My Top 25 TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine Games That Are Still Fun Playing Now + 25 More Gems + “High 54” Youtube Playlist
As I mentioned in my other ‘top retro video games’ lists, 2020 was the year I got back into playing video games from my youth. This was heavily influenced by me ordering a Sega Mini to hook up to the tv I won at a Super Bowl party right before the world went on a long-running lockdown quarantine, but the thing that really kicked the new hobby up a notch was realizing that my Sega Mini could be ‘hacked’ to add ANY old retro video game from any old retro video game console. And once one goes down that online retro video game rabbit hole, one eventually realizes that one could have been playing any old retro video game right on one’s old iMac the whole time.
I guess that’s why they say hindsight is 2020.
And after blahg’n about some of my Sega Mini adventures, I started noticing that my most visited website pages, month after month, were my blog posts about retro video gaming (even though I am a ‘not a music blog, not not a music blog’), and most of those visits were coming from Google’rs.
So, since I also did a lot of searching for “best TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine games” or “most underrated TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine games” or “best TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine games that are still worth playing today” after I was done googling the same kind of “how to hack a sega mini” queries that were now directing people to my blog, I figured I should put together some console specific content for the Google search algorithms. Because SEO, innit?
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Please keep in mind that this list is not really in a strict ranking order and it is definitely not an attempt at creating a “best TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine games ever” list (so prepare to adjust your “how could you not include ___?!” outrage appropriately). This is just a list of games that I have personally found the most enjoyable to play as an elder millennial in the 2020s + it should also be noted that I don’t really care much for fighting games or button-mashing or turn-based strategy RPGs (no matter how critically acclaimed / loved they may be by others).
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AND NOW THAT WE’VE GOT ALL THE EXPLAINERS & DISCLAIMERS OUT OF THE WAY… HERE’S MY LIST OF 25 TurboGrafx-16 / PC ENGINE GAMES THAT ARE STILL FUN PLAYing TODAY:
#1 - BONK’S REVENGE
You can’t really talk about the TurboGrafx-16 without at least mentioning one Bonk game (there were 3 in total, 4 if you count Air Zonk). And you need to mention Bonk not only because he was kinda the consoles Mario/Sonic mascot (at least according to my memory of how the TurboGrafx-16 was marketed in 1990s Canada), but also because the Bonk games are all still pretty fun to play + very nice & colourful to look at (as for gameplay, they’re your basic platformer sytle game — but instead of jumping on baddies you ‘bonk’ them with your head + Bonk does power-ups a bit funner than Mario). For me, Bonk’s Revenge seems like the most polished of the 3 Bonk titles, but you really can’t go wrong with any of them.
*****
#2 - BOXYBOY
Boxyboy is probably not the kind of game that I would have liked as a 90s teen. But as an old millennial in the 2020s, puzzle games just seem to grab my interest a lot more. Beating up bad guys is more of a young man’s game, I guess. There was a similar game to Boxyboy on the Genesis that I tried called ‘Shove It!’, but even though both games just involve pushing boxes onto little dots, Boxyboy does a noticeably better job in both the looks and gameplay and sound (also, being able to reverse your box pushing if you make a mistake goes a long way from keeping this game from just becoming annoying/frustrating). Now, I haven’t made it past the first 20 levels, and apparently the puzzles start getting quite big & complex to the point of looking overwhelming, but so far I can’t help but find this game quite enjoyable and addicting. It’s like video game Sudoku.
*****
#3 - BATMAN
I think what I like the most about this version of Batman is that it is nothing like any other other Batman game you’ll find on the old video game consoles. And by that I mean, this isn’t one of those ‘beat em up’ platformers where you go left-to-right pushing the same buttons over and over again beating up bad guy after bad guy. This is more like an overhead puzzle game, where you walk around maze-like levels collecting items and throwing your batarang at Joker minions to temporarily stun them so you can then kick them off screen for a little while. At first it almost seems too easy, but the challenge increases just enough to keep you interested to see where things go + every level starts off with Seinfeld-like bass lines.
*****
#4 -
CRATERMAZE
Cratermaze is one of those games that can almost feel too easy at times—you just walk around maze-like levels collecting treasures and digging holes for bad guys to easily fall into before they touch you—but there’s also something soothing and addicting in just walking around maze-like levels collecting treasures. Like most games, I’m sure it will continue to get harder the further along you go, but sometimes it’s also just nice to pick up and play a game where you can get through a few levels without dying a bunch of times.
*****
#5 - CHEW MAN FU
Suprise! It’s another puzzle game. In this one you control a little girl who needs to move coloured balls around—surprise!—maze-like levels and place each ball on the matching coloured tile. To make things more difficult, there are bad guys all around and if they touch you, they kill you. Luckily, you can kick your balls at them and make them disappear for awhile. This one is extra cute and colourful and fun to play by yourself, or, if you should be so lucky, with a friend where you can work together kicking balls at evil hedgehogs and monkeys and etc. A very charming little game.
*****
#6 - CIRCUS LIDO
Circus Lido is a unique puzzle game where you play as some kind of chameleon lizard thing that has to eat bugs and then spit those bugs into the mouth of some venus-fly-trap looking plants, all the while using your tail to climb around on certain parts and using your noggin’ to figure out what the hell you’re supposed to do in other parts (ie. I’ve had to watch the ‘longplay’ on Youtube a couple times to figure out what I was supposed to do on some levels). All in all tho, it’s a good little puzzler that very much has it’s own style & feel.
*****
#7 - BLAZING LAZERS
Even though I’m not really a big fan of the ‘shooter’ games, it’s pretty hard to put together a TurboGrafx-16 list without putting on some shmup’s. Not only is that probably the genre that the TG-16 was best known for doing well, but without a massive collection of games like the SNES and SEGA, ignoring the shooter games would involve ignoring a large % of the total games. Also, the fact that the TurboGrafx controller had built-in ‘turbo’ buttons (ie. it gives you the feeling of pushing the shoot button really fast by just leaving your finger on the shoot button when turbo is engaged) even a cynic like me can eventually start getting into some shooters (which really become more about dodging). And perhaps the most revered shooter on the console is Blazing Lazers… and I can confirm that it definitely looks and handles and sounds great (even if I keep getting blown up and having to start over again).
*****
#8 - CYBER-CORE
A bit like Blazing Lazers in the sense that it is a shooter game that has you flying up screen with your finger stuck on the trigger, but, with Cyber-Core, now you’re shooting a bunch of alien bugs + you now have a gun button for shooting things in the air and a gun button for dropping bombs on things on the land. This one doesn’t look quite as nice as Blazing Lazers, but it handles just as good and makes for a nice game of trying to shoot things while also trying to dodge what those things are shooting back at you (if you like this game, you’ll probably also like Dragon Spirit because that seems to be pretty much the same game… but dragons).
*****
#9 - GOMOLA SPEED
This is a weird game that I had to watch a video first in order to even figure out what the hell I was supposed to do. And the hell that I was supposed to do was maneuver my mechanic snake thing around, collecting the ball parts of my snake body until I am long enough in mechanical snake length to form a circle around little pellets/balls of food or energy or ?? — all the while you also have to try to avoid these things that will kill you if they hit your snake head, or scatter all your body parts if they hit your snake body anywhere else (making you have to go around and collect all your snake body parts again). And, somehow, that makes for a decent little game (that can sometimes make your left thumb sore from trying to form a snake circle around those little pellets/balls with the d-pad — luckily, I have a controller with joysticks and that makes playing this game much better).
*****
#10 - LEGEND OF HERO TONMA
There’s not a tonne of good traditional platformers on the TurboGrafx-16, and I guess because the console was well known for their shooters, even games like Legend of Hero Tonma that look like they’re going to be a platformer kind of end up being a bit of shooter too (i.e you move around like your typical platformer game, but you need to shoot enemies, enemies that keep reappearing no matter how many times you shoot them, so it doesn’t take too long before the screen is full of bad guys and what you’re shooting at those bad guys, which’ll have you feeling like you’re in another shooter game at times). But, still, it’s a nice looking game that handles well and is pretty fun.
*****
#11 - METAL STOKER
Another shooter game, except this time you’re driving around more of a tank like machine instead of your usual flying machine. Which adds a bit more maneuvering around corners / mazes strategy to the usual ‘shoot everything before it shoots you’ shooter gameplay. Which is a nice switch-up. Also, Metal Stoker looks really good and handles really smooth, which always makes for a fun play (which is probably why I also have Granada added to my ‘Sega faves’ list).
*****
#12 - ALIEN CRUSH
Just like with shooter games, I’m not usually a fan of pinball games — but the TurboGrafx also had a reputation for doing good pinball games, and I must admit that once I gave Alien Crush a proper try, and especially once I saw that you could choose to play on ‘slow’ and have enough time for your reflexes to actually react with intent, it turns out that pinball games can actually be pretty decent too. Also plays well with listening to a podcast or audiobook at the same time.
*****
#13 - BOMBERMAN ‘93
You really can’t go wrong with Bomberman. And since Bomberman ‘94 is the same as the Mega Bomberman game that I included in my ‘Top 25 Sega Games’ list, I’m going to add Bomberman ‘93 to this list because not only is it just fun to play (again, you can’t go wrong with Bomberman), but if you’re playing games on a Hakchi hacked Sega Mini, I could only get 4-person battle mode to work with the TurboGrafx games. So, if you fancy playing a retro game that all 3 of your nieces can play with you at the same time, a game that is easy enough for the youngest niece to be able to defeat the oldest niece and the oldest niece to not think it’s a lame kids game, you’re going to want to grab yourself some TurboGrafx-16 Bombermen.
*****
#14 - BATTLE LODE RUNNER
Speaking of multi-player games that you can play 4 people at the same time on a Hakchi hacked Sega Mini, there’s also Battle Lode Runner. Which, even though this game has some literal ‘hey… that’s literally bomberman!’ moments in it, the gameplay is a little harder to get the hang of if you are a young niece. So, for the most part, I’ve only played this as a one player game — but once you get used to the strategy that comes with being able to dig holes to your left and right, Battle Lode Runner becomes a fast-paced little action puzzle battle game that’s a good time to play.
*****
#15 - SKWEEK
Skweek is a cute & colourful little game that sees you running around on squares trying to turn all of them pink before the time runs out (and avoiding and/or shooting baddies that get in your way). Simple, but fun to jump into whenever you’re looking for something colourful & simple to distract yourself with for a bit.
*****
#16 - SPIN PAIR
Spin Pair looks like your fairly common puzzle game style, what with the falling shapes that you need to match & whatnot, but there’s a nice little twist here where you need to make the opposite part of the matching colour shape fall into place in order to make a pair and wipe out any other matching shapes in the row. Which requires some different strategy and thinking than what you originally think you’re going to need. So if you like yourself a Tetris or a Dr Mario, you should get yourself into Spin Pair pretty quickly.
*****
#17 - HATRIS
Speaking of games that will remind you of a Tetris-style puzzle game in its looks (Hatris even puts the reminder straight into the name), this one will have you lining up matching hats on top of heads. You know, like Tetris, but with hats (which is how I imagine the elevator pitch went). And what seems kinda silly at first, ends up being a pretty addictive little puzzle game.
*****
#18 - SOMER ASSAULT
This game gets some extra points for uniqueness — and by that I mean you basically play as a weaponized slinky. And, on top of that, you also start the game by entering your birthday and revealing your star sign (which apparently has an effect on how the game plays out). And I can’t think of any other games that do that. It’s also decently fun once you get a hang of how you need to slink around.
*****
#19 - FANTASY ZONE
Fantasy Zone is another shooter, although now we’re going left to right shooting things instead of down to up like some of the previous shooters on this list. I first experienced Fantasy Zone on the Sega Genesis and Master System and thought it was pretty good, but I think what makes FZ a little bit better on the TG-16 is those handy turbo buttons on the controller. Moral of the story: if you’re gonna do a shooter, you gotta give the kids a turbo button. Also, Fantasy Zone is pleasantly colourful and cartoon-y, which is a nice change-up.
*****
#20 - MARCHEN MAZE
This game is in Japanese (or at least the rom I have is), which means I don’t really know what is being said in between levels. But I imagine it says something along the lines of how you are Alice and you are in some kind of Wonderland where you have to shoot balls at people while trying to avoid getting hit by their balls and getting bounced off the ledge. And I know what you’re thinking… isn’t ‘marchen’ a German word? Yes, but look, it’s a video game from the 90s, so don’t worry too much about the words & plot and just focus on the fact that it’s a nice looking game the plays/handles nicely. You’ll get the gist of everything else as you go (alternatively, you could learn Japanese and or look for an English-patched rom).
*****
#21 - DIE HARD
Speaking of games that are in Japanese so you can’t really understand what is being said/written in between levels — but who really cares, as we all know the plot to Die Hard anyways, right? For example, remember how John McClane had to navigate through some kind of swamp entrance to get into Nakatomi Plaza? No? Hmm… well at least they got a Bruce Willis looking character in a white tank top walking around shooting people in an office building right. And as far as 16-bit and below Die Hard games goes, this one is probably the best one (although, tbf, the NES Die Hard game set a pretty low bar).
*****
#22 - ZIPANG
Besides having some really timeless cover art, ZIPANG is just a fun little puzzler in the vein of Solomon’s Key on the NES and Troddlers on the SNES (both games that made my Top 25 lists, so you should already know that I like this ‘vein’). Basically, you make blocks appear and disappear strategically as you work your way to exits and knock off the baddies as you go (and maybe rescue animals too — the plot is a little lost on me + roms don’t really come with instruction booklets). Starts off easy enough to let you get the hang of things, and gets trickier soon enough.
*****
#23 - BARUNBA
Barunba is another nice shooter on the Turbo/PC Engine — but the thing that makes this one a little different (and thus, a little more intriguing to jump into, at least for me) is you can rotate your guns around your little globe of a spaceship as you shoot things from every direction. And the pace is actually quite slowed down compared to your usual frenetic pace of a 16-bit shooter, so that can make for a more relaxing playing experience to jump into when you’re looking for a more casual distraction (which is more often than not for me these days).
*****
#24 - BLOODY WOLF
Bloody Wolf sees you playing out a Vietnam like commando game where you have to go around shooting all the baddies and rescuing hostages, all the while trying not to get shot yourself. It’s not a perfect game, but it sill looks and handles pretty good for the system and era + ‘Bloody Wolf’ is a decently cool name (even if the code name that was auto-generated for my character was ‘Eagle’ — not even ‘Bloody Eagle’). So maybe I need to play a bit more to figure out who/what exactly is the bloody wolf here. But if you like games where you go around shooting things at a pace that is less hectic than say a Contra or Gunstar Heroes, Bloody Wolf might be up your alley.
*****
#25 - TITAN
The TubroGrafx-16 / PC Engine definitely does not have as many games as the more popular consoles of the 1990s, but what they lack in quantity they definitely make up for in… well, I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘quality’ (I think Sega and SNES had better quality games), but they definitely had a bunch of uniqueness going for them. Or, rather, unique takes on somewhat familiar ideas. For example, Titan kinda feels like a Breakout or Arkanoid type game, but instead of getting a rectangle paddle to hit your ball around, you get this tiny little square (and instead of trying to keep the ball from hitting the bottom of the screen, you have to try to maneuver this bouncing ball around levels that are bigger than what you can see on screen sometimes). Which leaves you with a game that feels a bit different than others you’ve played. Which is a good quality for a retro game to have — because it’s hard to make a game ‘perfect’, but if you can at least make it feel ‘different’, that goes along way for replayability.
*****
Ok, that’s it for my personal ‘Top 25 TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine Games That Are Still Fun To Play Now’ list. I know that there are some classic titles that seem crazy not to have included, BUT, again, this is not meant to be a ‘Top 25 All-Time Best Ever’ list and it’s also not meant to be your list. Besides, reading another list that just confirms what’s on every other ‘best of’ list is a bit boring and pointless, especially if you’re looking for games that might not be top of mind (and especially when you consider how all this stuff is individually subjective & doesn’t really matter beyond the enjoyment that comes from thinking/talking about your own experience & finding temporary moments of connection/agreement/discovery with others).
So, on that note, here’s TWENTY-FIVE more TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine games that are of the kind of quality that has them constantly circling outside my TOP 25 list — so let’s just call it a TOP 50 list now (and you can click the cover art below to watch gameplay over on the Youtubes or scroll further down for a “HIGH 54” gameplay playlist):
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And since I’ve already found Youtube videos for my ‘FAVE 50’ TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine games, and since I also have a thing about the number 54, I decided to put all the gameplay videos into one big-ass "High 54" Youtube playlist in case anyone wants to watch one HI54LOFI-ly recommended TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine game being played by strangers on the internet after another (I’ve also added 4 more games to make the total 54):\\
And while we’re listing things, here’s my other lists of retro video games that are still fun playing today… if you happen to be looking for more than just TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine games to check out:
Finally, please feel warmly encouraged to hit up the comment section below if there’s any games that I left off that would definitely be on your ‘Fave TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine Games’ list (whatever number you’d cap your list off at), as I’ve been known to make tweaks to my lists when a new ‘old game’ starts making a stronger case for more of my limited attention span.
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JEREMY / @HI54LOFI
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