Review by: Mike Thompson

Were you raised on a steady diet of crazy cartoon action when you were a kid? Is it your not-so-secret dream to save the world while driving a really awesome car that sports an even more awesome gun? Well, good news, everyone! Renegade Ops has arrived and it's pretty much everything that you could ever hope for if in fact you wanted to live that dream.

Renegade Ops is a top-down vehicular shooter where players race across large, fairly open maps, shooting up the multitudes of enemies that happen to be hanging around. You are presented with a series of primary and secondary objectives in each level; the secondary objectives usually involve taking out certain enemies or collecting/delivering certain objects like stolen artifacts.

The story, delivered via a combination of motion-comic cutscenes and in-game footage, is straight out of the 1980s G.I. Joe cartoons. Essentially, a crazy megalomaniac named "Inferno" (no, seriously, that's his name) nukes a major city and then holds the United Nations hostage. The U.N., having the collective courage of a hamster, decides to give in to Inferno's demands. A lone mutton-chopped general disagrees with this decision and resigns from his post, vowing to use his special vehicle commando team to take the fight to Inferno himself. From there on out, it's a non-stop adventure of vehicular combat, crazy firefights, and (occasionally) collecting artifacts.

Giving players a substantial world to drive around is a bit of challenge, especially when they have to complete certain missions within specific time limits. Avalanche Studios dealt with this issue by providing two directional markers on the screen: the red marker shows where one has to go in order to complete the current primary objective, while a grey marker shows where the secondary objective lies. This system works incredibly well.

The gameplay is pretty simple: The left stick controls movement, while the right aims and fires a vehicle's gun. The left trigger initiates a special ability, like an impregnable force field or an air strike that'll hit everything on the screen. Finally, the right trigger fires a secondary weapon. It should be noted that while the mechanics are simple, the game itself is incredibly fun. The action is constantly fast and frenzied, and there's a variety of tasks that never feel repetitive. On top of that, you earn experience as you blow everything up; as you level up, points are granted which can then be spent on unlocking a variety of upgrades.