All 16-Bit

Review #11112 Super Albatross Look it up, all albatrosses are super PCE CD 1989 Telenet Japan Sports Sports › Golf F 57 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Weird power mechanic. You press and hold II and let go to select the power, but it's a really tight window and difficult to get just right, especially when putting. And the only indicator oyu've got is a tiny sprite who animates poorly. There's no guage to help you see the power level. Also, choosing the direction is done via a free moving cursor instead of a directional arrow. This allows for more refinement in the direction, but is also more cumbersome. Everything else is ok. 3 / 5 Level Design The menus are all in Japanese so it's har...

Review #11103 Side Arms Special Mechs in space, Before Christ? PCE CD 1989 NEC Shooter Shooter › Horizontal D 78 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay This is a carbon copy of the TG-16 original version, but with the addition of a new mode called "Before Christ". The BC version plays much the same, with only minor differences such as the powerups and slower game speed. Still a great game. 4 / 5 Level Design The BC mode has similar levels to the main one, although I found them to be a tad less interesting. Still, more of the same is a good thing here. 4 / 5 Theme There's an opening cinematic and between-level artwork. Nice stuff. Plus, mechs! 4 / 5 Ar...

Review #11098 ROM ROM Stadium PCE CD 1989 Masaya Sports Sports › Baseball G 46 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay The dumbest AI I've ever seen in a baseball game. It always throws when you attempt a steal, even if that runner is headed toward an occupied base. For example, if you've got runners on 2nd and 3rd you can send the runner on 2nd and the catcher will throw to 3rd. Just then you can send the runner from 3rd to home for an easy free run. Also, if the 3rd baseman fields a ball and a runner is headed from 2nd to 3rd the third baseman will throw the ball to 3rd to get a force at 3rd. Nevermind that no one is there because that's his base! Sheesh. The mechanics aren't a complete mess but hitting is stupid hard due to your swing animation bein...

Review #11003 Altered Beast Wise fwom yourw gwave PCE CD 1989 NEC Action Action › Punch n Kick G 41 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Still worse than the Genesis version but plays a smidge faster than the HuCard version. Hit detection is far worse than the Genesis version and results in a lot of cheap hits by enemies. The lack of a third button means there's no jump button. Instead you have to press Up but the animation is incredibly slow. Enemies love to swarm you and can kill you in seconds once they get inside your hitbox. 3 / 5 Level Design Levels are significantly longer than the Genesis version. They're probably 2x3 as long, even though they feature all the moments from that other version. Still, this game...

Review #10043 Ys: Book I & II God-tier soundtrack, bug-tier gameplay TG-16 CD 1989 NEC Adventure Adventure › Overhead H 37 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay The Ys formula of bump-attacking sucks, and no one can convince me otherwise. It's terrible. Victory in a battle has far more to do with luck than skill. And it's only mitigted by an insane amount of grinding which may as well be done in the first area of the game because no matter where you are, all enemies give a single point of XP. Maybe this changes later on, but I got several areas into the game and it was always true so I'm calling it. 2 / 5 Level Design Directions and objectives are cryptic at best. The lack of a map hurts and the gates don...

Review #10028 Monster Lair Baby Cuphead TG-16 CD 1989 NEC Action Action › Gun D 71 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Simple, responsive controls. Short jump. Great hit detection. It's an auto scroller with the health mechanics from Adventure Island and constant weapon pickups straight out of Metal Slug. The weapons only last for 10 seconds or so but enemies are constantly dropping new ones. Some enemies deal minimal damage while others kill you in a single hit. Feels extremely random. 3 / 5 Level Design Every stage is an auto scroller and they toggle between a platformer and then a shoot em up stage. Kind of like Cuphead, now that I think of it. The boss fights are always in the shmup sections and are more difficul...

Review #10013 Fighting Street Humble beginnings TG-16 CD 1989 NEC Fighting Fighting › 1v1 X 24 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Where to begin? Horrendous controls. Laggy doesn't beginnto express what it feels like to play this. Nothing that you do with your controller maps to what you see on screen. You'll phase behind your opponent sometimes, or kick right through him, or straight up have nothing happen. It's barely playable as a video game, much less a fighting game. 1 / 5 Level Design Four stages, on playable character. 3 / 5 Theme You can see the beginnings of the Capcom character here, but it's an early draft. The post fight taunting, and dynam...

Review #9902 Battle Ace After Burner without a machine gun PCE SG 1989 Hudson Soft Shooter Shooter › Corridor H 26 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Looks and plays like After Burner, but with the slowest missiles ever. Enemies come in waves of four and you can only lock onto and fire missiles at up to two of them. The the other button fires your gun but it has no auto-fire. So basically the gameplay amounts to mashing both buttons while avoiding missiles fired at you. It's as tiring and obnoxious as it sounds. I was so done with this game after only the first stage. Oh and did I mention the one shot death and restart at the beginning of the too-long stage? Yeah, no thanks. 1 / 5 Level Design Enemies come in the sam...

Review #8148 Winning Shot It's a winner PCE 1989 Data East Sports Sports › Golf D 74 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay I'm a sucker for these simple golf games. This one's got an easy UI for picking a club, spin, and direction, and it shows the distance and recommends a club. Streamlined as could be. And striking the ball is a single click to pick the power. Again, simple. Putting is the hardest piece of the puzzle but it's manageable. 4 / 5 Level Design Stroke, Match, and Tournament modes. Only one course. Holes are big and fun. Quick and easy to jump into the game. 2 / 5 Theme Minimal presentation. Japanese text doesn't get in the way but also isn't helpful....

Review #8149 Wonder Momo It's no wonder PCE 1989 Namco Action Action › Punch n Kick X 18 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Laggy controls and bad hit detection, but decent range on your attacks. The key is to kill enemies as quickly as possible to prevent them from swarming you. Kick and jump kick. Terrible scrolling with only 10% draw distance. A whirlwind appears to power you up. A hula hoop bounces in and can be thrown. A final pickup makes you invincible and kills everything on screen for a good 10 seconds. 0 / 5 Level Design Zero design. Each level is perhaps two screens wide but enemies spawn in without scrolling so there's no need to move. It's a single screen brawler. A boss enemy a...

Review #8146 Volfied I remember this being better PCE 1989 Taito Arcade Arcade › N/a F 54 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Standard Qix gameplay. Press a button to leave the outside and draw a line. Goal is to close off 75% of the screen. Enemies bounce around and kill you if they hit your incomplete line. You can pick up powerups by boxing in these crystals which come and go. They disappear so quickly that you can rarely get them. They're all useless other than the S that uses your speed. 2 / 5 Level Design Incredibly challenging, even on easy mode. Good luck getting past even 2 or 3 levels. Every level is identical. There's zero variety. Way less interesting than the levels in Cacoma for SNES....

Review #8134 Takeda Shingen Kabuki quantum game breaking bugs PCE 1989 Aicom Action Action › Beat Em Up X 21 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay I have to drop this down to a zero because it has a game breaking bug that I ran into within five minutes on every attempt at a playthrough. Maybe it's an emulation issue, but regardless, the game is unplayable. If it weren't for the bug this would've only scored a 1, so don't be too sad. The gameplay is barebones. There's a single attack - swipe that sword of yours. You can also jump but you can't attack while jumping so there's no reason to ever jump. The gameplay has extreme problems with the vertical plane. Enemies above you can hit you from almost any depth ...

Review #8136 Tatsunoko Fighter Blunder Boy PCE 1989 Tonkin House Action Action › Hack n Slash H 25 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Floaty controls. Terrible platforming. You slide off platforms all the time. Hard to land a jump. 2 / 5 Level Design Cheap enemy placement. They pop up all over the place. Levels are too vertical and feature tiny platforms. 1 / 5 Theme No idea what's going on. You look a bit like Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece. 2 / 5 Art Style NES+ quality graphics. Not a trainwreck but as tame as could be. 0 / 5 Audio Atrocious, offkey music. I can't begin to express how terrible the "...

Review #8155 F-1 Dream PCE 1989 Capcom Racing Racing › Overhead G 41 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay The controls are weird and inconsistent, or my brain just doesn't figure it out. You point the d-pad towards the road rather than relative to the direction you're moving. Gameplay is slow which works best for this type of game. Unfortunately I was never fast enough to passing a single other car so I could never win anything it last place. 3 / 5 Level Design Only a career mode. The variety of tracks makes up for the lack of modes. 2 / 5 Theme Major language barrier. Challenging to manage the shop. I like the career theme, but the language barrier saps my enthusiasm. 1 / ...

Review #8128 Son Son II Kid Monkey King PCE 1989 NEC Action Action › Hack n Slash E 66 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Controls feel good...with a caveat. Although platforming is comfortable and the staff attack feels great, enemies take too many hits and try to walk right through you, which significantly slows the pace of play. What could've been a Goemon competitor is instead more akin to 3 Ninjas. 4 / 5 Level Design I really like the stages. There are tons of platforms and branching paths. So much that it's almost overwhelming and confusing to know what your objective is. Still, I never got lost and enjoyed traversal more than the combat. 4 / 5 Theme Feels l...

Review #8126 Shiryou Sensen - War of the Dead Zombie Zelda 2 PCE 1989 Victor Adventure Adventure › Platform H 28 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Plays exactly like Zelda 2. Walk between areas on an overhead view and enter random encounters which are side scroller battles. Your only weapon is a knife which can be held out in front of you by holding down on the button. Jump is the other button and no other gameplay mechanics exist, so far as I can tell. Enemies follow strict movement patterns and love to get inside your sprite to stun lock you. So the strat is to hit them, back off, and repeat. There are RPG elements with EXP. 2 / 5 Level Design Like its inspiration the overworld is overwhelming. There's no obviou...

Review #8125 Shinobi Missing those ninja throwing star stages PCE 1989 Asmik Ace Action Action › Gun F 53 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Good movement and up to three projectiles on screen makese combat feel good. Uses the multi-plane mechanic from Rolling Thunder. Actually, maybe RT uses it from Shinobi? Either way, it feels weird here because there's no vertical scrolling, so the upper planes are on the screen. You can jump up to the level of enemies above you but you can't attack them without being on their level. Strange. 2 / 5 Level Design Enemies like to position themselves such that you must perform a perfectly timed throw while jumping, which makes for a ton of cheap deaths and annoying en...

Review #8120 Rock-On Twinbee meets R-Type PCE 1989 Big Club Shooter Shooter › Horizontal G 49 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Insanely difficult. Enemies swarm to you and fire fast projectiles and your hitbox is enormous. Powerups are everywhere - so many that it's not worth trying to avoid them. Just find the 8 Way gun and stick with it until you die. You collect three weapons and can toggle between them, although most are useless. 2 Way and Laser in particular. Speed pickups seem to stack forever until your ship flies around at breakneck speed, making it impossible to deal with the projectiles. I wish it played better than it does. Oh and you have to mash the button. 3 / 5 Level Design Stages remind me of a mix betwe...

Review #8108 Power League II World Class Baseball 2 PCE 1989 Hudson Soft Sports Sports › Baseball D 79 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Plays just like the first game. Difficulty is ramped up slightly, giving out fewer hits. Still great controls, AI, and everything else. 4 / 5 Level Design So many modes! Again, same as the first game. 3 / 5 Theme Language barrier in this version 4 / 5 Art Style Slight improvement over the first game. Fielding and baserunning looks better since it's isometric rather than directly overhead. 4 / 5 Audio Same as the first game More PCE reviews Browse all reviews...

Review #8100 P-47 - The Freedom Fighter Discount U.N. Squadron. Area 44 maybe? PCE 1989 Aicom Shooter Shooter › Horizontal G 47 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Peashooter. You can eventually get a sub weapon that fires a spread of other peashooters but enemies are so tiny that even the widest spread shot isn't great at taking anything out. Most enemies die in one shot but those that don't require way too many. Your hitbox is large. 3 / 5 Level Design Standard stuff. Few environmental hazards. Mostly just wave after wave of enemies. Bosses are also boring planes flying slowly. 4 / 5 Theme Kill the Nazis. I'm a sucker for WW2 war games. 2 / 5 Art...