The DEFINITIVE Duo Buyer's Guide!

[runinruder]

Don't be misled by Duo-hating dopes!  Reviewing phenom Zig, PCEFX moderator Keranu, and the always useless Ruder have put together this amazing Buyer's Guide so you can feel confident in your purchases.  We played and completed every game listed here, just like the pros at EGM!

(Games rated from one to five stars, with no "half-star" ratings)

BLAZING LAZERS
Zig: ** Not a serious shooter, but clean kitschy fun.
Keranu: **** Man, I could use halves.
Ruder: ***** Annihilates the weak and pitiful Space Megaforce.

BONK'S ADVENTURE
Zig: *** Pretty good for a Legendary Axe rip-off.
Keranu: **** for Bonk.
Ruder: ***** When I think of Bonk, I think, "GATE of THUN-DAH!"

COSMIC FANTASY 2
Zig: ** A nice game to remember.  Not a nice game to play.
Keranu: **** With some touch ups, this could have been the perfect game.
Ruder: ***** My favorite traditional-style Duo RPG.

DEVIL'S CRUSH
Zig: **** Fun bonus rounds and full-screen graphics make this the best.
Keranu: ***** As good as it gets for video pinball.
Ruder: **** Much better than the ugly Genesis version.

DRAGON KNIGHT II
Zig: **** Dungeoncrawling with naked women -- better than Wizardry.
Keranu: *** What Double Dungeons could've been.
Ruder: ***** What a surprise at the end!

EMERALD DRAGON
Keranu: *** No comment
Zig: ***** Screw Keranu.
Ruder: **** Great music, annoying battles towards the end.

EXILE
Zig: *** I love the naked dancing women.
Keranu: **** Extra special to me!
Ruder: *** Nothing special about it.

FINAL ZONE II
Zig: * Two cool songs don't save it from sucking.
Keranu: ** The slap scene is worth buying alone.
Ruder: ** Forget the vocals, I play this for the action.  ...

JJ & JEFF
Zig: * Fart jokes are for SNES fans.  And I'm too cool for US versions.
Keranu: ***** Hoser-rama fun.
Ruder: * Nice voices.

LAST ALERT
Zig: **** Fun to play, fun to laugh with.
Keranu: **** 80's cinema action brought to the Turbo
Ruder: **** Forget the voices, the game RULES.

THE LEGENDARY AXE
Zig: *** Nice idea, but cheap challenges.
Keranu: **** I like the cheap challenges.  
Ruder: ***** There are no cheap challenges!

MACROSS 2036
Zig: *** Nice music, decent graphics.
Keranu: ***** Badass.
Ruder: ***** The girl is cute when she likes your gun.  

MONSTER LAIR
Zig: ** Inferior to the Genesis version.
Keranu: *** Rockin!
Ruder: ** I feel like I'm in Oregon when I play this.

NIGHT CREATURES
Zig: * Crap.
Keranu: ** The second star for good concept.
Ruder: ***** Like El Viento, but even better!

NINJA SPIRIT
Zig: ** Once awesome, but badly aged.
Keranu: *** A very brave game.
Ruder: **** Kills Revenge of Shinobi.

PUYO PUYO CD
Zig: **** Cutesy puzzler that crushed later efforts, such as Implode^.
Keranu: * Better off when released in America.
Ruder: ***** The music rules when you get to the elephant guy.

^ - Implode ---- * Substandard puzzler that was crushed by Puyo Puyo CD.

SAPPHIRE
Zig: ***** Beautiful in every sense of the word.
Keranu: **** Would be five if it didn't have two extremely slow ass characters.
Ruder: **** A star for every hundred bucks.  Fair deal!

SHAPE SHIFTER
Zig: ***** Eats babies alive.
Keranu: ***** Crybabies can die.
Ruder: ***** The crybaby killer.

SHUBIBINMAN 3
Zig: ***** Explosive if sloppy, this game never fails to bring a smile.
Keranu: *** Fun, but feels unfinished.
Ruder: ***** Parade of insanity.

SILENT DEBUGGERS
Zig: **** Spawned the survival horror genre.
Keranu: ** Great use of stereo sound for gameplay, but is played once in a lifetime.
Ruder: * Like a first-person Ghost Manor.

SPLASH LAKE
Zig: * Kiddie games belong on Gamecube.
Keranu: *** Something new and challenging.
Ruder: ** Not cute.  Not fun.

SPRIGGAN
Zig: ***** Faster, harder, and slicker than I remembered.
Keranu: *** Great graphics, music, and weapon concept, but concept didn't quite work out.
Ruder: ***** Annihilates the weak and pitiful MUSHA.

VIGILANTE
Zig: **** Manages to out-do the venerable River City.
Keranu: ** Ugh.
Ruder: ** HIYAMA!

YS BOOK I & II
Zig: *****  Ryo Yonemitsu provides the best soundtrack for the best version of Falcom's classic.
Keranu: ***** Of course.
Ruder: ***** CRUSHES Ys 4.  

YS III
Zig: ** Sidescrolling killed the series.
Keranu: **** Good if you can train your eyes to ignore the parallax.
Ruder: **** Great rock music!

YS IV
Zig: *** Not a bad game, but vastly overrated by Japanophiles who think they're cool.
Keranu: ***** Just as good as I & II.
Ruder: ** The feel ain't there and the soundtrack is very disappointing.

More on the way!

[Keranu]

T3 rules .

[TR0N]

Ys III such a filler title still i love it's ost.

[Keranu]

I'm sorry, but what the heck does "filler" mean?

[Joe Redifer]

It fills you up like a Chipotle burrito!

[Keranu]

If that's the case, then that's a pretty accurate description of Ys III.

[esteban]

I love Zig, and of course I take these things for what they are, but I'm just curious about this:

MONSTER LAIR
Zig: ** Inferior to the Genesis version.
Keranu: *** Rockin!
Ruder: ** I feel like I'm in Oregon when I play this.

In what way? This game is fantastic on TG-CD. Kicks ass. I never played the original game in the actual arcade, but I have spent hours playing it on MAME. The TG-CD version holds its own and then some (I assume the emulation in MAME is competent). Of course, I own the Genny/MegaDrive cart as well, but I would never characterize it as superior to the TG-CD version.

Tell me where I went wrong?

[Keranu]

Zig's probably just trolling . The TGCD version is fantastic and the best version by far just from the music alone.

[ParanoiaDragon]

BLAZING LAZERS
PD ***** Absolutly classic shoot em' up, I love Compile!

BONK'S ADVENTURE
PD **** Not my favorite Bonk, but a great game I never tired of.

COSMIC FANTASY 2
PD ***** First video game to make me cry, that's how good it is.

DEVIL'S CRUSH
PD * Doesn't really do anything for me, bring me Alien Crush, that's my game!

DRAGON KNIGHT II
PD ** Seems ok, but haven't taken alot of time to play it

EMERALD DRAGON
PD **** From what little I've played, it seem REALLY good.

EXILE
PD **** Really well done, but, too short & easy

FINAL ZONE II
PD *** Really good game, great music, crappy voice acting, too hard for my liking.

JJ & JEFF
PD * Meh, never did anything for me.

LAST ALERT
PD***** Love, love, LOVE this game!  The voice acting is great for laughs(just wait until Next Alert!), good music, great, GREAT gameplay.  Love the exp system.  Really fun, right up there with Bloody Wolf in my book!

THE LEGENDARY AXE
PD **** Great game, music, graphics, but way too hard.

MACROSS 2036
PD **** Very well done, really fun, a little on the easy side, but still great!

MONSTER LAIR
PD **** Love this game, almost perfect, missing just the paralax, but the soundtrack makes up for it(sorry Odonadon....atleast I think it was you who hates the soundtrack)

NIGHT CREATURES
PD * Ugh, it gets a star for having paralax.  The gameplay is terrible.  It's way to hard(but beatable), too short(thankfully), music is absolutly horrendous.  Blech!

NINJA SPIRIT
PD ***** Classic game, continues to be classic!  

PUYO PUYO CD
PD *** Great puzzle game.

SAPPHIRE
PD **** Not THE best shooter on the Turbo, but, graphically wonderful, 2 players, rockin' music.  It IS a great game!

SHAPE SHIFTER
PD *** Great idea, good music, decent gameplay, ridiculous difficulty, lame save/load situation(not sure how else to word it)

SHUBIBINMAN 3
PD **** Wonderful game, but way too short.

SILENT DEBUGGERS
PD * Not my cup of tea.  BBBBBBOooooooring.

SPLASH LAKE
PD ***** Cute?  Since when is a smoking log, & a bird pooping to kill you cute?  It's wierd.  And incredibly addictive!  One of those games, that some people who aren't THAT much into games, get addicted to(I'm speaking from experience from my friends)

SPRIGGAN
PD ***** Awesome, great music, great gameplay, great weapon system, I love Comile!

VIGILANTE
PD *** It's ok, one of my first Turbo games, so, it holds a little something in my heart

YS BOOK I & II
PD ****** Extra star for various things, like, the fact that some of the voice actors voice Transformers!  And that fact that this game, started a passion in me.  

YS III
PD **** Great game, too short, uses a different battle system.  Still, I've played thru it many times.  HORRIBLE voice acting.  Incredible music!

YS IV
PD ****** Best Ys next to Oath in Felghana!  Not cannon in the true story of Ys, but, way better then that mess that was Mask of the Sun.  Thank you Hudason!

[TR0N]

I'm sorry, but what the heck does "filler" mean?

Not complete just made up to please the fans.

[Keranu]

Ahh, I gotcha. Thanks.

[AlexKidd]

Ah, this is a great list to have on here. I agree with a lot of ruder's opinions. I've bought and enjoyed quite a few games based on his reviews of them.

[TR0N]

Ahh, I gotcha. Thanks.

For that matter i feel IV puts III to shame.