Someone really needs to make Famicom Gamer and Mega Drive Gamer magazines, too

As much as I love PC Engine Gamer magazine, I really wish someone would follow in publisher Sunteam's footsteps and produce similar online magazines focused on the Famicom, Mega Drive and every other 8-bit and 16-bit system, too. While I wait for such 'zines to materialize, though, I'll continue flipping through the latest issue of the aforementioned PC Engine-focused publication (the cover of which can be seen below).

Those of you who are at all interested in NEC's little white wonder, as I like to call the PC Engine, should read it (here), too, as this issue includes a "final countdown" of the system's 10 best continue/game over screens, a quick peek at a trio of in-the-works homebrew titles and reviews of Atomic Robo-Kid Special and Ys Book I & II.

10 video games that made my life gayer (#3): Ys Book I & II

Would it surprise you if I said that Monster Lair, and not the great Ys Book I & II, was the game that sold me on the TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM attachment back in the day?

Well, it's the truth, shocking as it may sound.

That's not to say Ys Book I & II didn't jump to the top of my "to buy" list as soon as I laid eyes on it. Honestly, how could it not--what with its amazing (at the time) animated cutscenes and Red Book audio, both of which were unheard of in the (console) gaming world until the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM attachment was introduced?



Although I find the game unplayable today--those bump-into-your-enemies battles were acceptable back in the day, but today they're the definition of boring--I was pretty fond of it in 1990. Granted, I think I was a bit blinded by the game's superficial sheen (i.e., the above-mentioned animations and audio), but it's not like it was behind the RPG curve in terms of gameplay when it came out. (For comparison's sake, the seminal Final Fantasy II/IV wasn't released until the following year.)

Anyway, none of that is important at the moment. What is important is that Ys Book I & II, like Final Fantasy before it, solidified my interest in the RPG genre--something for which I'll always be grateful.

Note: In this post, and in all subsequent '10 video games that made my life gayer' posts, gayer is used in the old-fashioned sense, as in happier or merrier.

See also: '10 video games that made my life gayer (#1: Bubble Bobble) and (#2: Final Fantasy)'