The PC Engine is a console that's really grown on me over time. I used to think it was a fairly lackluster console filled with failed attempts at copying Nintendo and rarely any genuinely great games, but as I've dug further into its library, I've found a lot to love about the console. From its consistently stellar lineup of shmups, to its colorful spritework and audibly-pleasing soundchip, to Hudson's many overlooked IPs like Bomberman and Star Soldier, to the 90s anime bliss that the PC Engine CD provides, I've really begun to understand why the console has become such a cult favorite. And since I recently replayed a bunch of its games, I wanted to review a few of them that didn't quite have the runtime for a full-on deep dive. Gunhed, Legend Of Valkyrie, and Valis II aren't necessarily some of my absolute favorite PC Engine games, but I have a fondness for all three of them and really wanted to go over why I find them so enjoyable.
Gunhed
Gunhed is one of the first shmups on the PC Engine and was a collaborative work between Hudson and Compile, making it almost a Star Soldier spinoff but not quite. As a result, it feels like a fusion between the tight propulsive design of a Star Soldier game, and the bombastic combat of an Aleste game. It's equal parts forgiving and exhilirating, so it's not surprising that many refer to it as one of the best entry points within the genre.
First off, the gameplay both gives you a lot of options and provides you with more forgiveness than you'd expect from a shmup. Gunhed has four different shot types you can swap between by collecting specific icons, including a peashooter, a wave beam, a piercing thunder shot, and a defensive ring shield. By picking up the same shot type twice in a row, you'll be able to upgrade your shot and make it more powerful, which is where the Compile influence comes in. The fully upgraded version of each shot can be borderline screen-clearing, and are always incredibly satisfying to use. The game also offers a bunch of secondary weapons that can be upgraded in the same way, including an option drone, a shield, homing missiles, and my personal favorite, an option that upgrades your primary weapon even further. While I personally found the primary weapons a tad unbalanced, with the wave beam and thunder shot getting way more use out of me, the secondary weapons were all immensely useful and I swapped between them constantly.
However, there's one additional wrinkle to Gunhed's upgrade system and it's a bit of a polarizing one for me. Upgrading your weapon will cause a shield to spawn around your ship that will block enemy attacks. The more you upgrade, the bigger your shield gets, but if a bullet so much as grazes the shield, not only will you be exposed, you'll lose all your upgrades. On one hand, this is a brilliant decision that makes Gunhed far more accessible for beginner players by giving them a second chance to recover from a hit rather than have to deal with the one-hit deaths that are common in the genre. It's like the Sonic ring system but for a shoot em'up. On the other hand, that weapon shield can get pretty darn big, and actually squeezing through some of Gunhed's more complex bullet patterns without losing your upgrade can feel damn near impossible at times. I think Gunhed is perfectly balanced around your standard ship size, but not for an upgraded ship, which is so much as mandatory to even stand a chance in the later stages. It's really my one big gripe with what's otherwise an imacculately-designed shmup.
On a more positive note, though, Gunhed's level design is generally quite good. Each stage takes place in a different setting and has its own unique atmosphere and tempo. Some stages take place on your standard space ships, but then you get to the entirely organic Stage 4, the barren desert of Stage 5, the ridiculously fast-paced dose of adrenaline that is Stage 6, the faux final squadron level in Stage 7, the surreal bubble world of Stage 8, and the frenetic boss rush that caps off the game. Speaking of which, the bosses are mostly pretty solid. They're fittingly massive threats often having multiple components to take out to destroy the whole, though I'm not a huge fan of how many of the later bosses use armor that only the thunder shot can pierce. The stages do a good job of giving you the freedom to use whichever weapons you feel is the most useful, but as far as the bosses go, there's really only one correct answer most of the time. In addition, I will say that I think Gunhed does get a bit long in the tooth by the end. Many stages are lengthy with a mini-boss in the middle breaking them up into multiple chunks, and just as you think the game is going to end in the climactic seventh stage, it proceeds to go on for two more lengthy levels.
Then again, it's probably for the best that Gunhed is a bit on the longer side because compared to its many followups on the PC Engine, it's lacking a bit of the extra side content those games have. Hudson's shmups from Super Star Soldier contain a fun and very replayable Caravan Mode, but in Gunhed's case, it's relegated to a separate, limited Special Version rather than included with the full release. And while there are difficulty options here, they're locked to cheat codes, pity. Otherwise, I think the presentation in Gunhed is really strong. Like many PC Engine games, the colors are crisp and bold, and the framerate remains remarkably smooth even with all the bullets and fast-moving backgrounds. The spacecrafts all boast this analog sci-fi design that reminds me of Star Wars or Star Trek that I find really appealing too, and that soundtrack. While Gunhed's OST doesn't quite top the Star Soldier games on PC Engine, it's still an absolute banger with some fantastic stage music (Stage 2, Stage 4, Stage 6) that really show off the console's sound capabilities. Really, if you were to bring up the PC Engine, I think Gunhed would be the first game to come to mind for me, it fully encapsulates that console's overall aesthetic for me.
Overall, Gunhed is a great little shmup and a definite highlight on the PC Engine's already consistently strong library. It has its issues like the upgrade shield system and its long length, but more than makes up for that with its tight controls, varied stage design, bombastic weapons, clean presentation, and accessible difficulty.
4/5 Stars
Legend Of Valkyrie
Legend Of Valkyrie is an ambitious arcade game by Namco that tried to fuse Zelda-influenced adventure gameplay with on-rails arcade sensibilities. It seems like an odd combination, isn't Zelda supposed to be about taking the time to explore at your own pace? How could you do that in an arcade game? Well, with some smart game and level design, Namco managed to pull it off, and make a pretty solid PC Engine port to boot.
In Legend Of Valkyrie, you play as the titular Valkyrie who can walk around, jump across platforms, and can swing her sword. However, you're not supposed to just go up to enemies and slash them like in Zelda. In actuality, Legend Of Valkyrie plays more like a top-down shooter along the lines of Pocky & Rocky, as swinging your sword will shoot out a projectile. Like in a shmup, there are a bunch of shot types (aka spells) you can find and equip including less powerful homing shots, large wave attacks, and hefty bombs. However, the wrinkle in this mechanic is that your shot types run out eventually, so you're encouraging to explore and search for more you can stockpile for the future. This is the first of many examples of Valkyrie combining arcade mechanics with adventure game mechanics, fusing the shot type systems of a shmup with exploration and resource management, and it works great!
The level design in Legend Of Valkyrie similarly toes the line between arcade and adventure game. On one hand, each of the game's seven (eight in the arcade version) stages are strictly on-rails. You go down a straight path and can't backtrack past the back of the screen. This makes it so that Legend Of Valkyrie remains a brisky-paced experience, never letting up the excitement and never allowing the player to meander around for too long. On the other hand, though, each stage is chock-full of branching pathways, side routes leading to treasure areas, and even side quests that can get Valkyrie spells she can use at any given time. There are a ton of secrets packed into Legend Of Valkyrie, and most players aren't going to discover them all in a single playthrough, which is another pretty brilliant move. The addition of branching paths and hidden collectibles makes Legend Of Valkyrie immensely replayable, perfect for an arcade. However, they also further encourage the player to explore and engage with the world like they would in a Zelda or Ys game.
The levels themselves are also pretty consistently fun, each offering a unique quest to keep the game feeling varied. Stage 1 starts you off easy by having you hop across safe lilypads culminating in a fairly simple boss fight against a two-headed dragon. Stage 2 removes the training wheels by having you fight enemies across a precarious cliffside, while also tossing in many more branching paths, one of which even leading to an alternate version of the boss. Stage 3 is the most labyrinthe of the bunch, a complex lava cave filled with secrets hidden in the walls, platforming across lava, and an optional sidequest that can grant you lavaproof armor. Stage 4 is a castle stage with a fair amount of entirely open areas in which you can search for keys to move forward, and the boss fight which takes place in a ballroom is easily my favorite in the game. Stages 5 and 6 start to penalize the player, taking away their ability to use spells until they can fight for them back, though their bosses are easily the weakest ones. Stage 5's boss is a bird who can only be reasonably defeated if you happen to have a tornado spell, the only one of its kind. If you do, it's fun to tear it apart with your tornado. If you don't, tough luck. Stage 6's boss is a sphinx who has you choose between fighting a horde of enemies at minimum strength or doing a series of sliding puzzles, and neither are very fun. Thankfully, the final stage picks up with a frenetic combat-focused enemy rush and a brutal multi-phase boss fight.
The PC Engine version of Legend Of Valkyrie does, sadly, make a bunch of notable concessions. There's no multiplayer like there is in the arcade game, two stages in the arcade game were crammed together into a single one, and the cool scaling effects of the original are completely removed. There are a few neat additions to the PC Engine version like a fight against your evil counterpart, the removal of the arcade game's time limit, an XP system that you can use to increase your health and magic, and some additional NPCs, though it's not enough to make up for the stuff that was lost. However, as far as presentation goes, Legend Of Valkyrie on the PC Engine still holds up quite well. It may not look as detailed as the arcade original, but it's still bright and colorful, and Valkyrie's animations and expressions are as charming as they've ever been. The soundtrack is also still pretty solid, even if some tracks did get a bit shortchanged (poor Underground Theme).
But overall, Legend Of Valkyrie is a fantastic game, a brilliant fusion of arcade and adventure gameplay chock-full of replayability, variety, and charm. As far as Namco arcade games go, it's probably up there for me as one of my absolute favorites. Seeing as arcade games can be a bit of a hassle to play, the PC Engine version is still a really solid way to experience the game (or you can just play it on Namco Museum Vol 5, I guess).
4/5 Stars
Valis II
Now, the Valis games are an interesting beast. They often get passed off as an excuse to see anime girls fight monsters in bikini armor and nothing more, and while I can't rely deny that, I assure you there's a lot more to like about these games than just that. If you're a fan of cheesy 90s anime, Valis nails that aesthetic perfectly. And while not every entry in the series plays like a dream, the developers at Telenet Japan really grow with each and every installment culminating in Mugen Senshi Valis for the PC Engine genuinely being able to stand up alongside the action platformer greats. However, before we can get there, we need to start with the first Valis game released on the PC Engine, Valis II, and it's... admittedly a lot rougher.
Valis plays like your standard action platformer. You play as Yuko, a newly-turned magical girl who's forced to wield the titular sword and fight aliens and monsters. You can run, jump, duck, and slash your sword which also shoots out projectiles, of which there are several shot types you can swap between. It's actually not too dissimilar from Valkyrie's gameplay just in a 2D platformer format, and also completely lacking in any sort of depth. Later entries would flesh out Valis's combat by adding multiple playable characters, a slide move, and magic... but Valis II does not have these things. Yuko's control feels very floaty, she moves fast which makes it easy to run into enemies, and she's placed right in the center of the screen which makes the scrolling look fairly awkward. The worst aspect of Valis II's controls is the spell system. In addition to the standard shot types, you can find a few limited-use spells, but you activate them by tapping up on the D-pad. Not Up + B like in Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden, just Up. As you can probably expect, this makes it very easy to accidentally discharge spells and it's never something you can easily get used to.
The level design is also fairly hit-or-miss. On one hand, the six levels in Valis II are pretty massive, and they feel big too. There's split paths leading to helpful pickups, large open spaces to fight enemies in, and lots of hazards ranging from moving platforms, to moving spikes, to conveyors, to crushers, to electrical beams. Each level is one large, interconnected screen, and the sheer size of them can be very impressive. However, there are certainly moments when you can tell. The backgrounds in Valis II are purely static, which makes pretty much any exterior shot look artificial and lazy, and it makes Yuko and the enemies stand out in a pretty ugly way. In addition, not every level is created equal. Levels 2, 3, and 5 are Valis II at its best, nicely balancing platforming, combat, and exploration while tossing in enough new mechanics to keep the game feeling fresh. On the other side of the spectrum, though, there's the straight line that is Level 1, the unrepentant enemy spam of Level 4, and the dull autoscroller in Level 6. To put it simply, Valis II is pretty rough on a gameplay level. It's not bad, it's certainly more than playable, but not much better than mediocre.
So if Valis II has all these issues, why do I like it? Well, the gameplay is only half of Valis II, literally. Between every stage, you can watch lengthy animated cutscenes with full voice acting detailing the game's story, and they're great! They are so aggressively 90s anime in their presentation, and the English dub is cheesy but in a really endearing way. The story itself is also surprisingly dark and bleak. I'll talk about the first game in a later review, but just know that Valis as a series is about Yuko being forced to become a galactic protector with little to no say in the matter. Yuko doesn't want to be a magical girl and she doesn't want to fight in an intergalactic war, and that's a genuinely fresh take on the genre. It's almost like early Buffy in this aspect, Yuko is a reluctant heroine who slowly grows into becoming the mature hero the galaxy needs her to be, and that's a big pat of what makes the series so appealing. Valis II is where the bulk of this growth comes in, it's basically the Empire Strikes Back of the series. Poor Yuko gets repeatedly traumatized and shaken, between coming to terms with a death that happened in the previous game, learning who her real mom is right after she died, and discovering that the game's main villain was in the same exact position as her, forced into a war he didn't want to fight. While the cutscenes don't really have the time to dwell on a lot of these plot points too much, the drama involved and the sheer amount of plot twists had me surprisingly invested in Yuko and her journey.
And being a PC Engine CD game, Valis II just has an undeniable sense of scope to it that I find really endearing despite this game's unpolished nature. The size of the levels, the complete voice acting, the length of the cutscenes, the fantastic CD quality soundtrack, the detailed character artwork, it all makes for a game that genuinely feels like playing through an anime from that specific era. And that's why I like Valis II and the series as a whole. Despite its rough gameplay, despite its hit-or-miss level design, despite its iffy visuals, it's really the only game series I know that lets me experience what feels like a playable iteration of one of my favorite genres of anime. And while the later games will eventually have gameplay and production values that are able to meet the developer's ambitions, I think Valis II's moody atmosphere and darker tone stands unrivaled within the series as a whole.
3/5 Stars
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