In case you haven’t heard, Turbo Grafx-16 CD games will finally start coming to the Virtual Console later this month. The first two games are, perhaps unsurprisingly, shooters: the Air Zonk sequel/remake Super Air Zonk: Rockabilly Paradise, and the old Super CD system pack-in game, Gate of Thunder. I can vouch for the quality of GoT but I’ve never played Rockabilly Paradise, so I’ll probably be downloading it the week it comes out to see how it is. I’m also willing to bet that this news has probably inspired most of the people who visit this site to go, “Whatever.” But hear me out!

JASON GLICK

Even if the TG-16 CD system never achieved the success of the SNES or the Genesis, there were still lots of games worth playing on it. Now that they’re coming to the VC, I’ll probably have to invest in an SD card to hold all the ones I’ll be downloading. So if you’re interested, here’s my list of games that I’ll be hoping to see on the VC in the coming months:

Ys Books I & II

Those of you who’ve been reading my stuff since I started writing for the site back when it was VGO Network.com might have seen this coming after the feature I did on the series. While I’ll admit that the game does have issues (you’ll probably want to have a FAQ ready to get through some of the dungeons), it still tells a fantastic story, has some surprisingly good voice acting for its time, and some of the most awesome music ever heard in a videogame.

Dungeon Explorer II

The first game was notable for its “Gauntlet with a point” gameplay and the ability to play with five other people at a time. The sequel takes everything that was good about the game and kicks it up a full notch. You get more characters to choose from, each with their own unique magic spells and secret areas to unlock, a much bigger game world, and a better story than the first game. Since this was a CD game, you also get some rockin’ music and killer voice acting from the crew at Working Designs. Speaking of the dearly departed company…

Exile

This is more for the story and its trappings than for the gameplay, which was fun if rather generic in its side-scrolling hacking and slashing. You play as Sadler, a mercenary who teams up with an idealistic crusader to bring peace to a war-torn land by finding a legendary religious icon known as the Holimax. Questing for peace is a novel concept in gaming, but what makes this even more interesting is that after being away from the game for years, I can see it for what it really is: You’re questing for the Holy Grail in order to put an end to the fighting between the Christians and the Muslims in the Crusades. Working Designs’ localization did a good job of getting around all that while still leaving enough in for people to spot what was actually going on. There was a sequel, Exile: Wicked Phoenomenon, released a few years later which was fun to play, but wasn’t as well done as its predecessor.

Lords of Thunder

A pseudo-sequel to Gate of Thunder, but instead of space battles, you’re fighting through a fantasy world. You’ve also got several suits of armor, each with their own upgradeable firing schemes and a shop you can buy additional bonuses from before each level. Yes, some people might be getting tired of all the shooters that have been hitting the VC from the TG-16, but this one is undeniably one of the best and worth downloading no matter how many other TG-16 shooters you already have.

Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes

Not a great RPG, but a fun one in the “been there, done that, glad I did” tradition. You play as Logan, a prince whose parents were killed in a monster attack on their kingdom several years ago. Now that he’s come of age, he’s ready to take the throne himself, but the evil regent, Baron Drax, has other plans. It’s a solid RPG, something there’s been a critical lack of on the VC, and since it’s from the people who made Ys you can assume that the music is great too. Also, this was one of the first consle games with an “auto-battle” feature, and the ability to see the random monsters in the field before you fight them.

Lords of the Rising Sun

This was a bit of an oddity, even for its time. I didn’t learn about this until years later, but it’s actually based on a classic of Japnese literature called, “The Tale of the Heikei.” You play as one of the three major Japanese warlords of the time and fight to gain control of Japan, one province at a time. You’ll fight through fortresses, defend your territory through archery, fight enemy armies and then chase after their commander as he tries to escape on horseback. I’ll admit that this probably isn’t as exciting as I’m making it sound, but the game was still good fun nonetheless.

Then there are the games that I’ve never played like Last Alert that I’d be interested in checking out, and others like Cosmic Fantasy 2 that have their merits but I can’t see myself going back to. Of course, with Japan-only titles like Sin and Punishment for the N64 hitting the VC this week, there’s a chance that we might see some games like Dracula X: Rondo of Blood and Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys that never made it out here. (On that note, I’d expect to see Dracula X on the VC eventually, it’s too famous not to wind up there. Ys IV on the other hand, would probably require some extensive localization for the text and voice acting so I wouldn’t hold my breath for it.) In any case, seeing TG-16 CD games on the VC is a welcome sign that it’s starting to expand its boundaries beyond the initial line up of NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and regular TG-16 games that have been its stock in trade since starting up. With the arrival of Neo Geo games next year, it’ll be interesting to see what the next system to come into the VC fold will be.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 9:50 pm and is filed under TG-16, Virtual Console. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.