Rent a Hero

Rent-A-Hero
Rent-A-Hero from Fighting Vipers
First game	Rent-A-Hero
Created by	Yu Suzuki

Taro Yamada, or Rent-A-Hero is a fictional character created by Sega as the titular character for their Mega Drive game Rent-A-Hero, and its subsequent remake/sequent Rent-A-Hero No. 1 for the Dreamcast. However, as neither of these games were released outside of Japan, he is mostly known in the west for his appearance as an unlockable character in the AM2 fighting game Fighters Megamix.

Taro lives in the town of Corja in Japan with his mother, eccentric father and younger sister Alyssa, the family moved there after his father changed jobs, he received his Combat Armor by accident during their house-warming party, when he ordered pizza from 'Sensational Cafeteria' or SECA and instead received the suit, after realizing the suit gave him incredible strength and that he is required to pay for the armor, Taro decides to become a hero for hire, performing various heroic tasks and odd-jobs for the townspeople of Corja.

Rent-A-Hero appearances

Rent-A-Hero

Rent-A-Hero
Developer(s)	Sega
Publisher(s)	Sega
Producer(s)	Yu Suzuki
Platform(s)	Mega Drive/Genesis
Release	September 20, 1991
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player

Taro's debut, it is a top-down RPG game released for the Mega Drive in 1991, similar to many others of its ilk (i.e. Pokemon) only with a bigger emphasis on humour (your first battle is against your father wearing a dinosaur suit because he thought it would scare his party guests). The game featured the same graphic engine previously used in the development of Phantasy Star III. However, Rent-A-Hero had an unusual innovation for the genre. Instead of using standard turn-based battles, fights were in a similar format to 2-D fighting games.

The title, like many RPG games, was not given PAL or NTSC-U versions, or officially translated into English. An unofficial translation by an emulation group called Eidolon created a partial unofficial translation, but this translation is not complete, making it very hard the game from a certain point.

Fighters Megamix

Main article: Fighters Megamix

Taro is avaible in Fighters Megamix by defeating the 'Smart Guys' arcade mode, and is believed to be a palette swap of Pepsiman, Pepsi's mascot who appeared in the Japanese version of Fighting Vipers, though he plays little like him. Rent-A-Hero is one of few characters to use projectile attacks (Janet from Virtua Cop 2 is another), and is one of the strongest fighters. However, he has an additional handicap: above his life bar are battery symbols, that deplete the longer a fight lasts, if they deplete fully, Taro's armor will disappear. In this state, he will not be able to perform a number of moves, including all projective moves, and he will also take more damage.

Rent-A-Hero No. 1

Rent-A-Hero No. 1
Developer(s)	Sega
Publisher(s)	Sega (Dreamcast) AIA Games (Xbox)
Platform(s)	Dreamcast, Xbox
Release	May 25, 2000 (Dreamcast) September 4, 2003 (Xbox)
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Single player

A 'pseudo-remake' of the original Mega Drive game was released for the Dreamcast in 2000. Featuring same and similar events to Rent-A-Hero, this time adding Rent-A-Hiroko, a female counter-part of Taro, is somewhat similar to Sega's well-know Dreamcast RPG Shenmue. The fighting engine used for the game is the same used for Sega's Spikeout games and allowed you to receive hints via in-game email.

The game was enhanced and given online capabilities by Coolnet Entertainment and AIA Games for the Xbox in 2003, and also translated into English for a North American release in what would have been the first Rent-A-Hero overseas release. However, the English version of the game was never released due to distribution problems, and the Xbox version remained only in Japan as it had previously happened with the original Dreamcast version.

UFO Catcher

An highly difficult game available over the internet, created to promote the Japanese release of Rent-A-Hero No. 1, it is based on the crane/grabber machines (UFO) often seen in Arcades and costal areas (which Sega manufacture) with two modes, Practice, which allows you to guide the crane's radar, and Challenge, which does not.

Trivia

• Rent-A-Hero also cameos in Shenmue and Shenmue II, alongside virtually every other Sega character and game.

• In Fighters Megamix, Rent-A-Hero's Player 1 Costume is in fact incorrect, he has brown hair and green accents on his suit, however his Player 2 costume is correct, with blonde hair and red accents.