Did the TG16 have too many shmups?

[guyjin]

So, looking at the Turbo Magazine archive, I noticed a "top 10" list of games for the TG16 as of June, 1990.
http://archives.tg-16.com/archive-one/TP-02-07.jpg
They were, in order:

Bonk's Adventure(platformer)
Double Dungeon(RPG)
Legendary Axe(platformer)
Taking it to the hoop(sports)
Cyber Core(shmup)
Neutopia(adventure)
King of Casino(gambling)
Dungeon Explorer(adventure)
World Class Baseball(sports)
Millitary Madness(strategy)

Note that only one of those is a shmup.

From that list, we can tell that the tastes of early turbo fans were highly questionable (taking it to the hoop? king of casino? seriously?) But we can also see that they wanted platformers, adventure games, and RPGs.

Given this, did NEC/TTi spend too much time on Shmups, when they should have been porting RPGs?

[chany60126]

NEC/TTI surely must have brought over so many shmups since they didn't have to do much translating in the first place, which is not a bad thing in my book since I love that genre. But yeah, a few more J-RPGs would have been much appreciated.

[Black Tiger]

How many shooters had even been released by then?

That list doesn't look like a proper top ten anyways, with the sports titles included. It looks like they tried to do a balanced list simply of 10 games with some variety.

Given this, did NEC/TTi spend too much time on Shmups, when they should have been porting RPGs?

They should've just stuck to quality over quantity and only brought over the better games, no matter how much slower the process or lower the overall number of titles would've been. They also shouldn't have funded any crappy original games.

[nectarsis]

RPG's were still pretty niche at that time...plus the fact they would have taken longer, and  even more of their meager funds to translate, it prob wouldn't have changed much.

[DragonmasterDan]

I think the shmups were a self fulfilling prophecy, people bought the Turbo because it had lots of shmups, the shmups sold well on the system which led to more shmups being localized.

[Arkhan]

I think they just picked shit out of a hat, and got really unlucky.

Noone in their right frigging mind would have neglected some of the games they did.

[guyjin]

How many shooters had even been released by then?

http://www.pcedaisakusen.net/2/27/list-games--2-0-100-year-asc-50.htm
By my count, at least 9, and probably closer to 12.

That list doesn't look like a proper top ten anyways, with the sports titles included. It looks like they tried to do a balanced list simply of 10 games with some variety.

it looks like a top 10 games in sales list to me. I am frequently mystified by gamers' tastes, and this is no exception.

They should've just stuck to quality over quantity and only brought over the better games, no matter how much slower the process or lower the overall number of titles would've been. They also shouldn't have funded any crappy original games.

Won't argue with you there.

[Black Tiger]

it looks like a top 10 games in sales list to me. I am frequently mystified by gamers' tastes, and this is no exception.

So early after the launch, whichever games just happened to be available anywhere anyone lived likely influenced the sales numbers the most.

I think that many of the games released in 1990 wouldn't have been released yet or had only been available for a short time. But looking at what is listed for 1989, half of them actually are shooters. I think that shooters is a great genre to be heavy in, since they tended to be proportionately more reliable for enjoyment (to me anyway) than most other genres at the time, which were mostly experimental o early in the new generation.

If they had brought over all the HuCard RPG/Adventure'ish games that were released before 1990, it might have included:

Bikkuriman World
Necromancer
War of the Dead
Shada
Susa No Ou Densetsu
Benkei Gaiden


Although I would've been happy, I don't think that most other Turbo fans would've rather had these games in place of any of the shooters that were or weren't brought over instead.

[Arkhan]

if the turbo would have had more RPGs, it would have done way better against the Genesis and SNES.

The strictly US library can't really compete with Phantasy Star 2,3 and 4, Shining Force 1 and 2, Vay, Popful Mail, Lunar 1 and 2, Traysia, a M&M game, D&D, Super Hydlide, Sword of Vermillion, Crusader of Centy and other crap I forgot, as far as RPGs go.

likewise, Secret of Mana, FF4 and 6, Lufia 1 and 2, Illusion of Gaia, Brainlord, Chrono Trigger, Mystic Quest (its not that bad!), 7th Saga 1 and 2, and some other stuff.

We got hosed as far as RPGs go.  Neutopia 1 and 2, Cosmic Fantasy 2... annnnd....uhhh....

Necromancer and War of the Dead would have been f*cking KILLER.

Zombie Apocalypse action RPG?  YES.

Outlive would have been nice to have in the US

Necross No yosai and Sindibad also.

Thats just Hucards.  Lets get serious here.

If they would have had the brains/balls to bring over the CD games, holy shit.

mouth breathing neckbeards all over the states would be rubbing themselves all over English copies of games they can barely fumble through otherwise.

Babel, the startling odysseys, la valeur, anearth, the rest of the Cosmic Fantasy series......... Xak and Fray, I mean what the hell.

Howd they let a power house RPG catalog just slip by ?

Too much Yo bro'ing it up?

[DragonmasterDan]

We got hosed as far as RPGs go.  Neutopia 1 and 2, Cosmic Fantasy 2... annnnd....uhhh....

Dragon Slayer, Might and Magic III, Double Dungeons

[Necromancer]

The problem wasn't that they had too many shooties, it was that they didn't have enough of everything else.

[Arkhan]

We got hosed as far as RPGs go.  Neutopia 1 and 2, Cosmic Fantasy 2... annnnd....uhhh....

Dragon Slayer, Might and Magic III, Double Dungeons

and Order of the Griffon! yeah and thats it basically!

Might and Magic III is a niche game though.  so are DD and ootg...

Console RPG wise, Double Dungeons, M&M 3, and OotG are a bit of a loss for alot of people.  I have friends that absolutely hate first person RPGs.  I tried getting the one to like it, and by the end of it he was swearing and saying I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU SAY "JUST DRAW A MAP AS YOU WALK" ONE MORE TIME IM GOING TO BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN.


They are great games, but don't fit the bill for alot of people who want Dragon Quest / FF excitement.

f*ck, the NES had so many good ones around the same time as the TG.  The TG could've had good games to compete, but they just didn't bring them over.   It's depressing.

War of the Dead would have been amazing.  What, did they think Americans dont like zombie horror ?  We invented that shit.

[SignOfZeta]

First off, the answer to you question is, "no".

Secondly, the term "shmup" is f*cking retarded. Please stop using it. Please also suspend,

"Are you working hard, or hardly working?"

"TGIF!"

"LOL" (actually spoken just like that, in a non-internet situation.

"I could care less..." (when what you actually mean is the exact opposite)

"Really? Really? Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Really? Really?" (over and over again at least 5 times a day.

[SamIAm]

When I bought my first console, a Super Nintendo, as an 8-year-old in 1992 (with my own hard-saved money), I'm positive I didn't think about the balance of the game selection on the system. On the other hand, I also hadn't even heard of the Turbo. The key factors were Mario and marketing, and that's why I think that the balance wouldn't have mattered much if NEC had just had a visible killer-app that worked like Mario or Sonic. That was the name of the game in those days.

As someone who liked shmups then and now (sorry SignOfZeta, economy wins), along with most of my friends, I wouldn't have had a problem with having lots of them. Here's a question that I think is interesting: could the killer-app/mascot game have been a shmup?

[roflmao]

First off, the answer to you question is, "no".

Secondly, the term "shmup" is f*cking retarded. Please stop using it. Please also suspend,

"Are you working hard, or hardly working?"

"TGIF!"

"LOL" (actually spoken just like that, in a non-internet situation.

"I could care less..." (when what you actually mean is the exact opposite)

"Really? Really? Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Really? Really?" (over and over again at least 5 times a day.

f*cking awesome, right there.