For a while there I was pretty into these on Virtual Console; Turbo was one of those systems I never even heard of for decades, until the retro collection scene spotlighted them. They tend to sell for high prices, and there's so many different hardware SKUs and software formats it's a bit confusing... So VC was perfect for it.
That said, I think I just got lucky with my first few purchases, because there's a lot of junk on here too, so I've soured a bit on the platform since. Will spotlight the ones I tried:
(
Pictured: New Adventure Island)
Platformers- Despite Bonk 3 being the most valuable of the
Bonk games, and exclusive to Wii U if you don't want to fork over $300... I don't know if it's the best one really.
eJamer was saying Bonk 2: Revenge is the best of the bunch, but I didn't like any of these games. The first one is just outright pretty bad; it's a platformer with almost no verticality. Bonk 2 starts out a lot better, but all these games have too much combat with not enough attack range to defend yourself.
- In fact, hot take inbound, I've yet to play a really good platformer on Turbo which can go toe-to-toe with Super Mario Bros. or the first few Sonic games. Of the ones here I'd say
New Adventure Island is probably the best, just because it plays well, has bright colours and you get to do things like ride a skateboard while flinging axes at dinosaurs. But I never bothered finishing it.
(
Pictured: Bomberman '94)
Puzzles & RPGs- Of the Bomberman games,
Bomberman '94 is by far the best of those three. It's identical to Mega Bomberman on the Sega Genesis though, but has 5 player support here.
- Don't get
Bomberman Panic Bomber, that's a falling block puzzle game like Puyo Puyo. If you must play this, at least do so on the Virtual Boy for novelty value.
-
Necromancer is an absolutely impossible horror themed RPG. It's all in Japanese, has random encounters out the wazoo, and every direction you go is just brown, grey, or dark green. It's mildly amusing your party members turn into ghosts if they die, but resurrection costs money so it's easy to get stuck in a grind-resurrect-grind loop.
-
Dungeon Explorer is a hideous top down RPG meant for multiplayer, localized by Working Designs. Enemies everywhere. I think you need to approach this with a D&D weekly session mindset, because it's exhausting. No idea where you'd be able to find 4 people to come over during a pandemic to play a 32 year old RPG with when World of Warcraft exists, but if that's you, then here you go.
(
Pictured: Soldier Blade)
Shooters-
Lords of Thunder is the one with a lot of input lag on the Turbo Mini console, so might still be worth getting here if you're adamant about playing it. I've never played it. Very corny music.
-
R-Type was sadly delisted, but it's excellent (and brutally difficult). Has a full remake on Switch called R-Type Dimensions.
- Of the other shooters listed, I think
Soldier Blade is by far the best one. It's a sequel to Final Soldier and better in every way; one of those classic shooters which still play well to this day, like Thunder Force 3. Skip Gradius; it's on your NES Online app and
very difficult, so at least there you have rewind. The TwinBee game here is probably good too, but there's also one which looks very similar on the SNES Online app and that has online multiplayer, rewinds, and more savestates.
(
Pictured: Victory Run)
Sports & racing-
Moto Roader is utterly terrible. A top-down racer like Micro Machines, but without any of the charm, and it keeps zapping everyone back to the pack so there's barely any point in overtaking... in a racing game!
-
Victory Run by contrast is decent. Plays like OutRun without the migraine framerate, but has hills, and you need to bring spare parts to drive from Paris to Dakar. Very hard though, I have trouble just making it past level 2. No automatic gear shifting either, so you can fry your engine if you don't pay attention.
-
Power Golf has the same annoying swing mechanic from NES Open Golf. Don't buy this when NeoGeo Turf Masters is on Switch for almost the same price.
- I've yet to buy
Break In, but it's a pool/snooker/billiards game like SidePocket with a
sleazy synth soundtrack. Sat on my wishlist for a while now.
ConclusionTrying these initially really felt like uncovering an alternate history for gaming. Where instead of platformers, shooters were the most important genre of the nineties, and instead of a focus on big sprites everything was sacrificed for fast framerates. It's a great system for both upbeat soundtracks and colourful games, as well as horror themed stuff (Splatterhouse, R-Type, Ghouls N Ghosts).
But a lot of the lesser known games have a bootleg rental store vibe to them. Admittedly I haven't tried some of the big hitters yet (Neutopia, Ys Book 1 & 2, Castlevania, the Alien/Devil's Crush pinball games), but I wonder if part of the Turbo's failure is due to lower quality games aimed at young audiences. I feel like I've tried a decent slice of the library, and so far only Soldier Blade, R-Type and Bomberman '94 seem like absolute classics - and only one of those was exclusive to Turbografx.
Show Posts
Hope those issues will sort themselves out though, I get the impression these new boxes have some rocky onboarding right now. What are you looking to play on it? Just PS4 games for now?
