I will be completely honest here I don't know much about the Turbo Grafx 16 and even less about its games I was wondering if some good folks could enlighten me with any knowledge of what games where great for the system and why and especially anything that's on the Wii Virtual Console as I think im in need of a Newretro Fix.

__________________
Cyclo DS, Cuz DS-X Sucks

It really depends on the genre. Each genre represented on the console has its own "must owns". My own personal list of "must owns" includes games such as Lords Of Thunder (horizontal shooter), Ys I & II (overhead action RPG), Bonk's Revenge (platformer), Cadash (arcade platform RPG remake), Neutopia (Zeldaesque), Soldier Blade (vertical shooter), Cosmic Fantasy 2 (traditional RPG), and Exile (platform RPG). Some others might include Dracula X and Sapphire, but these tend to be very expensive (and in Japanese as well).

What makes these games (and others) so great is hard to pin down. Unlike games on other consoles of the time, games on the TG had to be sold based on their own merits and "personality", there was no brand mongering. In fact, the console got very few franchises.

__________________
- Eponasoft -
Independent Nintendo DS Development
devkitpro - PAlib - EMC - CycloDS Evolution - Crimson DS Lite
Got a game to sell? Try GameGavel

OK. I must agree with everything Eponasoft mentioned. Dracula X gets enough attention already so I don't feel a need to go into much detail about it. Dracula X Chronicles is an excellent remake for PSP btw, though it's included copy of the original doesn't play so well. I would recommend Ys III as that's the Ys series' equivalent to Zelda 2 but I had more fun playing it than Zelda 2. People seem to not like it because it went side-scrolling but I never thought it was all that bad, could be I have a special attachment to it because it was the first CD-based game I had for the TG (and therefore, the first CD-based game I ever played). Though I have to admit, the new version for PC based on the Ys VI engine -- Oath in Felghana -- is much better, even in the music department, and that's saying something as Ys III had some great music already. Especially surprising since Ys I and II Complete didn't really have such great music (the people who translated Ys I and II Complete for PC made a replacement soundtrack using the TG16 audio tracks). Of course, that's getting a bit sidetracked, but Ys is just a great series in general. It was great on the TG and it's great on PC (and it's pretty fun on the DS as well, but that version's probably never getting a US release, fortunately, since I've played the other two, it's no big deal). Ys IV went back to the overhead view and is very good as well. There's an excellent translation patch for it (from the same people who did the patches for the PC games -- in fact, if not for the Ys IV patch, I might not know about the PC games).

Lords of Thunder was mentioned before, but I must second it. It's a side-scrolling shooter unlike any other, it's a shoot-em-up game you'll like even if you normally don't like shoot-em-ups. You're not in a space ship like your typical shooter, you're this knight wearing your choice of four magical armors -- all enable you to fly and each grants a unique elemental-based attack form. It pays to use them strategically since this isn't the watered-down Sega CD version you can just blast through using the water armor. The one tip I can provide is if you get killed by a boss you'll most likely want to pick earth armor for your next attempt, as it's "bomb" projectiles do massive damage. And it's got this awesome original heavy metal soundtrack that sounds like a Joe Satriani album (you'll want to rip the audio tracks to your mp3 player, they're really that incredible). The prequel to LoT, Gate of Thunder is also a great game, a bit more traditional as you're in a spaceship. The two games in the "of Thunder" series really have nothing in common aside from great soundtracks (much like how most Final Fantasy games aren't connected to their prequels in any way). Neither of these are ultra-difficult like R-Type either (though I suggest getting that as well, they did an excellent job with the port of that, it's one of the few great franchises the TG did get). While we're at it, Air Zonk, Super Air Zonk, and Blazing Lasers are all great as well in the shoot-em-up department.

Neutopia and Neutopia II are great action RPGs similar to Zelda and borrowing greatly from Zelda, not that that's a bad thing. If you like turn-based strategy, Military Madness is a fun game (and even if you normally don't, that one can be addictive). No excessive resource management or anything like in a game of Civ, it's more like a Front Mission, FFT, or Shining Force without the RPG elements.

I also might mention Dungeon Explorer. It's a 5-player game based on Gauntlet but there's actually a story to them, there's a princess that when rescued gives you a code to play as her, and one specific character gets an upgrade (monk to hermit I believe if I remember correctly). There's even a bad ending you can get by sitting on the throne after you beat the false king (yes, you can elect to let the demons keep the king and take his kingdom for yourself, lol). Unknown to most people, it has a Super-CD sequel, Dungeon Explorer II. It's a great game and it's definitely worth getting if you can find it.

One of my personal favorites is Devil's Crush. It's one of the best pinball games around. It's unrealistic, it's got enemies on the board that move around and such, and many bonus levels where you take on 5-headed hydras, chanting demonic priests, giant skulls, etc. It's predecessor Alien Crush is pretty fun as well, but it's always Devil's Crush I took with me when I had a working Turbo Express (too bad it gave out on me, fortunately e-mulator for PSP emulates it well). Oddly, the Japanese version, Devil's Crash, is in English just like the US version. The sole difference is that in the US version, the star at the top of the board has 8 points, in the Japanese version it only has 5. Apparently there was some concern about how parents here would react to the presence of a giant rotating pentagram on the board (these days, it's not so much of a big deal).

There's a couple of side-scrolling platforming series I had fun with as well. Bonk and Legendary Axe. Bonk was NEC's mascot. Their equivalent to a Mario or Sonic. Bonk's Adventure, Bonk's Revenge, and Bonk 3 are all great, a bit on the easy side, but fun. As for Legendary Axe, it doesn't have some cute cartoon mascot, it's just a great little side scrolling adventure with perfect controls. It's a bit like your more traditional style Castlevanias but the game it's most similar to is Actraiser (without the strategy parts). It actually looks very similar to Astyanax, but fortunately it plays much better. There's also the unforgettable Splatterhouse in the side-scroller department. You play this Jason-looking-like hero fighting off hordes of the undead with your fists, a two-by-four, chainsaw, shotgun, whatever you can manage to grab. But it's known primarily for it's gore factor. It's far from being a great side-scroller.

Street Fighter II actually plays well on the Turbografx. I recommend using a SuperGrafx if you have one though. It seems to be a hybrid cart just like Darius Plus is. The music sounds much more authentic when played on the SGX than on my Core Grafx. Also, I've noticed that if you're using two-button controllers, the start button will pause the game when you're playing it on the SGX, it won't when you're playing it on the Turbografx or Core Grafx. Not that you want to use the two-button controllers to play it, if you don't have a couple of Avenue Pad six-button controllers, you can't really appreciate the high quality of this port. But this does seem to indicate a difference in the code being executed by the SGX.

There's a funny Street Fighter II rip-off called Strip Fighter II that I feel needs special mentioning. All the fighters are female. There's one girl that fights with a whip, there's one that uses an attack where she spins with her boobs hanging out. When you win, you get to see your opponent topless after the first round, and completely nude the second time, though sometimes they aren't that revealing (let's just say they may be naked but they don't tend to spread their legs, if I remember correctly). For obvious reasons, this game never made it to the US.

Lastly, I want to draw your attention to one truly fascinating little innovation that I discovered. While the TG16 didn't get many great franchises, there's a certain not-so-spectacular one I would like to draw to your attention to. Final Lap Twin contains a quite unique innovation. It could have been nothing more than an excellent port of a merely average arcade racer. But they did something special here. They added something called quest mode. What's is it, you ask? Well, it's a Dragon Warrior clone where you race your enemies instead of fighting them! And use the money to buy better engines and tires instead of swords and armor. There's nothing else quite like it. It was a nice surprise at the time. I just thought I was getting a racing game with two-player split screen mode (and actually, those were quite uncommon at the time this came out, the only other racing game I had at all was Rad Racer). Then I find this free bonus RPG. Talk about added value. Sure, it sounds odd mixing racing and RPGs, but just try it, it's actually quite fun. It would be the oddest combination I've ever seen if I didn't also own Guardian Legend for the NES (which is one part action RPG and one part shoot-em-up, very well executed and highly recommended alsol).

I don't recommend getting any of these using VC though. For one thing they're overpriced. Especially since you could get a flash cart if you know where to look. They're not going to be the same, and I've heard the emulator for TG16 is especially substandard. So, you might want to get a real TurboDuo from E-bay. I can guarantee you Bonk will not play authentically without the turbo switches. I've played Bonk on countless emulators and it just isn't the same. Sure, you could leave the II button on turbo for the entire game, though there are bosses you're better off diving at than spinning towards, and there's some special attacks like head-butting the ground when powered up to freeze enemies, that you're going to miss out on. The mechanic of flicking the switch on the jump button to start climbing once you've latched on with your teeth is lost completely though. Moving your finger over to a "turbo" button just doesn't have the same feel to it. While you can have separate "turbo on" buttons set up to mimic the behavior (and should for this game), that can lead to some awkward transitions between turbo and non-turbo buttons. Anyway, the point is, it just doesn't play the same. This is one system you just don't want to emulate if you can get the real thing.