Neutopia Strategy Guide Scans

Neutopia was the Turbo Grafx 16's answer to The Legend of Zelda. It's got just as much charm and adventure as Nintendo's golden classic, plus the benefit of NOT BEING ZELDA--a game which most of you readers have, like me, demolished over 20 times.

You can snag an easy copy via the Wii's Virtual Console for 6 bucks; I've had this game for about 3 years now and I've yet to really sink my teeth into it. It's a great game, I've just lacked the dedication to conquer it and its sequel (Neutopia II, also released on the TG16 and WiiVC).

I found these scans in an old Turbo magazine. This walkthrough for Neutopia is amazing, and I'll probably peak at these things if I get into some trouble. I'll try not to use them, but in any case the artwork is strange and much different from the in-game style. Looks like they wanted to "Westernize" the game for American audiences...

But Neutopia's got the style, the challenge, and definitely the music to justify playing this game in 2011, so give it a try!

Cosmic Fantasy 2 Retro Ad

I came across this in the first issue of an old Turbo Grafx-16 magazine. The artwork is so bad it's good--like someone trying to draw anime for the very first time, I love it!

China Warrior Review

China Warrior takes a lot of shit for being a terrible game. Fuck the haters, this Turbo Grafx-16 classic is worth playing for beat-'em-up and fighter fans from now until the end of time.




Released in 1987 and packaged with the Turbo by Hudson, China Warrior (aka "The Kung Fu") puts you in control of a Bruce Lee clone out to kick everyone ass. Kick people to death as you fight for victory. America wouldn't get the game until 2 years later, but keep in mind this was before Super Mario Bros. 3 was released as well. Altered Beast and Final Fight had not yet hit arcades, so beat-'em-ups were in considerably shorter supply. Don't mistake this context for apologia, China Warrior is a great game in its own right.

The four stages (fields, temple, palace grounds, cave) are broken up into 3 sub-levels. Each sub-level has a boss, and some of these fights are a serious challenge. The 1-1, 1-3, 2-1, and 2-3 bosses can be beaten by perfectly timed attacks easily enough, but everyone else will make the weak of heart cringe.




Strategy revolves around backing away from your opponents attacks, and then moving in and punching. Sometimes pushing right+punch will trigger a superfist attack, although I have not been able to do this move reliably (I suspect it's a random chance to do the attack even if you push the buttons correctly). Countering three punches will initiate a flurry fist attack (a la Dragon Ball Z, Fist of the North Star) that also deals 3 points of damage.

Stages must essentially be memorized, and even with the three continues (accessed via a secret code, see below) you will, I promise, be well acquainted with stage 1-1 by the end of your journey.

The 600 point Wii price tag is a fair deal, and you're better off with China Warrior than a Big Mac Combo. It's a well-known fact that Hudson basically created China Warrior to show off the power of the TG-16, and the nice graphics and simple gameplay make a nice combination. Consider the 1989 release date, ignore the hate, and save the empire. Hudson are masters at making deceptively simple, yet highly addicting games, and China Warrior is a sadly underrated classic.




Finally, a few secret codes I took from some website:

Level skip:


Hold Up and press Select + I +
II to skip the first level. Hold Down and press
Select + I + II to skip subsequent level.


Second loop:

Hold Up + Select + I + II
and press Run at the title screen.


Debug mode:

Hold Run then hold Select to reset the
game, keep the buttons held, then release Run and press
Up when the title screen is displayed. Release Select
and press Up three times, Right six times, Down,
Down, Left, Left. Invincibility and level
select will now be enabled.


Three continues:

Hold I + II + Right and press
Run, Run when the phrase "The End" appears
after game play is over. Alternatively, hold I + II
+ Down and press Run at the title screen after game
play is over. The game will continue up to three times from the
start of the last level played.

Samurai Ghost Turbo Grafx-16 Review and Screenshot Gallery

I'm so sick of all the other games on the TG-16 that I've resorted to playing Samurai Ghost. That's not a very good start. Do over.

You play the hallucinogenic ghost of a samurai sent on a mission of death. In the opening sequence, the player runs to the right, and slashes the head off some holy dragon. The blood sacrifice teleports the Samurai from heaven into a dimension on the outskirts of hell. From their the player has to battle demons into the real world and assassinate some other samurai.

You have nifty control over your sword, and your warrior has a "ragdoll" feel. Your sword kind of flails around, and all your limbs are animated separately. At first this might seem off-putting, but honestly it's really fluid and I've grown to appreciate the feel of the game because its unique and offers a lot of swordfighting moves.



Everything was going fine until level 2-2, a Volcanic level in which lava chases the player. Standardard gaming device, except this lava is almost as fast as the player and the slightest misstep will allow the lava to damage the player. As you try to run away from this wall of death, the game spawns skull-spider demons which shoot webs and entangle your feet. This level will test every ounce of platforming strength and endurance in the player. Luckily this game is fun enough to warrant the difficulty, and the difficulty helps to make it worth playing.

The players receives unlimited continues, and 3 lives per credit, but using a continue will warp the player back to the beginning of the 3-part stage.

Once I tackled the lava stage, things went a little smoother, but the difficulty remained intense. Several times I was forced to replay the first 6 stages. Getting a Game Over after that usually means it's time to play something else, but Samurai Ghosts does possess the much-desired addictive quality of some games. Almost inexplicably, I find myself returning for more action when I could be playing "better" games.

One particularly cool effect is that the background color shifts and transitions form night to day or vice-versa. You can even see the moon rising or setting, and attention to detail like that doesn't go unnoticed. Ultimately, the game is just too fucking hard. Your character is huge, clunky, and slow, and the enemies are small, fast, and agile. It's so hard, even abusing savestates is difficult. For example, in "Hurting Zone" (wtf I know) the regular trash mob is a frog that drains all of your health in--not kidding--about 1 second.

Thankfully the stages aren't that long, and sometimes you might manage to hobble through to the end. It's one of the best platformers on the Wii VC, and certainly it's worth 6 bucks. However, if you haven't played some other classics like New Adventure Island or The Dynastic Hero, then maybe Samurai Ghosts isn't for you--yet. One day you'll be bored with Bonk and look to this malnourished Thundercat for some hardcore platforming action.

Check out this gallery of screenshots!

Alien Crush

Devil's Crush isn't the only pinball game worth playing on the Turbo Grafx-16, and I could post twice about Devil's Crush without considering its predecessor, Alien Crush. Both games are amazing, and if you like one, you'll enjoy the other for the sake of variety.

Many reviewers complain about the split screen in Alien Crush. But unlike Devil's Crush, in Alien Crush the board is designed to keep the ball at the top. The screen switch never presents a huge problem, and should not deter potential gamers. I suspect I'm writing to a mainly Wii audience on this one, because just about every TG-16 owner has at least one copy of this game. Pinball was serious business in the '80s.

The sci-fi theme remains me of the Alien movies, but the bonus-levels remind me more of 8-Bit shooters. Little alien monsters and snakes and bio-terrors crawl around the board. Bumpers transform into skeleton monsters and crawl around, and eyeballs open and close everywhere. The two music tracks and game speed (seriously, again, who choses the slow option?) provide a little variety to an otherwise self-similar game.

My best strategy involves opening up the big alien's mouth by hitting the 6 snake/monsters on the sides of the bottom screen. Then, launch the ball into the alien's mouth and you'll get a bonus stage. These stages are brutal, but provide a lot of points. If you beat the stage, you'll get a multiplier, and can really rack up a high score.

You need 2,000,000,000 points to beat the game. Have fun.

It's really easy to kill an hour playing one set of credits on Alien Crush, and you can't say that about most classic games. I highly recommend it if you can't get enough of Devil's Crush and need some more extreme pinball action.

VG Music: Devil's Crush

Yesterday I covered Devil's Crush in a review, today I'm just reposting someone else's youtube video. It's part of garudoh's somewhat-famous youtube series "From Beeps to Beats: The Music of Video Games." Devil's Crush is only #121. Is there better music out there? Probably so, but not by much.

One thing I notice about the music is how fucking intense it is. Even the upbeat songs have discordant bars mixed with inspirational melodies. In typical 8/16-bit horror fashion, there is also a Bach-like fugue, though much simpler and less creepy than Bach. A few of these tracks would make nice additions to a Halloween party mix tape.

The Legendary Axe

I've wanted to review Legendary Axe for years, but i've always had the hope that Hudson would release both games in the series on the VC. While this certainly remains a possibility, I can't wait any longer. Legendary Axe must be reviewed because it's simply one of the best platformers of the generation. The Bonk and Mario games are fun, but a lot of the fun comes from how easy those games are. Legendary Axe subscribes to the arcade school of gameplay, and forces the player to truly master the game to progress past the 3rd stage.

Unlike Bonk's cartoony graphics, Legendary Axe has a realistic feel, and the TG-16 can handle the giant sprites and brilliant colors easily. As a caveman, you fight caveman enemies: traditional bats and spiders, but also bears, giant boulders (the stage 2 boss, and a difficult one), rock-people, and other mythic enemies.



The combat depths comes from a simple, but fun mechanic: you collect power-ups to make your axe stronger. To get maximum power, you have to wait between axe strokes. The stronger your axe is, the longer the player must wait. Well-timed strong hits are the way to go, but every now and then you might want to spam the attack button. Usually, however, spamming attack does little to help and gets you killed.

Thankfully, checkpoints exist within the level, and the player has a few continues to spare (3 continues x 3 lives = 9 total lives). Infinite continues might have been nice, but it remains rewarding to replay the early stages with easy, and the developers found a nice balance with 3 extra credits. I guess the idea in the design meeting went something like, "Yea, it's like you're in the arcade. You only got one dollar to beat the game." Which, at the time, probably made sense. Great players will beat a game in 1 life, 9 almost seems excessive.

The player is provided with the option to quit aat a Game Over, instead of using a credit to continue. This can be to the player's advantage: replaying the early stages will allow the player to tackle the later areas with a stronger axe. You keep your axe power upon dying, but not upon a Game Over. So beating the game in 3 lives should be the serious player's first goal after beating the game with continues.

As I've said several times in the past, Hudson: get off your ass and release this game on the VC. Release both Legendary Axe games, please. Literally hundreds of billions of TG-16 gamers have 12 dollars for you, and that's over a trillion dollars. The Legendary Axe games are simply the very best platformers on the TG-16; it's a pain to see them unreleased on the VC.

Devil's Crush

If you don't like Pinball, I'm not sure what to say. Everyone loves pinball. But without going on a tirade about the dwindling number of pinball and arcade machines in the wild, I'll review Devil's Crush, a pinball video game. Most people, however, probably cringe at the thought of a pinball video game. With so many imaginative video games, who would want to play a regular, real-world game like that? Windows XP comes packaged with a damn fine pinball game, but nothing compares to Devil's Crush for the Turbo Grafx-16.

Devil's Crush is the 1990 sequel to 1989's Alien Crush, a space-themed pinball game. Typically I'd roll with the sci-fi game, but in this case Alien Crush has a few mechanical issues that make it slightly inferior: the board is smaller and the scrolling is not as smooth. Other than that, Alien Crush is still a damn fine game, and deserves it's own review. Devil's Crush fixes both of these problem, increases the size of the world, and remains the 8/16-Bit pinball game.



The coolest stage feature is a face that slowly transforms into a demonlady the more you hit the bumpers around her. Activating certain features, or going in certain passageways will launch the player into a bonus stage (1 of 6), in which the player fights a boss or a few mini-bosses.

Even though Devil's Crush may not be the real deal, that gives it certain advantages of which the designers fully take advantage. Little monsters run around the entire game, the skeleton's eyeball follows the player, and the physics are forgiving. Often, pinball games try to be too realistic, and this results in the player losing balls unfairly. Nothing of this nature appears in Devil's Crush, and more often you will make a shot that you expected to miss.



All your normal pinball crap is present, but the environment and music set a nice, creepy tone. This is clearly the most extreme pinball game for a home console, and a must-own for all TG-16ers. However, if considering purchasing this game for the VC, be aware of exactly what you are purchasing. If you suffer from a short attention span, Devil's Crush might not be the TG-16 title for you.

But for most gamers, Devil's Crush will provide many hours of fun and even features a 2-player alternating mode. Good luck convincing your friends to play this one. My best suggestion: simply turn the game on and hand someone the controller without saying anything. After spending a few minutes playing Devil's Crush, the attention to detail and balanced gameplay should keep everyone coming back for more.

VG Music: Dragon's Curse / Wonderboy III

It's been over 3 years since I first posted the first article here, Lifting the Dragon's Curse. Like many Turbo classics, this game has a rockin sountrack, and Imphnk's video nicely splices every track into one 7:25 video.

I'm almost certain the Sega Master System shares the same music as well.

The Ninja Warriors (TG-16)

Ninja Warriors surprised me this past week. I wanted to play Ninja Gaiden, but got tired of the terrible TG-16 version. I saw Ninja Warriors--I couldn't remember playing it. The simple game design, great music and cool artwork impressed me at first. After spending a few more hours, it was obvious this is game is a classic.

In 1988 Ninja Warriors hit the street as a triple-monitor arcade game. All the usual C64/Amigo/ZXSpectrum computers got their port, as well as, in 1989, the TurboGrafx-16. But only in Japan. Information on this import title has been extremely hard to come by. Hardcore Gaming 101 looks at the entire series, but doesn't mention much about our close friend, the TG16.

Ninja Warriors feels old. It's not as fancy as Streets of Rage or Final Fight... but it's more balanced. Those games were designed to eat quarters (as I assume the arcade version of Ninja Warriors does as well), but not this port. It's designed to offer challenge and replayability. Enemies spawn in predictable patterns, adding the possibility for slight memorization, which is nice in the small doses presented.

In standard beat-'em-up style, the developers manage to achieve diversity using palette and weapon swaps. The regular army dude will start doing jump kicks in the later levels, and surprises like this keep the game interesting.



The game has some cool effects: your hair is animated nicely. Cool blood. Your body can be exposed as a robot as you take damage (a la Terminator). You have 2 characters to choose from and can customize your color, difficulty, and time. You can jump, flip, throw shuriken (limited to around 30 per level) or slash with kunai (ninja knives).

I can't even find the manual, an FAQ, or even many reviews of this game. If anyone knows where I can find a .pdf of the manual, I can upload jpgs of it or something.

But like I said, Ninja Warriors feels old, and I like it. They just don't make games this difficult and clunky anymore, and it's a shame. To be honest, they only made games like this for a few years in history (Altered Beast comes to mind). I appreciate games like these because all the new beat-em-ups strive to be smooth and isometric--basically just a better version of Double Dragon. Ninja Warriors, even if it's unintentional, is different, and that's good.

Ninja Warriors proves that as long as a game is challenging and provides incentive to play (this is achieved through music and graphics), then gamers will want to play it. Don't bore me to death with your 12-minute cutscene and 2-hour newbie area: just release Ninja Warriors on the Virtual Console and give the rest of the world this classic!

Just check out the song in the video!

Battle Lode Runner

Battle Lode Runner was never released in America, and was the first import VC title. Don't be fooled, however, we've had Lode Runner in the States for some time. Like most puzzle games, the gameplay is simple and addictive. You play as a "runner" sent through time to dig holes and collect piles of gold. Oddly, the worlds you explore are composed entirely of blocks, ladders, and ropes. You can't run or jump, but you can dig holes left and right, trapping enemies and (often) killing yourself in the process. But the unintentional suicides are part of the game's charm.



While the gameplay is simple, the game provides enough modes to warrant the $6.00 price tag. You've got puzzle mode, which are levels in which you must collect all the gold, then haul ass up a ladder to the next level. With 100 stages, this is an extremely long game! Then there's battle mode, where up to 5 players can battle (bots will sub in for missing players if you live and play video games by yourself). Powerups appear in this mode, and it's a lot of fun. The only downside is that you can only battle on 5 or so stages, and not the 100 levels from story-mode, which would have given the game near-infinite replay value. There are various battle modes, including survival and tag. I've haven't delved too deeply into either of these others modes yet. Finally, there is Edit mode, that's right, you can create up to 10 stages to play through, though you can't battle on them. I'm always a sucker for level editors, and this one is fantastic. Easier to use than Brawl's, and they don't limit the amount of items you can place on the map.



And that's it. Overall, it's nothing too spectacular (though the "Asian-theme" song is). That said, it's more addicting than it should be. Save your money if you have an XBox360, because you'll be getting a better Lode Runner game this year, otherwise consider click-buying this title if you think you'd like it.

Finally, thanks for the replies when I considered closing the site. I've decided to keep it open, because, hey, doing this shit is fun as hell. 8-Bit City is here to stay. Leave a comment!

Blazing Lazers

About 17 years ago my friend had this weird video game system with games that looked like credit cards. One of the two games he had was a space shooter that blew my mind. It was years ahead of the time, in music, graphics, and fun factor (a term used by Nintendo Power in the ancient days). That game was Blazing Lazers (the other was, ironically, Bonk's Revenge).

Years went by, and I forgot the name of the game. Eventually, after a good bit of search forums and the internet, I found the titles. I didn't really have an opportunity to play Blazing Lazers, however, until, you guessed it, the virtual console. This was actually the first virtual console game I purchased.

Blazing Lazers is a vertical-scrolling space shooter, and it was made in 1989. It embodies everything that is great about shmups, and is essential for any fan of the genre. In addition, it offers a good entrance into the world of shmups if you've never played one before. You fly through space, collecting power-ups. You have four different weapons, and which type of power-up you collect determines your weapon (there is a shread-shot, lazer, wave beam, and circling orbs, each labeled with a roman numeral). In addition, you have secondary power-ups that grant you special abilities (Gradius-style multiple, homing missiles, shield, and "full power," each labeled with a letter). You collect an extra life if you earn 25,000 points.

Each level is broken into 2 parts, with a boss at the end of each part. One annoyance is that if you die, you must restart the half-stage over, although power=ups are so common you never suffer from "Gradius Gaiden Syndrome" (a situation that occurs in some shmups: restart right before a difficult area with no power-ups, meaning that one death usually results in a GAME OVER eventually). There are so many power-ups that you will be dodging the ones you don't want more than worrying about when the next one will appear. There are no speed power-ups, the player can press "select" at any time to adjust their speed. Finally, there are these pink orbs: collect enough of them and your weapon will upgrade, in addition to upgrading your mini-shield. This works in addition to collecting the power-ups within your current progressions (main weapon and secondary, the roman numerals and letters, respectively), and comes as a welcome addition.

Another aspect you might notice is that your ship is huge compared to modern shooters. Ikaruga and Gradius V each have extremely small hit boxes (the former having a 1-pixel hit box!), but the game is balanced around your clunky ship, so it's never really a problem. In addition, regular weapons will provide you with a side-shield (not as good as the shield power-up).

The Turbo Grafx 16 bragged about how "Turbo Charged" their console was, and part of this game is Hudson making good on their word. The game reaches the insane intensity of modern shooters. Enemies and bullets are everywhere, power-ups are everywhere, techno music pumps up the intensity (the game has some amazing tracks, don't be surprised if Blazing Lazers remixes find their way onto your playlist), vicious boss fights, and brutal difficulty (each can be overcome with a little practice). Hudson made one hell of a great game.

Blazing Lazers is just as good as contemporary shooters, and should not be passed up by any fan of the genre. Here is a protip: weapon III (the Lazer, or as the game calls it, "Shield Thunder") is by far the best weapon. The secondary power-ups are more balanced, but, generally I find the F ("full power") to be the most effective. With nine levels, double the boss fights, great music, a $6 price tag, and plenty of turbo-charged raw power... you've got to ask yourself: "why the hell am I not playing Blazing Lazers right now?"

The Dynastic Hero

The Dynastic Hero is a game that, for me at least, never appeared on the radar until (very) recently. Thanks again to the Wii’s VC for bringing this game into the spotlight once more.

It was released on the TG-16 CD, making it a 16-Bit game with the benefit of CD storage. The results are incredible. Awesome Redbook audio tracks, anime intro and ending movies, and other details I’ll get into shortly.

But damn, allow me a minute to freak out about how awesome this game is (before more objective-ish opinions). It’s just so fucking cool. It’s the type of game that you can play for 6 hours forget to eat, pass out from low blood-sugar, wake up, and keep playing without moving or thinking twice. It’s the kind of game that might make you say “Fuck! This game is cool… Fuck!” It’s the type of game you might obsesses about all day at work, because you can’t play it. It certainly inspired me to write up a 1000 word article on it for no good reason other than the game kicks ass. It kicks so much ass that the ass it kicks takes names and then kicks ass. Alright, I think it’s mostly out of my system… we can continue. I fucking love this game.

As far as the gameplay goes, it’s very similar to Dragon’s Curse, Super Metroid, or other Metroidvanias. You play as Dyna, The Dynastic Hero (named after the Hercules beetle’s scientific name, and dressed in armor resembling said beetle), trying to restore peace to a quiet little kingdom. Collect items, save towns, access new areas, learn spells and wield them in battle, recruit townspeople (and townsbugs) to help you on your quest, and have a great time doing it all. You’ll need to collect lots of gold to buy all the items, which requires a very small amount of grinding once or twice (which is good, as it adds a slight RPG feel). There are secrets abound, and good luck finding them all. Eventually, you will access an ancient portal, and journey to a castle in the sky where a prehistoric evil awaits your righteous wrath.

The Dynastic Hero is another clear example of a game that does everything right. Controls, music, graphics. The game is eye-and-ear candy, which is the ideal synestetic experience, and part of the reason video games are such an amazing medium. The game is simple to control, addictive, and combat is well-balanced, but challenging. Your sword has a very short reach, which requires you to actively participate in battle, rather than just mindlessly swiping your sword and running along. Finally, the game does something I love, which is kick your ass at times. I definitely met my death quota in this game, without becoming frustrated. You learn not to rush around, take your time, and fight each enemy with as much skill as you can muster.

The game wasn’t always about a little beetle-boy trying to save a princess; it was Wonder Boy in Monster World (for the Genesis/Megadrive), the 5th game in the Wonder Boy series, and probably the best. The Wonder Boy games have a convoluted history, resulting from Hudson owning the Wonder Boy code, and Sega owning the characters.

The differences include (but are not necessarily limited to):

1. The Music. WB5 uses Genesis midi sound, whereas Dynastic Hero uses redbook audio. In addition, the songs are completely different (not just remixes), and much, much better in The Dynastic Hero. If you are an audiophile, The Dynastic Hero is obviously the way to go.
2. The Graphics. WB5 has a parallax-scrolling background, and The Dynastic Hero does not. I suspect this was done for stylistic reasons, to make the game appear more like a painting, but there is no way to know for sure. In addition, the colors are much richer and brighter in The Dynastic Hero, thanks to the improved TG-16 palette. I wish The Dynastic hero had that parallax background, but alas.
3. The Characters and Names. WB5 has a generic fantasy-themed world. The Dynastic Hero has a generic fantasy-themed world with insect characters. I do find the insects charming: a praying mantis throwing scythes? Wicked.
4. The Text Boxes. The Dynastic Hero is capable of displaying 5 lines of text, while WB5 can only display 3. A minor difference, to be sure, however, I find the 5 lines of text to look much classier, and read easier.
5. Intro, Ending, and Story. As previously mentioned, The Dynastic Hero has an anime intro with a cheesy J-pop song, the stories are different as a result, which is pretty expected.

Overall, I think The Dynastic Hero is a much better option, given that both games cost 800 Wii points in America. If you are in Japan, defiantly go with The Dynastic Hero, because it’s only 600 points in the land of the rising sun. It does take up quite a bit of space (around 200 blocks) because of the CD Audio… so it’s your call.

I had a really great time with this game, and I played it on my lunch break for about 2 weeks before finishing it one Saturday with my girlfriend. We sat on the couch and insisted we would only play for “15 more minutes…” But, one dungeon turned into 4 dungeons and before I knew it I was at the sky castle. And with the entire Kingdom depending upon me, I just couldn’t quit. So, if you like action adventure rpgs The Dynastic Hero is a great choice. Just be thankful you don’t have to shell out the 350 bucks for the hardcopy anymore… The Dynastic Hero is one of the rarest and most valuable video games of all time, and 8 dollars is a steal.