Oddities & Surprises on the PC Engine

Let's take a look at some software that stood out for one reason or another to me. if you like this kind of content, let me know in the comments and I'll do more!
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
SLX Logo
By: Jan Neves
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Intro by Evan S.
portfolio.tses...
Outro Animation by Kevin Bhall
KZbin Page - / nigh11
Episode Notes:
1. Most of this is captured from real hardware. I used emulation in a few segments for extra footage.
2. If you'd like to see Riot City, check out my Sega System 16 episode.
3. The computer version of Steam-Heart's is much more graphic.
4. I also had Batman, Dracula X, and Legendary Axe II in this episode but decided to hold them back for part 2.

[@philmason9653]

Always up for some quality PC Engine content! I think the system has aged _incredibly_ well. I like that you kept coming back to the chronological context for these games. When you realize it launched in Japan barely a year after the NES hit the US & Canada, you understand how amazing it is that it punched as far above its weight as it did in the hands of a programmer who really knew what they were doing. And when you realize at that same time the Famicom had been around for four years in Japan and its mapper chips hadn't come along yet, while the Mega Drive was probably barely still a blueprint let alone an announced product, you realize why it had as much appeal in Japan as it did. On the subject of Ninja Gaiden, it was reportedly farmed out to an inexperienced dev house in Hong Kong. It may have been one of those situations where it was ordered because the US office really wanted it (hinted at by the English text) but handed to a cheap studio because the series had nowhere near as much impact in Japan at the time. Why it still saw the light of day I have no idea though, aside from hoping they could still recoup the low investment based on the fans the series did have there.

[@mscottjohnson3424]

Love my PC Engine. I'm always here for Sega content, but PC Engine stuff is always welcome. It's like the 4th Generation's Saturn with it's deep Japanese library to explore.

[@mattalan6618]

never owned a TG16/PC Engine during its time. thanks to emulation though im starting to get into it and the Master System

[@felix-ve8jk]

​@@mattalan6618if you can find a TG16/PCE mini for a decent price pick one up. It's a great way to play the system without dropping a fortune aside from emulation

[@lhfirex]

I definitely hope there's a part 2 of this. Great look at the PC-E library!

[@midwestmonster9886]

I can't stop laughing at those jittery mountains in Ninja Gaiden. A plain black background for the entire time would have been preferable to that.

[@danielliveforenterta]

I would love to see the odds and oddities format for other systems in the future.

[@SegaLordX]

Good to know. Thanks for the comment.

[@carlosrueda9204]

I second that

[@Bklyn93]

@@SegaLordX Hey, I was wondering if you'd be willing to do a solo video on Myst for Sega Saturn? Myst was one of the most important PC releases of all time during the 90s, highly influential and highly popular...It'd be cool to see a solo video tackling it the same way you tackled Doom for the 32X...

[@waylonoconner9121]

Street Fighter II' Champion Edition on PC Engine has the tightest controls I think of all the console versions. The Genesis version of Super Street Fighter II is the second best

[@BigSnipp]

I bought a Japanese PC Engine with a 6 button controller just to play Street Fighter II. It was worth it.

[@HollowRick]

The street fighter 2 port is legendary given the hardware

[@universeexpandingbooksandt2821]

I've been going through a recent SEGA revival, which is how I discovered this channel. I'm very much enjoying this content. Growing up in a rural community my access to gaming was limited, but I was very lucky to grow up with two friends who had a Master System and Turbo Grafx-16 respectively, so I at least got a chance to check out both. This was a great retrospective! This system never gets the respect it deserves.

[@jcruz5050]

That background scrolling in Ninja Guiden makes it look like the entire foreground is a moving train in the 1st level lol so bad, it kinda hurts your eyes

[@charlestaylor5150]

I gotta say I have never seen a version of Double Dragon 2 run so smoothly.

[@Gatorade69]

So true, and modern gamers act like every release back then was perfect. I grew up playing the NES version but I was surprised just how bad every version of Double Dragon ran. I used to think pretty highly of Double Dragon and now I realize the games were pretty damn jank. But yeah, the TG16 version is actually surprisingly good and up there with the NES version.

[@projectmayhem6898]

Thanks!

[@SegaLordX]

No problem!

[@whisper2053]

I'd really like to see more coverage in your particular style on the PCE. *Particularly* regarding the literally hundreds of titles that are genuinely good, but haven't been videoed to death by western channels. There are a ton of really neat things on the platform (particularly outside of the usual western-friendly arcade-y suspects), and it would be cool to see them represented in the rather unique SLX way of doing things :)

[@caseyhayes4590]

With Saturn's best locked in Japan RPGs getting translated one by one, the best PCE CD rpgs are probably among the best games that don't have a fan translation but need one.

[@whisper2053]

@@caseyhayes4590 absolutely! My Japanese has gotten to be pretty good over the years (lots of practice with old X68000 & FM Towns RPGs haha), but it would just delight me to no end for some of the really cool ones on the PCE to finally get more accessibility for western players!

[@cinnamondan4984]

I as well succour after it

[@Boogie_the_cat]

Any Double Dragon fans need to check out Matt McMuscles' 10 hour DD retrospective, where he plays every single DD game released on every console from the Brazilian Zeebo to the ZX spectrum and the Jaguar. DD games were licensed out to any developer who paid for it and no checks or balances were imposed on the devs, which is why you get so many incredibly different ports of what should have been the same game. Pac Land's control just goes to show, that in the early days of gaming, for every good idea, there was an equally bonkers idea like using the buttons to walk left and right! Blasphemy!

[@kingtom]

I am surprised Toilet Kids didn’t make the list! It’s a juvenile, absolutely crass shoot ‘em up with a BUNCH of toilet humor and even flying p*nises! It’s also incredibly tough, even with two players, but it’s also incredible fun with a friend!

[@BHGMediaGroup]

i love the pc engine. I have an area at PGX Gaming expo where the public can play systems from my personal collection and the Duo-R is one of them and I usually have Rondo of Blood for them and it's fun to see people playing it and are "wow this is Turbografx/Pc Engine" they just don't know, PC-Engine/Turbografx is critically underrated, many many great games, and yes when you get the "it's 8-bit" you can pop in SFII and say "yeah this is 8-bit".

[@stephenschenider4007]

Really love that SLX is covering other areas of gaming. Always enjoyed his delivery and format.

[@evilash570]

Im still amazed at the SF 2 port on The PC Engine, those programmers are incredible!

[@Johnnygrafx]

Great picks as always! The PC Engine rabbit hole just gets deeper and deeper lol.

[@velzekt]

The parallax scrolling floor is amazing in Street Fighter 2

[@UltimateGamerCC]

few channels go in depth about the PC-Engine/TurboGraFX, so i'm all for hearing more.

[@thefifthdoctor6780]

Can never get enough of PC Engine. Love my collection 😎

[@ChrisWoollett]

Toilet Kids qualifies as an oddity. This PCE/TG16 obscure game by Bits Laboratory (and published by Media Rings Corporation) had the player/players shooting squat toilets, urinals and other toilet related enemies in a mysterious world. The game has only four stages and makes heavy use of toilet humor and scatological references.

[@PocketGojira]

So Godzilla needed 6 button support, a full playable roster, better graphics and speed? Great news! Alfa ported/remade this game as Godzilla: Kaiju Daikessen for the Super Famicom, and they addressed all the issues you laid out. It was slated to be released for the SNES as Godzilla: Monster War, but was cancelled for unknown reasons. Which is a shame; it was the fighting game every Godzilla kid wanted in the 90s. Far better than Super Godzilla.

[@goranisacson2502]

Knowing we could have had a good Godzilla fighter in the West and were denied... I was almost happier before I knew this

[@stryfespoint304]

It was the shoot em ups like forgotten worlds and gates of thunder as well as the pinball games like devil's crush and alien crush that drew me to the pc engine plus its compatibility with the turbo express & hopefully you'll cover more games & history of this and the pc engine super cd.

[@darthbaker182]

Always love your TG16/PC Engine content!!!

[@iCABALi]

I had never even heard of NEC until around 12 years ago when I discovered them through HappyConsoleGamer. Even Hudson Soft as a Hardware Manufacturer was a novel concept for me. I knew them solely from Bomberman and Adventure Island. I never had a friend talk about the PC-Engine at all during the 90s or 00s, and don't recall seeing hardware or software on the shelves during relevancy. I remember seeing a PC-Engine in an underground market in the late 2000s, maybe early 2010s but paid it no attention really. I've only played the Valis games, Bomberman games and Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes - primarily through familiarity with the IPs on other devices. I enjoyed all of them, and definitely look forward to you covering more content.

[@Mankey619]

The PC Engine/Turbo GraFx 16 is indeed one of the best obscure 16 bit gem. Even it didn't compete against the big leagues. It's still an amazing console to play.

[@Norweeg]

Such a great console for hidden gems. I especially like it for all the shmups.

[@hivebrain]

The Ninja Gaiden background looks like it would be easy to fix. It's probably just the scrolling and drawing routines are run in the wrong order.

[@1908fcim]

Probably my favourite youtube channel. Always top notch content

[@rockhyde7775]

Yes please do more PC Engine content. This deserves a part 2. I do want to experience more of the PC Engine library and my most wanted game to play is Legend of Xanadu II. And hey, that Godzilla game on the PC Engine did get a superior follow-up on the SNES but sadly a Japanese exclusive. And the creators of the 2 Godzilla games on SNES and PCE also made Psychic Storm also for the PC Engine and Castle of the Shikigami just to name a few. Wish CoS3 would get released on Steam already. Come on Cosmo Machia.

[@blakecardin]

I absolutely love your content. I’m not sure what your day job is, but you’ve found your calling for sure!

[@Peeps7468]

Great video and fun topic. Thanks.

[@rsreston]

Refreshing content, SLX! Keep it up!

[@rodneyabrett]

I remember importing the PCE version of Street Fighter 2 CE along with 2 Hori 6-button gamepads and it all cost a fortune at the time, but I honestly liked it way more than even the Turbo Edition SNES release. Visuals were nice and crisp and I was pretty blown away the game was ported to that hardware with such amazing results.

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

I don't get it. While it is a competent port and a technical miracle for a 1987 console, it's arguably the worst 16-bit console version. It runs at the lowest resolution (big black bar covering a lot of the screen), is missing a ton of the background animations and line scrolling effects (e.g.: E. Honda's tub), is missing ALL of the background layers/parallax and has the worst rendition of the soundtrack. So, I don't really get why anyone would go out of their way to play this version over either SNES or Genesis ones.

[@3229343]

What an amazing video! Great stuff man!

[@soaremicheledavid6020]

Hope you live a long life my friend! You are making great content, nobody talks anymore about these systems, they only talk about gameboy.

[@SegaLordX]

Thank you. Appreciate that.

[@Gatorade69]

Only talk about the Gameboy ? Lol. I mean there's a whole trove of KZbinrs you haven't discovered that talk about retro titles all the time.

[@Bowen_Landry]

I look forward to more vids on this. Great list.

[@Planag7]

Heck yeah. Tg-16 needs love. Cho aniki... I think i first played it on Saturn back in the day. Goodness! I loved it though! XD

[@Gatorade69]

Eww. Why would you play that game ? It will turn you gay.

[@goranisacson2502]

Out of curiosity as you say you play it- is each shot in Cho Aniki a homing shot? This video has no bullets flying straight, so I'm curious if you have no choice but to auto-aim at the closest enemy.

[@punchabunchabuttons]

Good luck on these new territories. PC Engine is a great spot to start the journey. Neutral, loved, cute and simple.

[@vshekar]

Got a TG-16 when it came out and it was 2 years before I met someone else who had one lol. 2 loooong years.

[@jasonz7788]

Awesome thanks Sega Lord x

[@vshekar]

If I recall, R-Type was $80 when it came out. Possible $70. Super expensive.

[@Gatorade69]

"vIdEo GaMeS hAvE gOtTeN sO eXpEnSiVe !!" I always laugh when someone says that. Comes off as a kid or someone who had their parents buy every game for them and they truly had no idea about the value of a dollar. My mom bought me most of my games but at least she made me understand just how much they were, also when adjusted for inflation is practically double so like 150$ in today's dollar.

[@chiarosuburekeni9325]

Wow I dont even want to run that through the inflation calculator. I know it’s super expensive

[@goranisacson2502]

... Both cards together, or did each card cost that much? Or was it the CD version?

[@MankyGit]

I had a Duo back in the day. I loved it then, and I love it now!

[@hammersampson]

The PC Engine was such a nice design. Why did they had to screw it up by doubling the size in the USA?!? I believe it would have been a bigger hit had they kept the original design.

[@brendanroberts1310]

The thing that puzzled me was that they didn't add another joy pad port.

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

Have you seen American cars of the era? Big and ugly was "in".

[@FintanMoloney]

Never had a PC Engine (never heard of it in Ireland when I was growing up) but to see Street Fighter 2 running on it in that quality was amazing. I had it on the SNES when I was about 14 years old. They look very similar and those two consoles were years apart.

[@gracekim1998]

I do appreciate all your cool videos :)

[@themrnails]

Anything PCE/TG16/CD is appreciated! Thank you!

[@cecil_h4vey]

It’s high time we recognize SLX can play him some Ryu.

[@PericlesBeber]

Nice video, PCE have so much to enjoy.

[@Captofthisship]

That Pacman soundtrack was hitting pretty good haha

[@EdikLevin]

Yea, more PC Engine videos! I have this console, the orange colour.

[@RandomSubs94]

18:45 SAY WHAT AGAIN?

[@rabbidbabies4094]

I caved in and paid inflated prices for a pc engine mini. Worth it, it’s by far the best mini console at least. The TurboGrafx was something I’d always see in the magazine and have wanted to try. Nobody I knew had one, let alone finding one in the stores.

[@zanegandini5350]

I have a Turbografx-16 Mini and have mixed feelings about it. There's some great games on it for sure, but it's so odd that they left games like Snatcher untranslated and didn't replace them with games a non-Japanese speaker could actually enjoy. It's not like there was a shortage of good, non-text heavy games to choose from.

[@rabbidbabies4094]

@@zanegandini5350 yeah, I agree about Snatcher. Would be nice to play. I was hoping the sega mini 2 would’ve had it being that it included sega cd games but, nah. I’m probably going to build a retro pi sometime.

[@darinherrick9224]

I got my Analogue Duo pre-ordered. The PC Engine was a beast and I want to play all those games I missed back in the day.

[@wetout]

part 2 please. love the the pce.

[@pda1799]

Great video. Keep ‘em coming.

[@mscottjohnson3424]

15:18 Yeah, SFII is a decent port of Champion Edition. It's shortcoming is that it's just Champion Edition. Both the Genesis's Special Champion Edition and the SNES's SFII Turbo include both Champion Edition and Turbo: Hyper Fighting. If you're used to Hyper Fighthing, this is going to feel slow and lacking a lot of move you expect to be there. It's an amazing port to be sure, but you're better off with the other 2 16-bit ports. Play Fatal Fury instead.

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

Yeah. People tend to really overrate the PCE SF2 port. While if PCE all you had, you would've been happy with it, it is arguably the worst 16-bit console version. It's also missing tons of background animations and line scrolling effects, ALL of the background layering/parallax and has the worst rendition of the soundtrack.

[@AltimaNEO]

PC Engine was such an odd system. It seems woefully underpowered at first, but winds up punching significantly above its weight. Im sure its popularity in Japan helped a ton, allowing developers plenty of time and games to hone their code to make the most of its power and CD addon. It also seems to be the only console to have such a succesful addon.

[@megamario77]

Pls do a part 2, what else would like to see?

[@artemusprine]

Everyone leaves out that NEC reasonably expected Hudson to remain as invested as they were only for Hudson to value their standing as a Nintendo licensee more.

[@artemusprine]

Keith Courage was a great game but Adventure island should have been the pack-in.

[@goranisacson2502]

As someone who only knows Hudson (because I was a NES kid so yeah) who were NEC in this equation? I thought Hudson made this console, were NEC the actual console makers and Hudson were just very close partners?

[@artemusprine]

@@goranisacson2502 Hudson designed the HuCard... And the system's most popular games...

[@dr_mafoony]

17:22 Good news is that the SNES Godzilla Fighting game pretty much corrects most of those flaws, sadly it never came over to the US

[@MadsterV]

I haven't thought of this for ages, but when Pac-Land came out, it really captured my imagination (even though I wasn't into the cartoon) because, as you mentioned, before all platform games were single-screen and they also had just a handful of levels, so you usually knew what you were going to encounter. A scrolling game made you wonder what you'd run into next. Buildings? a lake? crazy! and whatever you found didn't even need to fit the screen! In my mind games changed from tests of skill to places to visit. Then came Super Mario World where every level was drastically different and my mind was blown. Every single-screen platformer instantly looked dated, I couldn't go back. Just recently I'm beginning to find joy in single screen platforming again. It was brutal.

[@Gorilla_Jones]

I was a TG16 owner back in the day and loved going to Toys R Us and looking at the back of the flip cards on my lunch break from work. Still got my Turbo, its a great system. I remember my buddies and i would get together for Military Madness and Victory Run sessions. 😁 Great times.

[@luckyluke95]

No Supergrafx games 😭😭😭Daimakaimura is a perfect conversion 😍😍😍

[@captaincorleone7088]

Please, make a part two because as you said, there's so much more material to explore on the PC Engine. Especially on the Sega front with the CD-ROM release of Bonanza Bros.

[@IBEBIGRAY]

If street fighter 2 was released in the states It probably would've sold a million units and put the TurboGrafx 16 on the map!

[@slamshift6927]

15:30 Yo, that line scrolling on the floor tho! I don't remember the SNES or Genesis versions having that! 18:37 PC-98? Uh oh, that means.... 19:00 And there it is.

[@Sinn0100]

You know what is even crazier than R-Type's many different retail SKU's for the PCE and TG-16? R-Type on a 2meg or 4meg Hue Card/Turbo Chip looking and playing as well as it does. Some developers back then really knew how to stretch memory to make it work. Oh, and the music in R-Type for the PCE/TG-16 was absolutely sublime. Addendum - Like NEC/Hudson, Sega was also incredibly adept at bringing arcade quality games to the Genesis with almost crippling memory restrictions. Ghouls n' Ghosts was on a 4meg cart just like R-Type. Amazing.

[@mausmalone]

Here's a question for impressive visual effects - how on earth did the Jackie Chan game do those silhouetted sprites with only one layer and no blending modes? They're vertical drapes, too, so you can't even fake it with palette switching on the scanlines.

[@MadsterV]

That's some trickery alright. I can't figure it out either, I didn't notice before. Does it happen anywhere else beside those suspiciously-colored columns?

[@Peatmoss0979]

Saga Master System, PC Engine and Colecovision was my ❤️

[@gscindian5284]

Definitely needs a sequel!

[@nebwachamp]

Sega Lord X is alright by me.

[@willrobinson7599]

Some great conversions onto the pc engine ,

[@na-dj6ob]

Definitely more content of pc engine/turbografx would be very much appreciated!

[@DesertRainReads]

I feel Ninja Gaiden could benefit from a ROM hack, considering the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night is getting one, why not this one? Seriously, think about it. Have the music redone to be rearrangements of the NES game that take advantage of the PC Engine's soundtrack and also fixes the janky scrolling in the background. I'd welcome it.

[@zanegandini5350]

I just got a PC Engine this month and I'm really loving it, even with just hucard games. It's definitely heavy on shmups and arcade ports, excluding some outstanding exceptions like Bonk and Jackie Chan's Action Kung-Fu, but it's really amazing what it could do, with many of its ports faring even better than what the Genesis offered. Not only that, but it's of the smallest consoles I've ever seen! It really makes me wonder what NEC was thinking when they made the Turbografx-16 so much larger for no reason. It would have been one thing if they used the extra bulk to add RGB or S-video outputs, and a well-needed second controller port, but that simply wasn't the case.

[@gregorys9629]

R-Type still holds up today, it's a classic!

[@GamingintoEternity]

PC Engine/Turbo Grafx-16 had some great games! Yes, more please!

[@CTKix]

I love my PC Engine. I got it mostly for SHMUPS. Yes, we want MOAR PC Engine content!

[@GregsGameRoom]

Toilet Kids and Strip Fighter for the next episode. Weird games…

[@chrislaustin]

If you ever do a part 2 for this SLX, please add Gekibo: Gekisha Boy, as it's a very cool 2D Pokémon Snap style game, with the most absurd things going on. There is also an English translation for it as well, but it's one of very few games I ever played in Japanese(wasn't sure an English patch would ever happen), as it was just so fun and unique.

[@Dog-999i]

I’m lucky to have played most of these games (besides that weird game about grape). I actually enjoyed the Ninja Gaiden port as well as the Godzilla fighter. Even though the Godzilla fighter is a little clunky it has a ton of fanservice for Godzilla fans. As for Ninja Gaiden, it’s a decent port once you adjust to the jank. The music really grew on me and it has this almost Arabian sounding feel to it which I eventually became a fan of.

[@j.goggels9115]

Yup! I played Jackie Chan on the PC Engine at my friend's place circa 1994.

[@cinnamondan4984]

Steam Hearts is enjoyable for a few reasons

[@ciotay5469]

Part 2 already pls Lord 🙏

[@joesshows6793]

12:05 they went with what’s easier and faster with this decision

[@Zahir658]

That last game, Steam Hearts, is a perfect example of the meme as to what happens during the game when you are playing along and what happens during the game when your parents came into your room 😂🤣

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

The Godzilla SNES sequel Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters was a big improvement.

[@retrojoe85]

Yeah the PC-E deserves more, so new episodes about it would it very appreciated.

[@74bobby]

A Part 2 would be much appreciated...

[@MimosaSector]

There is interest. Thank you.❤❤❤

[@romancm]

I love your videos!

[@themadatheist1976]

Brother had one after he moved out, I'm not sure if I had the SNES already or not in 92ish.

[@MarquisDeSang]

Its library of shmups makes it the best console ever and that... forever.

[@redwizardmatt]

I'd love to learn more about this console. I grew up with Sega and Nintendo, and didn't get a console from a different company until the PlayStation came out, so I know very little about this or NeoGeo. I always love these videos when you do them, so I hope to see more of them.

[@rancid_]

As someone who just got their Turbo Everdrive Pro, I 100% would love mor coverage of this system.

[@Stephen_Eee]

My parents got us a Turbo Graphix 16 Christmas of either 90 or 91, we were military and our first year back from Germany. We had China Warrior, Blazing Lazers, TV Football, and Legendary Ax along with the Keith Courage pack-in....this leads us into getting our Sega Genesis, the AV port of the Turbo stopped working relatively quick, like within the store return period of Montgomery Wards(lol), so my parents packed it all up and took it back to exchange for a snes with just super mario or Genesis with Sonic the Hedghog AND Two sega classics AND a send away game, so we got golden Ax revenge of Shinobu and Mrs Pacman like 6 months later. Ah the 90s were the FFFFFFFFFN best!!!

[@MisterSouji]

Wow... someone just got demonitized. 😐

[@SegaLordX]

Why would I get demonetized? I showed nothing graphic.

[@MisterSouji]

@@SegaLordX It was more of a joke, but you used the R word.

[@fluttershystayshigh4202]

Yeah if you're referring to the game he covered that i'm thinking you are, it would have been better if he had just stayed away from that one, it was disgusting anyway, not worth mentioning.

[@catharticlobster]

Please please please more PC Engine content! I got the PC Engine mini a few years ago and I cherish it for all of its weirdness but I want to know more about what other games are out there.

[@PatMcCarthy420]

That Godzilla fighter looks great.