Order of the Griffon and Beyond Shadowgate are much more significant than Mr Heli or Gomola Speed. Beyond Shadowgate also represents most of the things you tried to cover and is a much better example of a game that couldn't be done on other 16-bit consoles.
Well, primarily, these lists are effected by
personal preferences, even when trying to include a variety of games.
Personally, I'm just not impressed with either Order of the Griffon or Beyond Shadowgate.
I wasn't particularly impressed with ICOM's Amiga games, or Dungeon Master on the Amiga/ST.
So, no, I definitely wouldn't put either of them on a retrospective collection.
But something like Mr Heli, is actually fun to play, and pretty to look at, as well as being an arcade game that wasn't ported to any other 16-bit console.
If you're going to try covering enough genres to either please everyone or represent the PC Engine, you missed out on most of them. What makes the library unique, is the kinds of unique or so-called hybrid games and the types of games which aren't popular in English speaking markets are particularly significant. The platform is known for its variety and you could assemble 20 different types of games which are as different from one another as the few genres which you chose are from each other.
Which is basically just saying that these lists are
personal.
Your list was chocked full of RPGs, ARPGs and Digital Comics, and really didn't even slightly try to include a balance of games.
That's OK, but it's funny that you're complaining at me for failing to be balanced-enough when you weren't even being balanced-at-all.
Daimakaimura is a sloppy production, makes poor use of both the base PCE hardware as well as what the SuperGrafx adds and is a far worse port than so many other PCE games. Also, like half of the games you chose, you can play it on other platforms.
Sure, it's not perfect. But, I believe, it's seen as arguably the best of the 16-bit ports of the game.
One aspect of the PCE, was that it was an excellent platform for arcade ports ... so I included some.
By the very nature of that, some other consoles will have got ports of those games. But I tried to pick ones that were iconic and still fun to play.
AFAIK, and I could be wrong, the only games on my list that were available on other 16-bit consoles were Ys I & II, R-Type, Parodius Da!, Daimakaimura, and Lords of Thunder.
And the PCE versions were pretty-much the "classic" versions of those games at the time.
Both R-Type and Ys I & II were marquee titles that helped sell the console and the CD add-on.
Parodius is a debatable choice for a horizontal shooter, but I just find it more interesting than picking any of Konami's or Taito's other standard horizontal arcade shooters.
And you've just got to include Lords of Thunder in a PCE compilation.
Which leaves Daimakaimura. Yep, that's a very debatable choice for a platformer, but I can't think of any others with it's kind of history, looks and appeal.
Although many RPG fans can appreciate games like Ys and Legend of Xanadu, which include RPG elements, you're going to leave them feeling shorted by not including proper RPGs which provide the main elements they're looking for. Anearth Fantasy Stories does pretty much every aspect of a traditional JRPG unconventionally or not at all and Private Eyedoll is a digi-comic/adventure/detective game.
Again, the list is personal, and I don't like traditional random-encounter RPGs. IMHO, they're boring, and haven't aged well.
Ys I & II is iconic ... it's just got to be in a PCE collection, despite the fact that it's not the prettiest or deepest RPG on the system.
The LoX games are there because they're PCE-exclusive, Falcom's first console games, and absolutely excellent, with LoX2 being one of the prettiest RPG games on the PCE.
Anearth is there because it is stunningly beautiful, and Hudson's last RPG on the system. And there's some of that battle-menu stuff to appeal to traditional RPG players. I *believe* that it's considered to be a bit better than the Saturn version, too.
Private Eye Dol is just plain beautiful, and I'm a sucker for graphics. As a digital-comic, it represents another kind of game that was on the PCE.
SamIAm has told me that it also has a really fun and well-written story, at-least for the 1st section. And I trust his judgement and taste.
But if you're also choosing a selection of games for Europe which are English heavy, why include them at all? And if you are, doesn't that make North American exclusive versions of games like Ys I & II (with oscar nominted voice acting and professional localization) all the more significant and worth a damn?
First ... huh? Ys I & II wasn't a North American Exclusive. It was a localization of the Japanese game.
And I included it.
This is all a fantasy ... so the European release of the "mini" gets the localized releases of the games that were translated and available in the US.
And because it's a fantasy, the upcoming translated versions of the LoX and Anearth games get included, too.
If Nintendo can dust off and drag out the unreleased Star Fox 2, then I think that it's fair that we can include fan-translations for the European release of the PCE Mini.
Private Eye Dol is definitely a problem when it comes to having an English version available, but screw-it, it's so beautiful, and the Europeans were used to getting grey-imported games that they couldn't understand, so I'm breaking my own "rules"! :-"
Regardless of whether or not you're choosing 3.5 random genres to fill, how can you omit the single most iconic, best-on-system, exclusive that you just couldn't play anywhere else?
Of course there's room to bump out one or two of the games that are in my list, if I could think of better replacements.
What game would that be?
Topic: PC Engine Mini coming to Jipang only in 2018!! (Read 1151 times)
