Greetings, magical adventurer! Playing Space Harrier on TurboGrafx-16 for the First Time

 They Called It "Dragon Land"... 

The latest game in my TurboGrafx journey is Space Harrier, a game I knew from the arcade and other consoles, but I hadn't played the TurboGrafx version before.

I should say right up front, that Space Harrier has never been my favorite of Sega's arcade classics, and I absolutely suck at the game (those two things are probably related). 

Regardless, the TurboGrafx version looks and plays great, and it probably sounds good as well, but the music and soundfx are so forgettable to me in Space Harrier that I honestly can't remember how they sound, however they couldn't have been bad, otherwise I would remember. 

Like all other versions of the game, your character constantly runs or flies forward, and you can shoot all kinds of enemies and environmental objects, or you have to dodge them. There is no health bar, so you die with one hit, which was pretty common in arcade games back in the day.

Once you progress far enough in a level, you face a stage boss, and if you defeat it you go onto the next stage. Pretty standard stuff.

But one thing that always got me killed in the arcade and Sega Master System versions of the game was that I couldn't fire fast enough some times to kill the enemies and destroy the environmental objects before they had a chance to hit and kill me. Luckily, the TurboGrafx' built-in turbo functions solve this issue handily.

I can't even properly convey just how much I love blasting away with the turbo function on and obliterating everything in my path. This is not a strength of the game itself, per se, but rather an awesome feature that the TurboGrafx' controllers have built-in. The turbo function has saved my ass in many a game, and Space Harrier is no exception.

With the benefit of the turbo function, I was finally able to make it to Stage 4, which I don't think I was ever able to do before in other version of the game. 

If you'd like to see some of my first time gameplay, you can check out the YouTube video below: 

Sadly, even though the turbo function helped me a lot, I've still been unable to clear the fourth stage, and I am constantly greeted by this lovely game over screen.

While the TurboGrafx port of Space Harrier is solid, honestly I don't enjoy the game that much to continue playing it regularly. Nothing wrong with the game, but it's just not for me.

Now that I've played Space Harrier, the next game in my TurboGrafx journey is...

Cratermaze!

I don't know anything about this game, and I'm excited to check it out and tell you all about my experience. 

Until next time!

May Day! May Day! Is Anyone Out There? Playing Ordyne for the first time on TurboGrafx-16

Listen closely. There isn't much time.

The latest game in my TurboGrafx journey is Ordyne.

Ordyne is an arcade shmup developed and published by Namco (of Ridge Racer and Tekken fame). It was first released in arcades in 1988, but only in Japan.

Ordyne was ported and released on the TurboGrafx-16 in February 1990.

Of course, anyone familiar with the TurboGrafx knows that it has a vast library of high-quality shmup games, many of them being practically-perfect arcade ports.

From an arcade port perspective, Ordyne follows in this illustrious tradition, and delivers another quality shmup to the TurboGrafx library. 

Like many TurboGrafx games, the graphics are colorful and well animated, there are a lot of enemies and bullets filling the screen with action, and there are several large boss characters that try to put an end to your quest. 

Ordyne is mostly similar to other shmups, but instead of collecting power-ups directly, you collect floating balloons of money which can be used to purchase temporary power-ups, ranging from different kinds of bullets to speeding up your ship to extra lives and more. It adds a different dimension to the gameplay, and can even make you want to forego a power-up to save money for a more powerful one later on.

Other than that, most of the gameplay is very similar to other side scrolling shmups, but that's not a bad thing. Ordyne looks great, controls well, and has boppin' tunes that keep the action moving along. 

Ordyne can be played by two players simultaneously, and even though I wasn't able to try it out like that, I can imagine it would be a lot of fun with a buddy.

And like a lot of shmups, Ordyne has large well-animated bosses that try and put an end to your journey. The first two are pretty easy, but the third one took me quite a few tries to defeat.

The first boss is a large ship that flies by you a few times during the first level (and can kill you if you run into it accidentally), and the second boss is a giant fire turtle that looks very cool.

You can see some of my gameplay in the YouTube video below:

Back in the days of the Wii, there were several TurboGrafx-16 games released on the Wii's Virtual Console as downloadable games, and Ordyne was one of them. As a result, IGN reviewed Ordyne in 2007, and you can still read their review today, courtesy of the Wayback Machine.

IGN gave Ordyne a 7 out of 10.

Overall, I enjoyed my time playing Ordyne, and it is certainly another solid shooter in the TurboGrafx library. While I may prefer other titles like Blazing Lazers, Ordyne is certainly fun to play, and I could see playing it from time to time.

Now that I've played Ordyne, the next game I'll be playing on my TurboGrafx journey is...

Now, of course I've played several versions of Space Harrier before, including the original arcade and Genesis versions, but I've never played the TurboGrafx-16 version before. I'm excited to see how it compares. I may need to go back and replay a few other versions for comparison.

Until next time...

(Oh! I almost forgot. If you want to see what some of arcade version's gameplay looks like, you can check out my video below)

War is Madness! Playing Military Madness on TurboGrafx-16 for the First Time

Watch it, Commander! 

Just over that next crater is the AXIS army. Fighting for the Moon's scarce resources in the 21st Century, this time they've caught you off-guard!

Military Madness is the latest game in my TurboGrafx journey. 

Military Madness was released for the TurboGrafx-16 in February 1990, just a couple months after the TurboGrafx's first holiday season. 

(In Japan, and in subsequent releases on other platforms, the game is named Nectaris.)

It is a turn-based military strategy game, featuring the "Allied Forces" fighting against the "AXIS Army" over vital resources on the Moon during the 21st Century.

You play as the Commander of the Allied Forces and you are charged with eliminating the AXIS threat and securing the resources for Earth.

Like most turn-based strategy games, you move your units in hexagonal blocks, and take turns attacking the enemy (when in range) or being attacked.

Certain types of terrain grant added defensive bonuses, and having units located directly around an enemy unit grants attack bonuses. Additionally, your units gain experience as they battle enemy units.

To win a mission you either have to eliminate all of the AXIS units on the map, or you have to move one of your human-based units into the enemy fortress.

As you progress in the game, additional unit types and buildings are introduced, like the Hadrain which has high attack power and long-range attacks, and the Factory which can repair units back to full strength.

I'm not a huge turn-based strategy fan, but I found Military Madness to be a lot of fun (at least until I got stuck on the third mission). At least the game has a continue-feature where you can start playing at the last map you were on, by inputting the name of the map on the continue screen. In the case of the third mission I got stuck on, the name of that map is Cyrano.

Back when it was released, Military Madness was well received by gaming critics, with EGM giving it 9, 8, 7 and 7 (very solid scores). 

When it was rereleased on the Wii Shop Channel, IGN gave it a 7.5 out of 10 (not too shabby for an older title). 

You can see some of my gameplay in the YouTube video below:

I could definitely see myself playing Military Madness on a fairly regular basis, especially as a nice change of pace from the shmups and side scrolling action games on the TurboGrafx.

Even though I had fun playing Military Madness, it's time to move onto the next game in my TurboGrafx journey, which is....

Ordyne!

I don't know anything about this game, other than I saw a few screenshots which make it look like a shmup. Can't wait to check it out.

Until next time!