Turbografx-16 Mini announced
Surely the Amstrad GX4000 Mini can't be far away
Sweet lord, we're living in a golden age. Konami have gone insane and announced the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, with an initial outlay of five games that are so good I'm already sold.
Seriously, talk about putting your best foot forward. We've got R-Type (an absolutely brilliant port of a killer shoot-'em-up), New Adventure Island (the best game in the series and it's not even close), Ninja Spirit (a terrific conversion of an underrated arcade title), Ys Book I & II (a couple of classic RPGs that I'm sure are fine if you like that sort of thing), Dungeon Explorer (a highly rated and fondly remembered multiplayer game in which you, erm, explore dungeons) and Alien Crush (terrific pinball sim with tons and tons of character). That's one hell of an opening salvo!
De facto PC Engine mascot Bonk (he of the cranial magnitude) is conspicuous by his absence, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him show his macrocephalic face in the near future, with his three platformers. It's a longer shot, but it'd be nice to get the horizontal shmup spin-off Air Zonk and its Turbo-CD sequel Super Air Zonk, given that the presence of Ys has confirmed support for CD games. Indeed, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is confirmed for the Japanese edition of the system, but not the American or European models. Which is a little odd, given it just came out as part of PlayStation 4's Castlevania Requiem.
No word yet on the total number of games we'll be getting on the device, but there are enough worthwhile carts out there to support at least 30. My personal pie-in-the-sky hopes are for the Taito classics Parasol Stars and Liquid Kids (released in Japan only as Mizubaku Daibouken). Parasol Stars in particular is one of the most underrated games of all time as far as I'm concerned, and its presence on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini would make it even more essential than it already is.
