Davis Cup Tennis – By Loriciel

In my reviews for the PC Engine and TurboGrafx you will see lots of mentions from me about just how bad the majority of the sports games are on the system. Well despite this the PCE somehow manages to get three rather good, and each very different, tennis titles. Davis Cup Tennis by Loriciel is one of these and is based on their popular Tennis Cup games for the home computers. Davis Cup, as you can tell by the name, is officially licensed from the event that is basically a tennis version of the world cup with different countries competing against each other. It allows you to play on different court types from around the world and also lets you create your own tennis star and even define their individual attributes. This is not the first unique feature of the game though, the second one comes when you actually play it. Whether you play in single player or multi-player, Davis Cup supports up to 4-players via the multi-tap, the screen is split in two. You will appear in the top half and your opponent at the bottom so you are always able to see what they are doing. This seems a bit weird at first but actually works quite well, particularly when other players are involved. The game looks fantastic with real attention to detail and also has some excellent speech. The only problem comes in the area of difficulty, in one-player mode this game is brutally hard. But if you have a multi-tap and lots of friends then this game is well world grabbing, not quite a grand slam win but a pretty decent effort nonetheless.

7/10

 Deep Blue – By Pack In Video

With all the amazing shoot ‘em ups in the PC Engine library there had to be a terrible one somewhere and I think I just found it. Deep Blue really should be launched into the bottom of the sea where it can’t be found. You control a ship that looks a bit like a fish who swims through the sea shooting at various sea creatures before meeting a massive one in the form of an end of level boss. Pretty standard stuff so far you are probably thinking? Well yes, another word for it would be incredibly bland. The enemies just constantly fly at you, no complex attack patterns and no variation. They just constantly come at you and this makes it impossible to even shoot most of them. Even when you get a power-up it doesn’t help as there are only a few on offer, which are all useless, and as soon as you take one hit you lose them. And that brings me onto the next problem – getting hit. Your ship can take multiple hits but you have no energy bar. Instead the eye of your fish ship changes colour! Who actually thought that was a good idea? There are also no lives and no continues so when you die that is it. Every levels is the same just with a few different enemies a new colour scheme and a different boss, pathetic. The graphics are bland and messy, the dull music just drones on all the time and the game is incredibly boring. Why play this when there are games like R-Type and Gates Of Thunder out there?

3/10

 Detana!! Twin Bee – By Konami

Many people are familiar with Konami’s Parodius, a parody of their popular Gradius series. But not so well known are the equally cute and crazy Twin Bee games that are basically a vertically scrolling take on Parodius. Many of the same elements are in both games, most notable of these is the famous bell power-up system. Bell’s are left behind by shooting certain enemies and must be grabbed before they go off the screen. Each colour of bell does a different thing, the most common gold one gives you bonus points but the others award you with weapons. You are actually able to change the colour of the bells by blasting them until they change colour, but this can be difficult when you have enemies to deal with too. You craft in Twin Bee is equipped with normal fire for aerial baddies and bombs with which to destroy ground targets. The normal fire can also be “charged”, much like R-Type, and then released to unleash a super shot by holding down the fire button (thus making the turbo on the Turbo Pad useless here). Apart from all this it’s business as usual with massive end of level bosses and endless attack waves to defeat. Twin Bee’s cute graphics look great and the music fits the theme perfectly. If you enjoy quirky cartoon shooters like Parodius and Fantasy Zone then Twin Bee should be the next title to add to your wanted list!

8/10

 Devil’s Crush – By Naxat Soft

The sequel to the brilliant Alien Crush, my first experience of this game was actually playing the Mega Drive version that was renamed Dragon’s Fury. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this TurboGrafx version is even more impressive with slightly better graphics and better music too! I am a massive fan of pinball games and this has to be one of (if not the) best pinball games ever made. It fixes the problem of the flip scrolling from the first game and adds an even bigger table with more monsters and more bonus stages. These bonus stages are of particular note as they look simply stunning. I could honestly just sit there and play this game for a whole day trying to beat my high score it is that good, add in some multi-player action and it’s even better! Devil’s Crush is not just one of the best games on the console but also one of the finest video games ever made.

10/10

 Dragon Spirit – By Namco

Many people call this game Xevious with dragons and pretty easy to see why as it does play much like the vintage shooter, which was also by Namco. Just like Xevious it’s vertically scrolling and also requires you to shoot forward as well as drop “bombs” below. This adds a little more skill to usual shoot ‘em up style fair as you must get the ground shots just right in order for them to land on their targets. One really unique thing though that I love about Dragon Spirit is the power up system. When you manage to grab one it actually adds an extra fire-breathing head to your dragon! The graphics here are all pretty nice as is the sound and all in all it’s pretty much identical to the arcade original. The PC Engine and TurboGrafx are best known for their selection of quality shooters and this game is another to add to that list, it also gets bonus points for not being just another generic space based shoot ‘em up too.

8/10

 Dungeon Explorer – By Hudson Soft

This game is often referred to as Gauntlet for the PC Engine and while not that far off the mark there is so much more to it than that. Alongside the exploring of dungeons and monster killing are a series of RPG like elements. As you make your way round the levels there are buildings to enter, characters to converse with and spells to be cast. The game looks more like an RPG too and never really gets as a frantic as the famous Atari game. When you do encounter more enemy filled screens it can almost take you by surprise. Like Gauntlet enemies come from “generators” so it’s important to take these out too. In one player Dungeon Explorer is very hard, just a few hits from an enemy can kill you and it’s often hard to escape them. In multi-player it becomes a little easier but is still pretty challenging. Graphically the game is good without being outstanding, it does all look a bit samey at times. The fantastic music is very atmospheric and is considered by many as some of the best on the machine. Dungeon Explorer is a fine introduction to the role-playing genre for those afraid of jumping into the genre’s more involved titles. It’s also a great title for those who like a good challenge too!

7/10

 F1 Circus – By Nichibutsu

Top-down racers seem to be one of the few old school genres that continue to be popular today without that much evolution. F1 Circus harks back to games like the original Monaco GP and Taito Grand Prix with its fast paced Formula 1 themed racing action. Officially licensed by FOCA there are tracks from all over the world, real drivers, different teams and the ability to set up your own car in the garage. While at heart it’s an arcade style racer the game certainly doesn’t skimp on the realism either. The full career mode is actually very involved and will please even the most ardent of simulation fans. The game has some great graphics and sound and also moves at a terrific pace. It actually takes quite a while to get used to the speed of the game when you first play it and negotiating those tricky turns at high speed becomes an art form. F1 Circus is a real slice of old school goodness that makes a really nice change from all the standard behind the car and cockpit style racing games out there. This game also spawned two updated sequels and special edition Super CD version containing plenty of bonus extras for hardcore F1 fans including driver bios, photo galleries and stats galore.

8/10

 Falcon – By Spectrum Holobyte

Now flight simulators and consoles are never a good mix (just ask Atari 7800 owners about that!) especially on consoles that only have a 2 button joypad! So when it came to this conversion of the popular 16-bit computer game, originally released by Microprose, I wasn’t expecting much. To be fair they actually did a really good job here considering what they had to work with. The 3D engine is excellent, there is very little detail but it’s smooth and pretty fast too. There are also really nice mission screens and a great take-off / landing sequence also. The missions mostly involve just shooting down enemy planes and start off stupidly easy to help you get the hang of the controls, which is good. The sound is also pretty good in this game too. It’s a shame then that Falcon just ends up being very dull, it’s not deep enough (read complicated!) to be a proper flight sim. and doesn’t have enough action to be a console game. Very very average indeed.

5/10

 Fantasy Zone – By NEC Avenue

One of the many Sega games that made its way to the PC Engine before the Mega Drive was released Fantasy Zone is a horizontally scrolling shooter with a loose connection to Space Harrier. This is because it is also set in the mythical Fantasy Zone (hence the name) but it appears to be even more colourful than it was in Space Harrier. It is also a lot cuter, as the enemies bare more resemblance to a kids cartoon than the giant fire breathing heads and dragons of the other Sega game. The game is reminiscent in several ways of Williams’ classic Defender as you have a specific achievement for each level and it also scrolls in both directions. Rather than saving humans though your mission is to wipe out the alien motherships that spawn many of the other enemies. One you kill them all you get to face a massive boss before moving onto the next stage. Whenever you kill an enemy they leave behind a coin and once collected these can be spent in the shops to upgrade both your craft and your weapons. While these power-ups only last a limited amount of time you can hold several at once and switch between them. I have always been a sucker for Fantasy Zone, it’s not only one of the more original shooters out there but also a very enjoyable one too. With it’s attractive graphics and sound and great gameplay this is a solid conversion for the PCE and well worth picking up.

9/10

 Final Lap Twin – By Namco

The arcade version of this game was most notable for featuring multiple screens for each player, giving you a bigger view of what was going on. Of course this TurboGrafx version can’t replicate that but it does a brilliant job of recreating everything else in the game. The Final Lap games are pretty much an evolution of another classic F1 style racing series by Namco, the classic Pole Position titles. The unique selling point of this game is though that as well as trying to finish in as high a place as possible you also have to beat your opponent, whether that be a second player or the computer. This means that the game is always played in split screen with you at the top and the other player at the bottom. This works extremely well and really adds to the experience as you try to keep an eye on what they are doing. The graphics and sound are both pretty decent too but the gameplay is what really makes this game stand out amongst the racing game crowd.

9/10

 Galaga ’90 – By Namco

The original Galaga was the sequel to the classic Galaxians and was one of the very first shoot ‘em ups to feature vertical scrolling. Many of the gameplay mechanics were the same with alien formations, dive bombing kamikazes and skill shots. The difference was that the formations changed as the game went on and the enemy got faster and more intelligent. This 1990 update of the coin-op classic adds even more to the mix with different gameplay modes, new levels, different paths, power-ups and of course both updated graphics and sound. Best of all is that it does all of this without losing any of the things that made the original game so fantastic. For me Galaga ’90 is the most perfect combination between old school and more modern shooters and one of the best games available for the NEC console.

10/10

 Gunboat – By Accolade

I have never really understood why companies try to put these kind of advanced simulation games onto consoles, it’s something the Atari 7800 suffers from and unfortunately the TurboGrafx too. With their complicated controls and advanced gameplay they are just not suited to systems with only a few buttons designed to play arcade style games. Gunboat is as you have probably guessed a Gunboat sim. You captain the armoured boat as you travel down rivers into the warzone switching between different views in order to both take out enemy targets, avoid fire and steer the ship in the right direction. It all becomes very frustrating, laborious and tedious very quickly. The 3D graphics are quite impressive but only take up a very small portion of the screen while the sound is very basic indeed. There really isn’t much I can say to recommend this title unless you like slow boring games that are better played on home computers.

4/10