My crazy 21th Anniversary Super Grafx Review

[DesmondThe3rd]

Alright, since it's the 21th year of the Super Grafx itself I figure I'll move my lips and see it anything meaningful comes out. I was pretty hard on the system but it was a review after all and I'm curious to hear other opinions on this PC Engine II here. Was it released too early? What are your favourite SG games or do you dislike them all? Is it underrated or does it deserve to be bash?

[Necromancer]

As much as I love all things Turbob, it's for collectors only; and being the goon that I am, I still want one.  As for its library - it's too small and generally not much of a step up from what the plain ol' PCE has to offer.  That doesn't mean that it deserves to be bashed, though, as it can still access the entire PCE library; just look at its five (and a half) titles as a bonus.

1941 - great port, awesome tunes, and not available from the competition
Aldynes - excellent shmup with detailed graphics, but it doesn't really look any better than the top tier PCE shooters
Battle Ace - mediocre into-the-screen shmup; slightly prettier than Afterburner II, but still a yawner
Ghouls 'n Ghosts - the best console port of the day (or second to the X68k if you consider that a console)
Granzort - decent action with nice backgrounds and lots of unrewarding exploration
Darius Plus/Alpha - good shootie but only marginally improved when played on the SG

[csgx1]

Good job on the review.

Damn, it's been 21 years since the Super Grafx was released?  I remember being really excited when one of the EGM magazines had a small bit about the Super Grafx before it came out.  From that day I swore I would someday get one.

That day has finally come ....I bought one this month that is being shipped from Japan.  Took me only 21 years to get a Super Grafx...lol.

[pixeljunkie]

As much as I love all things Turbob, it's for collectors only; and being the goon that I am, I still want one.  As for its library - it's too small and generally not much of a step up from what the plain ol' PCE has to offer.  That doesn't mean that it deserves to be bashed, though, as it can still access the entire PCE library; just look at its five (and a half) titles as a bonus.

1941 - great port, awesome tunes, and not available from the competition
Aldynes - excellent shmup with detailed graphics, but it doesn't really look any better than the top tier PCE shooters
Battle Ace - mediocre into-the-screen shmup; slightly prettier than Afterburner II, but still a yawner
Ghouls 'n Ghosts - the best console port of the day (or second to the X68k if you consider that a console)
Granzort - decent action with nice backgrounds and lots of unrewarding exploration
Darius Plus/Alpha - good shootie but only marginally improved when played on the SG

brilliantly put. I feel the same way. I actually just picked one up with all 5 games [plus Darius Plus] and it only got me wanting a Super CDRom2 to put on it...which I also got. Stupid PCE...taking all my money. But yeah, the games really don't stand out as anything that much better than PCE. Just play Soldier Blade and then try to move to Aldynes. However, I LOVE the color pallet on Aldynes.

[Vecanti]

Alright, since it's the 21th year of the Super Grafx itself I figure I'll move my lips and see it anything meaningful comes out. I was pretty hard on the system but it was a review after all and I'm curious to hear other opinions on this PC Engine II here. Was it released too early? What are your favourite SG games or do you dislike them all? Is it underrated or does it deserve to be bash?

Good review. You're very enthusiastic so it was fun to watch.   You made me realize I need a TurboGrafx shirt!

[Mathius]

Ever since seeing that infamous pic in EGM of the vaporware version of Strider for the SGX I have always dreamed of having one. IMO it's one of the all time coolest looking consoles ever to grace the planet. Maybe one day soon I will be lucky enough to own one of these collector's gems.

[SuperDeadite]

I love the SuperGrafx.  Aldynes is a weird game.  The first level is incredibly boring.  But the later
levels get better and better.  Really hard too.  The "sticky" level could make someone become
an alcoholic.

[DesmondThe3rd]

Good job on the review.

Damn, it's been 21 years since the Super Grafx was released?  I remember being really excited when one of the EGM magazines had a small bit about the Super Grafx before it came out.  From that day I swore I would someday get one.

That day has finally come ....I bought one this month that is being shipped from Japan.  Took me only 21 years to get a Super Grafx...lol.

Thanks for watching, it was EGM where I first saw it too and I couldn't wait to get it.

[DesmondThe3rd]

brilliantly put. I feel the same way. I actually just picked one up with all 5 games [plus Darius Plus] and it only got me wanting a Super CDRom2 to put on it...which I also got. Stupid PCE...taking all my money. But yeah, the games really don't stand out as anything that much better than PCE. Just play Soldier Blade and then try to move to Aldynes. However, I LOVE the color pallet on Aldynes.
[/quote]Yeah, buying these Super Grafx goodies really put a hurting on my wallet too but 1941, Aldynes, and Ghouls N' Ghosts show off nicely the powers the system had. Aldynes looks slightly better then Soldier Blade in my opinion but yeah, not by much.

[ceti alpha]

I don't think you were particularly hard on the sgx. Not too many here will bash on the short lived system, but I think most of us can agree that NEC did not think things through when marketing the console. It seems that any console in the NEC family with the surname "grafx" had marketing troubles.

[nat]

Personally, I think the SuperGrafx should've succeeded the white PCE/CoreGrafx line, which should have been discontinued. The backwards compatibility was already there. I mean, the SGX was just a CoreGrafx with an extra video processor. NEC made a huge mistake by "limping" the system out only to discontinue it. The Duo series should have been based on the SuperGrafx rather than the Cores also.

[rag-time4]

Alright, since it's the 21th year of the Super Grafx itself I figure I'll move my lips and see it anything meaningful comes out. I was pretty hard on the system but it was a review after all and I'm curious to hear other opinions on this PC Engine II here. Was it released too early? What are your favourite SG games or do you dislike them all? Is it underrated or does it deserve to be bash?

I think that Hudson and NEC could have had more success with teh SuperGrafx if they had invested more in producing more games for it. It's a real shame that they never produced any SuperGrafx CD games....

[ceti alpha]

Personally, I think the SuperGrafx should've succeeded the white PCE/CoreGrafx line, which should have been discontinued. The backwards compatibility was already there. I mean, the SGX was just a CoreGrafx with an extra video processor. NEC made a huge mistake by "limping" the system out only to discontinue it. The Duo series should have been based on the SuperGrafx rather than the Cores also.

That would have been awesome. Maybe it was a cost issue? I guess we'll never know for sure the reasoning behind that decision. One thing is for certain: NEC's North America marketing department would have decided that we don't like awesome platformers and kept Ghouls 'n Ghosts from our shores.

[nat]

I can't imagine cost being a big factor. I think we are talking three additional ICs, tops, over what the CoreGrafx series has.

[rag-time4]

I wonder how Street Fighter II' would have looked on SGX as opposed to teh PCE