Turbo Grafx 16 Box Art Galley

The Turbo Grafx 16 had an awesome collection of box art. This is a small retrospective of some of the classic covers. It's not a complete collection, by any means. Check out the art for Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, Air Zonk, Blazing Lazers, Bonk, and more.

Air Zonk: Mega Man, the Gradius Game.

Blazing Lazers is completely epic.

Bonk has a nice creepy thing going on that seems '90s and extreme.

Oddly detailed dinosaur fights cartoon baby.

I don't even think I've played Dead Moon, but that box could have sold me back in the day.

This is exactly what Dragon's Curse is like.

Gunhead is impressive, but not as imaginative as the whimsical Blazing Lazers cover.

The Japanese Keith Courage art fails in comparison to the classic North American.

A SMB Star escaped in Magical Chase. Overall the art is pretty solid, however. Bender is hiding in the background.

Tina's looking nice.

Literally R-Type.

Space Harrier is so damn insane. The box looks exactly like the game. Truth in advertising for sure.

Bonk's Revenge First Impressions

I purchased Bonk's Revenge for the virtual console this morning, and have been hopping and bopping for an hour. I am surprised at how many unique "actions" fill Bonk's repertoire: Your teeth can grip on soft surfaces, allowing you to climb, you can spin in the air to perform a "feather fall" Plus, there are plenty of environmental interactions. Tons of unique enemies. Butterflies and snowflakes fall from the sky.

Which leads me to another point: the Turbo Grafx... what the hell happened? Such a great system, with so much potential. It has an impressive library, and was huge in Japan... unfortunately it never really caught on in the States.

It's interesting to note that while it has more power, the game design still reflects the time period. Bonk's Revenge plays like an NES game, but you get a nicer package all around with the expanded palette and obvious lack of sprite flickering. The framerate is also impressive, as all the animations are smooth.

Bonk's Revenge is a great way to spend 600 Wii points (or a great reason to buy a Turbo Grafx 16...). I can remember playing this game at my friends house (along with Blazing Lazers) over 15 years ago. It's great to be able to re-evaluate the game and see that the game I remember is indeed awesome.

I'll post more impressions on the game as I get further into it. I just received my first game over on the Stage 3 boss... so it's back to the mammoth graveyard and snow fields for me.