I was so eager to play this a few years ago. I picked it up sealed really cheap.
Same here. I got it from that UK place that dumped a bunch of new Turbobs for le cheap (~$10), but it was a disappointment at any cost; the controls are just too turdy. The nice backdrops, neat magnifying glass effect, cool cut scenes, and funky tunes can't save it.
Holy crap! That must be the same person I bought from, too! I remember asking myself, "how did this many TG-16 games end up across the Atlantic?"
It doesn't make any sense
Even with the PAL TG-16, it doesn't make any sense.
Here in the UK we had two very small influxes of TurboGrafx games. The first by Telegames when they planned to release their PAL unit around 1990. Then later when the USA Duo unit was released some were imported here along with games. Around this time I bought the USA Duo and played Darkwing Duck amongst the other USA HuCard exclusive games, I was unimpressed so I sold it and went back to my beloved Japanese PC Engine.
There was zero interest here in the TurboGrafx, none of it sold at all, hence why the small amount we had in the country sat new unsold in a warehouse up until years later when eBay arrived it ended up on there.
Conversely when the Japanese PC Engine was released it was imported in large numbers and was very popular here. I think that's why Telegames thought their PAL TurboGrafx would work here because of the popularity of the PC Engine.
Even though it was a tiny amount I think the UK was the only European country that had TurboGrafx games.