After writing an entry about how the TG-16 CD add on was way too expensive a little while ago I got to thinking about how this underappreciated console simply passed by most of the Western world's audience. I only ever knew one other person who owned one and this was pretty much the general consensus of USA. Hardly anyone bought the thing and it's easy to understand therefore, why NEC didn't even bother introducing their next game system in the west at all.
There were some pretty awesome exclusive games on this system though and it's a shame because a few of those games were never seen anywhere else and most at least Americans probably didn't even know they existed.
Here are the ones I have the fondest memories of.
Blazing Lazers
This title is generally regarded as the best game that was on the system, period. For shoot-em-up lovers like myself, this game was just what the gaming doctor ordered. The graphics were fantastic for the time period, the music was great and the powerups were aplenty.
Add in some pretty crazy bosses and a playtime of nearly an hour if you don't lose all your lives / continues and you have an amazing game that had pretty much no equal on any system that was around at the time. A physical copy of this game will cost you over $100 today on ebay. A new, unopened copy will cost substantially more.
Devil's Crush
It's a bit nuts to think that a pinball game is one of the best games a system had to offer but hear me out. This game was fantastic and honestly, there really wasn't an end to it and the competitions towards top score were never-ending. Sure the game didn't actually save the top scores once you switched it off but me and my friends would actually take photos as proof and in one particular instance a friend of mine went through the rigors of mailing a poloraid to me in order to brag about beating my long-standing time as champ.
It was a 3 tiered board that you got progressively more nervous about as you got closer to the bottom. It would take a while to lose a ball and each of the 3 stages had very different strategies involved with them. THere were also several other side maps that were interesting as well and this is where you would get the truly big points.
I loved this game and if i still had a TG16 today would probably still play it. Unfortunately I have not found a good emulation of this game anywhere online.
I can't even locate a physical copy of this game for sale online anywhere. It is extremely rare. I would imagine it would command a hefty price tag to anyone that has one out there.
Splatterhouse
Although this would be considered very tame by today's standards or even the sort of shock and awe that games like Mortal Kombat would usher in, this was the goriest game in existence at the time. The 90's were fairly innocent as far as gaming was concerned but the TG-16 could probably have been considered the most "adult" system that existed at the time and I loved that about it.
There were a lot of "beat em up" games coming out on all systems in the early 90's but none of them could quite compare with the gore and darkness of Splatterhouse, you would crush some of your enemies that just exploded into blood and goo when you did so. You progress through a number of increasingly difficult levels that all have bosses some of which are quite bizarre such as poltergeist infested furniture. You never know what you are going to get in a game as strange as this. The game was tamed down a LOT from the arcade, which was a wildly popular quarter muncher that made it one of the top overall arcade consoles of that year.
killing hanging bloody children with a chainsaw, who would ever have a problem with that?
There are many more games on this system that I love and am excited that a TurboGrafx mini system complete with these 3 and 57 other games come pre-loaded. Unless you live in Japan you can expect to wait a while to receive it though, since the worldwide shipping was delayed due to coronavirus.