Falcon was a Mac/PC title that was developed in 1987 by Spectrum Holobyte. I have no idea who actually developed the PC Engine version, Turbo Technologies is often listed as doing it; they were an American publisher set up by NEC/Hudson and I don’t think they actually did any development themselves.
6 Likes
Evidence points to Spectrum Holobyte/Sphere themselves having done it.
3 Likes
Wow, Falcon is a really quite advanced flight sim for its time, surprised there’s a version on PCE
4 Likes
BABEL
This JRPG starts super strong. You get animation of your boy-girl duo seeing a kidnapped woman and using a rocket launcher to blow up an airplane and rescue her. Turns out she runs an orphanage for one of the two religious powers in town and was almost kidnapped by the warrior priests of one. You escort her back to the multi-sector capital city.
The male hero is a womanizer in a surprisingly delightful way in that he just tries to smooth talk them. It’s kept PG, while the female hero rolls her eyes and calls bullshit on everything. He keeps doing things out of the goodness of his heart and she keeps berating him because they need money.
At this point the greater story lost me because I play these games casually before sleep not to study Japanese. There seems to be quite a few moving parts in the story. A bomb goes off in a nearby sector killing…someone. The male hero feels beatup you could not rescue this person. You’re then given a job to deliver parts to a nearby town and here is the beginning of some of the problems.
Babel mixes up stuff a lot. For one not being a Dragon Quest rippoff but an original story in JRPGs on the PC Engine. Another it does not have experience. You get stronger after story events. There are still the standard amount of random battles but quickly become very monotonous because they are only ever attrition of your resources and time-playing and have almost no reward for you (maybe a healing supply or a pitiful amount of money.)
Also you have guns. Each character has three weapon slots (that can also be healing like a C-Ration). The guns have a finite amount of ammo. Once the gun runs out it is useless. I couldn’t find the weapon shops most of the time. But incredibly for 1992, you get an in game explanation for every item! Holy crap! But not exactly stats for the weapons, or what that means. Or which characters can equip what weapons.
The towns are huge. Monsterous. Even the ones that don’t even have an inn to heal in. They are many many screens big and do very little to establish pathways or which buildings have shops. I spent about 10 minutes trying to find the Library in Sector B, then had to go back and forgot what it looked like and had to keep entering a dozen unmarked buildings to find it again. There has to be 20 NPCs at least in every town. Who knows which one is important for your quest or how you recognize them.
It’s really trying to set up a world with a system of government and a catholic/protestant conflict and how that is laid out in the various areas and how that affects their world of life. “Just once I’d like to wear a beautiful dress.” Says a person in the lawless slum district. It’s neat but also you can’t find anything or anyone. I had to get the thankful extant Japanese online guide up to even follow the random NPCs that the plot required.
You can’t save during the game only between chapters so they expect you to play each chapter in one sitting. The reviews were not kind to this game. Turns out you can go to the rich district and pay an exorbitant fee to save.
So fun part the overworld battles are just against regular normal iguanas and quails that run away after one turn because they are just animals. Bad part to get to the plot required town meant I had to cross two screens worth of world and run into 6 random battles that don’t mean anything except my time. And then crossing between that town and the major city multiple times adds up to more than enough pointless battles where the iguana beautifully runs away. Funny the first two times, miserable the 60th. The music cuts out for a second 80% of the time you do do an attack which also becomes grating.
You do eventually get your motorcycle fixed, which is slower than walking on the overworld, has more random battles if that was possible, and lets you fire a machine gun (9 times) to kill all the iguanas and sandworms you find every 3 steps. I had to start running away from every overworld battle (by selecting do nothing on every character).
The story for Chapter 1, following the fire that killed someone involved finding a Scientist who was doing something. Meanwhile one of the churches and bounty hunters are also trying to find him. You team up with a Clint Eastwood -knockoff that looks delightfully amateurish (a lot of the key art has this feeling) who is of course going to betray you to the military? He also has a mall katana and a bolt action rifle.
Following the guide because what you do seems completely random (at one point you give hashish you got from a priest to a soldier in exchange for information. it is impossible to say whether this game is good or not.) you end up in some ancient ruins that are strongly implied to be our society (post-apocalypse baby) where the scientist has been making clones of his daughter. He has failed though because none of them have the soul of his daughter. He harvested this technology from the ruins. He had also activated a murder-golem that you fought and had killed everyone else trying to track him down. He talks, “Without my daughter, I could not begin to think of memories of tomorrow.” He dies surrounded by lifeless autondoms of his Frankenstein failures. The ruins for some reason then blow up?
The girl partner says “He was still trying to find his daughter, even in her death. Isn’t that ironic? Wasn’t that the tomorrow’s memory he was trying to form?” The guy, “whatever.”
It’s super ambitious. Trying to wrap my head around the battle system and the plot feels like it is out of my reach and if I am already using a guide in chapter 1 just to navigate the world AND every time I got in a battle I went “ugh.” Yet also this is something trying to do a Final Fantasy level thing on the PC Engine. It’s got character and world building. I’d also have to be willing to pull out a dictionary and my kanji app at 9pm in the day to actually follow the plot. And we all know when a game starts trying to give me fake politics my brain actively rejects it.
10 Likes
Oops all shooters!
Psychic Storm
AlfaSystem teams up with Shin-Nihon Laser Soft for…this thing! It’s a very strange, not quite finished melding of STGs and RPGs. I can select one of four pilots before each stage. They each have their own shot, bomb, and insect transformation. Yes, all ships can press a button to transform into a super-powerful, incredibly large insect craft. I made the mistake of choosing the “Checkmate” guy and his shot doesn’t travel across the screen, just two inches in front of him. All powerups are permanent and spread around the characters, which is great for changing ships between stages.
The game seems very generous with its lifebar, bombs, and powerups. In actuality, the game will throw so much unavoidable shit at you that you need every advantage. For some reason, I keep trying to play this very sloppy game.
Rayxanber III
Data West comes in here, buns ablazing and actually makes a decent game. This is much easier than Rayxanber II, almost to its detriment. The aesthetic is R-Type/Life Force-core: fleshy tones accented by red signal lights and silver gleams of metal. I wish the gun wasn’t so loud and annoying so I could enjoy the heavy music. The bosses really standout as giant, multi-limbed creatures that wrinkle and blister with each shot.
The powerup system is very bare, which helps the standard kit you’re equipped with shine. You’ve got a pea shooter but if you hold it long enough, you can release to launch a homing missile barrage. Instead of managing the ship speed through a pressing select or the like, you have a dedicated dash button. There are no i-frames on it though, so you have to be careful.
I found stretches of the first three levels to be a little boring but I really want to keep playing just to see what comes next. Like Rudie said, I suppose that’s the true mark of a PC Engine game. It helps that when you beat a stage, the game announces “STAGE 1 BROKEN.”
Gokuraku! Chuuka Daisen
When I got to the Great Wall stage in Sun Heart, I was worried that they were going to throw out a lot of Chinese stereotypes as dressing. I imagined all the possibilities: some take on an “oriental riff,” a bowl of la mian that spits out broth, men with queues jumping around. I was relieved at how reserved that game was. Now imagine my face when I loaded this game up.
It’s fine. I’m fine.
Syd Mead’s Terraforming
This one is odd for different reasons than the other three. It’s a Japanese developed shooter that looks like an Amiga game, and that’s because they got Syd Mead to help with the art. Syd Mead did lots of art for big sci-fi films like Blade Runner, Star Trek, and TimeCop. Apparently he also consulted for Turn A Gundam, so this wouldn’t be the last time he worked with a Japanese creative team.
The result is a unique aesthetic tied to an otherwise forgettable shooter. This is one of those “get hit and level down” sort of shooters. It’s also one of those “throw a bunch of enemies from all directions” kind of shooters. I got stuck on stage 3 and could not for the life of me get out. Pretty colors though.
14 Likes
Did not expect Syd Mead to show up in this thread, this is great. ^ _^
4 Likes
Terra Cresta II (Hucard)
Last year Kamiya and Platinum Games made another one of their failure passion projects of reviving the Cresta Series and making Sol Cresta. It even has a demo. Despite being a shmup fiend I could never pull the trigger on it because the Cresta series has never vibed with me.
This isn’t the one to change my mind. The powerups, while powerful are too far between. The pea shooter you start with is so weak and infectual and yet when powered up you just rip through the enemy. It is not exactly a difficult game but the enemies are so fast and attack so suddenly that you are expect to memorize attack patterns to survive.
It has one of my hated mechanics that powerup remain on the screen but fly faster than you regaining control of the next ship would take.
This is a PC Engine original. Pattens of attack reminded me of Galaga. There is a great Galaga on the PC Engine.
The most exciting moment was some of the patterns so perfectly matched Ikaruga that it had to be an inspiration. (They are very Galaga/Galaxian patterns to be sure.) for a brief second both games were the same game and I left Terra Cresta 2 and was playing Ikaruga a near perfect game by most counts.
7 Likes
Oops! All platformers!
Valis: The Fantasm Soldier
Valis as a series is suspect to me, considering it stars a high school girl in a battle bikini. Earlier games managed not to be too pervy about it, but now the dial is being turned just a notch further where I’m getting more worried. The intro cutscene shows our main character get dressed, shirt over bra. When she jumps, we see her underwear as she falls down. When she gets her armor, there’s a full screen picture of her looking shocked and exposed.
At this point, I don’t think it matters that they fixed the slide or that the levels and sprites look nicer. I’m too skeeved out by what boundaries they might try to push in later cutscenes.
Samurai Ghost
There is a sequel to Genpei T**ō ma Den and it’s almost every bit as glorious as it should be. I say almost because they cut out the tiny man platforming stages and the Gauntlet-esque labyrinths, but we still get giant red-haired swordsman. Just like the original, this game is brutal, unfair, and finnicky. It is also rad as hell, the PCE analog to Altered Beast. Let’s forget that that was actually ported to the console because this is a much better choice for huge dumb action.
Here’s my description of the most absurd section of the game that I saw. I start the volcano stage and a skull spider spits webs at my shins. This freezes me until I cut them off. It’s then that I notice a large lava flow is coming right at me. I have to jump over the webs, which continuously spew out of this spider, until I am safe. While I’m jumping, crow men dive at me. They are swordsmen, which means I have to deal with the rudimentary parry system the game has. If I hit swordsmen, I don’t hurt them. I merely stun them and have to rush forward to deliver the killing blow. On this lava stage where I am trying to manage so much, this is nearly impossible. I love this game.
Night Creatures
Another terrible Western-developed PC Engine exclusive! This one was made by Manley & Associates, which would become EA Seattle. PNW folks, I think you have a lot to answer for. Upsettingly, this is a Simon’s Quest-like. I’m bit by a bat in the intro and I have to find a way to cure myself. I can travel left or right, enter buildings, and talk to people. The action is so miserable, just like all the rest of these things. I tried to beat this walking tree like five times before giving up. It kept pushing roots out of the entire ground without any warning. IDK, maybe I’m suppose to learn how to become a bat or something. I don’t want to find out!
New Adventure Island
It feels rude to call this just Adventure Island. After playing so many mediocre platformers on this system, it’s wonderful to finally play one that is balanced so well with incredibly responsive controls. I think there are unlimited continues and no stage has been too long, so it’s just an exercise in playing things perfectly precise. This is one of the few platformers on the console that will let you do that and reward you for it.
Master Higgins looks incredible in this. The way he runs with sweat dripping in the wind, his hat jiggling on top of his head, it makes my heart swoon. We also get to see him nap and munch on rice balls in between stages. It’s excellent. Great game, everyone.
12 Likes
Cosmic Fantasy 3
I had to take one of the Cosmic Fantasy’s so why not 3. The intro is fantastic with Space Cats in Space Ships with professional voice acting. It’s like an anime on my PC Engine. Then it zooms down to a ye olde village and my beautiful golden maned hero Rei. He’s got to go to the next village to get medicine for all the elders. They will also happily sell me Herbs to heal my HP. They say that if I step outside the village to be careful of monsters.
There is no overworld I just move north into a forest. I encounter a random battle on average every 4 spaces. The fights are mostly against little chickens with sunglasses. This game set a record for me pulling out my TV bluetooth headphones and putting in my ipod headphones. I could not take hearing the first 3 seconds of the world song and then the bad stupid battle theme and then 3 seconds.
I’ve spent 15 minutes trying to find this fucking town. THERE ARE DEAD ENDS. that’s easily 4 battles back and forth. I have successful run from a battle once. I have died twice and woke up back in town to raise up. I am giving myself 20 more battles to find this fucking town PC Bonk Genjin.
You won’t fucking believe I found the town in 19 battles. And my bluetooth headphones died in the mean time!! Oh well. Guess I’ll return to this misery factory tomorrow!
New Paragraph my headphones charged. some guy came up to me and went “hey meet me at my house” then left. I could not find his house in town and fuck this game these battles are Grade A miserable. Eat it Cosmic Fantasy, if I wanna see anime titties I got the internet. Does this game have titties? I don’t even know. Probably! I think previous posters that tried this series had the same experience I had.
Pachiokun Juuban Shoubu
This one has a story. They’ve kidnapped the Green M&M cosplaying as a Pachinko Ball and I gotta defeat 9 Parlors of Pachinko. Yep Pachinko sucks!
Pachiokun Warau Uchuu
This one has a good typical PC Engine Super Rom Rom story. In that it is very long, includes the entire history of the universe, and is boring. It also features a lot of blatantly stolen animation. I think from Sailor Moon of all things? There’s an energy orb animation that I instantly recognize.
Also because the actual art by Coconuts sucks. Eventually the story is aliens come to the Pachinko Ball Kingdom and raze it to the ground. I yelled, “Yes, Do It!” They even kill the King Pachinko Ball and the Green M&M cosplaying as a Pachinko Ball.
Death to Monarchs! After another 5 minutes of cutscene I finally arrived on a spaceship of refuge pachinko balls. It controls worse than an RPGMaker game. I got stuck on a doorway and thought it was a dead end. I eventually got to the depths of the ship and they had a secret fighter ready for me. A secret fighter…powered by Pachinko. I found the right amount of crank power and walked away.
Strangely the HU-Card one had a special Pachinko controller for it and unclear if that worked for literally any other game for the system. I had a crank for the Super Famicom briefly and was impressed with it’s crank ness.
Truxton/Tastujin
It’s not all bad here. There’s Truxton! Or Tatsujin. Depends on where you are. This game is impossibly hard. But it is also a good game that feels great to play. I tried over the past week just to beat Stage 1. Yeah that’s all. I think I eventually succeeded tonight. It seems like it may be a continous game. I finally beat the tank under 5 credits.
Games by Toaplan (of which this is one) are notorious for having tracking bullets. Not just where you are but where you are going to be. I streamed this briefly to friends going “ooph” “brutal” and “wow you suck at this Rudie.”
Yeah but there is some unique quality here that will make me bash my head against it for an hour. I dont do that for Gradius or Salamander!! I get frustrated and quit. For Truxton, I just keep coming back.
9 Likes
the cosmic fantasy series did attain the highest honour that can be given to a 90s videogame: a single episode oav
8 Likes
Wow remember when Minty mistranslated this? What a fucking blunder. The game is called Jantei Monogatari 2. It’s a kanji pun on Mahjong and Tantei (Detective). Jeeze. Minty’s wife must be losing sleep over that flubbo Minty committed. I think we can all as a community come together and believe that Minty can do better.
Here’s a more complete list of 1992 games I’m not gonna play:
Jantei Monogatari 2
Campaign Version Daisenryaku 2
F1 Simulation Project F
Wizardry V
Loom
The Pro Yakyuu Super (I don’t have the rom?? Only for 94! )
Lemmings
5 Likes
Wow! Really interesting write-up. Samurai-Ghost and New Adventure Island are both “new” to me–Samurai-Ghost I guess because it never seems to be ported or even mentioned, in stark contrast to its prequel (maybe because Ghost was developed by Now Production rather than by Namco themselves?), and New Adventure Island I guess because the title/look doesn’t stand out from the earlier games in the series, which I bounced straight off of. (Also bounced right off Ghost’s prequel.)
Oh hey, New Adventure Island was ALSO made by Now Production–who it looks like made most of the later Adventure Island games of the era. ALSO didn’t get many ports, if Wikipedia is accurate–although it looks like it is one of the few TG16 games that came to PS3 in North America (haven’t checked the actual PSN store).
Man the ballsiness of going with a cover like this for a NA release
OOh
3 Likes
I doubt it. It looks like Now Production was often a contract partner with Namco and Hudson and I don’t think they were ever super visible as the de facto team. They seem a little bit like TOSE in that way. Like, I don’t know if their name is mentioned in credits, in the manual, or on a splash screen.
1 Like
I’d never even heard of them before so I don’t think they were very visible either. : )
I was just thinking maybe whoever at Namco would make porting decisions might give the game made by the outside team less consideration–as being more complicated to work from, or just less meaningful to people at Namco.
Granted, it would much more likely just be sales/profit projection based on how well a port would be thought to be received. And Samurai-Ghost hadn’t reviewed well. So I guess it would more likely have to do with that kind of thing.
1 Like
That’s a good point. Hudson definitely had a 1992 game that they were far more interested in promoting than New Adventure Island, one reason being that the game I’m referring to had a staff of over 200 people and cost more money than most games in history up to that point. For Namco, nothing really big comes up for 1992, but 1993 would be the year they made their first true push into 3D so maybe all their strongest people were busy with things like Ridge Racer and Air Combat.
2 Likes
Apparently a Cosmic Fantasy collection for Switch is supposed to be coming to the west at some unspecified point in the future, which I feel like I would be compelled to buy but you’re all doing a pretty good job of deterring me from wasting my time and money
It basically looks like a game for people who love Phantasy Star 2, only with anime cutscenes
2 Likes
I will say that the first game had really good momentum up to and through the beginning dungeon and I would probably play more if language wasn’t as much of an issue. The sequel felt like a downgrade and it sounds like the third is on par with the second.
3 Likes
I think the second one got an actual english release on TG16 by Working Designs, so I suspect that is what would end up on an english collection. Not sure if it’s had the usual WD treatment as far as balance goes.
It looks like the games also do that thing where the battles are completely static, with no indication which enemy is attacking / being attacked besides the scrolling text ( ie the enemy sprites don’t flash or wobble). I struggled with DQXI’s 2D mode because of that, so not sure if I can stomach an entire JRPG’s worth.
2 Likes
You say this and I get itchy, should-I…should-I second opinion this…
1 Like
We dig our own graves a handful at a time.