The Turbografx16(PC Engine in Japan) is a little known system, but among those who are “in the know” recognize the Turbografx16 as a shooter powerhouse. The system had shooters from companies such as Konami, Irem, Red Company and many more. Hudson Soft had a line of three 1st party shooters on Hu-card/Turbochip dubbed as the “Soldier series” who are highly thought of horizontal shooters in the Turbografx16/PC Engine community. I played all three of and this is what I think of them!
Continue reading The Soldier Series Review (Turbografx16/PC Engine)
Tag Archives: Turbografx/PC Engine
Ys IV: Dawn of Ys (1993 PC Engine/Turbografx16)
Ys book 1 & 2 was ported to the Turbografx CD in 1989 and was received very well by most, even as a masterpiece by some. Because of Ys 1 & 2 being regarded that highly, people were a bit disappointed with the sequel. Ys III: Wanderers From Ys which departed from the first game in similar ways Adventure of Link departed from the 1st Original Legend of Zelda game. Even though Ys III has a phenomenal soundtrack the rest of the game failed to live up to its predecessor and has since often been called the “black sheep” of the series.
People were livid when they saw that Ys IV: Dawn of Ys was going to go back to the originals’ roots (Much like “A Link to the Past” did) and were starting to get hyped only to find out that the game would not be released outside of Japan. This was because of the Turbografx16 and its CD peripheral not doing very well in the western markets and were close to discontinuing the system.
Ys IV and the PC Engine did great in Japan though, so the game was released with critical acclaim. Many years later a fan dub/translation was done so us westerners could finally enjoy the game.
I speak fluent Japanese so i played the game like 50% in Japanese and 50% in English just for comparison. Read and see how I felt about Ys IV!
Continue reading Ys IV: Dawn of Ys (1993 PC Engine/Turbografx16)
Top 10 Turbografx/PC Engine Co-op Games
The Turbografx16 is a fanastic system but it might not be known for great 2 player co-op games but there are a actually a lot great games that come to mind if you add the Japanese library in the mix.
Because of this the Japanese only games have the obvious drawback of being in Japanese but in these cases it should not ruin your experience, but maybe just hinder it slightly…
This is the result of some intense Turbografx/PC Engine sessions we have been taking in the last months. It is made with pure love and with thorough playing of almost all co-op titles on the system
With that being said let’s just jump straight into it!
Continue reading Top 10 Turbografx/PC Engine Co-op Games
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (1991 Turbografx16/PC Engine)
After i played Ys Book 1 & 2 and was extremely impressed i could not wait to take on the sequel Ys III: Wanderers From Ys. Prior to actually playing the game i read that they take away the top-down Zelda 1-ish perspective in favor for the side scrolling action perspective like in Zelda 2: Adventure of Link. I had also heard that like Adventure of Link, Ys III was supposed to be the “black sheep” of the series. Well…. As a person who actually liked Adventure of Link i dove into Ys III with no prejudgment feelings about the new theme of the game and finished it to find out if it really is a “black sheep”.
Continue reading Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (1991 Turbografx16/PC Engine)
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (銀河婦警伝説サファイア) (1995 Turbografx/PCEngine)
Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire or just “Sapphire” for short caught my attention a while back since i saw it was a co-op game. Further investigation led me to finding out that if you want a genuine copy of the game it might cost you about 1000$! That is insanity right?! What game could be worth this amount of money? Well….i burned a copy of the game on CD-R to play on my PC Engine Duo-R to find out if this price tag is even half justified.
Check out the full review to see if it is 😉
Continue reading Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (銀河婦警伝説サファイア) (1995 Turbografx/PCEngine)
Ys Book 1 & 2 (1989 Turbografx/PCEngine)
On goes my grind through the Turbografx/TurboCD/PCEngine library and mehaaan did I pick a good one this time. I was finally in a mood to go through an RPG and I had heard from a couple of people that Ys was then a good way to go. The game is a compilation and a remake of Ys 1 and Ys 2 that were originally released for the NEC PC-88 in Japan. Most video gamers do not even know what Ys is! At least that is the case here in Europe where the Turbografx didn’t even get a proper release and it probably isn’t well known the states either since the TurboCD never really caught on which is a real shame because the CD format opens up so many possibilities including CD-quality music and cinematics.
All that aside, I played the game and now join the proud few who herald this little-known gem of a video game as a masterpiece that should be mentioned side by side with all-time great games like Final Fantasy or Zelda.
Cousin Gaming 