Retro game review: Devil's Crush (TurboGrafx-16)
One of the first early hits on the TurboGrafx-16 was the Alien-inspired pinball game Alien Crush. It took what was a stale genre and turned it on its head by introducing a theme that saturated every nook and cranny of the pinball experience.
The positive reception of Alien Crush sent the team back to crank out a sequel, which they delivered to us in 1990 in the form of Devil’s Crush, a game that improved on Alien Crush in every possible way. Let’s dig in.
Gameplay
At first glance, Devil’s Crush appears to be a standard video pinball simulation, but once you see it in action you realize that its something special. The table is filled with skulls, unholy-looking symbols, monsters and a dark, gothic theme. Creatures pour out of holes in the table and walk around in set patterns. An evil woman’s face adorns the middle of the table and slowly transforms into a reptile as you hit certain goals on the board.
The table features three screens and your ball is dropped into the middle screen from the ball chute. If the ball falls through the flippers in the middle screen, it drops to the bottom screen where you have to protect the ball at all costs to prevent it from falling through the final set of flippers. The ball physics are great and feel realistic, and you have the option to nudge the table to bump the ball when needed though you will inevitably tilt if you use this feature too much.
Like I mentioned before, the table features an overwhelming number of targets to shoot at, like skulls, demons, hooded figures, caskets, skeletons and more. For a game that features just three screens, it really never gets old since there’s so much going on.
If you manage to trigger the right conditions, various gates open up that take you to bonus stages where you have to complete a variety of challenges, from killing a multi-headed dragon to killing multiple skeleton warriors. If you complete the bonus stages, you get a big score boost, but losing your ball in these stages only ends the bonus stage and dumps you back into the main table.
Presentation
Devil’s Crush is simply a great looking game. There’s a high amount of detail in the sprites and backgrounds, with dark colors and well-drawn graphics. There’s a lot of animation going in all the time, from the marching monsters to spinning sigils Everything is well-designed and fits the dark, gothic, evil theme this game exudes.
The real star of the game is the soundtrack. The main theme is, in my opinion, one of the top 5 themes of the 16 bit generation. The dark, haunting soundtrack is simply amazing and something I would listen separate from the game. Its just amazing and it plays for several minutes before looping. Take a listen and tell me this isn’t one of the greatest themes of the era:
This soundtrack is simply amazing!
Verdict
Devil’s Crush is simply the best video pinball game I’ve ever played. The table is overflowing with style and confidence and the theme saturates the entire experience. If you have a TG-16, this is a must-own game. It currently sells for about $50 loose or $75 complete, so its not a cheap game but definitely worth it if you’re a fan of the genre or the horror theme. There was a port of the game released on the Genesis/Mega Drive as Dragon’s Fury/Devil Crash and sells for far less, but its inferior to the original on the TG-16. If you have the means, pick the up the real deal.
Score 9.5/10
This was one of the games that got me to notice the Turbo Grafx-16 back in the day. There just wasn't much that could compare to it on the NES (SNES wasn't out yet) or the Sega Genesis. This and Splatterhouse were interesting releases in my opinion (though they did water down Splatterhouse versus the arcade version).
Splatterhouse is the game that made me beg for a TG-16 for Christmas 1990. I played that game extensively, and eventually picked up about 10 or so games for my TG-16, which is more than I eventually owned on my SNES. I never experienced the arcade version, but I have seen where it was toned down for the home console market.
While I owned Alien Crush back in the day, I've never actually owned Devil's Crush. I played it on the Wii Virtual Console for this review, which is the only game I ever bought from the Virtual Console since I'm a collector. I just had an itch to play it a few years ago and didn't want to shell out $50-$75 at the time to buy a physical copy.
I'll have to do a Splatterhouse review in the future, since it was a system seller game for myself. Sadly, I decided to sell all my TG16 games about ten years ago (including my complete AND BOXED copy of Splatterhouse) but I played it extensively through the 90's and its burned into my brain well enough to do a review. Much like I can play Back to the Future in my head because I've watched it so many times.
I remember reading about Splatterhouse in mags back in the day and thinking to myself that it was never coming here. Then I saw it on the shelves of Thriftway, local store thay was like Kmart, in that they carried a lot of stuff. I didnt have a Turbo Grafx-16 but i wanted one really bad at that point. So yeah, I know the feeling of wanting it based on this game.
NEC did a lot right but so much wrong too.
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