PC Engine: WELCOME TO THE IDEAL WORLD!

[MintyJuffowup]

2 small and 2 big

Boxyboy

It’s Sokoban! This is a very nice version, too, because it let’s you reverse every move. Like Space Invaders and Lode Runner, Sokoban is so foundational that it sits somewhere beyond judgement.

Drop Off

This Breakout variation is bizarre. I get transformed into a ball and sent into a girl’s dreams. Instead of hitting the breakout ball at an angle, I can just choose if I want its bounce to be straight or oblique. It’s not very fun, but I would love to watch a longplay to see where this plot goes.

Last Armageddon
This game is so rad but I have no idea how to make progress. Its original release appears to be one of the first games to have monster raising and evolution in it. When I tried to play it, I was dropped off with a full party of baddies in the middle of a desert. There were several obelisks that gave me wise advice, but whenever I tried to move beyond the start, I would die so easily. Just touching water would wipe out three-fourths of my group. I still took a bunch of screenshots.

WARNING: THESE IMAGES RULE TOO MUCH FOR WORK

Cosmic Fantasy

This Telenet JRPG follows the Tengai Makyou formula closely. The integration of voice and cutscenes is very slick. It has a brisk pace with few and fast enemy encounters. There’s a party chat option and item shops helpfully explain what their wares do. I would play through this whole thing if I was interested in the story. Interested, I am not.

There were no subtitles for cutscenes so I’m not sure what the overarching story is about, but villagers had very plain dialogue. The very first thing someone tells me is to make sure I equip gear if I want to use it. Next is from a child complaining about how there are monsters all of a sudden and now he’s too scared to leave the village.

The story does pick up a little in the second dungeon. There was a scene where I come across the bones of all who have been killed by the local monster. My righteous anger awakens my psychic powers. Later, I get trapped in a jail cell and a wandering cat merchant nickle-and-dimes me for a way out. The cutscenes and story beats were paced out like an anime and it reminded me of something like Lunar. Maybe I’ll play more of its translated sequel next month.

There were three sequels to this for the PC Engine! What???

[lonelyfrontier]

hi rude i’m dad

[lonelyfrontier]

ah, my bad, i posted the wrong screenshot.

[MintyJuffowup]

Is there an elusive third bonus, or what? I love Super Star Soldier.

[lonelyfrontier]

no, there’s only the two. for me, it came down to destroying as many blocks as i could with a fully powered weapon, and taking out large enemies as quickly as possible.

[lonelyfrontier]

trivia: the caravan music from super star soldier is originally from “starship hector” on the famicom

Starship Hector (NES) Music - History 1

Super Star Soldier Music- Two Minute Game

edit: the five minute version comes from the original star soldier

Star Soldier (NES) Music - Power up

Super Star Soldier Music- Five Minute Game

[Rudie]

Face it Kid you learned it from watching me.

[Rudie]

King of Casino all the depression of every game that chooses to render casinos in digital form. This time you have like 10 casinos to choose from and all the games are the same. Will you bet $1 or $1000 of your digital money? What are you a coward? I bet 10k in blackjack and considered myself a winner. When I was in Las Vegas IRL the casino we were staying had pole dancers once the sun went down. We won 500 bucks at blackjack and had an awful dinner. I don’t recommend Las Vegas!

Bov you’re gonna have to keep edging on Valis 3 I want to play it on my TV and that will have to wait till both my family and myself are over this cold.

[notbov]

please hurry up

I am sore and red just constantly

[MintyJuffowup]

I dabbled in three Japanese adventure games!

Chikuden-ya Toubei

This is a pretty standard one and it takes place about 100 or so years ago. Apparently there’s a cult that we have to investigate. I go to the house of my partner’s friend. He has a robot doll that serves him tea. At some point in our conversation, we realize that the doll has been there since before he came. It turns out to be a bomb and we run away. I have no idea how you trust a robot doll like that. What is wrong with my partner’s friend?

Unfortunately, ztranslate is not accurate enough for me to really enjoy this one!

Nazo no Masquerade

This is a self-proclaimed “Western-style murder mystery.” The prologue is a big masquerade event where the wealthy head of the house is about to name his successor. Somebody kills him and it’s up to us to figure out who. Unlike Portopia-based adventure games, this one is very open. We can walk to almost any room in the house, interrogate people, and investigate items.

From the opening, I noted that this is a Masaya port of a Riverhill Soft game. After reading @HOBO 's thoughts on JB Harold, I think it’s best that I admit defeat before I even start to play.

Mitsubachi Gakuen

This was a huge effort by Hudson Soft. Mobygames says that over 100 people were involved in its development. They held competition/auditions. You might be wondering, what concept did they believe so much in that they were willing to spend this many resources on? The answer is an adventure game where you play as a teacher in a special private school for aspiring idols.

The game has four scenarios, one for every season. At the beginning, you are able to choose whichever you’d like. I played a bit of spring and summer. In the spring scenario, you are introduced to the school. The dean pulls you aside and tells you that he suspects there’s a mole within the school who is leaking information to a tabloid. The tabloid’s name is “Tiger Den.” “穴” can also mean “hole,” so when you look at their logo, I think you’ll get the joke.

The principal also mentions that this just so happens to be the day that the girls will be doing fitness tests and it would be scandalous if anyone from Tiger Den were to sneak in. Sure enough, I catch one of them in the girl’s locker room. As I’m arguing with him, girls come in and I have to answer a bunch of trivia questions about real life idols in order to protect their dignity. The girls beg me not to, but I punch him in the face.

Unfortunately, I didn’t save the game so I’m not sure how that chapter ends. But I did just play some of the summer chapter. I’m at a guest house at the beach. Apparently girls from the school are at the beach. This is cause for some anxiety because who knows what kinds of paparazzi could be out there? It takes me 20 minutes of wandering around, pleading a restaurant owner for a bathing suit, and checking behind every parasol before I’m able to find them.

I’m ashamed to say it, but I think this is the most interesting game of the bunch by far.

[daphaknee]

@MintyJuffowup

. The tabloid’s name is “Tiger Den.” “穴” can also mean “hole,” so when you look at their logo, I think you’ll get the joke.

this explains one of my favorite gags in ping pong club. i just thought it was very funny to threaten people by saying YOURE GONNA GO IN THE TIGER HOLE

[MintyJuffowup]

That’s hilarious. It makes me wonder how common this kind of joke is.

[MintyJuffowup]

I tried three mahjong games so you don’t have to (You have never “had to” play a video game ever. You can just stop at any time).

Mahjong Gokuu Special

This is based on Journey to the West. Goku and Sanzo make their pilgrimage and play mahjong against bandits along the way. At this point, I’m at a plateau in my mahjong skills. I’m someone decent at tile efficiency now, but that’s obviously not the only thing that matters. I’m not quite sure what I should focus on next and I’m rarely able to beat computers. For the best, probably!

Mahjong Shikaku Retsuden: Mahjong Wars

Hey, I won a round! This mahjong games attempts to blend RPGs with mahjong. Instead of fighting, you play mahjong. The encounter rate is thankfully very low. The developers must have been really satisfied just implementing the idea that they didn’t bother to give it personality. A third of the people I talked to simply said “hello.” Apparently, someone was kidnapped, but I’ll never find them.

Jantei Monogatari

This Telenet published mahjong has the most effort poured into it. It’s an adventure game/mahjong blend. A young woman is kidnapped and our only clue is a photo of her playing mahjong. We can try talking to other people in the photo but they won’t tell us anything unless we beat them at the game. I tried four rounds against someone who had just finished swimming and they ruthlessly cleaned me out of all my money. Looks like I’m never finding this person, either.

I saw a short review of this in PC Engine Fan. The author starts, “Let’s get one thing out of the way: the women do not take off their clothes in this game.” It seems like a good indication for where the culture was at back then.

[Rudie]

@MintyJuffowup

Chikuden-ya Toubei

The mook says there are a lot of ways to get bad ends in this one so that kept me away.

[MintyJuffowup]

SPORTS!

Formation Soccer

I think this is the first soccer game for the PCE, and the first Human sports game for the console. I am not very good at it! There’s an element of trust and luck to everything. The game automatically selects who I am playing as when I am running for defense and I can’t quite seem to switch manually in a useful way. During offense, there’s a button for a short pass and another for a longer aerial pass. Since I can’t see that far up screen, the aerial pass is really a kind of Hail Mary. Sometimes it plays like foosball. If I time kicks well, I can get a chain going where a player hits it overhead to another player who hits over head to…a player on the other team.

I made it to half time with a score of 0-9. That’s when I realize I’m not actually the soccer players but someone watching them on TV. I can change the channel and watch Fire Pro Wrestling instead. Goodbye Formation Soccer. I’ll see you again in 1994.

Power League III

Yes! Another Power League! I still can’t win! They added a banner that comes up to introduce batter’s stats. I don’t think much has changed beyond that.

The Pro Yakyuu

I almost like this one as much as Power League. I had to look up who made it and was surprised to find that it’s the stock trading people. My main problem is that the bat doesn’t hit as much as I want it to, even when it looks like it will. Oddly, I appeared to hit more often when the ball was close to the handle of the bat. On top of that, my hits usually flew right into the infield’s hands. I did have a lot of fun jumping to catch fly balls.

[dogs]

can we get an ID on these games?

87: ?
88: r-type
89: ys
90: ?
91: magical chase
92: ?
93: rondo of blood
94: tokimeki memorial
95: linda cube
96: ? deja?
97 or possibly 98: ?
99: ? looks sick

[MintyJuffowup]

87: Bikkuriman World (Wonderboy in Monster Land)
90: Momotarou Densetsu II
92: Tengai Makyou II
96: De Ja (digital comic game by ELF)
97: Tekipaki Working Love (cute adventure game)
99: Dead of the Brain (zombie adventure game)

[MintyJuffowup]

Of course I played three more PC Engine games. I’ve got a deadline to meet!

Shogi Shodan Icchokusen

Look, I don’t think I’m going to try and learn two classic Japanese games in these next few months. I tried this out on Yakuza long enough to realize that pieces can just go in and out of the board whenever you want them to. Unhinged. I followed my brother’s tip and started a parallel game, copying the computer’s moves from this game so I could use the other computer’s counters to beat them.

This game has regular simulations, but it also has an adventure through, guess what? a retelling of Momotarou. To move the pieces, you get a doggie to push them forward.

Super Daisenryaku

I really like Military Madness, so I had some hope for this one. Then I looked at the map and realized it’s at least four times bigger than the biggest MM map. MM matches can take an hour to play through, so this has got to be a 4 hour marathon in comparison. I sincerely cannot bother.

Burning Angels

Hey @Rudie , you missed one! Oh wait…I see why you weren’t talking about it. Hmm…

WARNING: Horny Character Design Incoming

The game itself can be described as low-rent Compile. There are many powerups and popcorn enemies. Getting hit reduces your power but doesn’t kill you. Actually, you have a lifebar instead of lives. There are far too many laser shots that come with no warning. I mean, every boss seems to shoot out a laser at some point, but you will never know until it happens to you. There are some really neat bullet patterns for the time, however. I could be convinced to play through the whole thing with a friend.

[Rudie]

Yeah on Burning Angels I liked the anime horny but powerups are in a rush to fall off the screen. I think I put two credits into it and then went hmmph…let’s play something I like instead.

That idea of copying a CPU’s moves is really good! I should try that. I did try one of the Shogi games for this year but it didn’t highlight what was a possible move so I immediately felt out of my depth. Too bad my inlaws don’t play shogi or mahjong!

[loki]

daisenryaku is the strategy game series for bigtime tabletop military perverts