it is no longer the nineties, and you have committed time crimes
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Rev your Engines, we’re going on a Mega Drive!
After Burner II
Playing After Burner on a console has never felt right. I always wind up just corkscrewing as much as possible without a care for what’s happening. The game actually functions on a PC Engine, which is more than I can say for many scalers.
Thunder Blade
Oh this is bad. Worse than Jinmu Denshou bad. You really have to see some of it in motion to know what I’m talking about. The helicopter is so huge and every bullet homes in on it. When you’re flying towards the horizon, your giant chopper often blocks enemies from view until you explode from oncoming bullets. Have fun!
Golden Axe
Oh my God, Telenet ported Golden Axe to the CD and added cutscenes. This is going to be so amazing. I bet the soundtrack is going to be killer, too.
Nope, no, this is not right. The action is so stiff in comparison to the Mega Drive port. The music is super compressed so it sounds worse than that one, too. All of these games make me want to play the Mega Drive. This is not a good position to be in when you’re trying to play nearly every PC Engine game.
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That Afterburner port really is incredible.
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The port was handled by Bits Laboratory, who also did the Darius port. They are unusually good at working with the PCE. They come out with an original game in 1991. Please look forward to Splash Lake!
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SHIT.
the hi score dick waving is absolutely the best part of this thread
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I’m gonna tip the total to 75% with four sort-of platformers.
Dragon’s Curse
I’m not sure if this really came out in 1990, but let’s assume it does. I’m thinking about being the kind of weirdo that plays all the Wonder Boy games on the PC Engine instead of SEGA consoles. I love the setup of this.
It’s a direct sequel to Monster Land. Like Symphony of the Night, I start at the final level, powered up to insane levels, right before the big boss. After killing him, I’m cursed to become a hideous dragon and what follows is a sprawling, search-action game. I’d love to try the Master System version to see which feels better. I’m glad to see the smoking pig.
Honey in the Sky
FACE is so weird! They made a forced-scrolling, multi-plane platformer as a sequel to last year’s spinning arm shooter. Despite the nice looks, it’s pretty boring. idk, maybe it would be better with two hanii jumping around and bumping into each other. I played for 30 minutes and could never get four stages into it.
Lode Runner: Lost Labyrinth
This is the first time that Lode Runner has clicked for me. There’s a very limited toolset and very particular ways of using it. It’s so easy to screw myself over (see picture). But now I’ve internalized enough of the game’s logic. I can see how beautiful it truly is, on the inside.
Rastan Saga II
Holy cow this game is terrible. It’s beautiful in a hideous way. I can’t help but get smacked by falling rocks and sword toting dwarfs. It doesn’t matter if I’ve got a giant sword or Voldo hands. If you’re looking for a janky, oversized hack and slash, might I suggest Genpei Touma Den instead?
And so, that brings us to 75% of 1990’s games played. Here’s a new wheel. Wheel of Names Have fun everybuddy!
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I prefer Dragon’s Curse to Dragon’s Trap, think I may prefer its soundtrack and shopkeepers? But maybe not I dunno they’re both cool, really think it’s a great game, one of my favs, that smoking pig has been my steam avatar for like 16 years now
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i came up with the theory a few years ago that someone at taito must have imported an amiga, which heavily inspired rastan saga 2. the backgrounds, big sprites, and being terrible are very amiga-like traits
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Damn y’all, I suck at this, though I should try it on a real controller at some point:
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Because my kid is sick going to post the secret stash of reviews I’ve been holding:
Space Invaders Fukatsu no Hi - It’s an arcade accurate port of Space Invaders. SI is so essential to video games you can’t rank or judge it. Are you gonna judge cave paintings or Train Comes At Screen? No. I have no idea about that claim about arcade accuracy do not confront me about that I’ll get upset.
Armed F - after a few credits of this one I had to go back to R-Type to confirm that R-Type rules and this one is…well not R-Type. I’m not sure what they were trying with the options. R-Type is really great. This is the worst shooter of 1990.
Zipang -
The pure pile of copyright text on the title screen tells me this is based off some TV show. That doesn’t matter it’s a single screen puzzle game based off Solomon’s Key. It seems good, but couldn’t hold the patience to see it through.
Cyber Core - A perfectly average tate shooter. It has an bio mechanical insect theme with you collecting powerups that change your ship to not look different in a way that your partner would notice. It was definitely better and smoother than some of the stuff I’ve been self-suffering with. Middle of the road!
Paranoia is cool and weird and I do not like playing it. It is very slow. I don’t like trying again in it and death is a run-ender. Would have a good time after a credit or two watching a longplay. If you didn’t play yourself you’d miss out on the Goblin-mind demon who yells “Fuck You.”
Toy Shop Boys - amateur looking sprite working. Delightful title screen. It has that sunflower with glasses that dances to the Beach Boys along with every other common toy in 1990 for you to shoot. I guess you are 3 rotating boys shooting your toys to get revenge against the guy who stole them? You can rotate among the boys for 3 different piddly attacks. Again dying in stage 2 was an unrecoverable offense.
Saint Dragon - another segmented based action game for 1990? This time a shooter where you can deal the most damage if you perfectly align your tail on top of an enemy. Which is better than trying to play normal because your attack noise , which sounds like a mechanical dragon roar, drowns out any other sounds you were considering. The first boss as this biomechanicl bull that is angry/in pain is a very evocative image. It again makes me want to head on down to youtube with some popcorn and watch a longplay of the arcade game.
W (Double) Rings - look we’ve had our hard times Naxat Soft. This one is good though. It might be very good. Moody music that matches the evolving stage structures (Stage 3 is INCREDIBLE). Fun weird bosses that surprised me. I thought “okay Gradius clone” but every step was impressed. Generous continue system that changed the start menu background? It’s a cool cool shooter.
Download - Beating My Chest This Is A PC Engine Shooter. I love the cyberpunk aesthetic. I love the main character speaks in football allegories. I love you fight in cyber-space. The only real knock I have against it is even with sound boost the music is really quiet. I love the slow down in the later stages. The Game Over Screens come on!
Final Blaster - hey Namcot, Dead Moon does the full screen letters and it was related to the game. You can adjust your speed just a little in this game which mostly really fucks with bullet patterns. This one really gets lost in the dozens of other better or more interesting shooters you could play. Stage 3 takes place on a space colony which always looks really cool.
Nekketsu KouKou Dodgeball PC-Ban Gaiden - I love looking at Kunio-kun and his friends. I love their expressions. With no words I am always instantly drawn into their drama and want to know more. Oh Boy do I hate playing this dodgeball. I have hated across all the systems I tried I cannot get into it. Like I am with real sports, upset and mad I am not good at it.
Nekettsu KouKou Soccer - the AI in this is dumb as bricks. I ran down the clock in two games by standing in the middle of the field and walking away from the controller. You get hit a bunch and occasionally can try and kick the ball at the goal. More fun than Volleyball, but 20 minutes with it was enough. But dang are the sprites great to look at!
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You gotta aim for the two bonuses. One for destroying the midboss from the inside.
Two destroy the two eyes before the boss at the same time.
I swear I got a 3rd bonus once but have never been able to repeat it.
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I just played this one today and hell yes this game. God, the game over screens alone are worth it.
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I can’t remember but there are in fact two games with Biomechancial Bulls as enemies. Maybe Paranoia was the other one?
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is the saint dragon attract mode as ear piercingly loud as the normal attack? we used to put it on the mame cab to startle people
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Rabio Lepus
Saint Dragon
I can’t believe giant cow isn’t even an original enemy for Deathsmiles but an omage.
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