Seirei Senshi Spriggan
Another Super CD-ROM2 game, it has voiced narration for its opening sequence. And just to disclose, I'm really starting to suffer from shooter fatigue right now, so if you're offended I'm not as excited about these shooters as you are, don't take it personally. With that said, Spriggan is actually a pretty fun shooter, yet, there are times where there's just too much going on. I feel that the frequency of getting pigeon-holed is a bit too high for me, and the power-up system leaves me at times with the wrong combination that does more harm than good. For instance, when I have one line of homing laser things that decide to attack something else that isn't right in front of me, that becomes a problem. I try to avoid certain power-ups when I have a combo I like, but sometimes there's so much being thrown at me INCLUDING power-ups that I end up flying right into something I don't like. I do like the game, though, and enjoy the bosses, so I'll return to this game when I'm not so burned out from shooters.
Snatcher
I wonder how Kojima feels about one of his game being on this machine... Anyway, this is another Super CD-ROM2 game. There's a lot of voice acting for the opening narration, and from what little I played, there's a lot more voice acting as well. Justifies the CD. The problem is, this game is entirely in Japanese and it's a graphic adventure meaning there are dialogue options everywhere. Since I can't read Japanese, I've no idea what I'm selecting. I just kept selecting options until the game progresses, but since there's not going to be any real gameplay aside from some shooting sections later on from what I've heard, there's no real reason for me to play anymore. Shame, I would have loved to play this game in English.
Spriggan Mark 2
Third CD-ROM2 game in a row for this entry. The PC Engine side of the Mini sure has a lot of these. Like the first game, there's a lot of voice acted narration for the opening cinematic, which tells your typical story of a world at war. Once you start the game, a rather lengthy animated cutscene begins. Now, I was expecting a top down shooter like the first Spriggan, which I actually liked, but I got something entirely different. I got a side scrolling shooter instead, which I'm not against. I'm also not against the regenerative shield either, but what I don't like is so far there haven't been any power ups. Instead, you'll get periodic help from someone on your team. What I REALLY CAN'T STAND THOUGH, is the constant interruption of chatter that pauses my game until they're done speaking! YOU DON'T DO THAT IN SHOOTERS! YOU DON'T INTERRUPT THE GAMEPLAY IN SHOOTERS! They were even interrupting me during the fucking boss fight! Couldn't even be bothered to finish the first level. Fuck this game straight up.
Star Parodier
Look at that, ANOTHER Super CD-ROM2 shooter! But, this is what I really need right now, a shooter that is light-hearted and relatively easy. The game features three selected ships, each one with their own sets of power-ups. One ship is a cartoony version of your archetypal space shooter. One is actually a Bomberman Mech, and the other is a PC Engine! It's so fun playing as Bomberman, who has options that are also mini Bombermen, and his power-up icons are straight out of the Bomberman franchise. The PC Engine has power-ups that are Hu cards and one of the things it can shoot out is CDs. I really appreciate the levity this game brings right now. The game's graphics are also very colorful and fun, and the gameplay is really smooth as well. This is one of my favorites on the system so far, and I'll definitely return to finish it!
Super Darius
Fifth Super CD-ROM2 game in a row... and it doesn't really seem to need a CD. Anyway, I consider Darius in the same family of shooters as Gradius. There are some differences, but they're largely the same to me, except Darius doesn't seem to have very good power ups. No options, no angle shots. Just increases to your forward shot and missiles. What it also has is branching paths. After every boss battle, you can go north or south. This promotes replayability. I'm not too fond of the game overall, so I'm not sure if I'll ever come back to it.
Super Momotarō Dentetsu II
Another game with menu options entirely in Japanese, I have no idea what I'm doing. What I can make out about this game is that it's some kind of train board game. It seems like you can scan the board for spots where passengers are waiting to be picked up and then deliver them to their destinations. Your movement is based on dice rolls and you play against the computer. But that's as much as I can make out. So, the rest of the game's pretty much unplayable to me.
Super Star Soldier
I believe this is the predecessor to Soldier Blade, which I feel was the better game. This one's a top down shooter, has your typical spread shots, missiles, lasers, etc. It has options, but they act as shields and don't add to the offensive array at all, which is kind of a disappointment. After having played so many shooters so far, I'm really reaching the end of my rope here. There's not much else I can say about this one. It's just another shooter.
The Genji and the Heike Clans
This is a samurai hack and slash game where you fight all sorts of enemies. Loads of cheap shots await you here. It does have this cool mechanic where you reach a point in the level and you enter another part of it as a much bigger version of yourself. Later on, you'll reach another part of the level where it looks like it shifts to a top down perspective. I'm not really liking the game. I think the graphics are pretty sloppy, and I just don't like the hit detection. No reason for me to come back to this one.
The Kung Fu
Not just Kung Fu, THE Kung Fu! Now, I watched a ReviewTechUSA video where Rich was talking about how bad this game was. It was basically NEC's answer to Nintendo's Kung Fu thinking they could pulverize Nintendo based on the graphics alone. And Rich is right. It is pretty dumb. The basic gameplay isn't very good at all. You can't kick when crouched, which is weird. Jumping is awkward. Boss fights involve finding a dead spot and exploiting it. Hit detection's wonky too. This is the perfect example of graphics aren't everything.
The Legend of Valkyrie
This is a fun little adventure game. You play as a Valkyrie and you go about killing all sorts of enemies. The problem is, it's in Japanese so I can't understand anything that's being told to me. Thankfully, the gameplay's vague enough that I can just press on. Go somewhere I haven't been to yet, kill everything, move on. There's also power-ups and I love power-ups, and I beat a couple of bosses that took some observation to learn their patterns. I have a feeling future bosses are going to get really brutal later on. Again, I just wish I knew Japanese so I could know what the story's about. I may play more of this should I revisit my Mini.
Ys I and II
This is the Japanese version of the English game. No need to play it.
Overall Thoughts
Now that I have five mini systems, where do I rank this one? I'd have to say in the middle; behind the Sega Genesis and SNES Minis and ahead of the NES and PlayStation Minis. I had a lot more fun with the TurboGrafx 16 side of games than I did with the PC Engine. The PC Engine had way more shooters it seemed, and some questionable inclusions. Five PC Engine games are just the Japanese versions of TurboGrafx 16 games, which seems pointless. One PC Engine game is the Japanese version of Bonk's Adventure, which doesn't make any sense, and we have the English Splatterhouse instead of the uncensored Japanese PC Engine version. There are a handful of PC Engine games that flat out REQUIRE understanding Japanese to play, such as Necromancer and Snatch, and the latter is incredibly frustrating. I get they were trying to remain as faithful to the emulation as possible, but it doesn't help. Some of these games needed to be in English plain and simple when releasing the system statewide.
Regardless, though, I don't regret spending 100 dollars on it. There are lot of fun shooters, even though I've been complaining about shooter burnout lately, some awesome action games like Ninja Spirit, cool puzzle games like Chew Man Fu and of course one of the best Bombermans I played being Bomberman '94. I really dug the presentation and appreciated the little touches like showing the game cards being inserted and the CD-ROMs booting up. Ultimately, though, I just wish the line up was a bit more varied. Still, if you love old-school games, you'd do well to add the TurboGrafx Mini to your collection of classic consoles.
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
TurboGrafx 16 Mini Part 5
Dungeon Explorer
Out of curiosity, I decided to boot this game up to see if this was somehow a different version of the English Dungeon Explorer, but nope. It's still Dungeon Explorer, just in Japanese. I wonder why they had to do this.
Fantasy Zone
This is obviously the predecessor to Super Fantasy Zone, which I have on the Sega Genesis. If you're unfamiliar with the game, it's a light-hearted shooter where you can move to the left and right. Gameplay involves you shooting eight target pods where a boss fight ensues immediately after. After each stage, a shop floats around where you can meet up with it and buy power ups. Super Fantasy Zone's formula is almost exactly the same, but I think they have more options in the store. The one thing that bothers me about the Fantasy Zone games, though, are that the power ups are finite. I don't like it when I run out of lasers or beam spreads before I get to the boss. Since I already played Super Fantasy Zone, I only played this game for a quick couple of levels.
Galaga '88
I thought, "It's Galaga. What's there to talk about?" Apparently, a lot. This isn't just Galaga. It's a reworked and updated Galaga. It starts out in typical Galaga formation by having the enemies flying around in patterns while having you shoot them as quickly as possible, but then it starts changing up the formula. It starts to become a more modern top-down shooter with objects such as meteors, background graphics, and even bosses at the end of what I'm assuming is every 10 levels. The graphics have been overhauled as well with lots of new special effects when things blow up. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this rendition of an arcade classic and look forward to playing more in the future.
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
Wow... what a mouthful. No wonder most people just call it Sapphire. So, this is a Super CD-ROM2 game, and it shows. The intro is narrated in Japanese, and I wish there was an English version so I know what he was saying, but what I can make out from the cutscene is that there's a scientist making some kind of time machine thing and a group of people have gone back in time to hunt dinosaurs and now a team of girls have to board their fighter ships to stop this evil force from further ruining history? Of course I could be completely wrong. But as I start to play the game and see that I'm traveling to different times in a ship that says "POLICE" in the cockpit, I'm pretty sure I'm right. This game is the prettiest shooter in the Mini so far making great use of 16-bit pixels and polygonal enemies. The gameplay is pretty good, too, with drone support and you know me and my drone support! But, I think the game's too difficult. There's at times too much going on, and that makes the game frustrating too quickly. I also think the ship's movement could be a bit quicker as well. Still, I want to see what else the game has to offer, so I'll stick with it.
Gradius
Gradius is just as popular as R-Type when it comes to kings of the shoot 'em up genre. And now I finally remembered what I've been calling drones are supposed to be called. OPTIONS! Yes, options. Love those things. Gradius' system lets you get up to four options, but you got to earn them. Instead of just picking up power ups, you stockpile them and cash them in when your power up option bar on the bottom is highlighted to what you want. When you cash something in, the bar resets, so you really need to plan your power up route. I of course went straight to the options. As for the rest of the game, it's still tough as nails hard, and I played through three levels, and they all seem to have the same boss fight, but the approach right before the fight is always different. I don't think I've ever beaten a Gradius game, and now thanks to save states, I may give this one a shot.
Gradius II - Gofer no Yabō -
The sequel to Gradius is also a Super CD-ROM2 game, although I don't know why it needed to be on CD, as the only thing I can think of is the voice before you fight the bosses, but it's poor quality. This game lets you pick your own power up bar, each one featuring different shots, lasers, missiles and bombs. One power up common to all bars is the Speed Up and you know, there is such a thing as going TOO fast! I maxed out my speed and it made dodging things too hard actually, as I was always going too far up or down, smashing into things. And I'm pretty sure I played this game on the Super Nintendo in some form, because I remember that damned ice obstacle level. That was a real bitch! Also, every boss is different, unlike the first, so that I appreciate. But one thing I didn't appreciate was somehow, I lose all my options during the third boss fight. Now I'll have to start gathering options all over again...
Necromancer
Ok, I'm going to flat out say that it was a BAD choice to include RPGs that are entirely in Japanese on an English system. I mean, you can get away with playing a shooter or a hack and slash in Japanese, because dialogue is almost a non-issue. But Necromancer is unplayable for me. I don't know what I'm selecting. Some menu options when I talk to people or go into houses bring up more lines of Japanese. It's also one of those RPGs that won't let you leave unless you talk to an NPC and accept a quest, so I'm unable to even leave the town to go outside and see what combat/dungeon exploring is like. I mean, it's a novel idea to include Japanese versions of games on the Mini, but I really wish they would have gone the extra mile and made a half-assed attempt to translate it.
Nectaris, Neuotopia and Neutopia II
Nectaris is Military Madness in Japanese, and Neutopia I and II are the Japanese versions of the same games. No need to play these.
Ninja Ryūkenden
Translated, this is Ninja Gaiden. It's weird, but I think the version on the NES plays better. I don't know, there's something off about this game. Anyway, Ninja Gaiden reminds me of why we ever thought games like these were OK. Cheap death after cheap death after cheap death just to prolong the length of the game. I mean, seriously you can get caught up in a loop of being hit back and forth by enemies, or being knocked into the pit while being caught with a projectile in the air with nowhere to go. I know I'm being unfair, but I personally can't stand these types of games anymore. Even with constantly save stating, I got too annoyed to care about the game anymore after beating a couple of levels. I never once beat a Ninja Gaiden game, not even the reboot for the Xbox, and even with save states, I may never care enough to try again here.
PC Genjin
For whatever reason, Japan had to get all Japanese with this translation, which is just Bonk's Adventure. Also, this really should have been the English version. I know it exists in English, because I've played a lot of it. Anyway, I just spent enough time here to get through the first level, and it's pretty much exactly what I remember. I think it plays a lot better than Bonk's Revenge, which gave me a fit trying to figure out the timing on those stupid flowers. That's not the case here. They are pretty responsive. Now, the question is, when I was playing the game at a friend's house, did I ever beat it? Regardless, I'm going to add this one to my list of games to beat on the Mini. PC Genjin, though? Really?
Salamander
I knew this game looked familiar! I played this game on SNES when it was called Lifeforce. Clearly patterned after Gradius, it works a little differently in that your power ups and options are granted to you the moment you pick them up. I believe the game switches from side scrolling to top down every other level, which I love. But just like Gradius, it's also hard as nails. The bosses themselves were really annoying as well. Both of them involved me having to continuously move around them in circles while also avoiding their bullets. I can't remember if I beat Lifeforce, so I'm going to make it a point to beat this one on the Mini. I may need to take a break for a while, because I'm really starting to get tired of shooters right now.
Sorry this one was a little longer. Because of several PC Engine games just being Japanese counterparts of TurboGrafx 16 games, I decided to make this one longer so I wrap up the rest in a longer blog tomorrow. As always, thanks for reading!
Out of curiosity, I decided to boot this game up to see if this was somehow a different version of the English Dungeon Explorer, but nope. It's still Dungeon Explorer, just in Japanese. I wonder why they had to do this.
Fantasy Zone
This is obviously the predecessor to Super Fantasy Zone, which I have on the Sega Genesis. If you're unfamiliar with the game, it's a light-hearted shooter where you can move to the left and right. Gameplay involves you shooting eight target pods where a boss fight ensues immediately after. After each stage, a shop floats around where you can meet up with it and buy power ups. Super Fantasy Zone's formula is almost exactly the same, but I think they have more options in the store. The one thing that bothers me about the Fantasy Zone games, though, are that the power ups are finite. I don't like it when I run out of lasers or beam spreads before I get to the boss. Since I already played Super Fantasy Zone, I only played this game for a quick couple of levels.
Galaga '88
I thought, "It's Galaga. What's there to talk about?" Apparently, a lot. This isn't just Galaga. It's a reworked and updated Galaga. It starts out in typical Galaga formation by having the enemies flying around in patterns while having you shoot them as quickly as possible, but then it starts changing up the formula. It starts to become a more modern top-down shooter with objects such as meteors, background graphics, and even bosses at the end of what I'm assuming is every 10 levels. The graphics have been overhauled as well with lots of new special effects when things blow up. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this rendition of an arcade classic and look forward to playing more in the future.
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
Wow... what a mouthful. No wonder most people just call it Sapphire. So, this is a Super CD-ROM2 game, and it shows. The intro is narrated in Japanese, and I wish there was an English version so I know what he was saying, but what I can make out from the cutscene is that there's a scientist making some kind of time machine thing and a group of people have gone back in time to hunt dinosaurs and now a team of girls have to board their fighter ships to stop this evil force from further ruining history? Of course I could be completely wrong. But as I start to play the game and see that I'm traveling to different times in a ship that says "POLICE" in the cockpit, I'm pretty sure I'm right. This game is the prettiest shooter in the Mini so far making great use of 16-bit pixels and polygonal enemies. The gameplay is pretty good, too, with drone support and you know me and my drone support! But, I think the game's too difficult. There's at times too much going on, and that makes the game frustrating too quickly. I also think the ship's movement could be a bit quicker as well. Still, I want to see what else the game has to offer, so I'll stick with it.
Gradius
Gradius is just as popular as R-Type when it comes to kings of the shoot 'em up genre. And now I finally remembered what I've been calling drones are supposed to be called. OPTIONS! Yes, options. Love those things. Gradius' system lets you get up to four options, but you got to earn them. Instead of just picking up power ups, you stockpile them and cash them in when your power up option bar on the bottom is highlighted to what you want. When you cash something in, the bar resets, so you really need to plan your power up route. I of course went straight to the options. As for the rest of the game, it's still tough as nails hard, and I played through three levels, and they all seem to have the same boss fight, but the approach right before the fight is always different. I don't think I've ever beaten a Gradius game, and now thanks to save states, I may give this one a shot.
Gradius II - Gofer no Yabō -
The sequel to Gradius is also a Super CD-ROM2 game, although I don't know why it needed to be on CD, as the only thing I can think of is the voice before you fight the bosses, but it's poor quality. This game lets you pick your own power up bar, each one featuring different shots, lasers, missiles and bombs. One power up common to all bars is the Speed Up and you know, there is such a thing as going TOO fast! I maxed out my speed and it made dodging things too hard actually, as I was always going too far up or down, smashing into things. And I'm pretty sure I played this game on the Super Nintendo in some form, because I remember that damned ice obstacle level. That was a real bitch! Also, every boss is different, unlike the first, so that I appreciate. But one thing I didn't appreciate was somehow, I lose all my options during the third boss fight. Now I'll have to start gathering options all over again...
Necromancer
Ok, I'm going to flat out say that it was a BAD choice to include RPGs that are entirely in Japanese on an English system. I mean, you can get away with playing a shooter or a hack and slash in Japanese, because dialogue is almost a non-issue. But Necromancer is unplayable for me. I don't know what I'm selecting. Some menu options when I talk to people or go into houses bring up more lines of Japanese. It's also one of those RPGs that won't let you leave unless you talk to an NPC and accept a quest, so I'm unable to even leave the town to go outside and see what combat/dungeon exploring is like. I mean, it's a novel idea to include Japanese versions of games on the Mini, but I really wish they would have gone the extra mile and made a half-assed attempt to translate it.
Nectaris, Neuotopia and Neutopia II
Nectaris is Military Madness in Japanese, and Neutopia I and II are the Japanese versions of the same games. No need to play these.
Ninja Ryūkenden
Translated, this is Ninja Gaiden. It's weird, but I think the version on the NES plays better. I don't know, there's something off about this game. Anyway, Ninja Gaiden reminds me of why we ever thought games like these were OK. Cheap death after cheap death after cheap death just to prolong the length of the game. I mean, seriously you can get caught up in a loop of being hit back and forth by enemies, or being knocked into the pit while being caught with a projectile in the air with nowhere to go. I know I'm being unfair, but I personally can't stand these types of games anymore. Even with constantly save stating, I got too annoyed to care about the game anymore after beating a couple of levels. I never once beat a Ninja Gaiden game, not even the reboot for the Xbox, and even with save states, I may never care enough to try again here.
PC Genjin
For whatever reason, Japan had to get all Japanese with this translation, which is just Bonk's Adventure. Also, this really should have been the English version. I know it exists in English, because I've played a lot of it. Anyway, I just spent enough time here to get through the first level, and it's pretty much exactly what I remember. I think it plays a lot better than Bonk's Revenge, which gave me a fit trying to figure out the timing on those stupid flowers. That's not the case here. They are pretty responsive. Now, the question is, when I was playing the game at a friend's house, did I ever beat it? Regardless, I'm going to add this one to my list of games to beat on the Mini. PC Genjin, though? Really?
Salamander
I knew this game looked familiar! I played this game on SNES when it was called Lifeforce. Clearly patterned after Gradius, it works a little differently in that your power ups and options are granted to you the moment you pick them up. I believe the game switches from side scrolling to top down every other level, which I love. But just like Gradius, it's also hard as nails. The bosses themselves were really annoying as well. Both of them involved me having to continuously move around them in circles while also avoiding their bullets. I can't remember if I beat Lifeforce, so I'm going to make it a point to beat this one on the Mini. I may need to take a break for a while, because I'm really starting to get tired of shooters right now.
Sorry this one was a little longer. Because of several PC Engine games just being Japanese counterparts of TurboGrafx 16 games, I decided to make this one longer so I wrap up the rest in a longer blog tomorrow. As always, thanks for reading!
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
TurboGrafx 16 Mini Part 4
So here we go, the PC Engine games! This should be fun, as I never played PC Engine and some of these games are in Japanese!
Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo
Translated, this is Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and it's one of the Super CD-ROM2 games. Now, get this. The intro has Japanese subtitles, but German audio! How weird... It also won't let me skip it, which I wanted to since I already saw in demo mode. When I started, I had to input my name into a save file and was treated to some really eerie music. I expect this game to have some pretty good music as it was on a CD. Once I began, I was already fighting Death, which was a surprise. Now, maybe it's my ongoing allergies, or maybe I'm just too old now, but I can't appreciate this kind of difficulty anymore. This game's hard because it's so cheap. Also, Super Castlevania IV has spoiled me on all other Castlevanias pre-Symphony of the Night. I miss being able to whip in any direction. I'll eventually return to it when I can build up the patience again. Also, it does this really annoying thing where it does his special move right after doing a save state, and I've no idea why...
Aldynes
Hey, guess what? This game takes place in 2020! I wonder if it has to do with saving the world from a really bad flu virus.... Anyway, it's another side scrolling space shoot 'em up, and already, it's one of my favorites because of the drone support. So far, I now have four, yes FOUR, drones. What I really love about them is you can change the way they act, kinda like R-Type, in case you need fire support from behind or a full on frontal assault. It's not the best performing shooter on the system, as frame rate dips happen a lot, and some of the power ups are run of the mill. It could also use a screen clearing bomb, but that's just my personal preference. I do look forward to playing more of this game in the future.
Appare! Gateball
So this game is very similar to croquet, which means I really suck at it. Just as I started to understand how to play it, the game ended. It also didn't help that this is one of those games where all the text is in Japanese. I was selecting things on the menu that I didn't know what they meant. I did figure out that I was selecting five people on my team, and then I played against five other people. The thing is, it has a power meter when you hit the ball and you HAVE to be spot on or your ball will veer to the left or right by a LOT. I didn't have enough fun with the game to stay hooked, so I didn't bother trying another round.
Bomberman '94
Now this is a better Bomberman! Better level design, better graphics, better gameplay. The one thing I love about '94 is that power up distribution feels more normal. '93 only gave you one power up per board, which was really stingy. Not only can you get a couple of bomb and flame power ups per board in '94, but they also put in a kangaroo that let you jump over blasts, which really comes in handy when you pen yourself in with a bomb. Also, you can select different boards at your choosing when you enter a world, so that's appreciated. I only wish I could play multiplayer with other Mini owners.
Bomberman Panic Bomber
This is a puzzle game very similar to Puyo Puyo or Puzzle Fighter II, but it's all in Japanese, so it took me a while to figure out how the mechanics worked. Once I found out that you clear pieces with at least three like colors horizontally, vertically or diagonally, I started to have some fun. What I like about the game is that when your opponent dumps trash on you, they're bombs, and you have bombs that periodically fall down that you can use to blow them all up at once, which can lead to combos. I really like this game, but I'm playing on Easy as I don't have the mind like I used to for puzzlers. Great presentation as well.
Chō Aniki
This is most definitely the weirdest shooter I played on the system so far. There's so much random stuff going on, it seems like the developers just picked random graphics out of a hat and threw them into the game. It's another shooter that has drone support, which I love, but believe it or not one of the drones is a bodybuilder in a tight speedo... why? The levels are full of mid-bosses and end with a boss of their own, but after a couple of levels, I was already getting rather bored from it. The game also has really weird music, especially for the boss battles. I'm not sure if I'll come back to this game.
Daimakaimura
So this is Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, known by old school gamers as one of the toughest games around. It's super cheap, and that means I can't get anywhere without save states. But, I have this on the Sega Genesis Mini and I've made further progress in it than here, so I just played one level to see how it runs. I think based on memory, the Genesis version is actually better, but I could be wrong. Weird, though, that they couldn't put the English version of this on the Mini instead.
Dragon Spirit
Remember back when I said that a good shooter needs to find a balance between annoyance and difficulty? This is one shooter that does not have it. I cannot for the life of me find a safe way to beat the second boss, this lava bird that has these meteors orbiting around it. What I also don't like is how the more powered up your dragon becomes, the larger target you become. Being a large target in a shooter is a no-no. I should have liked this game, because I love dragons and I love shooters, but honestly, this game proved to be far more annoying than fun.
More to come. As always, thanks for reading!
Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo
Translated, this is Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and it's one of the Super CD-ROM2 games. Now, get this. The intro has Japanese subtitles, but German audio! How weird... It also won't let me skip it, which I wanted to since I already saw in demo mode. When I started, I had to input my name into a save file and was treated to some really eerie music. I expect this game to have some pretty good music as it was on a CD. Once I began, I was already fighting Death, which was a surprise. Now, maybe it's my ongoing allergies, or maybe I'm just too old now, but I can't appreciate this kind of difficulty anymore. This game's hard because it's so cheap. Also, Super Castlevania IV has spoiled me on all other Castlevanias pre-Symphony of the Night. I miss being able to whip in any direction. I'll eventually return to it when I can build up the patience again. Also, it does this really annoying thing where it does his special move right after doing a save state, and I've no idea why...
Aldynes
Hey, guess what? This game takes place in 2020! I wonder if it has to do with saving the world from a really bad flu virus.... Anyway, it's another side scrolling space shoot 'em up, and already, it's one of my favorites because of the drone support. So far, I now have four, yes FOUR, drones. What I really love about them is you can change the way they act, kinda like R-Type, in case you need fire support from behind or a full on frontal assault. It's not the best performing shooter on the system, as frame rate dips happen a lot, and some of the power ups are run of the mill. It could also use a screen clearing bomb, but that's just my personal preference. I do look forward to playing more of this game in the future.
Appare! Gateball
So this game is very similar to croquet, which means I really suck at it. Just as I started to understand how to play it, the game ended. It also didn't help that this is one of those games where all the text is in Japanese. I was selecting things on the menu that I didn't know what they meant. I did figure out that I was selecting five people on my team, and then I played against five other people. The thing is, it has a power meter when you hit the ball and you HAVE to be spot on or your ball will veer to the left or right by a LOT. I didn't have enough fun with the game to stay hooked, so I didn't bother trying another round.
Bomberman '94
Now this is a better Bomberman! Better level design, better graphics, better gameplay. The one thing I love about '94 is that power up distribution feels more normal. '93 only gave you one power up per board, which was really stingy. Not only can you get a couple of bomb and flame power ups per board in '94, but they also put in a kangaroo that let you jump over blasts, which really comes in handy when you pen yourself in with a bomb. Also, you can select different boards at your choosing when you enter a world, so that's appreciated. I only wish I could play multiplayer with other Mini owners.
Bomberman Panic Bomber
This is a puzzle game very similar to Puyo Puyo or Puzzle Fighter II, but it's all in Japanese, so it took me a while to figure out how the mechanics worked. Once I found out that you clear pieces with at least three like colors horizontally, vertically or diagonally, I started to have some fun. What I like about the game is that when your opponent dumps trash on you, they're bombs, and you have bombs that periodically fall down that you can use to blow them all up at once, which can lead to combos. I really like this game, but I'm playing on Easy as I don't have the mind like I used to for puzzlers. Great presentation as well.
Chō Aniki
This is most definitely the weirdest shooter I played on the system so far. There's so much random stuff going on, it seems like the developers just picked random graphics out of a hat and threw them into the game. It's another shooter that has drone support, which I love, but believe it or not one of the drones is a bodybuilder in a tight speedo... why? The levels are full of mid-bosses and end with a boss of their own, but after a couple of levels, I was already getting rather bored from it. The game also has really weird music, especially for the boss battles. I'm not sure if I'll come back to this game.
Daimakaimura
So this is Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, known by old school gamers as one of the toughest games around. It's super cheap, and that means I can't get anywhere without save states. But, I have this on the Sega Genesis Mini and I've made further progress in it than here, so I just played one level to see how it runs. I think based on memory, the Genesis version is actually better, but I could be wrong. Weird, though, that they couldn't put the English version of this on the Mini instead.
Dragon Spirit
Remember back when I said that a good shooter needs to find a balance between annoyance and difficulty? This is one shooter that does not have it. I cannot for the life of me find a safe way to beat the second boss, this lava bird that has these meteors orbiting around it. What I also don't like is how the more powered up your dragon becomes, the larger target you become. Being a large target in a shooter is a no-no. I should have liked this game, because I love dragons and I love shooters, but honestly, this game proved to be far more annoying than fun.
More to come. As always, thanks for reading!
Monday, May 25, 2020
TurboGrafx 16 Mini Part 3
Parasol Stars
One of the older TG-16 games in the collection, Parasol Stars is an arcade style action game where you play as a little chubby fella with a rainbow parasol who uses it to capture enemies and raindrops and fling them at baddies. Every enemy dispatched relinquishes food that can be gobbled up for points. The game's easy to control, fun to play and fast paced. What I really love is when you finish a board, instead of waiting for the next to be loaded, the little chubby fella spins around and flies to the next one so there's never a break in the gameplay. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this one. I look forward to playing more.
Power Golf
After four holes with 54 strokes, I'm done. I don't have the patience to get good at this game. Golf games have evolved so much since that this is almost unplayable. There's no real way to discern just how far your drive will go. The power and hit indicator's WAY too fast to be precise. Maybe if this was the only golf game you had at the time, you'd put up with it, but it's just too frustrating for me to keep at it. Plus, the music really gets on my nerves. Leave this one in the sand trap.
Psychosis
After save stating like crazy during the second boss fight, I found this game more annoyingly difficult than fun. Shoot 'em ups need to find a balance of annoyance and difficulty, and this game does not have that balance. I'm also not much of a fan of the game's power ups, finding them not as powerful as they should be. For instance, when you have drones that fire lasers, above and below you, mere projectiles can still pass through them and blow you up. I think with a little more refinement, it could have been one of the better shooters on the system, as I really do like the designs of the first two levels. I just REALLY couldn't stand that god damned second boss. I can only imagine how people got past him without save states...
R-Type
If you played even just a few shoot 'em ups in your lifetime, chances are you've played R-Type. R-Type is one of the greatest shoot 'em ups in the genre with extremely tight gameplay. It's tough as nails, but it also provides you with great support in the way of drones and power ups, one of them being the reflective laser, perhaps the greatest power up of all time. I just finished level three, one of my favorites in the game, where you spend the level destroying an alien battleship top and bottomside, and then precariously lower yourself right in front of its eye to destroy it for good. Such great fun! My reflexes simply aren't as good as they used to be, though, so of course I abused the save state. But that's what it's there for right?
Soldier Blade
Now this is a shooter more my speed, and after a minute or two with the game, I know exactly why. It's clearly a redesigned Blazing Lazers, which I love. It has one of its power ups, and the first stage is almost exactly the same as BL. It also has a support drone, but I would have appreciated at least one more. What sets it apart, though, is that there are special moves based on which weapon type you're currently using. I like the bosses as well. I'll look forward to playing more of this game after I finish Blazing Lasers first.
Space Harrier
Well, look at that! Fourth shooter in a row in this blog! Something tells me I know what T-16's most preferred genre is... Anywho, this is Space Harrier, and you've probably played a version of it sometime in your life on some platform, whether it's in a compilation or an arcade machine in Shenmue. If you somehow never played Space Harrier, it's a third-person space shooter where instead of flying in a ship, you're holding on to dear life on a rocket that's also your gun, and things are flying at you rather quickly. I played this game on the Sega Genesis Mini, and as far as I can tell, it plays and runs exactly the same. But, I did finally have a reason to turn on my turbo button! Since I already have progress on the Genesis Mini, there's really no reason to play anymore of this version.
Splatterhouse
Ahh, the classic macabre beat 'em up that probably sparked its own video game violence debate! If you ever played this game, you most likely never beat the third stage boss. Well, I did! After several save state reloads... Even then, it was such a bullshit boss fight. Even after being given a fully loaded shotgun, you had to risk bodily injury to punch/kick this headbag wearing dual chainsaw wielding manic several times before he finally went down. Anyway, I don't remember the arcade version that well as it's been at least a couple decades since I played it, but this version seems to be up to snuff. Now that I finally beat this damned chainsaw boss, maybe I can see the rest of the game. God bless you, save states!
Victory Run
Victory Run's a single player race against the clock checkpoint to checkpoint racer. It's a little like Outrun in that you can see your car getting flipped should you crash into an object fast enough. You can also modify your part stats, allocating points to tires, engine, brakes, etc., so there's some customization to the gameplay. I tried to play it a few times, but it got a little too frustrating for me. I hate manual gearboxes in racers and it always slows me down way too much to downshift and upshift time and time again. I can see how it may have been fun back in the day, but it's clearly been outpaced by better racers in the 16-bit era.
Ys Book 1 & 2
This will have to be revisited at a later date. I just spent way too much time grinding money because I thought I had to buy a better sword when all I had to do was equip it, which I found out way too late. I know that the Ys series is significant in the RPG genre, and I want to find out why. It has a weird combat system in that you just bump into enemies you see in the field. If you hit them head on, you do more damage than they do, but if they get you from behind or corner you, you're done for. I've never played an RPG where the combat was that simple. Also, this is the second and final Turbo CD game in the American collection. As such, it actually has a voiced intro. That must have made Ys feel even more special back when the game first came out.
So that's it for the TurboGrafx 16 games. The next blog I'll begin playing games from the PC Engine collection. As always, thanks for reading.
One of the older TG-16 games in the collection, Parasol Stars is an arcade style action game where you play as a little chubby fella with a rainbow parasol who uses it to capture enemies and raindrops and fling them at baddies. Every enemy dispatched relinquishes food that can be gobbled up for points. The game's easy to control, fun to play and fast paced. What I really love is when you finish a board, instead of waiting for the next to be loaded, the little chubby fella spins around and flies to the next one so there's never a break in the gameplay. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this one. I look forward to playing more.
Power Golf
After four holes with 54 strokes, I'm done. I don't have the patience to get good at this game. Golf games have evolved so much since that this is almost unplayable. There's no real way to discern just how far your drive will go. The power and hit indicator's WAY too fast to be precise. Maybe if this was the only golf game you had at the time, you'd put up with it, but it's just too frustrating for me to keep at it. Plus, the music really gets on my nerves. Leave this one in the sand trap.
Psychosis
After save stating like crazy during the second boss fight, I found this game more annoyingly difficult than fun. Shoot 'em ups need to find a balance of annoyance and difficulty, and this game does not have that balance. I'm also not much of a fan of the game's power ups, finding them not as powerful as they should be. For instance, when you have drones that fire lasers, above and below you, mere projectiles can still pass through them and blow you up. I think with a little more refinement, it could have been one of the better shooters on the system, as I really do like the designs of the first two levels. I just REALLY couldn't stand that god damned second boss. I can only imagine how people got past him without save states...
R-Type
If you played even just a few shoot 'em ups in your lifetime, chances are you've played R-Type. R-Type is one of the greatest shoot 'em ups in the genre with extremely tight gameplay. It's tough as nails, but it also provides you with great support in the way of drones and power ups, one of them being the reflective laser, perhaps the greatest power up of all time. I just finished level three, one of my favorites in the game, where you spend the level destroying an alien battleship top and bottomside, and then precariously lower yourself right in front of its eye to destroy it for good. Such great fun! My reflexes simply aren't as good as they used to be, though, so of course I abused the save state. But that's what it's there for right?
Soldier Blade
Now this is a shooter more my speed, and after a minute or two with the game, I know exactly why. It's clearly a redesigned Blazing Lazers, which I love. It has one of its power ups, and the first stage is almost exactly the same as BL. It also has a support drone, but I would have appreciated at least one more. What sets it apart, though, is that there are special moves based on which weapon type you're currently using. I like the bosses as well. I'll look forward to playing more of this game after I finish Blazing Lasers first.
Space Harrier
Well, look at that! Fourth shooter in a row in this blog! Something tells me I know what T-16's most preferred genre is... Anywho, this is Space Harrier, and you've probably played a version of it sometime in your life on some platform, whether it's in a compilation or an arcade machine in Shenmue. If you somehow never played Space Harrier, it's a third-person space shooter where instead of flying in a ship, you're holding on to dear life on a rocket that's also your gun, and things are flying at you rather quickly. I played this game on the Sega Genesis Mini, and as far as I can tell, it plays and runs exactly the same. But, I did finally have a reason to turn on my turbo button! Since I already have progress on the Genesis Mini, there's really no reason to play anymore of this version.
Splatterhouse
Ahh, the classic macabre beat 'em up that probably sparked its own video game violence debate! If you ever played this game, you most likely never beat the third stage boss. Well, I did! After several save state reloads... Even then, it was such a bullshit boss fight. Even after being given a fully loaded shotgun, you had to risk bodily injury to punch/kick this headbag wearing dual chainsaw wielding manic several times before he finally went down. Anyway, I don't remember the arcade version that well as it's been at least a couple decades since I played it, but this version seems to be up to snuff. Now that I finally beat this damned chainsaw boss, maybe I can see the rest of the game. God bless you, save states!
Victory Run
Victory Run's a single player race against the clock checkpoint to checkpoint racer. It's a little like Outrun in that you can see your car getting flipped should you crash into an object fast enough. You can also modify your part stats, allocating points to tires, engine, brakes, etc., so there's some customization to the gameplay. I tried to play it a few times, but it got a little too frustrating for me. I hate manual gearboxes in racers and it always slows me down way too much to downshift and upshift time and time again. I can see how it may have been fun back in the day, but it's clearly been outpaced by better racers in the 16-bit era.
Ys Book 1 & 2
This will have to be revisited at a later date. I just spent way too much time grinding money because I thought I had to buy a better sword when all I had to do was equip it, which I found out way too late. I know that the Ys series is significant in the RPG genre, and I want to find out why. It has a weird combat system in that you just bump into enemies you see in the field. If you hit them head on, you do more damage than they do, but if they get you from behind or corner you, you're done for. I've never played an RPG where the combat was that simple. Also, this is the second and final Turbo CD game in the American collection. As such, it actually has a voiced intro. That must have made Ys feel even more special back when the game first came out.
So that's it for the TurboGrafx 16 games. The next blog I'll begin playing games from the PC Engine collection. As always, thanks for reading.
Sunday, May 24, 2020
TurboGrafx 16 Mini Part 2
J.J. & Jeff
I don't know what to make of this game. It's a very bizarre platformer where you're supposed to be detectives solving some kind of case. The action involves - and if you never heard of this game I am not making this up - kicking street lights to get fruit out of them, getting crapped on by birds, finding actual crap in breakable walls, meeting strangers in bathrooms to resume health, kicking your partner's ass whose always hiding out in a costume for whatever reason, and I'm sure a shitload of crazier stuff in the later levels. I don't care for the controls, nor the gameplay in general. It's a shame, because it has such a goofy aesthetic, but it's clearly a product of late 80s platforming that should remain in the bygone era.
Lords of Thunder
I really want to like this game. It has great graphics, action, music, gameplay. You can choose whatever stage you want and you can select from four different armors: Water, Earth, Wind, and Fire. Each armor has its own offensive style. The problem with the game for me, though, is that its one life and three continues. It means I don't have the patience for it. If I ever feel like playing this game, I'm going to have to save state the hell out of it. Also, I don't like the fact that you basically have to die to spend your collected gems in order to buy shields and bombs instead of gathering them out in the field like most shooters do. Maybe if the game was a little more forgiving and had a better system of progressing, it could hold my attention but nowadays, I don't have time for games like these anymore.
Note: This is the first Super CD Rom game I came across, and the animation was different this time, still showing a cart being inserted, but then showed a CD drive spinning up. I really like the little touches.
Military Madness
Fans of Advance Wars would probably like this game. It's a turn-based strategy game where you pit units together and they enter into a little animation as they battle each other. It has all the other elements of strategy games such as terrain advantages, capturing bases. etc. It's a bit too primitive for my taste these days, but if I had the time for it, I'd definitely play more of it. It also had some weird math I didn't quite get as I had the clear advantage in terms of offensive attack, defense, and terrain advantage and yet still lost more tanks than the enemy did when it attacked me. Oh well.
Moto Roader
Dear god, what a bad game. So, this is a top down racer like Micro Machines and RC Pro Am, but nowhere near as good as either. There's some depth to be had in this game for sure, but the thing is, there's this really annoying mechanic where if you're lagging behind the pack, you're slingshotted forward in order to catch up to them, but very frequently at your detriment. You're also put at a severe disadvantage early on by not having enough money to afford decent car parts, so the competition is already ahead of you right out of the gate. This means you're ostensibly behind and always being flung forward. I didn't even bother to try to select any other modes. That's how done I am with this game.
Neutopia
This is unabashedly a Legend of Zelda clone. And well, it's not really a good one, either. My issue is the combat. You can only thrust forward and you have to line yourself up very carefully or you'll miss and get hit, and the game's very chintzy with health power ups and gold. A health potion costs two hundred gold, and I barely had more than that when I finished the first dungeon. As Zelda clones go, I guess it's not entirely bad. I just have to get used to the combat, but it also has an annoying alarm when you get down to low life that I really can't stand. I'm curious to see what the other dungeons look like, although I wasn't impressed with the first one at all. I'll probably return to this game if I play my Mini again.
Neutopia II
This one's a little more playable. The graphics and animation are improved, as should be for a sequel, plus I can move diagonally and attack diagonally, but there's still no swipe of the sword, just the forward thrust like in the first game. The formula of the game starts out the same as well. Check caves to talk to people. Waste bombs to break open caves to talk to people who tell you things you already know. Find the hidden room where the girl heals you before the dungeon. Head to the first dungeon, find the crystal ball, the key, the bronze armor, kill the boss and get the relic. Also, it has a low life alarm as well, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as the first game. I think the first dungeon was better designed, and it had a better boss as well. I'd probably return to this game to finish if I ever get around to finishing the first.
New Adventure Island
The only Adventure Island I played was Super Adventure Island, and from my memory, it's far superior to this game. The thing about SAI that stood out to me was just how great the music was. I was hoping the music would at least be as catchy as SAI, but it's not. Still, it's one of the better platformers I've played on the T-16 Mini so far. It's fast and has somewhat decent controls, but it's also pretty damn hard. Maybe it's not that hard, and my old school gaming skills simply aren't existent anymore, but yeah, I save stated the hell out of this. I'm enjoying it, so I'm going to add it to my list of games to beat.
Ninja Spirit
So far, this is my favorite game on the Mini. As someone who loves Shinobi, I really do appreciate a good ninja game, and what makes this game so damn fun is the spirits you get to help you out. Think of support drones in a space shooter. It's a combination of a side-scrolling hack 'n' slash and shoot 'em up and the three levels I've been through so far have been great. The bosses themselves are really cool as well. Man, I just love jumping, which he can do really high, and have my spirits attacking where I used to be filling the screen with projectiles. The only thing about the game, though, is that performance starts suffering once you got too much going on. But us old schoolers appreciate frame rate dropping in shoot 'em ups as a blessing. I'm definitely going to return to this game to finish it!
More to come. As always, thanks for reading!
I don't know what to make of this game. It's a very bizarre platformer where you're supposed to be detectives solving some kind of case. The action involves - and if you never heard of this game I am not making this up - kicking street lights to get fruit out of them, getting crapped on by birds, finding actual crap in breakable walls, meeting strangers in bathrooms to resume health, kicking your partner's ass whose always hiding out in a costume for whatever reason, and I'm sure a shitload of crazier stuff in the later levels. I don't care for the controls, nor the gameplay in general. It's a shame, because it has such a goofy aesthetic, but it's clearly a product of late 80s platforming that should remain in the bygone era.
Lords of Thunder
I really want to like this game. It has great graphics, action, music, gameplay. You can choose whatever stage you want and you can select from four different armors: Water, Earth, Wind, and Fire. Each armor has its own offensive style. The problem with the game for me, though, is that its one life and three continues. It means I don't have the patience for it. If I ever feel like playing this game, I'm going to have to save state the hell out of it. Also, I don't like the fact that you basically have to die to spend your collected gems in order to buy shields and bombs instead of gathering them out in the field like most shooters do. Maybe if the game was a little more forgiving and had a better system of progressing, it could hold my attention but nowadays, I don't have time for games like these anymore.
Note: This is the first Super CD Rom game I came across, and the animation was different this time, still showing a cart being inserted, but then showed a CD drive spinning up. I really like the little touches.
Military Madness
Fans of Advance Wars would probably like this game. It's a turn-based strategy game where you pit units together and they enter into a little animation as they battle each other. It has all the other elements of strategy games such as terrain advantages, capturing bases. etc. It's a bit too primitive for my taste these days, but if I had the time for it, I'd definitely play more of it. It also had some weird math I didn't quite get as I had the clear advantage in terms of offensive attack, defense, and terrain advantage and yet still lost more tanks than the enemy did when it attacked me. Oh well.
Moto Roader
Dear god, what a bad game. So, this is a top down racer like Micro Machines and RC Pro Am, but nowhere near as good as either. There's some depth to be had in this game for sure, but the thing is, there's this really annoying mechanic where if you're lagging behind the pack, you're slingshotted forward in order to catch up to them, but very frequently at your detriment. You're also put at a severe disadvantage early on by not having enough money to afford decent car parts, so the competition is already ahead of you right out of the gate. This means you're ostensibly behind and always being flung forward. I didn't even bother to try to select any other modes. That's how done I am with this game.
Neutopia
This is unabashedly a Legend of Zelda clone. And well, it's not really a good one, either. My issue is the combat. You can only thrust forward and you have to line yourself up very carefully or you'll miss and get hit, and the game's very chintzy with health power ups and gold. A health potion costs two hundred gold, and I barely had more than that when I finished the first dungeon. As Zelda clones go, I guess it's not entirely bad. I just have to get used to the combat, but it also has an annoying alarm when you get down to low life that I really can't stand. I'm curious to see what the other dungeons look like, although I wasn't impressed with the first one at all. I'll probably return to this game if I play my Mini again.
Neutopia II
This one's a little more playable. The graphics and animation are improved, as should be for a sequel, plus I can move diagonally and attack diagonally, but there's still no swipe of the sword, just the forward thrust like in the first game. The formula of the game starts out the same as well. Check caves to talk to people. Waste bombs to break open caves to talk to people who tell you things you already know. Find the hidden room where the girl heals you before the dungeon. Head to the first dungeon, find the crystal ball, the key, the bronze armor, kill the boss and get the relic. Also, it has a low life alarm as well, but it's not nearly as obnoxious as the first game. I think the first dungeon was better designed, and it had a better boss as well. I'd probably return to this game to finish if I ever get around to finishing the first.
New Adventure Island
The only Adventure Island I played was Super Adventure Island, and from my memory, it's far superior to this game. The thing about SAI that stood out to me was just how great the music was. I was hoping the music would at least be as catchy as SAI, but it's not. Still, it's one of the better platformers I've played on the T-16 Mini so far. It's fast and has somewhat decent controls, but it's also pretty damn hard. Maybe it's not that hard, and my old school gaming skills simply aren't existent anymore, but yeah, I save stated the hell out of this. I'm enjoying it, so I'm going to add it to my list of games to beat.
Ninja Spirit
So far, this is my favorite game on the Mini. As someone who loves Shinobi, I really do appreciate a good ninja game, and what makes this game so damn fun is the spirits you get to help you out. Think of support drones in a space shooter. It's a combination of a side-scrolling hack 'n' slash and shoot 'em up and the three levels I've been through so far have been great. The bosses themselves are really cool as well. Man, I just love jumping, which he can do really high, and have my spirits attacking where I used to be filling the screen with projectiles. The only thing about the game, though, is that performance starts suffering once you got too much going on. But us old schoolers appreciate frame rate dropping in shoot 'em ups as a blessing. I'm definitely going to return to this game to finish it!
More to come. As always, thanks for reading!
Saturday, May 23, 2020
TurboGrafx 16 Mini Part 1
Many many months ago, Konami decided that it was going to join in on the trend of scaling down classic consoles by announcing the TurboGrafx 16 Mini. It was supposed to launch March 19th, just a day before the world release of Nintendo's biggest Switch title of the year, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the factory manufacturing it had to close, so it was delayed. Originally, Amazon had forecast its new release date somewhere in January of next year, but luckily, it didn't take nearly that long. It arrived today, so lets start talking about!
If you read my blogs on the Sega Genesis Mini, you'll know that I did it in parts. I spen at little time each day with a handful of games until I played each one. I'll be doing the same here. So let's start with talking about the physical aspect.
Now, as far as Mini consoles goes, this is the largest of the five I own (NES, SNES, PSOne, Genesis, T-16). It's about as wide, maybe wider, than the NES and SNES side by side, and about as thick. I never owned a T-16 until many many years after it went defunct when I bough a brand new Turbo Duo off eBay for a few hundred dollars, so I have no idea just how big the original T-16 was.
The first thing I noticed after taking it out of the box was the back cover. It's a removable plastic shell where you thread your HDMI and power cable through, and I believe the original console had this as well. Regardless, I hate it. It's cumbersome, and I wish they forwent this bit of nostalgia and just let me plug the cords directly into the back. Speaking of cords, I was disappointed to learn that it uses a different USB power cord than my other Mini systems, which means I'll have to keep the other one nearby instead of keeping this one in its box.
The controller also feels nice and solid. It's been many years since I held my Duo controller, but based on my very sketchy memory, it seems to be a 1:1 replication. Select and Run buttons are soft. I and II buttons are clicky, and the turbo toggles are nice and firm. That's the one thing I always appreciated about the T-16 was having built in turbo toggles as a standard in their controllers. Now, let's turn it on!
The first thing you'll be greeted with when you turn the system on is the language select. You're given six languages: English by default, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Once you select your language, you're brought into a nicely presented game select screen with some catchy 16-bit music. The game covers look like they're rendered as CD boxes, but maybe that's how the game cards came in? It's been too long for me to remember. You can also sort the titles by the year they were released, alphabetically, or by game format. There's also two different game select screens: one for US TurboGrafx games and the other for EU/Japanese PC Engine games, which has its own music. Lastly, you can select the menu graphics when you're in the PC Engine side of things to either PC Engine (which is white) or PC Engine Core Grafx (which is black). It's really nice to see a way to customize your game select screen for a mini console.
With all that said, I'm going to start my way alphabetically through the T-16 games and then go into the PC Engine games. Let's begin!
Note: When I started my first game, I was treated to a nice little animation of the game cart being inserted into the machine. Really cool!
Air Zonk
So the first to get played is Air Zonk! What happens when Bonk gets bored and decides to go airborne and turn himself into a shoot 'em up? You get Air Zonk! Now these cartoony shooters are the type of shooters I really love. Full of charm, clever power ups, colorful cartoony bosses. I also love the friends system that lets you get drone support in the form of another cartoon character or transforms you completely. It's a hard game, though. I ended up using save states several times just to get to level three. When I return to my T-16 Mini, I'm going to make it a point to finish this game. Really a lot of fun! I love Hudson Soft's work!
Alien Crush
When I was shopping for a Turbo Duo, I was asking a friend of mine which games I should get with it, and Alien Crush was one of them. I don't remember if I actually did play it back then, but as the game stands now, it's a decent 16-bit pinball game. It only has one board so far that I know of, but there's a lot going on with it. It has two levels, and each has at least a couple bonus levels that you can find and start racking up bonus points. I played a few times, stopping after getting a score of over 3.5 mil. There's also a couple different music tracks you can select, and they're both pretty good. The thing is, it could be my imagination, but I think I detected some input lag as the flippers seemed just a little sluggish. I got used to it over time, and could probably get a much higher score if I played it again.
Blazing Lasers
This was another game recommended to me by my same friend. I do remember playing this game on my Duo, and I remember it being pretty hard. I don't think I really got very far at it, probably due to a lack of patience, but ah, the miracle of playing on mini systems: save states! So I used a few and kept on going. I stopped after Stage 3, because I felt like I could spend the whole day playing this game until I beat it. There's always a sign of playing a good space shooter, and that's when you get those "Holy shit, how did I survive that!" moments, and I've had a few in just the first three stages. I love the game's variety of weapons and support systems. Music and graphics are pretty solid for a game of its time as well. Just a very good game overall.
Bomberman '93
What can I say? It's Bomberman. Drop bombs. Blow up walls. Don't get caught in your own explosion. Obviously, it looks better than the NES game, but from what I can remember, the SNES version is the far superior version. Better graphics, better sound. Probably better controls. I played through the first world and killed what looked like a teleporting goomba wizard. It had a cute little picture at the end of it. What's interesting is that in the title screen, there's the option to play COM-LINK. Not surprisingly, COM-LINK doesn't work since I'm pretty sure there's no way to connect two T-16 minis together. So, you're stuck at a screen that shows two Bombermans connecting each other's TurboGrafx Expresses together, which I thought was pretty cute.
Bonk's Revenge
I just noticed something. Aside from Air Zonk, this is the only Bonk game on here. Mario is Nintendo. Sonic is Sega. Bonk is NEC. You would have thought that there'd be at least two of the mainstay Bonk games. Now, I remember the first Bonk as a kid, and I'm not sure I ever played any of the others. I own Bonk 3, but I don't think I ever played it. I have to stay, this is not really my kind of platformer. Mario has really spoiled me when it comes to platformers, and in my opinion, Bonk just doesn't have what it takes precision-wise to be a fun platformer. For instance, I hate the timing on the springy flowers. I get very frustrated with them! I know Bonk is adored by many old school gamers, but I guess he never clicked with me. Maybe it's because I didn't grow up with him like I did with Mario and Sonic. Who knows? Maybe I'll come back to it and give it another shot.
Note: So, watching the demo mode run, I happened to notice it does have what looks like the first Bonk, but it's Japanese on the PC Engine side, and it's called PC Genjin? Yeah, weird. Anyway, I'll get to that later when I start playing the PC Engine games.
Cadash
This is one I'm just not going to bother with again. It's a side scrolling action RPG, which is actually a port of an arcade game, so the cheap gameplay actually makes sense. You have to endure many a cheap shot. Very early on when you enter the cave, there's a slope you have to go down and there are skeletons coming up. Well, I could not figure out any safe way to engage them, and the game spawns off-screen enemies, so there are skeletons coming from where I left. I could go back up the slope and and fight off the skeleton that came up at me, but there'd only be another on the way back down. I tried with all four characters and ended up meeting the same fate. I thought, "Naw, couldn't be me. Couldn't be this bad, can I?" So I go look up a gameplay video on YouTube, and the player's solution? Get hit and just keep moving. Wow... fucking... wow. Fuck this game.
Chew Man Fu
So I'm guessing the "chew" part of the title indicates these giant colored balls I'm moving around is gum. If that's the case, you're using your kung fu to take out baddies by kicking giant balls of gum at them. The ultimate goal is to roll all four different colored gumballs onto the respective colored tiles. Once you manage that, a new level begins. In a way, I can kinda see Bomberman influence in this game, which makes sense as a it's a Hudson Soft title. I actually had a lot of fun with this game as I enjoy the puzzle element of moving things around while not getting cornered.
Dungeon Explorer
Dungeon Explorer, as its title suggests, is pretty generic. It's a top down dungeon crawler where you can select from a surprisingly large number of jobs, and then you proceed to get overwhelmed by enemies pretty quickly. I think it's designed to be played primarily with other people, which makes playing by yourself rather disadvantageous and ultimately not that much fun. Plus, the music's rather obnoxious and doesn't really fit the style of the game very well, and the text is just atrocious. "The bridge to Water Castle is broken. Come back after more battle." Also, they spell gnome "knome", which I'm not sure if they did that on purpose or if it was a mistranslation. Anyway, I won't be coming back to this one.
There will be more to come. I'll try to do eight games per entry Thanks for reading!
If you read my blogs on the Sega Genesis Mini, you'll know that I did it in parts. I spen at little time each day with a handful of games until I played each one. I'll be doing the same here. So let's start with talking about the physical aspect.
Now, as far as Mini consoles goes, this is the largest of the five I own (NES, SNES, PSOne, Genesis, T-16). It's about as wide, maybe wider, than the NES and SNES side by side, and about as thick. I never owned a T-16 until many many years after it went defunct when I bough a brand new Turbo Duo off eBay for a few hundred dollars, so I have no idea just how big the original T-16 was.
The first thing I noticed after taking it out of the box was the back cover. It's a removable plastic shell where you thread your HDMI and power cable through, and I believe the original console had this as well. Regardless, I hate it. It's cumbersome, and I wish they forwent this bit of nostalgia and just let me plug the cords directly into the back. Speaking of cords, I was disappointed to learn that it uses a different USB power cord than my other Mini systems, which means I'll have to keep the other one nearby instead of keeping this one in its box.
The controller also feels nice and solid. It's been many years since I held my Duo controller, but based on my very sketchy memory, it seems to be a 1:1 replication. Select and Run buttons are soft. I and II buttons are clicky, and the turbo toggles are nice and firm. That's the one thing I always appreciated about the T-16 was having built in turbo toggles as a standard in their controllers. Now, let's turn it on!
The first thing you'll be greeted with when you turn the system on is the language select. You're given six languages: English by default, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. Once you select your language, you're brought into a nicely presented game select screen with some catchy 16-bit music. The game covers look like they're rendered as CD boxes, but maybe that's how the game cards came in? It's been too long for me to remember. You can also sort the titles by the year they were released, alphabetically, or by game format. There's also two different game select screens: one for US TurboGrafx games and the other for EU/Japanese PC Engine games, which has its own music. Lastly, you can select the menu graphics when you're in the PC Engine side of things to either PC Engine (which is white) or PC Engine Core Grafx (which is black). It's really nice to see a way to customize your game select screen for a mini console.
With all that said, I'm going to start my way alphabetically through the T-16 games and then go into the PC Engine games. Let's begin!
Note: When I started my first game, I was treated to a nice little animation of the game cart being inserted into the machine. Really cool!
Air Zonk
So the first to get played is Air Zonk! What happens when Bonk gets bored and decides to go airborne and turn himself into a shoot 'em up? You get Air Zonk! Now these cartoony shooters are the type of shooters I really love. Full of charm, clever power ups, colorful cartoony bosses. I also love the friends system that lets you get drone support in the form of another cartoon character or transforms you completely. It's a hard game, though. I ended up using save states several times just to get to level three. When I return to my T-16 Mini, I'm going to make it a point to finish this game. Really a lot of fun! I love Hudson Soft's work!
Alien Crush
When I was shopping for a Turbo Duo, I was asking a friend of mine which games I should get with it, and Alien Crush was one of them. I don't remember if I actually did play it back then, but as the game stands now, it's a decent 16-bit pinball game. It only has one board so far that I know of, but there's a lot going on with it. It has two levels, and each has at least a couple bonus levels that you can find and start racking up bonus points. I played a few times, stopping after getting a score of over 3.5 mil. There's also a couple different music tracks you can select, and they're both pretty good. The thing is, it could be my imagination, but I think I detected some input lag as the flippers seemed just a little sluggish. I got used to it over time, and could probably get a much higher score if I played it again.
Blazing Lasers
This was another game recommended to me by my same friend. I do remember playing this game on my Duo, and I remember it being pretty hard. I don't think I really got very far at it, probably due to a lack of patience, but ah, the miracle of playing on mini systems: save states! So I used a few and kept on going. I stopped after Stage 3, because I felt like I could spend the whole day playing this game until I beat it. There's always a sign of playing a good space shooter, and that's when you get those "Holy shit, how did I survive that!" moments, and I've had a few in just the first three stages. I love the game's variety of weapons and support systems. Music and graphics are pretty solid for a game of its time as well. Just a very good game overall.
Bomberman '93
What can I say? It's Bomberman. Drop bombs. Blow up walls. Don't get caught in your own explosion. Obviously, it looks better than the NES game, but from what I can remember, the SNES version is the far superior version. Better graphics, better sound. Probably better controls. I played through the first world and killed what looked like a teleporting goomba wizard. It had a cute little picture at the end of it. What's interesting is that in the title screen, there's the option to play COM-LINK. Not surprisingly, COM-LINK doesn't work since I'm pretty sure there's no way to connect two T-16 minis together. So, you're stuck at a screen that shows two Bombermans connecting each other's TurboGrafx Expresses together, which I thought was pretty cute.
Bonk's Revenge
I just noticed something. Aside from Air Zonk, this is the only Bonk game on here. Mario is Nintendo. Sonic is Sega. Bonk is NEC. You would have thought that there'd be at least two of the mainstay Bonk games. Now, I remember the first Bonk as a kid, and I'm not sure I ever played any of the others. I own Bonk 3, but I don't think I ever played it. I have to stay, this is not really my kind of platformer. Mario has really spoiled me when it comes to platformers, and in my opinion, Bonk just doesn't have what it takes precision-wise to be a fun platformer. For instance, I hate the timing on the springy flowers. I get very frustrated with them! I know Bonk is adored by many old school gamers, but I guess he never clicked with me. Maybe it's because I didn't grow up with him like I did with Mario and Sonic. Who knows? Maybe I'll come back to it and give it another shot.
Note: So, watching the demo mode run, I happened to notice it does have what looks like the first Bonk, but it's Japanese on the PC Engine side, and it's called PC Genjin? Yeah, weird. Anyway, I'll get to that later when I start playing the PC Engine games.
Cadash
This is one I'm just not going to bother with again. It's a side scrolling action RPG, which is actually a port of an arcade game, so the cheap gameplay actually makes sense. You have to endure many a cheap shot. Very early on when you enter the cave, there's a slope you have to go down and there are skeletons coming up. Well, I could not figure out any safe way to engage them, and the game spawns off-screen enemies, so there are skeletons coming from where I left. I could go back up the slope and and fight off the skeleton that came up at me, but there'd only be another on the way back down. I tried with all four characters and ended up meeting the same fate. I thought, "Naw, couldn't be me. Couldn't be this bad, can I?" So I go look up a gameplay video on YouTube, and the player's solution? Get hit and just keep moving. Wow... fucking... wow. Fuck this game.
Chew Man Fu
So I'm guessing the "chew" part of the title indicates these giant colored balls I'm moving around is gum. If that's the case, you're using your kung fu to take out baddies by kicking giant balls of gum at them. The ultimate goal is to roll all four different colored gumballs onto the respective colored tiles. Once you manage that, a new level begins. In a way, I can kinda see Bomberman influence in this game, which makes sense as a it's a Hudson Soft title. I actually had a lot of fun with this game as I enjoy the puzzle element of moving things around while not getting cornered.
Dungeon Explorer
Dungeon Explorer, as its title suggests, is pretty generic. It's a top down dungeon crawler where you can select from a surprisingly large number of jobs, and then you proceed to get overwhelmed by enemies pretty quickly. I think it's designed to be played primarily with other people, which makes playing by yourself rather disadvantageous and ultimately not that much fun. Plus, the music's rather obnoxious and doesn't really fit the style of the game very well, and the text is just atrocious. "The bridge to Water Castle is broken. Come back after more battle." Also, they spell gnome "knome", which I'm not sure if they did that on purpose or if it was a mistranslation. Anyway, I won't be coming back to this one.
There will be more to come. I'll try to do eight games per entry Thanks for reading!
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