Post by soop on Jul 16, 2018 9:21:51 GMT
Ninja Spirit was an early coin op conversion by Irem, released on the PC Engine 2 years after the games 1988 Arcade debut. Despite being released early in the console's life, it shows a mastery of the Engines palette. The colours are spot on for the broody, atmospheric look of the game, and some of the spritework is quite lovely. The game itself is a quick almost run and gun platformer that sees you move from left to right, dispatching enemy ninja until you get to the obligatory boss. But it has some neat ideas thrown in there too. You can gain power ups, notably in the form of "shadows" of your character, that follow you and effectively double and triple your firepower. There's also a lot of verticality in this game, there are often platforms high into the screen, and your characters excellent jumping control means you'll spend a lot of time in the air. There are also enemies which attack from above, just to keep you on guard. The last thing to mention, is that unlike other straight arcade ports, this one features both an arcade-accurate one life-one hit mode, and a slightly easier version where you can take multiple hits. This is a good call, since Arcade games are designed to take your money, and home console games of the time were starting to trend away from high scores, and towards things with a finite ending to be reached. Good call Ninja Spirit.
Dragon Slayer is not a game I've played, but it's an RPG that was released for the PC Engine and TurboGrafx, and it appears to be fondly remembered. The Graphics don't look particularly impressive here, looking more inline with a Gameboy Color title, and there are some unnecessary looking borders, a thick, unimaginative stats box to the right that appears to be mostly empty unless your party is full, and a title telling you what chapter you're in. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if this was a recoloured Gameboy port, seeing as the actual window you play in must not be too far off the Gameboy's resolution. But it is a Falcom game, and they tended to know what they were doing with RPGs. The music by all accounts is superb, although the voice acting(!) is awful in the English version. Props for trying though, not many RPGs did get translated, even those without voice acting. As for the quest itself, it's rated as being very enjoyable by the people who enjoy this type of game.
pics to come later
Dragon Slayer is not a game I've played, but it's an RPG that was released for the PC Engine and TurboGrafx, and it appears to be fondly remembered. The Graphics don't look particularly impressive here, looking more inline with a Gameboy Color title, and there are some unnecessary looking borders, a thick, unimaginative stats box to the right that appears to be mostly empty unless your party is full, and a title telling you what chapter you're in. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if this was a recoloured Gameboy port, seeing as the actual window you play in must not be too far off the Gameboy's resolution. But it is a Falcom game, and they tended to know what they were doing with RPGs. The music by all accounts is superb, although the voice acting(!) is awful in the English version. Props for trying though, not many RPGs did get translated, even those without voice acting. As for the quest itself, it's rated as being very enjoyable by the people who enjoy this type of game.
pics to come later