The TurboGrafx-16 at 20 – Another great read from the gang at IGN Retro Games. I love all of their retrospectives, I just wish they would do features like this more often!
Seeing as how IGN has just killed the need for me do a History of the Video Game Console entry (check out my NES and Jaguar entries though), I’ll just post my thoughts on the system here.
I never owned a NEC’s TurboGrafx-16, but it was commercials like these that made me want to:
Oh, who am I kidding? Virtually any new console that came along had me interested. It wasn’t that I had no loyalty to the NES, it’s just that I felt the need to stay cutting edge and on top of the latest games and graphics. I also remember pretty much every comic book back in the day running Bonk’s Adventure ad nonstop.
Bonk may have tried to go head-to-head (get it?) with Mario back in the day, but who’s game is on the competition’s download service now, HUH ?! In fact, the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console has two-thirds of the entire TG16′s library available at only $6 a game and ALL of the system’s Bonk games.
I’ve downloaded a handful of the TG16′s games on the Wii and researched all of them in my quest for fun retro games and despite the six-year run the system had in the United States, there’s a good reason the system never really caught on — the games just weren’t that good. It takes a lot more than pretty graphics (grafx?) to win the day.
Though the system is somewhat fondly remembered for their shooters, the Bonk series and Ys I & II (which I’ve yet to play), I think it’s still kind of an overrated console. If you like shooters, this is the system for you, but I’ve always hated them. Though, I must admit I did download Blazing Lazers and found it to be enjoyable thanks to it not being as hard as most shooters. As for the Bonk games, I think those are overrated as well. I admit there’s a certain charm to them, but they don’t compare to the main Mario or Sonic games. Maybe it’s because I keep having trouble with Bonk’s Adventure that I’m not really big on it. And is Bonk Charlie Brown’s ancestor? I was pretty excited when I downloaded Splatterhouse, but besides the gore, that game doesn’t work for me either.
But you have to remember I’m coming into this cold. Outside of wanting to play these games as a kid, I have no nostalgia to guide me through the TurboGrafx experience and compensate for what may appear to be lower-quality when compared the gaming of today (or even a decade ago).
So yeah, my final take on NEC TurboGrafx-16? Eh.
Tags: 1990s, Bonk, Bonk's Adventure, TurboGrafx-16, Video Games
Truth be told, the TG-16 never had a prayer in the US. It’s too bad, because there WERE a lot of great games for the system…however, most of them never made it out of Japan. The pack-in game wasn’t great (Keith Courage!) and should have been Bonk’s Adventure, which is a great game. The system should have been a bit less expensive ($300 on launch, if memory serves), and the marketing should have been stronger.
I only got myself a TG-16 in the last 2.5 years, and though I only have about a half-dozen games for it, it is a good system. There were just some issues w/ the US library of games & the poor marketing that caused it to fail miserably. It’s Japanese counterpart, the PC Engine, fared much better – it was the #1 game system in Japan for a LONG time until it was finally unseated by the PlayStation. Had more of the great Japanese games been localized for the US market & shown that the system had lots of great exclusives, I feel it would have done better.
I’ll never understand how every Nintendo/Sega competitor thought they were going to get away with charging $300-600 for an unproven brand against two VERY proven brands.
Sometimes when you believe strongly enough in a product, you tend to get blinders on & don’t have the peripheral vision you need to see what the “other guy” is doing. Sega did the same thing w/ the Saturn, completely ignoring what Sony was doing after their fall-out with Nintendo. Don’t underestimate the underdog – he’ll surprise you. However in this case, the underdog stayed that way.
I was positively addicted to my TurboGrafx. It was my brothers but he let me “store” it for him when he moved to Europe for a year.
I love, love, loved Blazing Lasers. I wish I could get the soundtrack.
Did he remember to ask for it back?
Blazing Lazers!!!!!!!!! Yes, one of my favorite titles for the system \m/