Konami Announces TurboGrafx-16 Mini Console

TurboGrafx-16

Mini consoles are all the rage right now it seems. They are so popular that Konami is getting in on them after announcing the TurboGrafx-16 Mini. Yes, you read that right, a TurboGrafx-16 Mini is coming. So far only a few games have been announced as it seems Konami is following suit of Sega and Sony who also recently dribbled out the game lists on their mini consoles.

Right now, we know of five titles and they run the gamut of just about every popular genre of gaming. The only genres that are not represented so far are sports and racing. I bring those up because the TurboGrafx-16 was known for the early sports games it had available (anyone remember the TV Sports franchise?). While they are super simple by today’s standards, I do hope that Konami works out a deal with whomever owns the rights to Cinemaware titles today and brings at least one TV Sports title to the TurboGrafx-16 Mini. It would not feel right without at least one.

Anyhow, here is the list so far:

Adventure Island
Alien Crush
Dungeon Explorer
Ninja Spirit
R-Type
Y’s Book I & II


Let’s look at the title selection so far. Adventure Island is a title that made its way across many platforms back in the day, most notably Nintendo platforms such as the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES. Interestingly Adventure Island started life as a port of Sega’s first Wonder Boy game but took a different turn during development. Sega is keeping the Wonder Boy franchise alive and well on their Sega Genesis Mini.

Alien Crush is a cool pinball game that showed just how wild video game pinball could be. The sequel, Devil’s Crush took things farther with improvements in the overall game.

Dungeon Explorer is a great Gauntlet style game where you are entering dungeons and killing everything you come across. The sequel is a Super CD-ROM release and improves on just about everything while adding cool cut scenes to advance the story.

Ninja Spirit is an action game starring ninjas because in the late 80s to early 90’s ninjas were cool. Luckily the game is fun and challenging.

R-Type, come on who really needs an intro to this cool shooter? Okay, it is 2D, side scrolling, and is quite fun. Give it a shot – versions have been released for just about every platform imaginable, so access is easy.

Finally, we have Y’s Book I & II which was an early CD-ROM game for the TurboGrafx-16 with the $400+ attachment. For many this was the title that made us want the CD-ROM attachment, but few had the money to make this quest a reality.

What games do you want to see on the TurboGrafx-16 Mini? If going by other similar consoles is any indication, we can expect 40 to 50 games total.

Source: YouTube

Staff Writer

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