So, I bought a PC Engine Mini...
Let's take a look at what arrived!
The PC Engine concept
Confusingly enough it's known by two names; PC Engine in Japan and TurboGrafx-16 in the west. While I vastly prefer the Japanese name for the console, both are confusing. Firstly, PC Engine has nothing to do with personal computers and, secondly, TurboGrafx-16 has nothing to do with 16-bit. Their designs differentiate vastly too, with the PC Engine being the cooler looking one, while the TurboGrafx-16 is a large, unappealing slab of black plastic. The console logos reflect this design difference.
Naming and branding set aside; PC Engine launched in Japan in 1987 as a direct competitor to the Nintendo Famicom (NES). It was designed by Hudson Soft, of Bomberman fame, and manufactured by NEC Home Electronics. The latter being a company typically associated with personal computers. NEC was interested in getting into the console market share and upon seeing Hudson failing to provide graphics chips to the Famicom, NEC decided to reach out and team up with them.
The result became a success.
"A success?? I've hardly heard about the system!" would be a typical reaction from a western gamer, and they'd be partially right. You see, much like how the Sega Saturn failed to win over the globe, but became a Japanese success, the PC Engine very much went down that same path. Although less known globally than the Saturn, PC Engine is a 5.8 million units sold console you probably hardly knew about. However, in Japan it went strongly up against the Famicom and, more incredibly, outsold the Famicom in it's the launch year of '87.
The hardware
PC Engine began it's story as a 8-bit competitor, that would extended itself early into the CD-ROM age, we're talking '88 here versus Sega CD's '91 launch, with a hardware add-on. Allowing it to grow into a sort of 16-bit competitor.
The late arrival in the west meant the renamed TurboGrafx-16 had a hard time proving itself. Plus, the 16-bit Sega Mega Drive launched in Japan in '88 and the west in '89. The re-branding as a 16-bit console, some of the chips had a 16-bit bus after all, meant they felt it could fair better against the new generation of consoles. It did not, even though they tried to extend it's life with the CD-ROM add-on in the west too.
Looking back at Japan though, it's launch timing in '87 went incredibly well and featured better 8-bit graphics than both the Famicom and Sega Master System. It had a big success initially and continued a healthy lifetime until going up against the Super Famicom. So, while we've heard more about the Master System as a NES competitor here in Europe, in Japan it was the PC Engine that rivalled Nintendo the most. It's a history lesson learned once again; Japan and the west are two, vastly, different markets.
PC Engine games were delivered on HuCards, based on the Mitsubishi Bee card technology, for reasonable and mass produced storage. Remember, this was before the optical disc age and cartridges like Nintendo used were expensive. Sega went down a middle road with their Master System/SG-3000 family of consoles by offering a very Sega Card, also based off the Mitsubishi Bee card, for the early, smaller titles.
However, the Master System future proofed itself with a cartridge slot, for the later releases that were larger in size. Sega would fairly quickly shift over to cartridges, while the PC Engine opted for add-on hardware with the arrival of CD-ROM games.
Trying to get your head around and understanding PC Engine hardware models is mind boggling to say the least, you thought the Sega Mega Drive and it's Mark 1 & 2 iterations of the stock Mega Drive and Mega CD were confusing? Check this out for size when it comes to PC engine variants:
All you really need to know, is that there's an original HuCard based PC Engine and a CD-ROM add-on, all the iterations above are variants of this in various plastic shells, basically.
Trying to get your head around and understanding PC Engine hardware models is mind boggling to say the least, you thought the Sega Mega Drive and it's Mark 1 & 2 iterations of the stock Mega Drive and Mega CD were confusing? Check this out for size when it comes to PC engine variants:
All you really need to know, is that there's an original HuCard based PC Engine and a CD-ROM add-on, all the iterations above are variants of this in various plastic shells, basically.
Albeit with one exception: the bottom right one. That's a Super Grafx, a more powerful PC Engine variant. They felt the need to keep up with the 16-bit consoles and made a more powerful version. It has a small handful of exclusive games that utilised the extra power. Aldynes and Ghouls 'n Ghosts were such games, featured on the PC Engine Mini, but otherwise the Super Grafx is backwards compatible with PC Engine HuCards and the CD-ROM add-on.
Back to the PC Engine Mini, is it any good?
Yes. Very much so. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's even slightly better than the mini Nintendo NES and SNES. The PC Engine mini is made by Konami and are available in three designs, with a couple of game lineup differences in the JP and western versions.
These couple of game differences aren't that important, just buy the version you aesthetically prefer. I went for the first, and most iconic, PC Engine model in white. There's also the later Japanese model available, PC Engine Core Grafx, which is alike design to mine, albeit in grey and a different logo. Then there's the TurboGrafx-16 model, the latter being something I far from desire, but it's cool for western players who used to own one I guess!
The packaging is high quality and has the same attention to detail as the Nintendo counterparts. The box is a replica of the original packaging all the way down to the manual. Extra controllers and even a multi tap device are available to buy separately.
Unlike the original PC Engine console, which only supported one controller per console, thus forcing you to buy a multi tap for multiplayer, this mini cleverly has two USB ports on the front. While the Nintendo minis had the proprietary Wii controller ports, with embarrassingly short cables, the PC Engine mini uses USB and has really long controller cables. The mini is powered by USB and has a HDMI-out going to your screen. Output is 720p.
The power switch is located where it originally was, next to where the HuCard slot would be. I bought a cool little HuCard plastic shell made on Etsy, to put into my mini for visual aesthetic!
Controllers feel great in quality, I can understand that people liked these back in the day and that they contributed to the competition against the Famicom. They have a precise d-pad with a good feel to button presses. The middle buttons are "Start" and "Run". The two main buttons are titled II and I. Overall, it's a Famicom styled controller, albeit with a larger size and some more comfortable rounded edges.
I bought what I thought was an extra identical controller, for two player games, but it turned out to be the version with turbo buttons! This will help me out in some of the tougher games, the turbo controller is weirdly branded by Hori and not just Konami!
Turn it on!
After powering up the PC Engine mini you're greeted with a simple menu system, not unlike the NES and SNES minis, complete with pleasant background music. On my version, you're greeted with a white PC Engine design to the menus and all the available Japanese titles, you can change this menu design to the grey Core Grafx colour scheme of the other model, if you prefer.
Down in the corner there's a dedicated button to switch over to the TurboGrafx-16 styled menus, this serves a purpose outside the design: here you have access to the western titles. A few of them are the same games only in English, while the rest are more a typical selection of popular releases in the west.
You can alter the way games are displayed and, unlike the NES and SNES minis with forced screen ratios, the PC Engine mini has anything from 4:3, with or without borders, 1:1 square sized and even a widescreen stretch, but importantly it allows you to add a clean scanline filter to each. It has more freedom in the screen choices and doesn't degrade the picture with it's scanline filter.
There's even a TurboExpress screen where you are looking at the handheld version of the PC Engine on a small grainy screen for those wanting nostalgia from owning one!
Booting a game shows a super elegant pixel animation of either a HuCard or a CD-ROM being inserted into a PC Engine. Accompanied by a nice card insert "click" sound or a lovely CD-ROM sound of a disc spinning up and being read. For those that remember this latter sound from CD-ROMS in the 90s, it will bring a nostalgic smile to your face indeed!
Save states are available and handled in-game, faster and easier to access than the cumbersome save menus outside of the game on the NES and SNES minis. Sadly, returning to the main menu to change screen type or options is not possible without exiting the game completely.
Any cool games?!
There are, and I need to stress the fact that there's both early, typical 8-bit styled HuCard titles, listed together with later, more typical 16-bit CD-ROM based games. Two Super Grafx are in the mix too. As such, the graphics quality in titles will vary through the years, depending on what PC Engine hardware it originally was developed for.
It makes grasping what the original PC engine could perform visually a little confusing, if you don't pay attention when booting up each title. On the mini you press "Run" and think it originally ran on one single piece of hardware. This was not the case.
It's also worth mentioning that the library on the PC Engine mini is vastly more diverse in availability than the NES and SNES minis. One the PC Engine mini some of the titles are extremely rare to buy physically any more and the value for money is outstanding when looking at Ebay prices of these titles. There's a generous 58 games included, many of which are collectors items and have prices risen beyond common sense on the used market.
The game selection is smartly chosen, ranging from the most popular titles to the more unknown. I'd also like to point out that the CD-ROM games pre-date the western FMV title craze, with grainy and badly acted videos and minimal gameplay. Here the CD-ROM titles take usage of the vast storage and CD quality music, a clever usage of the format.
I won't go into detail on every title featured, but some of the ones that stood out are worth mentioning.
First off as worthy mentions, are the two shoot 'em up Soldier titles; Super Star Soldier & Soldier Blade. Both are original HuCard releases and are great, top-down viewed, shoot 'em ups. Touching that middle ground of something between a typical 8-bit and early 16-bit game, visually. They control well and have a nice variety in enemies, bosses and upgrades. Being fairly simple and clean approaches to the genre, they're a great starting point when you first try your PC Engine mini!
A few other great shmups are the solid arcade ports of Gradius 1 & 2 and a nice looking R-Type port, all viewed from the more typical left-to-right angle. Star Parodier, a completely unknown and neat surprise title for me, stuck out as a cute little Hudson developed, top-down viewed, shmup. You can even control a cartoon PC Engine console as your spaceship!
Moving on to other genres, we have the, sci-fi based, strategy title Nectaris. It's a sort of Advance Wars take on the genre. Don't let the whole strategy element scare you off though, it's easy to jump into. Not a five minute time waster like a shmup, but a typical 15-20 minute playtime per level. It's turn and grid based, allowing you to command troops and armoured divisions towards a CPU controlled opponent or a friend in two-player.
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Some more, visually heavy hitting, CD-ROM titles featured is the excellent Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. Which looks equally as good as the 16-bit Castlevania releases on the SNES and Mega Drive. With a lengthy intro sequence and neat usage of a CD soundtrack, it's definitely a title to play if you're into the series.
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Also on CD-ROM is Hideo Kojimas first major title, Snatcher. It's the violent and uncensored version similar to the original PC-88 release, albeit with dialogue and CD music added. This heavily Blade Runner inspired point and click adventure has a similar gameplay to Kojimas Policenauts I reviewed here. Sadly, Snatcher is Japanese text only, as it was never released in the west outside the censored Sega Mega CD port.
An honourable mention in the PC Engine mini library is Cadash. It's a side-scrolling, hack and slash meets RPG styled title. It's features a more colourful and more accurate port of the arcade version than the Mega Drive does. Featuring various character types like a sword man, wizard or mage to choose from. Killing enemies gives you XP to level up your character. As such, it's very hard in the beginning but eases up as you can grind levels to increase your character stats. From a quick glance it looks like any another side-scrolling RPG, but it's more action focused with melee and platforming, plus it's two player coop!
An honourable mention in the PC Engine mini library is Cadash. It's a side-scrolling, hack and slash meets RPG styled title. It's features a more colourful and more accurate port of the arcade version than the Mega Drive does. Featuring various character types like a sword man, wizard or mage to choose from. Killing enemies gives you XP to level up your character. As such, it's very hard in the beginning but eases up as you can grind levels to increase your character stats. From a quick glance it looks like any another side-scrolling RPG, but it's more action focused with melee and platforming, plus it's two player coop!
Last shout out here are two platformers in the Bonk series, the first and third game I believe. This stone age, baby like, character traverses levels in a typical platformer style and became a sort of PC Engine mascot back in the day. Worth a look to see what they made to compete with Super Mario Bros. and Alex Kidd.
Summary
The PC Engine mini is a fantastic throwback console and one of the best mini consoles out there. While it may not have all the famous titles of a NES or SNES, the actual menus and available options surpasses Nintendo's efforts. The value for money here is great when compared to the used market of the original PC Engine.
It's a great door into a forgotten console in the west that deserves attention. This isn't some commercial failure into experimental hardware like the 3DO, Philips CD-i, Sega 32X or the Atari Jaguar. What we have, is throwback to a console designed by a creative software company, powered by a large computer manufacturer, which sold 5.8 million units.
The quality in the titles and hardware reflects this and it's definitely something to check out to broaden any avid retro gamer horizon outside of Nintendo and Sega's 8-bit and 16-bit library. It was a 1987 success in Japan for a reason! I've been especially impressed at how graphically advanced it was as for a 8-bit system, when looking at the early HuCard releases.
I'm saddened to see that this mini already seems to have been drowned in the pandemic and sees obscurity in the west, almost the same story as the original hardware suffered.
Well worth the effort to get hold of at a sensible price!