All 16-Bit

Hey gamers. I first published this blog in July 2024. That initial release included my thoughts about every game that was released in North America during the 16-bit era.  At the time I was underway with the second, and final, phase of this project - to play and review every 16-bit title playable by an English speaker, regardless of region. As of right now, that goal has been reached. What lies before you is a heap of reviews for every game I could play on the following consoles: Super Nintendo/Super Famicom (1204 total) North America (716) Japan (450) Europe/PAL (38)  Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (849) North America (704) Japan (94) Europe/PAL (51) Sega CD/Mega Drive CD (158) North America (141) Japan (12) Europe/PAL (5) TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine (255) North America (95) Japan (160) TurboGrafx-16 CD/PC Engine CD (163) North America (44) Japan (119) ...

Review #12704 Theme Park My kids play this in Roblox MD CD PAL 1995 Domark Strategy Strategy › RTS E 62 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Controls work well despite using a controller. Camera pans when your cursor approaches edge of screen. Placing attractions and whatnot is imprecise due to the isometric perspective but it's manageable. Everything moves fast and frantic. It's like a fast moving SimCity. Build attractions, connect them with walkways and queues, and monitor key indicators which show how successful your design is. Fun One point off for the annoying Loading screens and bloat that comes with it being a CD game. 3 / 5 Level Design I quickly reached a point where I was watching rath...

Review #12701 Marko The other Soccer Kid MD CD PAL 1994 Domark Action Action › Platform X 24 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay These soccer themed games will be the death of me. Who thought this would be compelling? Possibly the slowest movement speed in a 16 bit platformer. You can run but there are too many enemies and hazards to use this much. Not to be confused with The Adventures of Kid Kleets, which was developed by a completely different team. 1 / 5 Level Design I can't beat the first level. It's your standard licensed platformer with slow movement, terrible hit detection, no i-frames, cheap hits, etc., etc. 1 / 5 Theme Soccer kid 2 / ...

Review #12702 Smurfs The most pointless CD port MD CD PAL 1994 Infogrames Action Action › Platform G 40 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay No change from the cartridge version. Plays much better than the SNES version, which I played first. Still bad, but more playable. All the Westerm hallmarks. Slow movement, horrible hitboxes, inconsistent means of attacking enemies. I'm fact only a couple of enemies can be killed by bopping. Most can't be dealt with at all. Also a 40% draw distance. 1 / 5 Level Design Plays to all of the gameplay's deficiencies. Precision platforming is required everywhere. Perfect jumps are required to cross gaps, climb a tree in stage two, ride birds in stage three, and avoid enemy attacks....

Review #12703 Syndicate Cyberpunk 20XX MD CD PAL 1995 Domark Strategy Strategy › RTS F 53 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay It's unique anyway. Take jobs and bring your team of four Matrix Agent wannabes out to shoot targets and civilians. Plays a bit like GTA mixed with Risk. Lots of in between level management of stats, weapons, taxation of areas conquered. Isometric view 3 / 5 Level Design The levels have varying objectives like kill all baddies or rescue a hostage. Seems like the primary speak. Objectives are hard to understand. Just wander around until the level ends. 4 / 5 Theme Cool cyberpunk setting 3 / 5 Art Style NES qual...

Review #12511 Sengoku Denshou One of the most ok NeoGeo ports MD CD 1993 American Sammy Action Action › Beat Em Up F 57 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement, but generous hit detection. There are a handful of enemy types. Limited moves in your normal form, but the gimmick of the game is a set of transformations which are randomly dropped by enemies. You can get a sword, turn into a dog with a screw attack, a samurai with a projectile, and a ninja who backflips instead of walking. And that's just in the first level. These powerups timeout after about 30 seconds. Enemies hit like a truck, so it's critical to keep them at bay. Unlike the SFC version there are no health pickups. 3 / 5 Level Design...

Review #12700 Bloodshot Impressive (but not good) Doom clone MD CD PAL 1994 Domark Shooter Shooter › FPS E 60 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay It's a Doom clone if ever there was such a thing. Movement is decent including the ability to strafe which is nice. Unfortunately, strafing requires you to hold down the A button which is awkward since B is shooting so it's hard to strafe and fire at the same time. You collect weapons in the first level. There were four or five but they have very limited ammo so they're gone almost as soon as you've equipped them. The frame rate as you might expect is significantly better than the Mega Drive version, making this a much better experience. 2 / 5 Level D...

Review #12508 Night Striker Hyperzone's ugly cousin MD CD 1993 Taito Shooter Shooter › Corridor G 43 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Looks and plays a lot like Hyperzone for the SNES, but without the benefit of Mode 7 for sprite scaling. Enemies appear as a mess of blocky pixels and are easily lost in the background so it's hard to find and shoot them. A is an auto-shot while B and C are single shots. In other words, you only need A. There are no powerups, othe weapons, or other mechanics. Controls are customizable in that you can choose to invert movement and can enable or disable a momentum-based auto-correct feature. Turn it off immediately. Health doesn't recover between stages so this is a tough game. And like all of these games it...

Review #12509 Ninja Warriors Robot Rush'n Attack MD CD 1993 Taito Action Action › Hack n Slash G 47 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Responsive controls. The gameplay amounts to walking right and mashing the attack button. Enemies come from both sides so you have to turn around now and then but you rarely leave the ground. You can jump but there's really no point because you can't attack while jumping. So in doing so pretty much guarantees. You'll take damage on your way back down. You can throw shurikens or attack with a sword, but you have limited ammo so attacks are generally the best. You can also duck and attack while crouched which is usually the safest bet because some enemies fire projectiles although some of those can also duck. Bu...

Review #12510 Pro Yakyuu Super League CD MD CD 1995 Sega Sports Sports › Baseball G 43 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Hitting is ridiculously difficult. Pitching and fielding are ok, although it's hard to put any movement on your pitches. But yeah, good luck getting a hit. 2 / 5 Level Design Requires a lot of menuing to get into a game. Season and Exhibition modes. Nothing fancy. 3 / 5 Theme Japan League license plus all of their players as well. Lot of Japanese text to contend with. 2 / 5 Art Style Large sprites in the batting/pitching view. Small sprites when fielding. One thing that really bothers me is that after making contact the ball very slowly h...

Review #12505 Egawa Suguru no Super League CD Care for some tea? MD CD 1995 Sega Sports Sports › Baseball G 41 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Slow speed, especially when fielding and baserunning. It's as if the game drops to 10 FPS. The transition between pitching to fielding is jaring and doesn't allow you adequate time to field within the infield. Also, fly balls are impossible to catch as you can't tell where your fielders are and they don't move to the ball by default. All movement is up to you. When batting the ball comes at you fast, making it hard to connect. And when pitching it's nearly impossible to place the ball at the right spot. Holding one direction sends the ball clear to that side of the screen. Even careful tapping...

Review #12504 Earnest Evans Totally not Indiana Jones MD CD 1991 Wolf Team Action Action › Hack n Slash H 31 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Plays just like the Genesis version - horribly. The ragdoll physics and weird movement tech makes gameplay feel like Getting Over it With Bennett Foddy or Surgery Simulator. Your main form of attack is to wave your bullwhip around like it's on fire. It works alright but looks as dumb as it sounds. Enemies have no hitbox and you get no knockback or i-frames so if you get inside them they tank you in a matter of seconds. Pervasive slowdown, just lke the Genesis version. 2 / 5 Level Design The levels aren't terrible. Typical platform stuff but enemies are the key thing t...

Review #12506 F1 Circus CD MD CD 1992 Nihon Bussan Racing Racing › Simulation H 33 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Hey, a simulation game where I can stay on the track! What a novelty. In-cockpit only and more arcadey than most simulation racing games. 1 / 5 Level Design 2 / 5 Theme 3 / 5 Art Style The best in-cockpit viewport I could imagine. The top 20% of the screen is your rear view mirror, simple stats are just below, and the map is on the left. The game isn't visually impressive, but everything looks the way you'd want it to. 0 / 5 Audio The WORST sound in a racing game ever. The drone of the engine is a...

Review #12507 Heavy Nova The laziest CD port ever MD CD 1991 Micronet Fighting Fighting › 1v1 X 11 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay Looks and plays exactly like the Genesis version. No added FMV or anything else to improve the game. Lazy The most unresponsive controls ever. Turning around requires double tapping but it works maybe half the time. Hits register randomly, like maybe 25% of the time. Actually that's being generous. It's more like 10%. No idea how to pull off special moves. 0 / 5 Level Design You traverse a very short 2-3 screen "level" with obstacles and enemies which only serve to demonstrate how horrible the controls are before having a 1v1 fight with another mech. ...

Review #12502 Devastator The red car Transformer, not Darth Vader's star destroyer MD CD 1993 Wolf Team Action Action › Gun C 80 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Three weapons - spread, wavy lasers (how is that a thing?), or useless bombs. My only complaint is that enemies take too many hits, but even so, this feels great as a run n gun. Not top tier, but a small step down from Cybernator, Turrican, R2, and the like. Jumping and platforming work great, although the jump is a bit short. 4 / 5 Level Design Great variety. Levels snake up and around in all directions and don't open up into annoying mazes. Bosses and mini bosses appear just as you'd expect. Every few stages you get a horizontal shooter. Thes...

Review #12500 Anett Futatabi It's Anett! And I don't mean Funicello MD CD 1994 Wolf Team Action Action › Beat Em Up H 39 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay As is true of most WolfTeam games, this feels more like a rough draft than a final product. At first I was impressed by the controls. You've got a fast attack, decent jump attack, grab and throw, plus the ability to run which can be combined with each attack. Life is good with the moveset. You can even change direction while running - something you don't see much in these games. However, the enemy AI quickly put a damper on my excitement. Enemies do the dumbest things, making the decent controls seem inconsequential while playing. Enemies aimlessly mosey around the screen and in man...

Review #12501 Cyborg 009 MD CD 1993 Riot Action Action › Gun E 61 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Plays nothing like the SFC version. Whereas that game was painfully slow and laggy, this one is shockingly fast and hard to control. That's mostly due to a difficult-to-manage dash mechanic. You can dash left, right, up, or diagonal, but the timing of inputs is a mess. You have to press C to dash while holding a direction. Seems easy enough, but for a diagonal or upward dash you also have to hit jump at the same time, otherwise you'll do a horizontal dash. And you can change direction mid-dash, which leads to weird unwanted shifts. Even worse, the camera doesn't keep up with you and takes several seconds to catch up, leaving you with zer...

Review #12503 Dynamic Country Club As frustrating as real golf MD CD 1994 Sega Sports Sports › Golf H 35 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay One of the hardest golf games I've played. The physics are excellent to a fault. The worst part is the fast power gauge coupled with one of those moving cursors over the surface of the ball. Stop it anywhere but dead center and your hit is going to massively fade or cut. This severely hampers an otherwise good experience. I won't revisit this one anytime soon 3 / 5 Level Design The typical modes 2 / 5 Theme One of the realistic, stuffy golf games 3 / 5 Art Style Changing direction causes a quick redraw b...

Review #12140 WWF - Rage in the Cage You can't cage Hulk Hogan, apparently Sega CD 1993 Arena Fighting Fighting › Wrestling F 56 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Plays like all the cartridge WWF games. Same controls, but with good hit detection and speed. The grappling meter is here, so I think this a suped-up version o fWWF Royal Rumble. Boring, repetitive gameplay, but at least it performs well. 2 / 5 Level Design Wait, this can't be WWF Royal Rumble because the Battle royale mode is missing. Lame. In any case, The modes are One Fall (exhibition), Brawl, Cage Match, and Tournament. One Fall and Brawl are the same except Brawl ends when one of you runs out of health, like a 1v1 fighting game. The...

Review #12138 Wonder Dog Bad dog. No biscuit. Sega CD 1992 JVC Action Action › Platform G 44 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Responsive controls are wasted by oneof the worst means of attack ever in a platformer. You're a dog. A Wonder Dog, but your only means of attack is throwing a star attack that bounces around so randomly that it's impossible to guarantee you'll hit the enemy right in front of you. You can't bop or punch/kick enemies and of course they swarm at you, so you're left mashing A and hoping for the best. I said the controls are responsive, but this is also nerfed by the "hold B to run" mechanic which turns you into a mix between Sonic and an ice skater. Frustrating 2 / 5 Level De...

Review #12137 Wolfchild The Genesis version. With cutscenes and load times. Sega CD 1993 JVC Action Action › Punch n Kick D 74 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay You have two forms - a puny human and a werewolf. The human has only a weak punch but the wolf has a projectile attack. Gotta keep from getting hit so you can keep the wolf, ala Zelda or Altered Beast. Controls are very responsive although your jump is way too short. Movement feels good aside from the short jump. Lots of promise Would really benefit from a password system. Enemies have hit boxes but only hurt you when they attack. Love this. 3 / 5 Level Design Linear with some boring level design. Actually it's not terrible but there are a ton of cheap hits...

Review #12136 WireHead Inspector Gadget as a "dumb dad" 90s sitcom Sega CD 1995 MGM Interactive FMV FMV › N/a X 17 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay The definition of an interactive movie. You watch a movie and every two or three seconds you're presented with the choice of three directions - up, left and right. Only one choice is correct and will advance the movie while the others result in a game over. So, memorize or use a guide to watch the full movie. There's not else here. Why would someone want to do this? 1 / 5 Level Design There's nothing resembling gameplay or level design. It's a straight up movie with a button press to continue watching it. Still, this is technicall...

Review #12139 World Cup USA '94 The worst one Sega CD 1994 U.S. Gold Sports Sports › Soccer X 10 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay I thought Tony Meolo had cryptic menus. This game beats that one hands down. I spent 10 minutes menuing before I was able to play a game. During that time I somehow made the computer play itself offscreen three times before I was able to control my own squad. I still have no idea what combination of button and icon let me play an actual game. Opponents move about 50% faster than your team. Game moves so fast you basically have no control. Maybe I turned on permanent turbo mode in my menuing. Impossible to pass without an opponent stealing the ball. Couldn't get the ball to the opponents side of the ...

Review #12133 Who Shot Johnny Rock I guess Roger Rabbit wasn't available Sega CD 1994 American Laser Games Shooter Shooter › Gallery X 19 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Same awful FMV shooting gallery nonsense. On Wimp difficulty it at least give you a second to react, but these things are all the same. The best thing I can say about it is that you've got a lot of ammo. 1 / 5 Level Design There are a few times when it uses a coin flip to pick which video plays. I suppose 50/50 is the best that one of these titles can offer in terms of replayability. 0 / 5 Theme This is the worst film noir film I've ever seen. I can feel my brain cells melting away as I ...

Review #12131 Vay Working Design's other Sega CD RPG Sega CD 1994 Working Designs RPG RPG › Japanese D 78 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Plays a lot like Working Design's other RPG series - Lunar. The battle view is different (from behind) but many of the same QoL mechanics are present, such as auto-battle. Load times are more noticeable that Lunar, but battle speeds are a little faster. Overall this is an unremarkable but fun little RPG. 4 / 5 Level Design Not much grinding necessary. Simple, linear progression and instant two or three person parties. 4 / 5 Theme Standard rescue the princess plotline, but wrapped around a sci-fi mech suit core theme. I'm intrigued and ea...