the video game format, partially quoting their plot.

Level 1 introduces the story from the series “The Boy Who Cried Rat!”, in which our heroes do not die of hunger, come up with a reliable plan how to make money. And the plan was in the services of a cat Stimpi for fishing mice. What to do if there are no mice in the house? That’s right, here the similarity of Chihuahuyov with these rodents comes to the rescue.

In the game, we will be given the role of Ren in a mouse costume (and in the animated, pants were red, unequivocally hinting at one multi -crop, they are blue). In the first hubby, we need to reach the end of the room, avoiding various traps, stampy pods and use individual objects that help overcome some obstacles. Then we fall into the mouth of steampy and we need to do the same, only with the exception that we need to avoid falling stones and beavers … Do not ask. Well, this game episode ends with the boss – beaver sitting in the tongue (no, there was no such thing in the cartoon) and the shoot from the mouth.

The level 2 is dedicated to the episode “In the Army”, in which, how easy it is to guess the animals we know we get into the army. Voluntarily or they did not delete public services – I don’t know.

We need to go through an obstacle strip, trenches and military operations. And in conclusion he will fight with the sergeant that he appeared in the aforementioned series.

In general, the level turned out to be some strange. Mixed in a heap of horses, people. Instead of taking one of many funny moments and locations where they took place, we are thrown on a faceless battlefield, pouring the crowds of incomprehensible opponents.

Level 3 and here is already familiar to us the name “Stimpy’s Invention”. Now we get the control of steampy in our hands. We need to reach the end of the level, jumping on the platforms, selecting various objects and mixing explosive substances. In the end, instead of a boss, we just need to put a helmet of happiness on Ren. And what will happen later we will find out in the series.

What I want to say about this game segment – I categorically don’t like it. And the point here is in the terrible design of locations. You often do not understand what you can jump on, and what is further or closer to the camera. What can harm you and that just beautiful special effects. What can and should be taken or moved, and what is just a decoration. So there are still no opponents and the usual boss. So it turns out that our only enemy is just an inconvenient design.

The level 4 is the plot and locations from the series are borround “Marooned”, or more precisely from its second half. After the crash on an unknown planet of heroes, the ugly aliens abduct and put them in one of them. This is where the events of the game episode begin.

We play steampy again and first fly down to the very depths of the monster, while avoiding flying living organisms, which, apparently, already of their own free will. Then we run through the intestines of this creature, fight with microflora and microfauna inside it, fly in bubbles from the gaziks and look for the way out. But we find only a boss in a rotating location, we win it and ..

And that’s it. Level, like the game ends. Titras. You are a big well done. We listen again “Happy Happy Joy Joy”.

Telling something else about this game then does not go out. This is a very uneven project that will most likely like only fans of the series, but players with experience the game is unlikely to offer something deserving. Nevertheless, the game lasts a little more than half an hour and, if desired, you can try it very much in order to slightly expand your game experience. But maybe the next game is much more curious?

The plot and its construction are quite peculiar here. Initially, we are informed that a real time machine is being played out and for its winnings you only need to send a 47 million label from a cat toilet to the star of the television screens to fish Madskipper fish. And yes, we really need to find them.

Throughout the first level, we will have to walk along dangerous streets, fight with embittered dogs, mosquitoes, the head of the fire station, the grancation and the owner of the zoo. Derive from flying walruses and avoid open hatches. Collect bonuses and use various selected items. And if you try well and do not miss the place where the coveted labels may lie, then at the end of these city adventures you will have as many as 70 pieces! That is, in theory, for the rest of the game, we will only have to collect 46,999,930 of these pieces of paper.

But suddenly we find out that the man, saving the puppy on the railway tracks, knocked over the train that the same filler was thrown. Using the moment, we get the missing number of labels, and win the time machine! That is, it turned out to be more real than finding two covers with different halves of the image of a backpack in Minda! Yes, only the initiator of this action is dissatisfied, calls us lousy homeless people and promises to pick up our car that has already become.

And on this, in fact, the plot then ends. We move by a time machine by levels where there is no hint that we get in any other period of time.

That is, the second level is a reference to the series “Haunted House”. We first walk around the cemetery, and then go into the crypt. Are there any hints that this happens in antiquity, the Middle Ages or the future? Not really.

Maybe this will be traced in the next leftist? And here is the already familiar surroundings of the episode “Monkey See, Monkey Donmet”. Monkeys, hippos and healthy albatros. Again modernity, they did not jump anywhere in time again.

We did not jump in the following level, where we see a reference to “Untamed World”, which was just a parody of animal programs. Modern animals.

And everything that remains of the plot is an implanting fish that needs to be beaten from time to time and vomiting levels with flights of time.

The game ends too exactly nothing, without placing a point in history. At the same time, they write by writing that this is the ending at number 0. Is it worth it to recall the game, and just go through the first to find out the presence of endings under other numbers? Probably yes.

To begin with, if past projects were purebred platformers, now we have something closer to Beat’em Up. Elements of the level of level of level are also present here, albeit not in every location, but what you have to do almost all the time – to beat the variety of enemies, sometimes diluting the mordonical process of the mini games.

And all this in a package of a colorful and well -drawn environment, a variety of animations and all kinds of references to the series. Such as:

Here and there the helmets of happiness are scattered, which can be removed only with the help of a hammer in your pocket, or about the wall. Otherwise – you can only walk and absorb damage with a stupid look.

On the way we will find a whole scattering of characters found in a cartoon of varying degrees of importance. As for example, a previously found fireman, visitors to the zoo or a blind huke albino.

Well, how to do without “Happy Happy Joy Joy”? So here she plays after each stage passed. The words of this song will also be found while moving on a time machine.

But what can be confused is the levels with flight and an unstable complexity. As for the first-due to a kind of visual at these moments, some kind of discomfort is felt. And what will happen to people suffering from epilepsy or rimming and think scary. So also the segments are not short and not that interesting.

Well, as for the complexity, at certain moments the game throws some indecent number of enemies on you, despite the fact that you have a bunch of traps under your feet, which you also need to follow. Otherwise, it’s worth trying. But better paired with someone. So obviously more fun, and there will be more whiskers.

But in the next projects, one can no longer play. And is it worth playing at all – let’s understand.

Steampi creates a prefix, playing which you can get real money. That is, he realized our dream when we won the miracles in the DOS field. And we have to play in the video game while we play in the video game. It sounds good in theory, especially if you think that with such a plot you can get a bunch of interesting events, a mechanic and places of action.

Do you know what are the actions here? The first level is dedicated to the series “Robin Hoek” and passes against the background of castles, and the opponents are mainly brave men in armor, which clearly hints at the Middle Ages.

The second level is a wild West with all inherent attributes and evil cowboys straight from “Out West”.

Third – on a futuristic spaceship from the episode “Space Madness”.

The thought does not occur to you that it would look more appropriate in another game? Well, where temporary eras should change? Well, okay. You know what will happen to pass this segment in space? Middle Ages. And then the Wild West. And then the cosmocorab. You will guess what later? Middle Ages! And then again! Warm up this holiday of monotony and music. There are exactly as much compositions here as locations (not levels). At the same time, the most, so to say, superficial musical themes of the animated series were taken. Namely, music from the initial screensaver, the credits and clearly loved you “Happy Happy Joy Joy”. Moreover, the latter definitely fades. After all, its duration is 16 seconds, and the duration of the levels at which it plays is about half an hour.

I also did not leave the feeling that the replacement of controlled characters with any others, then almost nothing would change. There are no bright memorable secondary characters, events or Easter shoes here. And with the available they treated somehow casually, scattering them in random places in no less random quantities. And the impression is that the authors did not want to plunge properly and plunge into the world of “Rena and Steampi”, doing extremely superficial work on the connection of the helmets and the game.

Otherwise, this is a purebred platform with all inherent attributes. Platforms of varying degrees of width, many jumps on them, annoying enemies, nooks for additional research, and this is all. Sometimes we are offered to dilute the process somewhat, let’s say rolls on the chicken, or the need to bring Ren to the desired point in the levels at the space station (which actually annoyed me), but in general – this is the usual gunner, the rules and principles of which are familiar to every player.

Summing up – this is an extremely ambiguous game with a large number of very strange solutions. There are beautiful places, familiar main characters and curious ideas, but it all sinks in very uneven and sometimes too high complexity, annoying music, repeated environment and general protractedness, which ultimately leads to a lack of a feeling of anticipation from what will happen next. And at a certain point you understand that everything is just tired, simply uninteresting and still how the game ends.

So let’s look at what the last game has prepared there.

If I scolded the last project for a small number of locations, musical compositions and a long passage, then the situation is even more interesting. The timing here, of course, is a little less. Only about an hour. But locations – two. As many tracks dedicated to these places. How so?

The fact is that the game is completely based on just one series, namely – Fire Dogs. In this cartoon, the episode our binary decided to get into the fire department, having previously painted with the paint of the Dalmatin color, because only this spotted breed was accepted to the service. All hopes for easy service without a single call were destroyed on the very first day, which eventually turned into one of the funny series of this show.

Excerpt from the episode “Fire Dogs”

The game invites us to work from Monday to Friday, dividing the whole action into two parts. In the first we have to equip a fire engine with various necessary objects in the allotted time. So we run throughout the fire department in search of the need, avoiding fire, water, evil uncles and other unpleasant things. The second part of the day is devoted directly to the salvation of property falling from a burning building. If you played Jim’s worm and remember the episode with puppies, then the local actions will be familiar and understandable to you.

With each new day, the trap, the number of objects dropped out of the windows and time to complete tasks, change in the fire part. So, let’s say, in the final stage, we have to catch all kinds of living and not very property for almost nine minutes!

And to be honest, I can’t imagine why you need to spend at least an hour of my life (but the first time you definitely will not reach the end) to pass this creation. To see an unremarkable animation of the award and once again listen “Happy Happy Joy Joy”? Yes, thanks, we’d better spend this time in other more attractive games.

And which games are more attractive? After all, for someone and Fire Dogs – The favorite game of childhood, as evidenced by a commentary on YouTube under the passage of this game, but which many (including me) do not respond very flattering. Someone fiercely defends the title “gorgeous game on Sega»U Boogerman’A, and someone (again I) does not find anything outstanding there. But in the same way, many will pass by my favorite game – The Pirates of Dark Water, snorting towards the game and finding nothing of your. And the matter is not as a graphics, animations or music, but the memories that these or other games of past years give today. And for someone, one or another project is an unremarkable passage, and for some-an unshakable bridge into the past, which leads to pleasant, even some sad memories. And all this makes the game the best and beloved, completely masking all the disadvantages.

So play good and replay in the best games. And which of the projects are considered to be such – feel free to write in the comments, it is especially interesting if these are the games not universally recognized. At the same time, do not forget to share the memories, thoughts and attitude to the heroes of this issue. We watched the animated series or switched like me? Whether they played in the above-mentioned games, or maybe they are familiar with 8-bit game-adaptations of Ren and steampy?