Download (TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine)

darth-azrael (66)in #retrogaming • 5 years ago (edited)

http://www.megalextoria.com/wordpress/index.php/2019/10/07/download-turbografx-16/

There's no doubt that the TurboGrafx-16 was by far the most underrated console of the 16-bit era. For various reasons, only a small percentage of the game released for that system made it to North America. The system had a much longer life and many, many more games in Japan. Download is one of those.

The TurboGrafx-16 was known for its side-scrolling shooters as much as any genre. Download is a cyberpunk themed shooter with elements reminiscent of other popular cyberpunk works of the time like the earlier Neuromancer and Akira. While the plot doesn't matter a whole lot, this one reminds me a little of the plot of Ready Player One. Essentially you are fighting criminal organizations in the cyber world via your flying motorcycle which also acts as a terminal.

Game play is excellent and so are the graphics. Levels consist of "real world" locations along with more abstract cyberspace locations. As is common with these shooters, there are plenty of weapons and enemies. Since this is a Japan only release, cut scenes are in Japanese so it may not be entirely obvious what is going on in terms of the story. This isn't really that big of a deal though and the game itself isn't difficult to play because of the language barrier.

The good news is that it isn't too hard to play a PC Engine game on a TurboGrafx-16. All that is required is a relatively simple adapter. Unfortunately, the price for Japanese import games is often quite high and this one is no exception. However, like most retro systems, this one is easily emulated so if you are content with that then all those games that were never released in North America are at your fingertips today.