This one is an absolute gem. The cartooning is perfect and I love how much the parasol can do. I love gathering up water and flooding my enemies with it. I want to eat all the food.
1 Like
I love the idea of single screen platformers and wish I didn’t get the need to do anything else about 7 minutes after starting one. Parasol Stars is really good.
2 Likes
Master of Monsters
Oh cool, they made Daisenryaku with a fantasy setting. There is still no way I am going to finish a match. I just watched four computer players maneuver around each other and watched the little animations whenever they fought. The battles look kind of rad, but the pacing is too drawn out from having to move around the map and menus. I’m just biding my time until Neo Nectaris comes out.
Puzzle Boy
This is the same exact game as Kwirk! There are actually quite a few of PC Engine games that show up on the GAME BOY, so this is a nice return to last year’s adventures on the green screen. These are cute twists on sokoban. There’s a split screen two player mode, which actually sounds like a pretty nice way to puzzle.
Final Match Tennis
Dare I say, this is the best sports game I’ve played on the PCE so far. It is an extremely tight tennis game from Human. I have three different options for spin, while timing and direction also play a part. The speed is perfect. The movement is perfect. I lost my match, but I felt like victory was possible. I wish I knew more about 90s tennis players so I could make an informed choice about who to play as.
Aldynes
I love this. A horizontal followup from a bunch of people who worked on Super Star Soldier. It has a grimy, swampy techno palette and the first boss is a large, multisegmented machine. I’m legitimately excited to see what comes next. Like OverRide, this game has a good level of player options. Holding the fire button charges a shield and options act like the R-Type Force, moving independently or gluing to the ship with the press of a button. I’m just gonna place this score down here to see if any fish bite.
8 Likes
I started the night with a credit of Aldynes, Override, and Magical Chase, though am not ready to write about any of them yet.
Then I cracked my knucks and yelled about how I had put every single CD 1991 JRPG on the Mister and there are quite a few. Starting with Tenshi no Uta. An original for the system RPG that has a thread on pcenginefan (cw: cripes there is sexual assault in one of the forum sigs there) that is positive, but any specifics are talked about in negatives. The title screen is One Of The Best In Games. Holy.
Holy is appropriate because I can’t think of an RPG offhand that straight talks about Jesus and Christanity blatantly. You and your mysterious-orphan fiancé are off to get Baptized so you can get married. To get the king’s blessing you gotta go in a cave and get a flower. Just tiles from the castle, your girl gets kidnapped by a beast. The quest begins. Except unlike all the others you just spent 2 towns and a small dungeon fighting alongside your bride-to-be. You even helped a grieving inn-keeper finder a new girlfriend.
The battles are very fast and more important you can advance any text with any button (or dpad). WOW. You wouldn’t see those kinds of quality of life features ever. Bachelor mentioned that PC Engine games don’t fuck around with text speed and advancing and he’s right. Don’t worry you still have to pass weapons and equipment between party members and blind-buy items.
The actual game graphics are minor. Remind me of a boring looking Phantasy Star. And my brain is broken trying to parse the two love buds names of ケアル and クレア. Thanks game.
I probably won’t stick with it but will hit two or three more plot points because it is pretty fast and the music is god damn incredible. Been a long time since the music of a game hit me like this. Wowza! Check that video I linked. Also the music keeps place and instantly returns when a battle is finished. That’s better than god damn ps1 Final Fantasy right there!
This deserves it’s own post. The others can be below this.
10 Likes
** Efera & Jiliora: The Emblem From Darkness**
At this point I don’t trust any of these games that start with a “thousands of years ago” open text scrawl and that includes Ys! What a shocker that Ys is great. Anyways. We already knows from my Ys experience that I can’t follow In The Ancient Times prologues. This ones goes on for a while. Then suddenly we are two women warriors trapped in a prison ship and there is two other prisoners and one of them is dying but we get rescued by pirates but the pirates try to cop a feel till we pull a knife on them and then we get a boat to an island or land and then the dying prisoner dies and the other prisoner’s THROAT IS SLIT BY A MAGIC SEAL??? And this is all about as long as an anime episode and I have not played the game yet or have any clue what is going on. Then the game is a topdown slasher with horrible sword-feel and hit detection. And the enemies are ferocious. Turns out like Ys I can save at any time. I got to the first town but everyone just kept calling me a murderer and I don’t know what that means???
You could do co-op as both of the girls and I could choose which one to control (from the beginning).
The artstyle for a lot of the anime parts was adventure game-esque. The game is really bad and I can’t imagine playing more. The story is about Reiko Hikawa which probably means something to somebody here.
Haha lol whoops. Seems like bad game design there.
Tricky
This is Match 2 Sokoban with cutscenes and a lot of different settings to play in. I got annoyed at 3 of the 6 Level One puzzles before I quit. Also warning for flashing lights for the Ultraman/Kaiju setting. Nice sprite work if nothing else.
Lady Phantom
You know those SRPGs Minty has been suffering? Here’s another one. This time another original game from Telenet or uh Shin Laser Soft. Which is apparently a subdivision of Yodobashi camera until it got merged with Wolfteam? Video games are wild.
Anyways I suffered this one for 30 minutes. Barely won the first battle which lead directly into a second battle and lol go pedicure your feet game. To paraphase one of the mooks and put my own spin on it This game has anime girls and mechs, if you are into that sort of thing.
This one is also on abandonware. And no one is blasting on the internet about these big titty robots.
Come back soon where I’ll play another one of these, or I’ll just play more Tenshi no Uta because it is very pleasant to play and we all knew how many nights it took me to stop playing Golden Sun. Cosmic Fantasy 2? You’re also Telenet. No I will continue to ignore The Good Games. Imagine I could beat Ys 3 instead of trying all these RPGs literally no one cares about.
7 Likes
1991 games i own
road spirits - it’s not as good as outrun, but it has a cd soundtrack and if you play it on a warm night with the window open, you’ll have a good time
l-dis - you know those mediocre games you had as a kid, and even though new games were a rare treat back then, the origin of these games was still somehow a mystery? this feels like one of those games. it’s a not-very-good stg
fire pro wrestling 2nd bout - it’s another fire pro wrestling game
genji tsushin agedama - the only chelnov-like i can think of. it’s okay i guess
6 Likes
The Wheel hath delivered me from v-gamin’ apathy. was able to make it farther without save states in Final Soldier than usual with these shooters, the patterns seemed to click for me more…I think? or else maybe I’m actually getting slightly better at these games
everyone in the credits gets a cute lil sprite
Then the needle landed on Jackie Chan’s Action Kung Fu, a visual upgrade from the NES one released the previous year
pretty average. kick birds, snakes, tigers, braided ponytail wielding Chow Tzus and powerup/health carrying frogs. powerup moves like the spin kick can only be used a certain amount of times, same for the beam attack which has a hard limit per level. the bosses seem big and fun, here’s the first one
1991 whoo!
13 Likes
started out with moto roader ii. didn’t care that much for the first one, but the sequel has girls
largely the same game, more futuristic, with three different vehicles you can select between, more weapons, still allows selecting between type of directional controls by vehicle tuning, also still has the same dumb rubberbanding. maybe more forgiving.
i played 7 races in the beginner cup and eventually just started itching to quit.
also played some dragon slayer: legend of heroes. unusual for dragon slayer titles, this is a regular turn-based rpg. seems like a fairly standard one too, except they literally gatekeep you by level, and tell you what level you must reach before you can trigger the next event. i would not play until level 9 which i assume is when you are allowed to fight the first boss. just don’t have the drive for it. structurally maybe its not that different from their arpgs which definitely have hard progress-blocks until you reach certain minimum levels, but those are kinda fun to optimize grinding in.
the random encounters still hit you while standing still, so i figured combining that with auto-battle i could grind it like an idle-game. unfortunately you have to push a button to end the fights so it didn’t work out, really
10 Likes
Obocchamakun
This is a really odd comedy platformer based on a manga. It’s made by some FACE people and it’s pretty much kusoge. I play as rosy-cheeked Obocchamakun. He can turn into a cat, walk like a blind man, or jump up high in a peach form. There are also turtle pedestals that remind me of Little Tikes sandpits. If I sing on these, fruit nearby transforms and I can call in a helicopter or freeze all the enemies. There are many unfair deaths from enemies just walking up and touching me. I wound up just rewinding in the emulator whenever it happened so I could see more enemies.
Legend of Hero Tonma
This platformer is similar to Obocchamakun but it’s much better because it has actual level design. I am stuck on the second vertical stage. Vertical stages in platformers have always been a difficult barrier for me. I can get to the top of this mountain but the tree dragon is really tough. He’s always coming out of the tree when and eating my guy before I can do anything! I prefer Jackie Chan but this is a close second. I can’t get over what an ugly old-man-boy the main character is.
Zero4Champ
This is the first of many in the series, stretching all the way to the PS2 . I want it translated so bad. The action is split into a racing game and an adventure game. In the adventure game, I can read newspapers, challenge people for impromptu races, and call workshops to fix up my car. Meanwhile, a calendar ticks down to a big race day. The races are unlike anything I’ve seen. There are no turns. It’s all down to how fast you can change gears and how well you can time them. Oh, and I guess the adventure game is important for making sure your car is good enough.
Cyber City Oedo: Kemono no Alignment
When I started this game, there were a lot of cyberpunk hallmarks that paraded through the intro: command prompts, super compressed text images, neon cities, and dudes in trench coats. I play as a bounty hunter and I’m working my way through a vertical city. Each level of the city is for a different socio-economic class and I have to start from the bottom. The work involves going up to people, choosing a topic, and then pressing talk until they either give me information. But most of the time they don’t. So I have to cycle through topics with each person just to make sure. I actually did start to make progress but this is nowhere near as captivating as Cobra and I see that that game has a sequel this year. Bye bye Oedo.
12 Likes
I happened to play this last night with a buddy. We realized that there’s a point in the grand prix where all the computer players buy new engines, and if you don’t, you’ll just lose. It is pretty funny to spam wheel spikes to screw each other up. Also funny that oil doesn’t bother hovercars.
5 Likes
1943 Kai
I remember there was a solid week where my older brother and I played so much of this game, just plugging in credits hoping we would get to an end. But we never did because there are actually 16 missions. Apparently this release has a bonus mode if you manage to make it to the very end, but I haven’t been able to get there yet. This game is a little bit of a throwback compared to other PCE shooters and it shows in the design. Instead of lives, you have a bar of health. The waves of enemies are relentless and the playing the game is about figuring out which powerups will help you from moment to moment. This is not the only 194X game released this year!
La Valeur
At first, this game seems nice and gentle. I get lullabied by the title screen and then I wake up in a safe forest town full of gnomes. They all tell me about this cave and how you can’t see in it unless you have a torch but also nobody sells torches in the shops. There’s a wizard who promises to teach me magic if I can use his key to open treasure chests and collect rings. I walk out into the wilderness and encounter an enemy with my first step.
This is weird, the game has three different options for attack. I’m not sure, but it’s something like slash, pierce, or smash. Only slash works well because I have a short sword. I open up a chest and get a ring. I open another, but it has the same kind of ring so my character refuses to pick it up. I try to go back to the wizard, but he’s wondering why I’m giving up so soon. Um…how many rings do you need exactly?
I go back into the forest and level up. To my surprise, this game has scaling encounters and now all of my fights are against two enemies instead of one. I hate this so much, I only wanted to collect rings and learn magic! Maybe go to a cave and find a glow stone! Why do you have to make this so hard on me!!
Pro Yakyuu World Stadium ‘91
From my very short memory, this barely looks any different than the first World Stadium. It plays like it, too. Batting is easier, but runners move like toads. I took advantage of this when I hit a ball just perfectly between center and left field. It took their team so long to scoop it up that I wound up getting to third base. Later on in the inning, I noticed that their batter was sweating and they weren’t swapping out. I was easily able to hit three home runs off of them, making for an embarrassment of 7 runs in a single inning. Friends, I present the first baseball match on the PCE that I’ve been able to win.
Titan
This game is so bad. It’s not even kusoge because it functions exactly as designed. The design is just bad. It’s like Breakout, but terrible. It’s like Gomola Speed, but for squares. You wanna hear a great song? Welcome to the only song @0:33
8 Likes
I love the aesthetics of Titan but wow that looks like it sucks shit.
Ballistic
Wow the British stole from Action Button and VIDEOBALL and made a shitty clone. Do you know all my love of VIDEOBALL is absolutely not a bit. I like the game THAT MUCH. I love VIDEOBALL. This game is an amiga joke of a video game. “What is this pish?”, you declare. Stay away.
Mahjong Bunny Syndrome
I am not actually playing this, but looking at the pictures in the mooks if I did and my wife caught me I’d be sleeping on the balcony and she’s take the kid to her mother’s because that is not the man she married.
6 Likes
L-Dis
This is probably going to be the worst cute-em-up on the system. It maybe the most lacks with power-ups as well. The bosses and enemies aren’t even that interesting. There is a joke with the first boss but that’s it. Fantastic soundtrack though. Listen to that to a different game.
Power Gate
And will be shocked if something beats this for worst shooter of 1991. Dull boring. The levels are long and full of repeating patterns. I kept hoping the game would make me sleepy. It did not. Oh this is by Pack-In-Video makers of Deep Blue. Glad they upgraded from avant-garde worst to just very bad.
Gradius
Gradius is good. It is very good. It inspired panic in it’s tactical situations. The power-up system has you making decisions. The difficulty feels like a challenge to be met. I know it is good because I am okay playing it again. Very few of these shooters inspire a “yeah sure stage 1 and 2 again?” You can tell I am a true Konami/Video Game Fan because I was honestly shocked when the end stage boss was the same thing. Gradius is really early in video games. You see why R-Type coming out a year later was such a splash. Bosses! Level themes! Maybe I can 1CC this and see the ending for myself.
You gotta admire how pretty that star field is when displayed properly.
High Score: 141,500
EDIT: I keep forgetting to mention how many of these games just use the sound effects from Gundam. Is that a public library or are they stealing? Is there fairuse gundam explosion noise.
5 Likes
Burai
Search: Burai Hardcore Gaming
Search: Burai Lunatic Obscurity
Search: Burai レビュー
Okay. Now I can comfortably say this is a bad RPG. As is the way of these things it starts with 10-15 minutes of anime and voice over and world history. You actually start as two bear thing brothers. You’ve been chosen by 8 Magic Orbs as 2 of the 8 Heroes.
Like all these games you have to blind-buy equipment. Except I don’t have enough money, so off to grind. The little brother dies in the 3rd battle. I go back to town, my only option is to pay 20 gold multiple times to heal. See this game is twisted like a Kuwazu. You got independent stats going up and No Inns. Or other towns. I couldn’t find one.
The game plays on about 1/4th of the screen. And there are load times to open the god damn menu. It plays like a PC-88 game. This isn’t the insert credit forums. This is select button dot net, so I am not going to bullshit you saying ancient Japanese PC games are good they were not. You had to be a god damn freak to like playing them when the famicom was right there.
Japanese reviews praise the famous seiyuu voice acting. I noticed it because it was right next to Programmer Voice. The chasm of difference chortled me. They liked all the anime cutscenes. They mentioned the same complaints I do, and they said when you eventually have 8 party members and you are trying to raise their stats SaGa style it is bad and tedious.
I’m glad I finally played Burai. It caught my eye every time I looked at Sega CD games, since it starts with B and is near the top. I played this until my orbs broke on the two brothers and then it asked “Do you want to load a recent save?” Just give me Dragon Quest rules you fiends.
11 Likes
magical chase is the best shooter on the machine.
made it to stage 4 boss on hard mode which i’m only running cause i’ve 1cc’d normal once years ago. want to give some time to the us version as well since the graphical differences are sometimes huge tho not necessarily better or worse?
it’s such a good-looking game, everything on a sliding scale between adorable and “magical”. the background in the forest with the implied details using only silhouettes is so pretty, and the statues of angels and unicorns that you pass through give a different vibe from the cutesy creatures, and it works so well.
also these ghosts are so precious i love them!
also gave coryoon a credit and it’s pretty good and super adorable. it’s also something i played through years ago so i dunno if i need to revisit it, but i might since it didn’t quite stick to memory.
10 Likes
I blabbed about Bonk’s Revenge at some point so I suppose I should do something. ]_]
Have the TCD version but that didn’t come out until '92, technically. Also I’m too lazy to drag out my Duo.
PC Genjin 2 is still in the PS3 store’s PC Engine section.
Uh well hm I mean technically technically that version didn’t come out until 2009 but who’s that technical. : P The HuCard PC Genjin 2 is '91.
Anyway I somehow had just over the required 628 yen lingering in my JP PSN account
so it’s boughten and I’ll do something with it in a bit.
Weirdly there’s also a short jump button in it? That was confusing me for a while. And no control remapping or graphics options–but it displays sharply at full screen height (720 or 1080? didn’t check) with no stretching or silly filters so I suppose that’s all right for me.
Looks like you can make multiple save states whenever, that’s good because I don’t think I’m very good at this. Only ever gotten to what is it ice levels at 3-3? In 2019. Got killed by the ice skater, had continues but eh just quit. That was on the Duo so I suppose I had no save support.
I don’t necessarily love the jump-and-bonk shtick but we’ll see how much I can take this time. ; )
4 Likes
Also Bonk is on X (and Square) and Jump is on Triangle (and maybe Circle? I forget) which is JUST INSANE on a pad. It’s X for jump you freaks!! Fortunately I’ll be playing on arcade stick and it works out okay there.
3 Likes
Make sure you try out turbo on Bonk. It let’s you float like a freak, a frisbee with balloons strapped on.
5 Likes
You mean like a turbo button (not sure this PS3 thing does that? oh actually since there are I think two bonk buttons and two jump buttons I suppose one of them is turbo…maybe that’s what the short hop thing was even I dunno) or something else?
Oh or wait is it this
I just came across that but they loaded from a PS3 save state so I couldn’t tell how they got it.
2 Likes