And that's saying something, as I'm really into the Wii right now thanks to all the fun I'm having with
Opoona and
Tabemon. (Here are some
Opoona impressions, for the curious.)
So what do I mean when I say I'm obsessed with NEC's little white wonder, aka the PC Engine? Well, I mean that beyond playing the many PC Engine games I've owned for years now, I've been buying new ones over the last month or two.
In fact, I've bought at least 12 PC Engine games in that time. All are HuCards. Most are RPGs.
Their titles aren't completely visible in the snapshots included to the right, so I'll spell them out for you (in order, from top to bottom) while also sharing little descriptions for those who aren't so versed in PC Engine HuCards.
War of the Dead--A post-apocalyptic RPG from 1989 that features battles focused on side-scrolling action rather than selecting options from drop-down menus. Oh, and
War of the Dead's badass protagonist--a woman, amazingly--uses guns, grenade launchers and the like rather than swords and magic to mow down the ghoulies that get in her way. Given all of that, is it any wonder I've wanted to play this since I first pinged my radar?
Necros no Yōsai--I told you early I was really into HuCard RPGs right now. Well, here's another. This one was released in 1990 and offers players slightly more traditional battles than
War of the Dead. I say slightly because they're (said to be) far more cinematic than what's typical for the genre and for the time. Not that I've played it yet, mind you.
The Brothers Duomazov have, though, and I always trust their judgment.
Susano Oh Densetsu--Surprise! Another chip-based role-playing game. This one is based on the Japanese manga,
Susano Oh, created by
Go Nagai. Again, word on the street is
Susano Oh Densetu isn't your typical RPG. Enemies are visible on the overworld screen and the fights they pick with you via your avatar seem to be pretty strategic. Toss into the mix the ability to use everything from axes to rocket launchers against your opponents, and you've got a game I'm very much itching to play.
Double Dungeons--I can't say I've been itching to play this HuCard dungeon crawler, but I have long thought it looked interesting, so I went ahead and purchased a copy when I came across a cheap one while perusing eBay recently. The differentiator here is two people can tackle a dungeon at the same time. I'll likely never have the opportunity to experience
Double Dungeons that way, of course, but hopefully I'll enjoy my eventual playthrough all the same.
R-Type I and II--The
R-Type II shown and discussed here isn't the arcade sequel (to the original
R-Type, naturally) Irem released in 1989. Bizarrely, the company split the first
R-Type into two parts while porting it to the PC Engine. Yes, that meant the game was released on two HuCards. Ridiculous, right? Still, I have fond memories of playing the North American version (on my beloved TurboGrafx-16) back in the day, so I picked up both Japanese chips during one of my impromptu eBay shopping sprees.
Gomola Speed--I've had my eyes on this strange,
Snake-inspired PC Engine title for ages now, but it wasn't until I had a Twitter chat about it with
Snow Kitten that I finally bit the bullet and bought a copy. It sports some great cover art, plus its gameplay looks like good, breezy fun, so I'll definitely give it a go sooner rather than later.
Daichi-kun Crisis: Do Natural--Here's a HuCard with which I've had an on-again, off-again relationship since I first became aware of it. My interest in it should be easy enough to understand once you glimpse its
cover art, which shows an erupting volcano surrounded by a bunch of adorable cows. As for why it took me so long to add
Daichi-kun Crisis to my ever-growing collection of PC Engine games:
its gameplay looks, well, bonkers--and not necessarily in a good way. That's rarely stopped me from trying something, so here's hoping it pays off this time around.
Nazo no Masquerade--This is the kind of game I would've avoided like the plague before I started learning Japanese. (Read about my progress in
this recent post.) Now, though, I use such titles as inspiration to keep me going. Not that I see myself successfully completing an adventure game like this one anytime soon. Still, I may boot up
Nazo no Masquerade in the coming weeks just to see what I'm able to suss out, as I'm attracted to its "1920s mansion" setting.
Momotarō Katsugeki--No need to know Japanese for this game, which is a side-scrolling platformer starring that country's popular "Peach Boy." (Momotarō often is translated to Peach Boy.)
Momotarō Katsugeki looks quite
PC Genjin-esque to me, and seeing as though I've loved every
PC Genjin (or
Bonk) title I've played, I have a feeling I'll love this Hudson Soft-published effort, too--once I finally pop it into my trusty PC Engine Core Grafx II.
Momotarō Densetsu Turbo and
Momotarō Densetsu Gaiden--These games also were made and published by Hudson Soft, and they also star the above-mentioned Peach Boy. They differ from
Katsugeki in terms of gameplay, though. Both are
Dragon Quest-esque RPGs full of turn-based battles and travels across exotic landscapes. The latter's supposed to be miles better than the former, so most would say I should start with
Gaiden, but I'll probably do the opposite.
Have you played any of these PC Engine games? If so, let me (and others) know what you think of them in the comments section below.
