I remember playing this years ago, when I tried to beat all the Bonk games. Even back then I remember the general consensus being “it’s not a bad port, but there’s no real reason to go back to it when the PCE original exists”.
Interesting to see that the PC Engine is on its last legs considering the first game I’ve heard for the platform was Rondo of Blood when I was getting into retro gaming on the virtual console and bought the game just before the Wii Shop Channel closed. And Rondo of Blood was released after this game was in October 1993. I didn’t get into Castlevania until much latter, but it’s surreal that I only heard about the game due to Castlevania, and I think that’s a lot of people’s experience. Also I need to play Bonk’s Adventure, seems like a fun game.
While PC Engine’s status as a credible competitor to Nintendo was clearly over by 1993, Rndstranger is a bit exaggerating the demise of the PC Engine here ( _probably so that we don’t ask for the PCE Mania series which he jokingly mentioned yesterday_ ). 1992 was probably the last significant calendar year of the system, sales wise. But for instance, Tokimeki Memorial, which became a genuine mainstream hit on the PC Engine before even getting ported elsewhere, came out in May 1994. Konami kept reprinting the game as it kept selling out. I’d say 1994 is the real twilight for that system as the PC-FX, the Saturn and the PlayStation quickly drove away its remaining laser-friendly Otaku audience to their generation. That being said, maybe RndStranger does like with the Famicom / Disk System combo and considers the CD catalog its own thing. Basically, the original PCE HuCard format was a decent challenger to the Famicom between 1987 and 1991, and the CD-ROM add-on (and its evolutions) made the PC Engine a less impactful but still noteworthy challenger to the Super Famicom between roughly late 1990 and mid-1994.
It was definitely a much more impactful console in Japan than elsewhere. In Europe it had almost no presence, and in the US the sales were much lower too. If a game sold 50k units on that system, it was considered a success, kinda like with Japanese PC games. A good example of the divide are Dragon Ball games; the one on PCE-CD sold around 40-50k, whereas the Famicom ones frequently sold over half a million copies. There were a few exceptions though, like Momotarou games, Tokimeki Memorial or Tengai Makyou. There are some general numbers in the PC Engine Fan magazines, so you can 'kinda' get the idea of what was popular, at the very least, but there are more accurate sales numbers for Nintendo consoles at that time from what I've seen so far. If RndStranger decides to do this, I'd recommend checking out PC Engine Fan. There's a lot of interesting info there, if you can read Japanese to some extent of course.
"At least you can always play the PC Engine version" okay, Mister Moneybags. This is the version I played as a kid, and I LOVED it. It was nice being able to finally play this series. All the control problems kinda don't matter to me when the game is so forgiving. It doesn't feel that frustrating and I played far worse controlling Famicom games that I like as much as this. Also, it's a damn cute de-make.
Well, at least Hudson tried to bring the concept of their Genjin mascot to an older system after the fall of the PC Engine. It's a fine game, though the PC Genjin (and later the Super Genjin) games played much better. Quite pricy comparing to other versions, too.
To the PCE-CD's credit, all of those "adult" games were heavily censored compared to their PC originals. Anyway, this is one game I was excited to try after I got my EverDrive, and I was really disappointed in it. I want to say the developer, AI, also made games for the PCE, one of which is probably the best home version of Kyukyoku Tiger (aka Twin Cobra).
It does I've had a version (nes, then fc) for over a dozen years now, it plays just fine like the others. It's likely just an artifact of the rushed format to fami-daily it and onto the next.
The PC Engine version really takes advantage of the turbo controllers, which typically came with the successor consoles, to eliminate much of the difficulty and aggravation from the game.
I actually wonder what happened with NEC, they went from being a "Nintendo killer" in the early years of PC Engine to desperately focusing on H-games in just a few short years. Personally, I always thought that this port was (a very late) attempt to promote TurboGrafx-16 in the North American market, same with the Amiga port of Bonk's Adventure for the European audiences (although TurboGrafx/PC Engine pretty much stayed "an import shop curiosity" over here).
Well, the console itself sold decently well in Japan, but the game sales were really small compared to the Famicom (I'm pretty sure no game sold 1 million units, for instance). NEC was mostly known for PC88/PC98, and PC games are a niche in Japan for the most part, that was probably the main association for many. To this day PC gaming amounts to less than 10% of the entire gaming market in Japan. It is growing, but not by that much; they care more about convenience/portability. Also, the CD add-on didn't sell that well at all. So, there ended up being more mahjong, VNs and such, just like on PC88/PC98; basically, the low budget genres.
I like this game, it's fine, though you'd best play the PCE version instead (and its sequels). While PCE barely had any presence in most of Europe, this series is perhaps the one some people are the most likely to recognize. Now that I think about it, there were quite a few games with cavemen as protagonists (I remember Prehistorik most fondly, personally).
ohhhhhh PC Genjin that's clever, haha. didn't have the TG16 and just flat out skipped over this one, although playing the ROM of the TG original I mean it was alright. wouldn't dethrone mario by a long shot but I've played far worse platformers.
I feel like we own two different versions of this game. I had the US one for some years, but changed it out for the FC release. The handling here isn't an issue, you just need to learn how the physics of it works. The controls, jumping, floating(roll) all work just fine. I'm also a former old Duo, CG2, (JP)Duo owner now using a PCE Mini, so I'm used to the originals as well, even have the Gamecube release, they all handle smooth but just not Mario or Sonic like, they have their own handling but once you get it, the game is solid. It's not sloppy, this I think is more of an artifact of giving it an hour.
I remember playing this years ago, when I tried to beat all the Bonk games. Even back then I remember the general consensus being “it’s not a bad port, but there’s no real reason to go back to it when the PCE original exists”.
I mean, considering the NES is much more popular than the PC Engine in most places, the reason is you don't have the other console!
@@dacueba-gamesthat’s why I own this game; I have a Famicom but still don’t have a pc engine unfortunately!
1993 is having so many "what the hell" releases that I'm starting to worry about everyone besides Nintendo who was still making games for the Famicom.
Interesting to see that the PC Engine is on its last legs considering the first game I’ve heard for the platform was Rondo of Blood when I was getting into retro gaming on the virtual console and bought the game just before the Wii Shop Channel closed. And Rondo of Blood was released after this game was in October 1993. I didn’t get into Castlevania until much latter, but it’s surreal that I only heard about the game due to Castlevania, and I think that’s a lot of people’s experience. Also I need to play Bonk’s Adventure, seems like a fun game.
While PC Engine’s status as a credible competitor to Nintendo was clearly over by 1993, Rndstranger is a bit exaggerating the demise of the PC Engine here ( _probably so that we don’t ask for the PCE Mania series which he jokingly mentioned yesterday_ ).
1992 was probably the last significant calendar year of the system, sales wise. But for instance, Tokimeki Memorial, which became a genuine mainstream hit on the PC Engine before even getting ported elsewhere, came out in May 1994. Konami kept reprinting the game as it kept selling out. I’d say 1994 is the real twilight for that system as the PC-FX, the Saturn and the PlayStation quickly drove away its remaining laser-friendly Otaku audience to their generation.
That being said, maybe RndStranger does like with the Famicom / Disk System combo and considers the CD catalog its own thing. Basically, the original PCE HuCard format was a decent challenger to the Famicom between 1987 and 1991, and the CD-ROM add-on (and its evolutions) made the PC Engine a less impactful but still noteworthy challenger to the Super Famicom between roughly late 1990 and mid-1994.
It was definitely a much more impactful console in Japan than elsewhere. In Europe it had almost no presence, and in the US the sales were much lower too. If a game sold 50k units on that system, it was considered a success, kinda like with Japanese PC games. A good example of the divide are Dragon Ball games; the one on PCE-CD sold around 40-50k, whereas the Famicom ones frequently sold over half a million copies. There were a few exceptions though, like Momotarou games, Tokimeki Memorial or Tengai Makyou. There are some general numbers in the PC Engine Fan magazines, so you can 'kinda' get the idea of what was popular, at the very least, but there are more accurate sales numbers for Nintendo consoles at that time from what I've seen so far. If RndStranger decides to do this, I'd recommend checking out PC Engine Fan. There's a lot of interesting info there, if you can read Japanese to some extent of course.
@@mariusamber3237 I wouldn't say a full series, but I wouldn't mind him taking small looks at PC engine titles
great review as always
"At least you can always play the PC Engine version" okay, Mister Moneybags.
This is the version I played as a kid, and I LOVED it. It was nice being able to finally play this series. All the control problems kinda don't matter to me when the game is so forgiving. It doesn't feel that frustrating and I played far worse controlling Famicom games that I like as much as this. Also, it's a damn cute de-make.
Well, at least Hudson tried to bring the concept of their Genjin mascot to an older system after the fall of the PC Engine. It's a fine game, though the PC Genjin (and later the Super Genjin) games played much better. Quite pricy comparing to other versions, too.
To the PCE-CD's credit, all of those "adult" games were heavily censored compared to their PC originals. Anyway, this is one game I was excited to try after I got my EverDrive, and I was really disappointed in it. I want to say the developer, AI, also made games for the PCE, one of which is probably the best home version of Kyukyoku Tiger (aka Twin Cobra).
The original (and its sequel) are great! I played the hell out of them back in the day. It's a shame this version doesn't hold up.
It does I've had a version (nes, then fc) for over a dozen years now, it plays just fine like the others. It's likely just an artifact of the rushed format to fami-daily it and onto the next.
The PC Engine version really takes advantage of the turbo controllers, which typically came with the successor consoles, to eliminate much of the difficulty and aggravation from the game.
I actually wonder what happened with NEC, they went from being a "Nintendo killer" in the early years of PC Engine to desperately focusing on H-games in just a few short years.
Personally, I always thought that this port was (a very late) attempt to promote TurboGrafx-16 in the North American market, same with the Amiga port of Bonk's Adventure for the European audiences (although TurboGrafx/PC Engine pretty much stayed "an import shop curiosity" over here).
Well, the console itself sold decently well in Japan, but the game sales were really small compared to the Famicom (I'm pretty sure no game sold 1 million units, for instance). NEC was mostly known for PC88/PC98, and PC games are a niche in Japan for the most part, that was probably the main association for many. To this day PC gaming amounts to less than 10% of the entire gaming market in Japan. It is growing, but not by that much; they care more about convenience/portability. Also, the CD add-on didn't sell that well at all. So, there ended up being more mahjong, VNs and such, just like on PC88/PC98; basically, the low budget genres.
I like this game, it's fine, though you'd best play the PCE version instead (and its sequels). While PCE barely had any presence in most of Europe, this series is perhaps the one some people are the most likely to recognize. Now that I think about it, there were quite a few games with cavemen as protagonists (I remember Prehistorik most fondly, personally).
chuck rock and joe and mac, too
BigNose the big-nosed caveman
ohhhhhh PC Genjin that's clever, haha. didn't have the TG16 and just flat out skipped over this one, although playing the ROM of the TG original I mean it was alright. wouldn't dethrone mario by a long shot but I've played far worse platformers.
I feel like we own two different versions of this game. I had the US one for some years, but changed it out for the FC release. The handling here isn't an issue, you just need to learn how the physics of it works. The controls, jumping, floating(roll) all work just fine. I'm also a former old Duo, CG2, (JP)Duo owner now using a PCE Mini, so I'm used to the originals as well, even have the Gamecube release, they all handle smooth but just not Mario or Sonic like, they have their own handling but once you get it, the game is solid. It's not sloppy, this I think is more of an artifact of giving it an hour.