Tag: Turbografx-16

TL;DR Reviews: Blazing Lazers (Turbografx-16)

My target audience for this site is those, who like me, want a review to be all-encompassing, lengthy and detailed. I often include my previous experiences with the title, significant historical context, and/or the story of my introduction to the game in order to provide the reader with context for my reaction.

While this, I hope, provides a more entertaining and engaging read, it also results in fairly lengthy articles that may alienate those that couldn’t care less about my experience and the nitty-gritty details of the gameplay; they just want a quick, succinct overview of the game and to be told whether or not it is a fit for them.

In the spirit of inclusion, I am providing shorter adaptations of previous reviews. I will always still produce the intensive reviews first to avoid straying from my original vision for the site.

Blazing Lazers

Visuals (10/10): Some of the best graphics on the TurboGrafx-16. Provided a 16-bit experience in a market largely dominated by its 8-bit contemporaries. Colorful, large boss sprites and a variety of vivid, non-open space locales are the highlight of the game.

Sound (8.5/10): A fast-paced, hypertension-inducing soundtrack that is so catchy and well-composed. The poor sound quality of TurboGrafx-16 HuCards detract from an otherwise stellar experience.

Gameplay (9.5/10): Mechanics are absolutely perfect, with adjustable ship speed, ability to hold down the fire button and incredibly responsive controls.

Four up-gradable weapon types, four sub-weapons and the ability to create alternate modes of fire by way of the “Firepower” sub-weapon result in a highly customizable experience.

Negatives include:

  • Needing to input a code to unlock other difficulties
  • the near uselessness of “Weapon I” and “Homing Missiles”

Who Should Play This:

This is the perfect entry level shmup for gamer’s who are good at video games in general, but are inexperienced with the shooter genre. It is not terribly hard, but not so easy as to be boring… JUST RIGHT.

Due to incredible design and a spectacular audio-visual experience, even grizzled veterans of the shmup genre will really enjoy this game, despite the moderate difficulty.

 

Link to the Original Review and Added Guide Content:

Blazing Lazers Resource (Turbografx-16/PC Engine)

 

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The Turbo EverDrive is a flash cart for the TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine with MicroSD functionality. It allows the user to play all their TG-16 backups on one convenient cartridge. Combine modern convenience, with the feel and accuracy of the original hardware for the best of both worlds. Imagine having the entire TG-16 library on one cart… shmup city baby!

Stone Age Gamer offers this product in a variety of skins, including a bare board, a black TurboGrafx-16 themed cartridge, and a white PC-Engine themed cartridge depending on the players needs and aesthetic preferences.

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Buy Everdrive on Stone Age Gamer

Go to Hell and Back with NAXAT: Devil’s Crush NAXAT Pinball (Turbografx-16) Resource

Introduction

A genre I often ignore, but am almost never disappointed by is video pinball. Growing up, I loved playing pinball in the arcades. Since these games were almost always cheaper than the newest arcade titles, I would end my gaming session with pinball almost every time; prolonging the inevitable dwindling of my coin stash just a bit longer.

All this time spent playing pinball resulted in my growing very fond of the genre and playing fairly often. This translated into a few home purchases, such as Kirby’s Pinball Land, Sonic Spinball and Pokemon Pinball, all of which I enjoyed to varying degrees. As time passed, I stopped dabbling with the genre mostly due to an ever-growing and all-consuming backlog of games.

As part of my mission for this site, I wanted to spend time delving into a variety of genres, so inevitably, video pinball resurfaced. I was excited to find a treasure trove of games I had missed out on, but which was the best? After extensive research I settled on a gem of a game entitled Devil’s Fury for the Turbografx-16.

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Blazing Lazers Resource (Turbografx-16/PC Engine)

Link to the TL;DR Review:

For those who don’t like words: Blazing Lazers TL;DR Review

Introduction

The TurboGrafx-16, also known as the PC engine in Japan, was at the time the go to platform for shmups. In Japan the console was immensely successful, but in the United States it sold very poorly after a seemingly successful launch. The lack of user base resulted in a number of the systems incredible games being ignored by the US consumer base. Blazing Lazers, also known as Gunhed in Japan, was one such game, despite being one of the most popular on the console.

Blazing Lazers was based on the 1989 Japanese science fiction film Gunhed. All references of the film were removed from the North American release, for obvious reasons. The player controls the Gunhed Star Fighter in an attempt to destroy the evil Dark Squadron.

Continue reading “Blazing Lazers Resource (Turbografx-16/PC Engine)”