I decided my first TurboGrafx-16 game would be the first title for the console, at least in North America: Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, which was the pack-in game for the TurboGrafx-16. While not a well-known title like Sega's pack-in game for the Genesis, Altered Beast, Keith Courage still provided new TurboGrafx-16 owners with their first taste of the console's capabilities.
Keith Courage came with a comic book in the back of its instruction manual that explains a bit of the story in order to set the stage. I did read this first before I played the game, however, as in many games from the 80s, the overall plot really doesn't impact or inform your gameplay at all.
Keith Courage is a side-scrolling action adventure game split into two primary segments: an overworld and an underworld.
In the overworld, Keith defeats lesser enemies, which occasionally drop gold, and interacts with shopkeepers to refill his hearts, buy bombs and upgrade his sword.
At the end of each overworld stage, which acts kind of like an intermission between the action levels, you are teleported to a level in the underworld, where you defeat enemies, avoid one-hit kill spikes and defeat a level boss. Once you defeat the level boss you are teleported to the next overworld area.
I did end up playing Keith Courage all the way to the end, even though I got stuck a few times, and I was tempted to give up once or twice. Keith Courage isn't a hard game, per se, but it does have a few sections where the action you want to take is unclear. There was one section towards the end of the game, in particular, that got me grinding for gold unnecessarily.
It was the second to the last stage and I ran into a shopkeeper that looked like the weapons dealer, but he only gave you a cryptic message that sounded like you needed to have more gold before you could buy the weapon.
So I ended up grinding until I had 9999 gold, which is the maximum you can get, but it didn't make any difference in that shopkeeper's message. Turns out that particular shopkeeper only says that one statement and there are a few others later in the stage that say different messages, until you eventually come across the actual shopkeeper with the sword upgrade you want (and it was only like 4600 gold, or something like that). Frustrating for sure.
Then the end stage is also a little frustrating with cheap deaths and the strategy to defeat the end boss is unclear at first. Turns out you can't damage his bottom half (although it seems like you can) and you have to attack the top half, which is easier said than done if you want to avoid getting hit.
Luckily GameFAQs came to my rescue with an awesome cheese method for the final boss (I guess it also works on other bosses) and I was able to defeat him with no sweat. Some people might say I didn't "really beat the game", but I don't care. I rolled credits and I'm moving onto the next game in the T-16 library.
You can watch my full (edited) playthrough of Keith Courage in Alpha Zones on YouTube on my Gamatroid Gaming page:
If you REALLY want to see the entirety of my first playthrough (including the few times I got stuck, died and continued like dozens of times) you can watch my unlisted full unedited playthrough, but I don't really recommend it.
So what did I think of Keith Courage in Alpha Zones?
It's fine.
Certainly doesn't hold a candle to other pack-in games from the NES and Sega Genesis, but it's better than some of the pack-in games for the Sega Master System were (hello Hang-On / Safari Hunt).
The graphics in Keith Courage are good looking enough, and certainly an upgrade to what you would typically see on the NES. The music is fine as well, but none of the tracks standout as bangers I would want to listen to outside of the game.
The controls in Keith Courage are also good enough, and really not an issue at all. The main issue in the game is that the levels are short, the enemies are generally pretty easy (even most of the bosses didn't give me any trouble), and its cheap deaths due to off screen spikes that are your main enemy.
Overall I enjoyed my time with Keith Courage enough to see it through to the end, but its not the kind of game that makes me want to replay it. I'm sure I would have replayed it back in the day if it was the only game I have, but since I have the entirety of the TurboGrafx-16 library ahead of me, I'm excited to move onto the next game, which will be...
Until next time...
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