PCE Shooters are the best

[Keranu]

This is a great thread and one I wholeheartedly agree with. Turbo/PCE forever!

I always used to hate shoot 'em ups, until I encountered the PC Engine.

Same here! Though the one two shooters that really, really got me into the genre were Gate of Thunder and Lords of Thunder. When I first played GoT, I didn't think much of it since I wasn't really into shooters at that point, but once I saw Level 5 - Crown being played in a Duo promo in episode three of PCEFXTV, I was blown away and knew I had to play it more. Then Lords came around and rocked my world too and at the same time I was becoming more interested in all the other shooters I briefly played.

[Keranu]

Don't forget gate Of Thunder. Lights off, Volume up... the blissness! 

Awesome quote! I need to save that (yeah I'm a nerd and save posts like this ).

[Necromancer]

The PC Engine certainly has the greatest collection of awesome shmups, though there's quite a few gems on the Genesis and SNES as well.  Much like sunteam, I wasn't much of a shooter fan prior to getting a Duo and Gate of Thunder; since then, I've been hooked through the bag like a heroin addict.

[Tatsujin]

lol..i always ask my self, why the hell of all 8/16bit systems exactly the '87 PCE is the action queen? she came out exactly 1yr (plus 2 days) before the MD and more than 3yrs before the SFC, which is a big gap of time. but she beats em all!!

[Lord Thag]

i always ask my self, why the hell of all 8/16bit systems exactly the '87 PCE is the action queen? she came out exactly 1yr (plus 2 days) before the MD and more than 3yrs before the SFC, which is a big gap of time. but she beats em all!!

Yeah, me too. The PCE/TG16 single handedly lured me back into 16 bit gaming. Genesis was ok, but the colors are washed out, and the sound is terrible. The SNES was prettier, but I dislike (and still do) the types of games that Nintendo usually publishes. In short, I really didn't care about anything post Atari. Then, this summer, I lucked into about 75% of the TG16 library in one fell swoop. I had one, back in the day, but I picked it up only when Toys R Us was clearing them out, and I only had a couple of the less popular titles.

As I played all the games, I was simply astounded at how good many of them were, and how much faster (than snes) and prettier (than genesis) the games were, on average. There were a lot of original titles as well. I joined here, and you guys pointed me towards the PC Engine, and once I opened THAT door, well, the genie was definately out of the bottle. The NEC systems are firmly cemented as my favorite 16 bit systems of all time, hands down.

It's for several reasons too. First, regardless what the on-paper specs are, the Turbo/PCE just look way better on a real TV. The colors are bright and vibrant, and generally detailed. The sound is the best of the era too. Sure, SNES had more on paper, and the geny had that 'FM' sound chip, but neither of them, on average, sounds as good. I couldn't tell you why. The other (huge) advantage the Turbo has is speed. It runs laps around the snes, and while the geny is on par speed wise, it's ugly in comparison. Combine that with a huge library of fantastic japanese-only games, and more shooters than you can count, and it's no accident that the TG16 reigns supreme in it's era. I also find it holds up today far better than the other two, due to the large number of ooriginal games and shooters.

And collecting the japanese games is uncharted territory. Several hundred games I've never played or seen, and that, is a wonderful thing

[Keranu]

I consider the Turbo to be the mix of Genesis and SNES, both technically and gamely: Turbo has the speed of the Genesis and the colors of the SNES; Turbo has the action of Genesis games and the roleplaying of SNES games.