TG-16 Reviews, TurboGrafx-16 Reviews

A guilty pleasure for import PC Engine fans

You cannot be blamed for not having heard of Wonder Momo, a Namco arcade game from the mid-late 80s which was never released outside of Japan. It belongs in the box of "odd" Japanese games, being a beat-em-up with the unusual setting of a Super Sentai (Power Rangers to the gaijin amongst you) stage show, like you'd find performed in Japanese..

The PC Engine classic finally arrives on the Virtual Console

The Castlevania titles have seen releases on a variety of game consoles over the years, but it's this PC Engine release that's garnered a lot of attention and focus among diehard game fans and collectors over the years. Since the game was only released in Japan, gamers who wanted to play the game have long been forced to pay the lofty..

Possibly the maddest shooter of all time

Thanks to Nintendo making imports available on the Virtual Console, you've probably come across Chō Aniki: a shooter on the PC Engine in the same mold as Gradius and other side-scrollers, but with some rather unconventional enemies and a lot of muscles. You may be less familiar with this sequel, which was released on the PC Engine CD format and has probably..

A very solid, albeit unknown port of the Capcom arcade fighter.

After seeing releases on both the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis consoles, Capcom figured they could capitalize one more time with a release on NEC's PC Engine system in Japan. While the game was considered a very faithful port of the arcade hit, waning sales and licensing issues kept the game from seeing a much-needed release on the..

Proof that some memories are best left in the past

Before Street Fighter 2 became all the rage in arcades and one of the most popular fighting games in the world, it began life as an overlooked arcade title called Street Fighter, which saw the light of day way back in 1987. While the title was far from the monster hit its successor would become, it nevertheless ended up being ported to several of..

Put the weight of the world in your hands...

The simulation genre has come a long way - maybe not so much in the area of depth, as that's always been there. Where it has really progressed is in presentation: nowadays it’s no longer up to the player to have enough imagination to fill in the gaps left by technical limitations. Unfortunately, those...

It's the popular vertical-scrolling shooter renowned for its cute and comical world.

The Twinbee series of shooters hasn't seen a lot of action outside of Japan, so it should come as no surprise that this PC Engine version of Detana!! Twinbee was never released outside of Japan and marks yet another import release for Hudson on the Wii Virtual Console. Detana!! Twinbee first appeared in Japanese..

Bomberman has arrived to restore peace on the planet, which has been split into five parts by an evil hand.

Bomberman has seen a release on just about every console out there over the years, and while you'll definitely get contrasting opinions on which version of the game is the best, it's pretty indisputable that Bomberman '94 is one of them...

Ys Book I & II chronicles the first adventures of Adol Christin, a young, red-haired swordsman on a quest to unlock the secrets of an ancient kingdom.

Even the most hardened TG16 fan will admit that the machine wasn’t exactly a massive success when it was released in the States. It struggled against the Genesis and SNES despite having some great...

Let's go Mr. Driver!

Back in 1988 Taito released Chase HQ into arcades around the world. It took the driving aspects from many other racing games of the time period and coupled them together with the intense action of a high-speed police pursuit. While this offered a nice change of pace from the typical and often redundant racing experiences found in arcades at the time, it also proved to be a bit..

Digital Champ Battle Boxing is a first-person-perspective boxing title that plunges players into the raw intensity of the ring!

When it was first released in 1989 Digital Champ caused quite a stir. Boxing games up to this point had been graphically modest affairs; Punch Out! was (and some would say, still is) the title of choice for prospective pugilists thanks to its entertaining gameplay, but..

Cute'em-up.

Star Parodier is not only one of the best cute'em-ups ever created, it's also one of the best shooters ever made as well. Combining sugary sweet visuals, a stunning musical score, and some of the most responsive play control ever found in a shooter, Star Parodier proves that video game spoofs can be every bit as good, if not better, than...

A bit of a break from the norm of Naxat Soft's other games.

Break In could have been a great game where you could play a burglar trying to steal some precious jewels; instead it is pool game simulator. These games used to be ten a penny in the arcade halls of old so it is only fitting that some home conversions were made. I am no expert on the game of pool but there seems to be a fairly..

Idaten or Benten are celestial warriors who are out to bring an end to the tyrannical rule of the emperor of Planet Builder.

The Japanese are often accused of creating some seriously weird and wonderful videogames. While this reputation is often underserved (with games like Jet Set Willy, Western developers are just as guilty of producing bonkers titles), a few Eastern franchises do stick out as..

Two years after its last epic battle, the GRADIUS army recommissions the VIC VIPER super-dimensional warplane to combat the invasion of a new nemesis known as GOFER.

This is an almost arcade-perfect port of the arcade version of Gradius II, which was also known as Vulcan Adventure. Konami made no compromises in choosing the PC Engine’s Super CD format to release this game on, and the music sounds..

Once again its your job to protect the Galactic Empire from an alien invasion using nothing but your trusty starfighter.

There were basically three Star Soldier releases for the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 system, not counting the cute 'em up spin-off Star Parodier. Two of those releases, Super Star Soldier and Soldier Blade, saw a release in the US while the middle of the three releases, Final..

This is a side-scrolling shooter played in a world created from the mind of a twisted demon.

The PC Engine/TG-16 is a machine that is famous for its wide and diverse range of shooting titles, but Psychosis (also known as Paranoia in Japan) is one title that you might not be familiar with, despite the fact that it was deemed worthy of a Western release back in the day. We also like to see..

Lords of Thunder is a side-scrolling shooter that has you take on the role of a legendary warrior, blasting enemies to heavy-metal tunes.

TG16 fans thought they’d died and gone to heaven when Gate of Thunder was published for the system. A shooter of truly epic magnitude, it rocketed the underrated machine to the top of the pile when it came to mesmerizing blaster action. The question was: could..

I predict a riot!

Released back when the scrolling fighter was still seen as a massive money-spinner, Riot Zone (AKA: Crest of Wolf in Japan) was Hudson’s attempt at muscling in on the territory traditionally presided over by Capcom (Final Fight, Captain Commando, Knights of the Round, etc) and Sega (Streets of Rage, Golden Axe). Now let’s not kid ourselves here – most scrolling beat ‘em..