History VideoGame / RentAHero

* PowerAtAPrice: ''[[LiteralTrope Literally!]]'' The SECA armor is a rental, and you will be expected to make regular payments to continue using it. Fail to make a payment to SECA on time, and you will not only have your access to the armor revoked, but charged an additional late fee.

[[caption-width-right:200:Cover of the 1991 title]] ''Rent A Hero'' is an ActionAdventure with slight BeatEmUp elements made by Creator/{{Sega}}'s [=AM2=] division in 1991 for UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis. It starred an ordinary boy, Taro Yamada (his default name), who one day phoned to a cafeteria and was given by the delivery man a battery-powered super suit. He wore it thinking it was just a funny costume... but when he discovered it gave him actual SuperStrength and other nifty gadgets, he decided to become a Rent A Hero, a local superhero for hire employed by an agency named SECA. Now Taro/Hero goes around the districts of Aero City helping the citizens, with mundane tasks like delivering food or finding missing children, but later on more intensive missions involving corporate theft, counterfeit money and TheMafia.

A remake, called ''Rent A Hero No. 1'', was released for [[UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]] in 2000, receiving an upgrade from top-down and side-scrolling (for the battle sections) pixel graphics to a free-roaming 3D polygonal world not unlike ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' (made by [=AM2=] as well), but keeping its quirky and humorous tone and adding even more cameos and nods to several Sega properties.

This time the game was supposed to receive a English release, and it was supposed to come out for the North American UsefulNotes/{{XBox}} in 2004. Unfortunately, though, a development delay resulted in a sharp decrease of retail orders, so the release was indefinitely postponed... and then the American publisher was shut down by the parent company. The almost fully-translated English release was even reviewed by some sites, though, and it can be found nowadays in some corners of the internet. In 2023, the Dreamcast remake received its own FanTranslation on Romhacking.net

* GuestFighter: Rent A Hero is an unlockable character in [=AM2=]'s ''VideoGame/FightersMegamix'' (1996) for UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn.

This time the game was supposed to receive a English release, and it was supposed to come out for the North American UsefulNotes/{{XBox}} in 2004. Unfortunately, though, a development delay resulted in a sharp decrease of retail orders, so the release was indefinitely postponed... and then the American publisher was shut down by the parent company. The almost fully-translated English release was even reviewed by some sites, though, and it can be found nowadays in some corners of the internet. In 2023, the Dreamcast version received its own FanTranslation on Romhacking.net

This time the game was supposed to receive a English release, and it was supposed to come out for the North American UsefulNotes/{{XBox}} in 2004. Unfortunately, though, a development delay resulted in a sharp decrease of retail orders, so the release was indefinitely postponed... and then the American publisher was shut down by the parent company. The almost fully-translated English release was even reviewed by some sites, though, and it can be found nowadays in some corners of the internet. In 2023, the Dreamcast version received its own Fan Translation on Romhacking.net

This time the game was supposed to receive a English release, and it was supposed to come out for the North American UsefulNotes/{{XBox}} in 2004. Unfortunately, though, a development delay resulted in a sharp decrease of retail orders, so the release was indefinitely postponed... and then the American publisher was shut down by the parent company. The almost fully-translated English release was even reviewed by some sites, though, and it can be found nowadays in some corners of the internet.

* IllGirl: Saran is a little girl who one day, while playing tag with her friends, collapsed and was brought to the hospital. She runs away when she's told she needs an operation, and one of Hero's missions is to find her and bring her back to her parents.

** Alisa (Taro's sister) and Mieu (the SECA employee that gives us the tasks) take their names from ''Franchise/PhantasyStar'' characters.

** Franchise/{{Ultraman}}ager. In the original version he was called "Urusaraman", a combination of Urutoraman and Salaryman.

** In the hospital one bed is always occupied by a man who says he broke a leg trying to do [[Creator/MichaelJackson Michael]] [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Yakson]]'s [[VideoGame/MichaelJacksonsMoonwalker moonwalk]]. Some enemy mooks, guys in suits and fedoras who appear to be dancing at times, look like ''Moonwalker'' sprites as well.

The game is an AffectionateParody of Sega, a decade before ''VideoGame/{{Segagaga}}'', but also of {{Sentai}}, American superheroes and Japan's culture and society between the 80s and the 90s. Because of this, it was [[NoExportForYou never released in the West]], and its many cultural references made it so that it never received a complete FanTranslation until 2015, when one was finally released on the Romhacking.net site.

This time the game was supposed to receive a Western release, being translated into English, and it was supposed to come out for the North American UsefulNotes/{{XBox}} in 2004. Unfortunately, though, a development delay resulted in a sharp decrease of retail orders, so the release was indefinitely postponed... and then the American publisher was shut down by the parent company. The almost fully-translated English release was even reviewed by some sites, though, and it can be found nowadays in some corners of the internet.

A remake, called ''Rent A Hero No. 1'', was released for [[SegaDreamcast Dreamcast]] in 2000, receiving an upgrade from top-down and side-scrolling (for the battle sections) pixel graphics to a free-roaming 3D polygonal world not unlike ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' (made by [=AM2=] as well), but keeping its quirky and humorous tone and adding even more cameos and nods to several Sega properties.

This time the game was supposed to receive a Western release, being translated into English, and it was supposed to come out for the North American {{XBOX}} in 2004. Unfortunately, though, a development delay resulted in a sharp decrease of retail orders, so the release was indefinitely postponed... and then the American publisher was shut down by the parent company. The almost fully-translated English release was even reviewed by some sites, though, and it can be found nowadays in some corners of the internet.

* GuestFighter: Rent A Hero is an unlockable character in [=AM2=]'s ''VideoGame/FightersMegamix'' (1996) for SegaSaturn.