Photographic proof I may be more obsessed with the PC Engine than I am with the Wii at this point

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.

Pithy impressions of a handful of long-ignored PC Engine platformers: Berabo Man, Doraemon, Dragon Egg, Genji Tsushin Agedama, Momotaro Katsugeki and Pac-Land

I guess you could say that Anne Lee's #PlatforMonth has inspired me a bit since it was announced late last month. In the last week, I've not only written and published a pair of posts crammed full of platformer recommendations for folks who are planning to participate in this particular "community game-along," but I've also--gasp!--played a number of games that could be considered part of this most classic of genres.

Because the bulk of the platformers I've played in the last few days have been of the PC Engine variety, I thought I'd compile my (sometimes pithy) impressions of them here.

Chozetsu Rinjin Berabo Man--There's no denying this side-scrolling platformer, known as Bravo Man in the States, never much appealed to me before TheGameroomBlitz suggested it in the comments section of this recent post. To be frank, screenshots of it (and, really, video of it, too) make it look like a complete turd. That, combined with the rather terrible word of mouth that surrounds this Namco-made HuCard, has been more than enough to keep me from giving it a go. Until last week, I mean. So, now that I've finally played it, what do I think of it? Surprisingly, I kind of like it. It's a low-rent game, no doubt about it, and it has a whole host of issues--the super-hero-ish protagonist is large and slow, the graphics are on the messy side--but it also has a certain charm to it that makes it more enjoyable than it has any right to be. In large part, that's due to Berabo Man's elastic limbs, which are used to dispatch enemies in lieu of a more traditional gun or laser, but for me it's also due to this game's curious cast of characters, which includes absurdly small tanks, cartoonishly squat ninjas and some other odd-looking creatures that look remarkably similar to Fantasy Zone's Opa-Opa.

Doraemon Nobita no Dorabian Night--Here's another PC Engine platformer that I've ignored over the years due to what I considered to be subpar graphics. In action, though, they're actually rather nice, if still slightly rough around the edges. Nobita no Dorabian Night's gameplay is similarly "acceptable," with some aspects being pretty interesting--Doraemon's stun gun being one of them--and others, like the overall blandness of the action at hand, being less so. At the end of the day, Nobita no Dorabian Night feels like PC Genjin's less accomplished cousin, which isn't exactly the worst thing you could say about a PC Engine platformer, if you ask me.

Dragon Egg!--Like the titles mentioned above, this NCS-developed platformer isn't all that impressive at first blush. The dark graphics and stiff controls made me think I was playing a bottom-shelf Mega Drive (Genesis) game early on, which wasn't what I was expecting based on some of the positive impressions I've read elsewhere. A few stages later, though, my opinion did a 180. That's when I'd collected enough power-ups to transform the lowly egg the Sayo-chan-esque protagonist had been using as a weapon up to that point into a small, Yoshi-like dragon who gladly popped his head out of a sack and aimed his fiery breath at any and all enemies in her path. That one detail was enough for me to add this game to my lengthy "to buy" list (so far I've only experienced it via emulation), despite the fact that I've only completed a few levels so far.

Genji Tsushin Agedama--What kept me from giving this colorful conundrum (it's part shmup, part platformer, after all) a proper once-over until recently? I honestly have no idea. It couldn't have been its graphics, which are both well drawn and brilliantly hued. Maybe it was its mouthful of a name, which just doesn't have the same appealing ring to it that games like Bravo Man and Dragon Egg! do? Regardless, I'm now beating myself up over that idiotic oversight, as Genji Tsushin Agedama seems to be a real gem of a PC Engine game (based on the few stages I've played through thus far, at least). The auto-scrolling levels do take some getting used to, it has to be said, but once that's out of the way the game is a thoroughly and surprisingly enjoyable romp.

Momotaro Katsugeki--Here's a HuCard I first played a few years ago due to a random recommendation I can't fully recall at the moment, only to find it decidedly underwhelming. Upon picking it up again last week, though, I had at least a slight change of heart. I still find it less thrilling than some folks do, but I now appreciate all of the things it brings to the PC Engine-platformer table, such as its colorfully diverse backdrops and its similarly varied actions and obstacles. This is another game that brings to mind the famed PC Genjin (Bonk's Adventure outside of Japan) series, by the way, and not only because of its visuals, although the titular Momotaro's projectile weapon (a peach-flinging sword, I believe) helps to give Katsugeki a different feel than its prehistoric predecessor.

Pac-Land--I have surprisingly vivid memories of encountering the arcade version of this game for the first time in a faraway arcade as a teen. This was back before the Internet clued us into every last release, mind you, and as such the very sight of a Pac-Man-themed platformer blew my young mind. I share this because I have a feeling it'll help explain my decades-long interest in this particular title, which is unabashedly derided by pretty much every other person on the planet. Yes, the bulk of Pac-Land's graphics look as though they were created by a five-year-old with very little artist talent. Yes, its gameplay alternates between boringly basic and hair-pullingly challenging (in the "cheap" sort of way). Still, I get a kick out of booting it up and running through at least a handful of its stages every now and then. That may be nostalgia talking, I admit, but I honestly think there's a little more to it than that--although probably only just a little.

Have any of you played the aforementioned PC Engine platformers? If so, please feel free to share some of your thoughts on them in the comments section below.

If you haven't played some or even any of them, maybe you should consider doing so as part of Anne's #PlatforMonth game-along event?