Coryoon

~ CORYOON ~

Naxat Soft

HuCard

1991

The tiny dragon who stars in this sidescrolling shooter is one of the most immediately appealing underdog-type characters I've ever come across. The "little guy against the odds" element combined with cute voices and beautiful parallax endeared the title to me right off the bat. Things got even better when I became acquainted with the young fire-breather's enemies, which include gorgeous, fantastical creatures like unicorns and hippogriffs along with blue-collar types like giant snakes and furious lobsters. There's also a cutesy mini-stegosaur and a disgruntled turtle with a detachable crystal shell.

But there are things that people might take issue with too. Like most "chunky sprite" shooters, Coryoon can feel sloppy, a feeling that's frequently exacerbated by the screen being overloaded with icons, enemies, and projectiles. Despite the sprite spattering, your foes have almost no chance to win, as the game is beyond generous with the amount of extra lives it hands out. The graphics, while heavy on scrolling effects, are fairly basic in spots and fail to match the level of detail found in the visuals of Coryoon's close cousin, Air Zonk. The music also falls into the "nice, but not in AZ's league" category.

But while I'm certainly not one to excuse sloppy gameplay or lack of difficulty, I honestly feel that to bemoan those issues in this case would be to miss the point. I've played through the game many, many times, as its wonderful charm that so engaged me initially has actually held up through subsequent visits. Its bosses have proven to be enjoyable sparring partners, and its flood of fruits and flashy adversaries always keeps me on the move and eager to accumulate as many points as possible while preserving my capped-out stock of lives. It feels like a chaotic blast of fun rather than a clunky slopfest or an overly easy jaunt. And while Coryoon may be inferior aesthetically to HuCard-marvel Air Zonk, I still enjoy visiting its orange skies and lavender caverns and listening to its pleasant tunes (a few of which have quite an edge to them and remind me of certain Thunder Force III tracks). In fact, the game has proven to be even more enjoyable than AZ for me.

Whether or not there's enough enjoyment to be had with this chip for folks to shell out ninety bucks for it is another issue entirely. But this does seem to be a game that prospective buyers can find a nice deal on if they're patient; mine cost a tidy thirty dollars, and honestly, if I had paid more than that, I believe I'd still feel that it was money well spent. If people are willing to cough up hundreds for crap like Magical Chase, surely they should reserve a place in their budget for this little gem. Highly recommended!

This bum plays a pretty mean trick on you.

Now it's one little dude against the universe.

Explore blue ocean depths while slaying grinning serpents and angry lobster guys...

...and then take to bright orange skies to face maniacal birds and magnificent hippogriffs.

Not every strip is remarkable visually, but each maintains a high level of onscreen activity.

The turtle is my favorite, but the other boss creatures are pretty cool too.

Some mini-bosses are a lot more aggressive than others.

It's that mean bum again. Now, take your revenge...

Davis Cup Tennis

~ DAVIS CUP TENNIS ~

Loriciel / NEC

HuCard

1991

When I was a kid, I really enjoyed watching and playing tennis, so I made sure to pick up both Davis Cup and World Court. I've never liked WC, as I absolutely hate its gameplay, but DC has always been good fun. I really appreciate the relatively realistic action and presentation elements that it offers. I also get a kick out of ascending through the ranks, improving my attributes, and playing at Grand Slam events against "real" players of the time (it doesn't take a genius to figure out who "Ivan," "Boris," "Mats," "John," and "Jimmy" are meant to represent, and even lesser players from the era, like "Aaron," are included).

Over the years, I've heard numerous complaints about the game, most of which concern the alleged infallibility of the computer-controlled players. Sour faced and defeated, the complainers speak of situations where rallies never ended because the opposition never blundered. I think that most of the folks who voice such grievances haven't read the instruction manual. It's true that if you play a lower-ranked opponent and simply swat the ball back and forth with him, any given shot sequence may prove interminable. But DC allows you to use so many different shot types and techniques that rallies should never degenerate into such ridiculous affairs. And as you rise through the ranks, the computer-controlled players begin utilizing different techniques and strategies themselves.

If anything, it's a bit too easy to storm through tournaments and ascend to #1. But even if you eventually find one-player events unfulfilling, two-player mode should still make for great fun.

You can partake in various training exercises to build certain attributes, but your player's abilities are actually adequate right at the start.

Plenty of options involving court surface, number of players, and other such things are available.

Some players, like "John," love to charge the net and will try to serve-and-volley you to death. Lob the ball over their heads.

Other bums hang back by the base line and play conservatively. Charge the net yourself and surprise them with a drop shot.

IvaNEC meets Ivan... and wins in convincing fashion.

Batman

~ BATMAN ~

Sunsoft

HuCard

1990

PCE Batman is ridiculed quite often these days. People mock its overhead-view "rat in a maze" gameplay and bemoan the fact that it isn't a sidescroller. But back in the day, Electronic Gaming Monthly actually lauded the effort, making it one of the PC Engine titles I most wanted to play at the time. More-recent reports tempered my enthusiasm, as it seemed like the only good things about the game were its music and cinemas (and I can now say that it does indeed excel in those regards). But I'd always been curious about it, and I'd always believed that I would dig it.

The chip did not let me down. Sure, the scavenger-hunt-like action is repetitive (each and every board but the last has you do strange chores while dashing about a mini-maze), but I find it hard to stop playing once I get going. It's fun to scour the labyrinthine fields and slaughter or evade the villains. I get a kick out of the odd tasks that must be performed, like polishing paintings that look like a baby spat up on them. And I don't know why people make this out to be an overlong epic, as it's definitely conquerable in one sitting. There are forty-eight stages to play through, but they can all be beaten in short order. There's also a cool three-boss gauntlet at the very end.

I think the key to having fun with this game and avoiding the feeling that your mission is taking forever is, well, not to die very often. I probably sound daft with that remark, but when you use a continue, you lose the abilities you gained through powering up, which means Batman will revert back to his initial state as a vulnerable plodder who can toss only one slow, short-range batarang at a time. But you'll be deprived of the powers you've acquired only if you have to continue, not each time you lose a life. And if you can keep your bolstered speed and effective long-range weaponry, you'll get into a groove and probably find it hard to walk away from the game.

Yep, the cinemas are fantastic...

...but the gameplay itself is not to be slighted.

You'll have to complete a variety of strange tasks...

...but you won't get to operate any sleek bat-vehicles (contrary to what the cinemas might lead you to believe).

You will get to thump a few bosses, however.

Blazing Lazers

~ BLAZING LAZERS ~

Compile / Hudson Soft / NEC

HuCard

1989

The advent of 16-bit game consoles was marked by the lauding of impressive graphical work, but Blazing Lazers had no need to flaunt mind-blowing visuals, as it managed to make a name for itself with its then-unmatched speed and intensity. Indeed, shooters I'd played that hailed from arcades and the NES library did little to prepare me for what Compile's incredible vert had to offer. BL's pace was frantic; its enemy onslaught, relentless. Unequipped to deal with such high-level action, I at times found there to be so much transpiring onscreen that avoiding destruction seemed an impossibility. The demolishment of my ship stock played out in such exciting fashion that the wreckage-laden experience ended up being an utterly joyful one. There were many other players who came to know that same sense of joy, and BL was ultimately anointed a Turbo classic.

Of course, it's no secret at this point that the game has flaws. Its levels are too long, and it has players drift along through patches of dead space far too often. But I will say this: during its most dangerous stretches (the most harrowing of which are to be experienced in stages 7, 8, and 9), BL is more intense and thrilling than any other old-school vertical I've ever played. Yes, this is a seminal, dawn-of-16-bit blaster that's more exciting than the down-the-road likes of Sapphire, Spriggan, Sylphia, Nexzr, and Soldier Blade. It crushes all of them.

And it gets a bum rap as being an "easy" shooter, as its last few levels are genuinely tough. Area 7 is wild with its projectile counts, Area 8 fills the screen with its bubbles-and-beasts assault, and Area 9 sends enemies at you from every which way before presenting you with a string of large, vicious adversaries.

While it does take some time for BL's difficulty to ramp up significantly, don't for a minute believe that the early levels are utter throwaways. Area 3, with its bullet-spewing, pod-topped towers; Area 4, with its oddly allied brain beasts and eyeball creatures; and Area 5, with its pyramid-peak turrets and star-shot-blasting moai heads, all have more than enough action to keep most players constantly entertained. Only Area 6, with its dancing small-fry, seems like something of a waste, but good playing and smart icon snatching during that strip can set you up for success in the tougher stretches yet to come. The first two levels are space-outpost fare that, while having you deal with a fair share of adversarial activity, can drag on a bit, but the music is so amazing in both areas that I love playing through them anyway.

Actually, the game features awesome tunes from beginning to end, with intense rock numbers in stages 1, 4, 7, and 9; a beautiful flute-produced Area 2 melody; and cool abstract material such as the bubble level's dirge. And few other tunes get me quite as pumped up as BL's title-screen theme does.

As far as I'm concerned, Blazing Lazers still has that magic (not to mention the coolest shoot-'em-up weapon ever in Field Thunder), and after all these years, it still stands as my favorite vertical shooter for the TG-16.

Wreck steel contraptions and biobeasts alike.

Early bosses and midbosses fall rather easily...

...but the enemy really starts to mean business later on.

The pace picks up significantly once you reach Area 3.

Take on moai heads and a two-headed rock-dragon during the desert stage.

Field Thunder works well for annihilating the surprisingly robust bubbles. Actually, I stick with FT for most areas because it's powerful and it looks cool (which, of course, is extremely important)...

...but the other guns come in handy in certain situations. Wave-beam fire is faster and contains fewer gaps than slow-wending Thunderbolts, making it useful for disposing of Area 6's small, quick enemies, while Ring Blaster is invaluable in Area 9, where sneaky adversaries attack your flanks.

Witness the bizarre progression of the final battle.