Turbografx-16 Reviews C-D

Cadash is a medieval side-scroller designed to be played cooperatively by two players. You select between four characters: Warrior, Mage, Priest, and... Ninja? That warrior is one sorry-looking bastard. It's bad enough he's not wearing pants, but his legs are flabby! Your journey begins in a castle with guards that offer less-than-helpful hints like "Kill monsters and take their gold to buy items!" Thanks for the advice buddy, but I've played video games before! One thing I really love about castles in the middle ages is how they always have a monster-infested cave within convenient walking distance. It's fun to forge ahead with a friend, especially when you complement each other's abilities. You'll slash through green slime, skeletons, spiders, and pig-faced trolls. Magic users have a selection of spells but must hold in one button to cycle thru them. That's really awkward in the heat of battle. What was wrong with the "select" button? When it comes to avoiding traps, both players must carefully coordinate their movements. Each stage (or "continent") has a unique back-story and mini cut-scenes to add a little flavor. Unfortunately the first stage is so ridiculously hard it almost ruins the entire game. It features a tricky jump sequence over a pool of water. If you fall in, your character will continuously lurch backwards as you desperately try to climb out. It's obnoxious enough to set Cadash back a full letter grade. One key to survival is to "grind" on weak enemies to get your experience level up to 2 or 3. If you manage to defeat the "black pudding" boss, the game really opens up. Not only can you resurrect your partner in the next town, you can upgrade your weapons and load up on herbs. The lack of a password option is glaring, but you can find codes on the Internet that let you skip ahead. I have a love/hate relationship with Cadash. Its design flaws infuriate me to no end, yet I can't resist the urge to give it "just one more try". © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

Camp California is one of those rare Turbografx-CD games that goes for several hundred bucks on eBay. I'm glad I settled on a reproduction copy because this game is not so hot. The main character is a bear who embodies 80's kitsch, decked out in sneakers, Jams shorts, and sunglasses. Okay, he's cool - we get it. A California beach is the planned location of a new nuclear power plant. To prevent this travesty you must collect random items like cans or tires or socks. The action begins on a beach where you kick crabs and punch skinny birds. The bright scenery is attractive, and in the distance you can see a giant sandcastle foreshadowing a future stage. The controls aren't bad; you can jump, low kick, and punch. The stages however are poorly designed. Your path is littered with annoying obstacles and crabs sprout from beneath your feet ("Bogus!"). The next stage is a waterfall level, and it's miserable the way you tend to get knocked off ledges by tiny unseen projectiles. Just try to get to the end as fast as you can. The third stage is an immense sand castle you need to traverse, but the rules in this game are wonky. You can jump on gargoyles, but only some of them. Can you jump on that catapult to get a little higher? Maybe, maybe not! It's very easy to get stuck in this game, and often you wonder if you've stumbled across a bug. Make it past the castle and the game opens up with selectable stages including a trendy mall, a military range in the desert, and a Las Vegas stage that looks more like a dungeon. Unfortunately the van that lets you explore the map is constantly running out of gas! WTF? The games contains some Beach Boys music, but if that's supposed to be a selling point I don't think the marketing people knew their audience very well. If anything the license is underused. Why would you not have the Beach Boys playing over the title screen? The music in the mall stage sounds suspiciously like Huey Lewis and the News (Power of Love?). Camp California tries to come off as hip and environmentally friendly, but I wish they would have made good gameplay a priority instead. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

I just recently discovered the Chase HQ series and I'm really digging it. If you enjoy arcade racers like Outrun (Sega Master System, 1987) you'll feel right at home with the scaling cars and colorful locations. The idea is to drive an undercover police car through traffic until you catch up with a suspect's car. Then you ram him until his car catches fire and comes to a halt. Before each mission you're presented with a screen that describes a suspect like "Ralph the slasher". This screen also dispenses some truly heinous voice synthesis. This is Nasty at Chase Headquarters?! Oh wait - she said Nancy. On the road you'll shift gears from low to high while weaving around vehicles that smoothly scale into view. A multiplier provides bonuses for avoiding consecutive cars, but it's hard to keep it going because the collision detection is so unforgiving. The road has small hills and dips, and even forks on occasion. The sense of speed is excellent, and at top speed you're barely in control. It's easy to forget you can hit the select button to activate turbos. You actually tend to hug the curves better when your turbo is engaged. The city skylines look terrific and objects on the side of the road include colorful signs and houses that resemble vending machines. When you reach your target the ensuing chase is exciting. It's tough to catch the bad guy because there's so much traffic and your car tends to lose control after a collision. It takes over 20 hits to stop the bastard, but you can often inflict several hits in succession if you approach from the side. Once you pull him over you're treated to a scene showing two cops roughing up the criminals. For a game that looks so good the soundtrack is understated. Three continues are provided and you'll want to use them. Chase HQ is rather obscure but I love its brand of old-school racing action. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

This game didn't do itself any favors with an uninspired title and a ludicrously easy default skill level. The cheesy intro incorporates the line "Let's take a trip through time aboard a magic carpet ship". Ugh. My initial play-through begged the question "is this all there is to it?" After ten rounds I was bored to tears! Then I tried the "difficult" setting and I was hooked! Cratermaze bears a passing resemblance to Bomberman (NES, 1991) as you guide a pudgy dude around a scrolling maze, collecting chests while avoiding random characters. After collecting all the chests a key appears, allowing you to exit. Patrolling each maze are a motley crew of adversaries that include gangsters, policemen, hockey players, robots, horned ghosts, and hopping gremlins. When one approaches you, just press a button to dig a hole that they will fall into, trapping them temporarily. Press the button again and you'll bury them for bonus points. But here's the thing: if you complete a stage without burying any enemies an "NEC" bonus icon appears worth a whopping 20K! There are tons of enemies milling around so you need to choose your paths wisely. Falling into your own hole costs you a life and it's frustratingly easy to do. The maze designs aren't particularly interesting but the toe-tapping music is terrific. Trampolines, portals, and doors spice things up but can be awkward to operate. Special items allow you freeze enemies, stop time, and you guessed it - drop bombs. When the game ends a passcode is displayed in the form of four colored heads. How am I supposed to write that down? You also have the option to continue on your last completed maze. At its best Cratermaze is a sweet combination of Bomberman, Dig Dug (Atari 5200, 1993), and Lock N Chase (Intellivision, 1982). It may not look like much but its pleasant, leisurely style is hard to dislike. © Copyright 2018 The Video Game Critic.

There's so much to love about Download, beginning with its name. NEC had no idea what kind of confusion this seemingly innocuous title would cause in the future! The intro features a glimmering city skyline so inviting I wanted to climb into my TV! A camera zooms into a particular area of town to introduce our hero, sitting on a couch. Pound for pound Download is one of the best side-scrollers I've ever played. You can adjust your weapon configuration beforehand, but I recommend sticking with the default "beam valcan" (not a typo) and "chaser" sub-weapon. The beam has terrific screen coverage and the chaser conveniently cleans up the scraps. The background graphics feature city landscapes that look sharp yet never impinge upon the action. Catchy electronic beats provide a steady rhythm to help you get into a zone. Unlike modern shooters, Download manages to maintain difficulty without descending into chaos. Your main weapon is unlimited but you may be tempted to conserve your sub-weapon. Don't bother, because staying alive is your top priority. Floating icons change form every few seconds, allowing you to strategically augment your weapon, sub-weapon, or shields. Taking hits drains your weapons and shields, which is a fair system. The first boss seems really tough until you realize you can just fire down its throat to destroy it. Stage two changes things up as you navigate narrow passages lined with cute robots. Level three gets a little metaphysical as you blast dominoes that explode into vinyl records. I particularly enjoyed level four which is set at sea and with storm clouds looming in the sky. The stages aren't particularly long and bosses are reasonable. When you perish, a "mission incomplete" screen shows our hero reciting poorly-translated English dialog like "S--t is not this a good beginning!" and "I can not f--k up for this" Needless to say, these one-liners are worth their weight in gold. Unlimited continues are available in addition to a password feature. Quirky, challenging, and fun, Download is one shooter that had me grinning from ear to ear. Note: This game will not run natively on a non-Japanese system. © Copyright 2016 The Video Game Critic.

Dragon's Curse doesn't come cheap but I definitely don't regret tracking down a copy. This is actually an enhanced version of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (Sega Master System, 1989). While the gameplay is essentially the same, this Turbografx-16 version offers sharper graphics, better music, and a super-convenient file save (in addition to a password). I guess the biggest improvement is easy access to your item screen via the run button. On the Sega Master System you have to press the pause button located on the console itself! I noticed certain monsters sport new color schemes, and the facial expressions they make when you strike them look hilarious. Dragon's Curse is whimsical platformer with RPG elements, kind of like a cross between Adventure Island (NES, 1987) and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES, 1989). Collecting gold coins dropped by enemies lets you purchase armor, shields, and swords. The fact that merchants won't sell you items until your charisma is high is frustrating at first, but makes sense in the long run. The maze of doors connecting the various areas (coast, desert, forest) seem confusing to navigate, but there's no shortage of fun things to do. Colorful enemies including cyclops, genies, mummies, skeletons, and scarecrow heads. I really hate those fire-dropping storm clouds that relentlessly follow you around. Throughout the course of the game you'll transform into a lizard-man (breathes fire), mouse-man (climbs), piranha-man (swims), hawk-man (flies), among others. I like how the final gauntlet tests you meddle through all of the various forms. An engrossing mix of arcade and RPG-lite gameplay, Dragon's Curse is one of the few games I found myself playing compulsively from beginning to end. © Copyright 2018 The Video Game Critic.

If you were a D&D fan back in the day a game like Dungeon Master was a dream come true. Instead of convening all the neighborhood nerds in your basement you could let this computer program run the show, embarking on a solo adventure at any time! The animated intro to Theron's Quest boasts CD-quality music and narration, but the cutscenes are limited to a small window. Before I could begin the game prompted me to make room in my "file cabinet". It was referring to my Turbo Duo memory and I had to clear a lot of files. The Dungeon Master series was revolutionary for its time. To begin you assemble a four-character party. Instead of navigating an overhead maze you're presented with a first-person view of your surroundings. It's like you're in the game! The visuals are sharp and richly-detailed. The perfectly-square dungeon passages look fake but at least it's easy to spot items and not-so-hidden levers. Originally designed to be played on a computer via a mouse, the interface feels less than intuitive. The system for picking up items and shuffling your inventory is reasonable, but it took me a while to figure out how to simply navigate the hallways. I was expecting the side arrows to turn, but they side-step. Turning is done via the bent arrows, which makes sense I guess. Combat is exciting because it occurs in real time. It's fun to watch skeletons reduced to ashes by your sword blows or magic lightning. The traps and door mechanisms seem pretty straightforward at first, but when you encounter timed challenges the clunky interface becomes a liability. The audio is erratic. Sometimes you'll hear booming music, sometimes dripping water, and often nothing at all. Certain areas make it really easy to get lost, teleporting you in circles. I anxiously searched for some kind of save option, only to discover you can only save after completing an entire dungeon! What is the point? Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest is a rich dungeon crawler but it asks a lot of the player, so sit back and get comfortable. © Copyright 2020 The Video Game Critic.