{"id":20402,"date":"2020-08-28T00:01:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T00:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=20402"},"modified":"2020-08-13T13:22:06","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T13:22:06","slug":"the-games-of-the-turbo-grafx-16-mini-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/28\/the-games-of-the-turbo-grafx-16-mini-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The Games of the Turbo Grafx-16 Mini: Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One final part of my blog series on the TG-16 Mini!\u00a0 Last time we looked at some of the games on the Japanese PC Engine side, and now we\u2019ll look at the rest of them.\u00a0 The games in this batch I\u2019m more familiar with, because they were released in the US in some form or fashion either on this console, other consoles, or in the arcade.\u00a0 And they\u2019re also made by well-known companies like Namco, Capcom, SEGA, Taito, and Konami.\u00a0 OK let\u2019s finish this off!<\/p>\n

The Legend of Valkyrie<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll start off with the Namco games, since I certainly know a lot about that company.\u00a0 The Legend of Valkyrie was originally a Famicom game, and it played like The Legend of Zelda except not near as good.\u00a0 The sequel was in the arcade in Japan (usually it\u2019s the other way around).\u00a0 The TG-16 game is based on the arcade game.\u00a0 It plays kind of like Ikari Warriors except with a fantasy setting and RPG elements.\u00a0 Player one is Valkyrie, a pretty lady with a winged helmet and a sword.\u00a0 Player two is Xandros, a green Gumby guy who uses a pitchfork.\u00a0 When you use your weapons, beams of light shoot out of it to attack bad guys.\u00a0 You can collect coins to buy power-ups in shops along the way.\u00a0 Even though this game was Japan only, you can play the arcade version on Namco Museum Vol. 5 on the PSOne.\u00a0 There is some Japanese text, but you don\u2019t need to know it just to play.\u00a0 The TG-16 version is pretty close to the arcade, but I still like the arcade version more.\u00a0 I wish the TG-16 Mini also had Ordyne.\u00a0 It was a Namco arcade game made around the same time as Valkyrie, and it\u2019s a fun cutesy shoot \u2018em up.\u00a0 It also got a version on the TG-16 Mini, although like Valkyrie, the arcade version is still better.\u00a0 Ordyne on the TG-16 actually DID come to the US, though.\u00a0 Anyway, Valkyrie is one of Namco\u2019s more famous classic characters and makes cameos in games such as the Tales of series and Soul Calibur fighters.<\/p>\n

The Genji and the Heike Clans<\/strong><\/p>\n

This horizontally scrolling ninja action game from Namco features a lot of Japanese legends and folklore.\u00a0 It\u2019s based on the arcade game and the TG-16 version is pretty close to it.\u00a0 Neither came to the US but you can play the arcade version on Namco Museum vol. 4 on PSOne.\u00a0 There are three main modes in the game.\u00a0 Regular sized horizontally scrolling, another where the sprites are HUGE, and a top down view.\u00a0 Also, there is a song on the Taiko Drum Master games based on this title and it\u2019s VERY hard!<\/p>\n

Galaga \u201888<\/strong><\/p>\n

I loved the arcade version of this.\u00a0 Such a great update to the classic game.\u00a0 I saw it in lots of arcades.\u00a0 It actually came to the US on the TG-16, but I think they called it Galaga \u201989, even though it was the same game.\u00a0 The arcade version is a LITTLE better, but not by much.\u00a0 I like the slightly cutesy take of this game, and there wouldn\u2019t be another good Galaga remake until Galaga Arrangement in the mid 90\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Dragon Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n

This vertically scrolling shooter is like Xevious, except with dragons and monsters instead of spaceships.\u00a0 It was fairly popular in arcades, even though I didn\u2019t see it as much back then.\u00a0 I think the TG-16 version was released in the US as well.\u00a0 I really want to like this game, but it\u2019s so gosh darn hard, even with the turbo buttons.\u00a0 I can do better in Xevious and that game\u2019s hard as well!\u00a0 Dragon Spirit eventually came to the NES.\u00a0 If you\u2019re wondering why some of Namco\u2019s arcade games were on the TG-16 and not the NES, it\u2019s because for a while, Namco had a bit of a falling out with Nintendo over their strict policies on how many games a third party can release on the NES.<\/p>\n

Fantasy Zone<\/strong><\/p>\n

This cutesy side scrolling shooter features colorful graphics and catchy music, and stars one of SEGA\u2019s pre-Sonic mascots: Opa-Opa.\u00a0 Like Dragon Spirit, even with the turbo buttons it\u2019s super hard.\u00a0 But I still like this one.<\/p>\n

Super Darius<\/strong><\/p>\n

Darius is one of my favorite shooter series.\u00a0 The original arcade game was three screens long, and the stage 1 theme: \u201cCaptain NEO\u201d is one of my top favorite pieces of video game music ever.\u00a0 This version is based on the arcade, and except for it being only one screen, it\u2019s a pixel and audio perfect version of the arcade game.\u00a0 I only wish it wasn\u2019t as hard!<\/p>\n

Daimakaimura<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is just the Japanese version of Ghouls N Ghosts.\u00a0 It seems pretty close to the arcade version, but I\u2019m more impressed with the Genesis one.\u00a0 I want to like these games more, but they are just way too gosh darn hard!<\/p>\n

Ninja Ryukenden<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know what this is?\u00a0 It\u2019s a TG-16 verison of Ninja Gaiden on the NES!\u00a0 The graphics are a little clearer, but the music isn\u2019t as good.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s a little harder on the TG-16 as well, but that could just be me.<\/p>\n

Gradius<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I have to describe this one too much, do I?\u00a0 This is probably the closest to the arcade for a home console at the time.\u00a0 I imagine we didn\u2019t get this game in the US because back then, releasing five year old arcade games wasn\u2019t as common of a practice here.\u00a0 Of course this and other Konami games are on the Mini since Konami owns Hudson now.\u00a0 While Gradius was popular back then, I didn\u2019t see it in arcades much.\u00a0 In fact, I only first saw the arcade version of Gradius AFTER I had played Gradius 3 on the SNES!\u00a0 And I only saw Life Force in an arcade ONCE!\u00a0 Luckily I did see the super rare 3-D Gradius game Solar Assault at an arcade one time, too.\u00a0 I like Gradius games even though they\u2019re also stupid hard.\u00a0 But they have that \u2018just one more try\u2019 aspect to them that makes them good.\u00a0 I just wish that, when you die, you wouldn\u2019t lose all your power ups because then you\u2019re screwed!<\/p>\n

Salamander<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is kind of a spin off Gradius game with a more bio alien theme.\u00a0 It was called Life Force in the US.\u00a0 I have a lot of good memories playing the NES version.\u00a0 This one is pretty close to the arcade except without the voices.\u00a0 The power-up system is a little different, too.\u00a0 Even though it has beginner and advanced modes on the TG-16, it\u2019s super hard either way.\u00a0 Maybe even harder than the arcade one!\u00a0 Also when you die you start back at the beginning or a checkpoint, and I think in the arcade and NES, you started right back where you left off.<\/p>\n

Gradius 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

I remember reading about this game in magazines and thinking it looked so cool.\u00a0 Unfortunately we never got this game in the US either.\u00a0 Like the others, it seems pretty close to the arcade game.<\/p>\n

Akumajo Dracula X Chi no Rondo<\/strong><\/p>\n

And last, this is just Castlevania Dracula X: Rondo of Blood.\u00a0 I think there was a SNES version of this, too.\u00a0 Some say the TG-16 version is better, but I think they have their own strengths and weaknesses.\u00a0 This version uses the CD add on so it sounds nice at least.\u00a0 The beginning cutscene has Japanese subtitles, but the voice over is in German!\u00a0 I could actually understand a lot of what they were saying because I took German in high school and college!\u00a0 Anyway, I didn\u2019t get too far in this one because I\u2019m not a very big Castlevania fan.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like how the enemies can just dance around you, while your guy just plods along like he ate a big breakfast that morning before deciding he was going to beat up Dracula.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t this game supposed to be a prequel to Symphony of the Night or something?\u00a0 I heard that somewhere, maybe one of you Castlevania fans can confirm that.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all of the games on the TG-16 Mini!\u00a0 Let me know what you think and if you have any questions in the comments section.\u00a0 Do you have any favorite TG-16 games?\u00a0 Any you\u2019d like to have seen on the Mini?\u00a0 I would\u2019ve liked to have seen Bonk 3, Final Lap Twin, and Ordyne, and maybe more weird Japanese games like Photography Boy.\u00a0 OK later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One final part of my blog series on the TG-16 Mini!\u00a0 Last time we looked at some of the games on the Japanese PC Engine side, and now we\u2019ll look at the rest of them.\u00a0 The games in this batch I\u2019m more familiar with, because they were released in the US in some form or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20402"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20404,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20402\/revisions\/20404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}