Artículo escrito por Vecin.

Si a cualquiera de nosotros nos preguntaran por una consola de 16 bits, inmediatamente responderíamos Super Nintendo o Megadrive. Sin embargo, si esta misma pregunta se la hiciéramos a un japonés, seguramente nos respondería Super Nintendo o la consola protagonista del artículo de hoy, la NEC Pc Engine/Turbografx.

Para seguir leyendo pulsa aquí.

Overview:

Official description:

Rick and Jennifer, both parapsychology students at the local university, are visiting West Mansion, site of the research lab where the famed Dr. West conducted some of his most gruesome experiments. A sudden storm forces them to find shelter inside the mansion. Once inside, they are attacked by monsters! Jennifer is kidnapped and Rick is knocked unconscious! Hours later, Rick awakes to find himself covered in blood with the Terror Mask stuck to his face. His only hope is to depend on the ancient powers of the mask to give him the strength and courage to find Jennifer. Now Rick’s fight has begun! Splatter your way through 7 stages of side-scrolling horror action. Armed with cleavers and shotguns, Rick must fight his way through the monsters of West Mansion and defeat the bosses at the end of every stage. The creepy music, gruesome monsters, flying blood, gory action, and shocking events leading up to the finale will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Review:

I picked the game up a while back due to my hunger to play games for platforms I never owned and because I wanted to see exactly what made this game so controversial when it first came out. Needless to say, Splatterhouse is fairly gross and I can definitely see why it may have caused the spit to hit the fan way back in 1988. But by today’s standards, with games like Manhunt and GTA running amok, this game looks like My Poniez Adventurez. For realz.

Gameplay:
Splatterhouse is a basic side scrolling beat-em-up that takes place in a haunted mansion. You hold the Wiimote on it’s side and move with the D-pad, jump with ‘2′ and attack with ‘1′. The controller setup is fine but the controls feel really stiff and clunky and take some getting used to. There are a myriad of weapons in the game at your disposal, including meat cleavers, 2×4s, ball bats and wrenches. Like I said, every attack is handled with the ‘1′ button alone. No combos or anything to deepen the experience.

Graphics and Sound:
Nothing special here on either front. The graphics are definitely gross, and while they aren’t too shabby looking they surely don’t impress. When you splat sea monsters onto the wall all you can see is gross. That’s it. You can’t tell it used to be a sea monster. It looks like you ate 6 lbs. of spinach and vomited onto tile floor.

As for sound you’ve got simple midi files that get the job done and mostly uninspiring ‘Friday the Thirteenth’ ripoff music. Though this totally changes in the later levels of the game as the music becomes very catchy and memorable. I’m humming a song in my head right now.

Lasting Appeal:
The fastest I’ve ever been able to beat Splatterhouse is about 45 minutes and the longest it took was around an hour and a half or so. The game will frustrate you beyond belief at first, but once you get used to the stiff controls you’ll find the challenge isn’t really as hard as you’d originally thought. Don’t get too dumped on this game when you get 3 game overs in your first 15 minutes. Go have a cigarette and a sandwich and come back. Repeat until you get the hang of it. Once that’s done you’ll be done with the game in a short time.

Final Words:

Splatterhouse set the way for controversy in gaming and operated solely on shock over substance. A B-movie story and Grindhouse graphics style are what truly set this game apart from the crowd, but when it comes to content you’ll be left wanting more.

Pros

• B-movie story
• Grindhouse visual style

Cons

• Style over substance
• Stiff controls
• Boring soundtrack until halfway through

Score:

Overall: 6.5/10 (Doable)
Gameplay: 6.5/10 (Stiff movement, basic beat ‘em up combat)
Graphics: 7.0/10 (Gross but undetailed)
Sound: 6.5/10 (Scratchy effects, music doesn’t catch up until halfway through)
Lasting Appeal: 6.0/10 (Can be beaten in about 45 minutes, should never take more than two hours)

With a next-gen Splatterhouse on the horizon, now is as good of a time as any to pick up this game and prepare yourself for the carnage to come. Splatterhouse is definitely a classic and an important step in the evolution of console horror games.

It seems like for every system, there was that one game that looked so good that I decided I must buy the system. For the TurboGrafx 16, that game was Splatterhouse. I remember seeing a commercial for the TG 16 that featured Splatterhouse, and witnessing the huge, decaying end boss swiping at the masked protagonist—well, that’s when I decided that this was a system that was worthy of adding to my collection.

Of course, at the time I was still fairly young and without a source of income other than begging and pleading with my parents, so it was a while before I finally scored my TurboGrafx and my very own copy of Splatterhouse. Once I did, though, I was not disappointed.

One thing that stood out about Splatterhouse was that this was not a game intended for everyone. Though toned down from the arcade original, Splatterhouse still showcased a lot of gore and creature designs that were gruesome for the time. These were fleshy monsters that you could beat to a pulp—something very satisfying to my young teenage sensibilities.

So, the same question arises that always does when it comes to retro games—does this title stand the test of time? Is Splatterhouse still worthy of a playthrough?

Hell yeah.

Certainly, it doesn’t quite match up to the sequels or the more advanced horror games that have followed, but Splatterhouse is the first title I can ever remember that actually fit into the horror genre. Titles which had horror aspects like Castlevania preceded it, but those just seemed like action games with a horror theme tacked on. With its slimy, slithering, oozing, decaying enemies, Splatterhouse was horror. No, you never really got scared playing the game, but I blame that more on the limitations of the consoles of the era. The horror design was spot on for its time.

There isn’t a whole lot to the story of Splatterhouse, and there really doesn’t need to be. Sure, there’s something about a Dr. West and evil experiments, but none of that really matters. What matters is that some big baddy has kidnapped your girl, you’re all hulked out thanks to a red mask that mysteriously has attached itself to you, and there is an army of creeps between you and the end. The game is an arcade port, and in arcade style, the levels aren’t really tied together too closely. Everything takes place in the mansion and the grounds surrounding it, but one minute you’ll be in a hall full of mirrors only to walk through a doorway to find yourself in what appears to be a church setting. Apparently, the idea of consistency was lost on Dr. West’s interior designer.

In terms of gameplay, Splatterhouse is pretty simple. You have an attack button and a jump button. You are capable of punches, low kicks, jump kicks, and a very effective sliding move that is unfortunately not all that easy to pull off. The draw exists in the weapons you can pick up along the way. You’ll find boards with which you’ll splat your enemies against walls, wrenches which you’ll hurl into their beastly chests, spears with which you’ll impale them, and shotguns that will blast them to pieces so that they can be fed to undead canines. The controls in the game aren’t too bad, though your jump is not as responsive as it could be, which will become very annoying in certain parts of the game (such as the final level). A side note for the cheaters our there—selecting the middle turbo setting on your controller makes your hero a crazy punching and kicking machine, which will make certain parts of the game, such as the level six boss, much easier to handle.

With a next-gen Splatterhouse on the horizon, now is as good of a time as any to pick up this game and prepare yourself for the carnage to come. Splatterhouse is definitely a classic and an important step in the evolution of console horror games.

Recommended

Si hace unos dias anunciabamos la ultima version de este emulador de turbografx/ PC Engine, esta vez su creador nos sorprende con una nueva actualizacion con numerosas novedades:

• Reescrito el motor de sonido usando parte del código del port de Hu-Go para Wii.
• Ahora tendremos un sonido mucho más cercano al de PC Engine.
• Corregidos los sprites en pantalla que tenía problemas con Gunhead u otros juegos.
• Corregido la opción de guardar en todos los juegos.
• Mejorada la velocidad de emulación, ahora muchos juegos irán a full speed a sólo 266 Mhz.
• Añadida nueva opción de overclocking con buenos resultado para mejorar la velocidad de emulación, pero puede causar fallos.
• Mejorado el buscador de archivos con teclado virtual para elegir secuencialmente.
• Los archivos Rom se buscarán a partir de una letra.
• Refuerzo del volumen.
• Corregido fallos en el menú del teclado (en las teclas del joystick).
• Agregada la documentación para la configuración en el menú de ayuda.

Descarga para firmware 4.xx
Descarga para firmware 1.50
Código Fuente

Fuente: TodoPSP

Cadash es un videojuego publicado por Taito en 1989 y que pretendía ser un híbrido entre un videojuego de plataformas y un RPG. El videojuego tendría una buena acogida en los salones recreativos, por lo que existirían conversiones para Turbografx y Megadrive, en 1991 y 1992 respectivamente. Aunque tenían algunas diferencias (ambas eliminaban el límite de tiempo y la versión de la consola de Sega contaba con dos personajes menos para elegir), lo cierto es que eran unas conversiones bastante dignas y que supieron conservar el espíritu del juego, por lo que muchos seguidores pudieron disfrutar del título en sus casas.

Para seguir leyendo pulsa aquí.

En 1989, la compañía Video System lanzaría un videojuego sobre un deporte tan poco habitual en este mundillo como el volleyball. Los aficionados, más que por su título, reconocen al juego por sus descripción, ya que contó con múltiples denominaciones. La versión arcade original asiática se llamaba Super Volleyball, aunque posteriormente se denominaría Super Volley ‘91 mientras que para el resto del mundo fue Power Spikes, a excepción de Italia donde llegó bajo el título de 1991 Spikes. Las conversiones a formatos domésticos también implicaron nuevas denominaciones, ya que las versiones de Turbografx, PC-Engine y Mega Drive se titularon con el Super Volleyball original y la de SNES Hyper V-Ball, que era un híbrido entre el videojuego original y Power Spikes II que aparecería en 1994.

Para seguir leyendo pulsa aquí.

Fighting Street is worth noting as an evolutionary step in the one-on-one fighting genre, but otherwise, it will likely be of little of interest to most gamers.

I tend to be a completest when it comes to collecting series. If I really enjoy a game, then I not only want the sequels, but I want any preceding games as well. There are several examples of this in my collection. Because I liked Grand Theft Auto III, I decided to buy the original Grand Theft Auto. Because I liked DOA 2: Hardcore, I bought the original DOA. And because I liked Street Fighter II, feeding the various arcade incarnations of it quarter after quarter, I bought Fighting Street, the TurboGrafx CD port of the original Street Fighter.

I think the first question that tends to come to people’s minds when they see Fighting Street is why the name was changed. To this day, I haven’t found an answer for this question. Maybe I never will. For the most part, this is a good adaptation of the arcade game. Though the graphics are not as crisp or detailed as the original, they are large for a TurboGrafx game. If you have played the arcade game, you will notice that background elements were sacrificed as well, such as the moving clouds in Joe’s stage. Instead, we’re given a very generic sky comprised of bands of blue. It’s not very attractive, but I generally will let such things pass as long as the gameplay is solid. Unfortunately, in Fighting Street, it is not.

Even if you’ve mastered all the moves for Ryu in the later Street Fighter games, don’t expect your skills to carry over into Fighting Street. Sure, the fireball, whirlwind kick, and dragon punch are present . . . if you can ever manage to pull them off. If you can reliably pull off these moves (I never have been able to), you will likely breeze through much of this game. Your special moves remove a lot of energy from your opponent’s life gauge, and three fireball hits are all you need to put him down. The problem is that you will likely try the fireball motion repeatedly only to maybe get one or two off during a match. The rest of the time, you will probably just be opening yourself up for a barrage of hits from your enemy, and when it comes to an opponent such as Mike, you will be KOed in no time. It doesn’t help the controls to only have two buttons at your disposal, either. The strength of your kicks and punches is determined by how long you hold down the button. This doesn’t hurt the gameplay nearly as badly as the inability to consistently pull off special moves, but it still detracts from the game. It just does not feel right to play a Street Fighter game without the six button layout.

Considering that this game was released on CD, you would expect the sound to be improved. While the soundtrack from the arcade original appears to have been redone, the voices seem to be the same. The developers really should have spent a little more time to record new voice samples, as those from the original are almost unintelligible. What’s worse is that they don’t vary at all. Whenever you beat an enemy, he says the same thing in the same voice as every other enemy in the game. Luckily, what he is saying is written out as well so that you can actually understand the message. Perhaps this should have been done for the voices during the actual fight as well, since they are a garbled mess.

Unless you absolutely feel the need to have a version of the first Street Fighter, there is no reason to own this game, and even then, you will probably get a better version by purchasing Capcom Classics Collection: Volume 2 for the PS2 or Xbox. Fighting Street is worth noting as an evolutionary step in the one-on-one fighting genre, but otherwise, it will likely be of little of interest to most gamers.

Not recommended

Artículo escrito por Vecin.

A poco que visitéis este blog, os habréis dado cuenta que a un servidor le gusta mucho la Pc Engine/Turbografx. Esto se debe sobre todo a un catálogo de shooters envidiable, aunque de vez en cuando también pruebo otros juegos. Hoy os quiero hablar de uno de mis favoritos de “los otros” de Pc Engine, el Moto Roader.

Para seguir leyendo pulsa aquí.

. . . Though I would not necessarily call this a must-have game, it does make a nice addition to your TurboGrafx library . . .

Growing up, I was lucky enough to have two pinball machines in our house. One was a rather basic little machine with a World War II fighter plane motif, while the other one was, I believe, a Williams Pinch Hitter machine, which was fun as hell . . . whenever it was working.

Now that I’m away from home and can’t afford a place large enough to store a pinball machine, let alone the machine itself, I must take my love of the game to the virtual arena. Luckily, games like Alien Crush exist.

One of the first things you will notice about this game is that it is obviously inspired by the HR Giger designs used in the Alien movies. I have seen the game criticized elsewhere because of this, but I think the influence of Giger’s designs is so widespread that singling out this game isn’t necessary. Anyway, we’re not here to talk about copyright infringement—the question should be, is the game fun to play?

To that, I have to say, “yes, yes it is.” In fact, it is my favorite video game version of a pinball machine that I have played (of course, I have yet to try Devil’s Crush).

The game is not without its flaws, though. For one, the main playing area is divided into two screens for the upper and lower halves. Instead of scrolling from the top to the bottom (and vice-versa), when the ball moves to the other half of the area, you switch between screens. This would not be so bad, but whenever a ball passes between your flippers on the upper screen, it is most likely going to hit a bumper that is placed at the top middle of the bottom screen, which will force the ball back into the upper screen and very likely into the bottom of your flipper. This can be very disorienting, as the screen switches quickly back and forth, and it takes a moment to locate exactly where the ball is afterward. I also found the controls to be unintuitive at first, as the left flipper is actually controlled by the left directional key while the right flipper is controlled by button I. I understand that this was likely done to make it easier to use both flippers at once, but I think I would have preferred if button II had been assigned to the left flipper and the directional key had been used to nudge the machine (which is the function assigned to button II). I think that would have allowed you to nudge the machine in different directions and would have permitted a little more control.

Those minor complaints aside, Alien Crush is a good game. It is perhaps limited when compared to games that came after it, as it only offers the main table and four small bonus areas, but as a whole, the game is solid and enjoyable. The alien theme is what really makes the experience. You will have cocoon bumpers open up to let scorpion-like aliens out, you will destroy segmented centepede aliens, and you will even knock about a floating skull or two. Though I would not necessarily call this a must-have game, it does make a nice addition to your TurboGrafx library.

Recommended.

Splatterhouse es un beat’em up desarrollado y publicado por Namco en 1988 pero que, por su argumento y ambientación, es considerado en muchas ocasiones como un precursor del género del “survival horror”, que llegaría a su punto álgido con títulos como Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill o Resident Evil. Splatterhouse fue desarrollado originalmente para máquinas recreativas, si bien se desarrollarían conversiones para Turbo Grafx 16 (que contenía un aviso parental por la naturaleza violenta del videojuego, algo no muy habitual por aquella época), PC y FM Towns, estando actualmente disponible en el servicio Virtual Console de la Nintendo Wii.

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Developer: Westone/Hudson
Publisher: Hudson (Japan), NEC (USA)
Year: 1991
Fun Fact: originally released for the Master System in 1989

As the fun fact states, this game was originally released 2 years earlier on the Master System, as Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap.  As with most of the Wonder Boy series, Hudson licensed this game, changed the names and graphics, and released it for a non-SEGA system.  I haven’t played all the way through the Master System version but in this case the only major changes seem to be a decent upgrade in graphics.

Read the rest of the review:

Dragon’s Curse continues the insane, awesome and respectable evolution of the series.  Wonder Boy was a 2nd-rate Mario-wannabe.  Wonder Boy in Monster Land was a 1st rate Mario vs. Zelda mashup.  Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair was an innovative attempt at combining platformers with auto-scrolling shmups.  DC attempts to combine mascot platforming with Metroid-style exploration and power acquisition.  It’s hard to say if this game was popular with certain people at Konami but the Symphony of the Night style Castlevania games seem to have been inspired by it.

The game begins with a remade, and much much easier, version of the final castle and boss fight from Wonder Boy in Monster Land.  Our hero is then cursed and the action unfolds as you set out to lift the offending spell.  Platformers always expect us to set off to save a girlfriend or a kingdom so it’s nice to have a game where you get to be all about you. 

The curse has transformed you into a rather wussy dragon and you’ll find that this is a rather complicated spell to reverse.  You’ll end up transforming into many other forms throughout the adventure.  Each of these forms naturally has strengths and weaknesses that make them unique.  These qualities will grant you access to new areas and treasures.  Armors and tools are sold in shops as long as you have the money and the charisma level to buy them.  This can be occasionally annoying as you may find yourself grinding to earn money and charisma-raising stones.

Dragon’s Trap was an innovative game in its day and 2 years later Dragon’s Curse provided the same experience.  The music and character designs are a step down from Wonder Boy in Monster Land but everything else is top-notch.  This will sound like a strange list, but if you’re a fan of Mario, Metroid, Zelda and/or the recent Castlevania games, you should give this one a shot.

Grade: A-
Personal conclusion: deserves to be more widely known

Click HERE for the Rest of the List

#2 – Devil’s Crush

I’m sure no one saw this one coming.

Devil’s Crush, for the Turbografx-16 (also known as Devil Crash outside North America) is the touchstone upon which, even today, pinball videogames are compared. Most contenders to the throne don’t fare well in this comparison, and, perhaps as a result, the genre has been fodder for bargain bins ever since.

It’s hard for me to put my finger on what makes this game so great. The formula used in DC isn’t all that different from say, Pokemon Pinball, or more appropriately, Pinball of the Dead; you play some pinball, then you get sent to another room for a minigame, then you play some more pinball. That pretty much sums up the whole non-realistic pinball subgenre. Though it arguably perfected it, DC certainly didn’t invent this concept [I believe that honor would go to Nintendo's simply-named Pinball for the NES, with it's Breakout-styled Princess-rescuing minigame. I could be wrong though]. So after all these years, what makes this game continue to be the popular high water mark for the genre?

Well, for one, the music kicks all kinds of ass. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that inescapable fact. How developer NAXAT Soft made 16-bit hardware rock this hard is still a mystery to this day.

The table design is equally outstanding, and is filled to the chin with cool little details (such as the skull’s eye following the movement of the ball) and more fun objectives than most real-world tables possess.

The minigames too are a step above the rest. While not nearly as creative as the diversions found in other pin games, DC’s minigames uniformly revolve around killing or otherwise breaking shit with your steel ball, just as they should. In other words, there’s no gimmickry here. The game realizes that you want pinball dammit, and only pinball. Look elsewhere if you’re want fancypants basketball or driving subgames. Most of these side tables are also very nice from an artistic perspective, assuming you consider skulls with eyeballs as being the pinnacle of high art.

But you already know all this stuff, because you’ve played Devil’s Crush to death, or else you wouldn’t be here, looking for fresher pinball pastures. I understand that, which is why I’m gonna shut the fuck up sooner rather than later about this game that needs no hyping whatsoever.

If you haven’t already played Devil’s Crush, get off your ass and buy it. All you kids with your newfangled Wiis have absolutely no excuse not to play this classic, since it’s available through Nintendo’s Virtual Console service. The rest of you need to dust off your TG-16, or you Genesis. That’s right, Genesis; the game was ported to Sega’s system under the decidedly less cool moniker Dragon’s Fury. Though the graphics are arguably less clean-looking, the meat of the experience (the gameplay) is present in full effect.

Also check out: Lots of stuff. Alien Crush is the most obvious recommendation, and it’s also the one I can most heartily recommend. But there are also two other games that, while not from the same developer (and thus not as good), can be seen as spiritual sequels to the Crush games.

The first one is Fantasic Pinball Kyutenkai, by Technosoft, which is only available on the Japanese Saturn. It pretty much takes the formula and general layout of the Crush games, adds a few new wrinkles, and plasters it on an EXTREMELY Japanese aesthetic. The theme is still Hell and Devils and such, but now it’s all in a cutesy anime style. Kinda blah in that respect, but the game itself is fairly solid.

The other game, called Dragon’s Revenge, is a direct sequel to the Genesis port of Devil’s Crush (which, if you recall, was renamed Dragon’s Fury). Between crazy physics and a strangely designed main table, the game is somewhat of a mess, but it still manages to be a fun time despite it’s flaws. This is due in part to the really cool artwork seen in the bonus games, which feature a winning combination of unconventional background designs with the sure-fire addition of a bunch of comely wenches.

Click HERE for the Rest of the List

TurboGrafx-16 -600 Wii Points($6)

Air Zonk
Alien Crush
***************
Battle Lode Runner
Blazing Lazers
Bloody Wolf
Bomberman ‘93
Bonk’s Adventure
Bonk’s Revenge
Bonk 3: Bonk’s Big Adventure
Bravoman
***************
Cratermaze
Chew Man Fu
China Warrior
***************
Dead Moon
Devil’s Crush
Double Dungeons
Dragon’s Curse
Dragon Spirit
Drop Off
Dungeon Explorer
Dynastic Hero
***************
Galaga ‘90
Gate of Thunder (800)
***************
J.J. & JEFF
***************
Legend of Hero Tonma
Lords of Thunder
***************
Military Madness
***************
Monster Lair
Moto Roader
***************
Neutopia
Neutopia II
New Adventure Island
Ninja Spirit
***************
Ordyne
***************
Power Golf
Psychosis
***************
R-Type (800)
Riot Zone
***************
Samurai-Ghost
Shockman
Silent Debuggers
Soldier Blade
Splatterhouse
Super Air Zonk
Super Star Soldier
***************
Victory Run
Vigilante
***************
World Class Baseball
World Sports Competition

Tweeting back and forth with TheSocialGamer about the TurboGrafx-16 last night led to some serious retro T16 game-groovin’ on my handheld TurboExpress, replaying some Blazing Lazers, Dragon Spirit, and Bonk’s Revenge before calling it a night.

The NEC TurboGrafx-16 Video Game System.

For those that have NO idea what I’m talking about, the TurboGrafx-16 was a video game system sold in North America by NEC (it hit the shelves in 1989).  It was known as the PC Engine in Japan, where it debuted 2 years earlier (those damn Japanese got all the new game tech!).  This was a killer system in its day: 16-bit graphics capable of 482 colors at once.  It suffered a pretty big drawback, though, with initially only 8K of memory available for the games to work under.  (As a comparison, the Super Nintendo had 128K.)

It came packaged with one game (Keith Courage in Alpha Zones) and one controller (called a TurboPad).  Some awesome games were available for this system, like Blazing Lazers, Neutropia, Order of the Griffon, Bomberman, Bonk’s Adventure, Alien Crush (and its sequel, Devil’s Crush), Cadash, Klax, and Military Madness, just to name a few.  You could hook up an accessory called a TurboTap which would allow you and 4 of your gamer buddies to play certain games (like Bomberman) for serious multiplayer fun.  Oddly enough, there was only ONE controller port on the system.

The TurboExpress handheld video game system (with TV Tuner)

What made the TurboGrafx unique was how they promoted their handheld game system.  Most competitors used separate games for the console systems versus the handheld systems (like the NES and the GameBoy).  If you wanted to play Tetris on the NES and GameBoy, you had to buy one NES version and one GameBoy version.  But the TurboExpress (the handheld version of the TurboGrafx-16) used the very same games that it’s parent console used!  The games – called HuCards – fit in either system and played the same.  The TurboExpress even played in FULL COLOR!  Wow, back in the day that was an AWESOME gaming experience.

This is the TurboGrafx-16 with the TurboCD attachment.

Another nifty accessory you could get for the TurboGrafx was the TurboCD, which allowed you to play the really great CD games that were out there, as well as play music CDs.  It came with a HuCard called a System Card which you put into your TurboGrafx to boost the RAM so the CDs could play (64K).  Another memory card, the Super System Card, gave you an additional 192K, which gave access to the Super CD games.  You haven’t played a 16-bit system until you’ve played Lords of Thunder.

So why didn’t NEC rule the 90’s instead of Sega and Nintendo?  There are plenty of reasons that come to mind, such as the aforementioned 8K memory limit and an intially high price on the accessories that made it a gaming system juggernaut (the TurboCD and TurboExpress).  The real T16 killer was that the system was not embraced by 3rd Party developers.  Companies today should look at the history of the TurboGrafx-16 to see what happens when all your innovation and development comes inhouse.  Had NEC been able to bring more developers on board right away, the system would have had a massive library of games and accessories, which everyone knows is the gamer geek’s kryptonite.  Who knows how console game systems would look like today if NEC’s TurboGrafx had dominated the market? Perhaps Sony wouldn’t have been able to get a toehold because the TurboDuo drowned out their sales?  Maybe Nintendo would have skipped past cartridge-based systems right into a disc-based system like the GameCube right away?

Who knows?

I just found my new compulsive hobby!
I’m a bit of a freak and I hate to have games without boxes, manuals or covers. In fact I won’t buy an old game without these. That said even with the complete package you have to admit that the NES sleeves kinda suck, the SNES and GBA cardboard is a bit bland and so on and so forth…

In comes the Universal Game Case which, as the name applies, is a universal case for Genesis, NES, SNES… about the size of an old VHS… ($42 for 100 on this site).

But it gets even better is when you add The Cover Project to the mix which basically makes custom covers based on original NES, SNES and everything in between games made to fit Universal Game Cases.

And the result of that is this greatness:

Also you can do the same thing for you GBA collection by grabbing DS cases off of the Nintendo website ($7 for 10) which ends up looking like this:

The collection pics do not belong to me.

Overview:

System: TurboGrafx-16 (Wii Virtual Console)
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Developer: Hudson Soft
Genre: Platformer

Remember the 16-bit wars? The Super Nintendo VS the Sega Genesis is what the majority of people think of, but there was one more contender that most have never even heard of. The TurboGrafx-16 from Hudson is that forgotten system of the 16-bit era. It failed for numerous reasons including the heavy price-tag, no Sonic or Mario, and all around lack of tons of triple-A titles. But while it is true that there weren’t very many standout games, the TurboGrafx-16 definitely had more than a couple of great titles worth your play time, and Bonk’s Adventure is easily the most notable. Let’s check it out, shall we?

Review:

Bonk’s Adventure stars a little caveman with a heart of gold and a head of gravel named, you guessed it, Bonk. The thing that sets Bonk apart from other classic platformers of the time was that he used his head, not his feet, to attack foes. That’s right, so instead of hopping on an enemy’s head like in Mario you attack either from underneath, jumping up and performing a dive onto their craniums, or straight up smacking your skull into theirs without ever leaving the ground. Awesome.

The gameplay concept of attacking with your head instead of your feet proves to be an extremely fun and refreshing one that makes the game interesting from start to finish. Almost nothing is more fun than bopping a demonic flower 30 feet into the air as repeatedly as possible until finally letting its lifeless floral corpse fall to the ground.

Possessed flowers aren’t the only enemies you’ll run into. There are plenty of fun and memorable baddies to mercilessly murder with nothing more than your own skull, my favorite being the little sea creatures with goggles and harpoons. If that isn’t awesome to you, then maybe the KKK hood-wearing, tomahawk-wielding bird things will tickle your fancy.

One thing some might find slightly disappointing is how all the bosses are handled the same way. Each good-turned-bad dino boss has a colorful eggshell cap on their heads witch is the obvious target for Bonk to bonk. Every boss does, thankfully, fight in different ways that keep each encounter fun and thrilling. Good luck making your way through the final boss battle on your first try, by the way. It’s basically a conglomeration of all the baddies you fought through your first time through the game in consecutive fashion. Very challenging.

Graphics are fun and colorful, both fore and background. Character designs are all well-done in a very cartoony fashion. Some are even so cute that you might not want to kill them. That is until you remember how fun smashing a prehistoric being’s brains out with your own rock-hard caveman cranium is. That being said, Bonk’s Adventure was one of the first 16-bit titles to be released and it definitely shows with its somewhat bare presentation and visuals that aren’t as detailed as later 16-bit games got to be.

The music in Bonk’s Adventure is probably my favorite thing about it besides the headbutting mechanic. Almost every tune twists your mouth into a carefree grin while you subconsciously shimmy your shoulders from side to side while you go on a skull-bashing spree through prehistoric locales.

Final Words:

Bonk’s Adventure is a forgotten classic of yesterday, and one that never found the following it deserved due to its exclusivity to the TurboGrafx-16 console. However, thanks to the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console feature, you can pick up this great gem for a mere 6 bucks or 600 Wii Points which I highly recommend doing.

Pros

• Refreshing gameplay mechanics
• Colorful visuals
• Awesome music
• Enemies and characters
• Bonk

Cons

• Didn’t get the following it deserved
• Boss fights are handled the same, though they vary in offensive styles

Score:

Overall: 8.25/10 (Great)

Gameplay: 9.0/10 (Genius headbutting mechanic is super fun)
Graphics: 7.5/10 (Bright and colorful but don’t stand up to later Turbo games)
Audio: 8.5/10 (Great tunes)
Entertainment Value: 8.0/10 (It’ll stay fresh for multiple play-throughs and is only 6 bucks)