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Full Version: Tiger Road (TurboGrafx-16)
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Why don't I put these in threads instead of the 'games I beat' thread(s) half of the people can't see anyway or don't pay attention to...

So, I got Tiger Road several days ago, and beat it today. That didn't take too long... :) Tiger Road is a 1987 Capcom arcade game ported by Victor to the TG16 in 1990. The game is one of the only platformers on HuCard on the Turbografx with backup memory save support, if you have a TurboBooster Plus or TurboGrafx CD drive, which is awesome. In the game, you play as a monk warrior fighting your way across what I assume is China, trying to defeat the evil king who has kidnapped the children. You fight all kinds of Chinese monters like Chinese zombies and dragons, and Japanese ones as well like Ninjas. It's frustrating and hard, but I like it. The game gets a lot of mediocre to poor reviews, but really, I think that it's a pretty good game.

I must admit, though, I made use of the backup save feature for saving and infinite continues. I don't know that I'd ever beat this game "legit", with no saving and with the 5 continue limit you have if you're not using a TG16 attached to a Turbo CD base or Turbo Booster Plus, but, well, the option for saving and infinite continues is there, with that addon hardware, and I have a Turbo CD base, so I'm definitely going to make use of it! It continues you from the stage section you're at, so you never have to replay a stage part that you've beaten unless you want to challenge yourself with the non-saving version of the game and really want to memorize everything, though with how the enemies spawn infinitely, this isn't a 100% memorizer like R-Type or Jim Power, you will have to use luck and skill as well as memorization to finish this game.

I mean, Tiger Road is HARD. It's as hard as you'd expect for a Capcom arcade game from that era, considering that they also made games like Ghosts & Goblins. There are only five levels, but each is broken up into many parts, and each level is longer than the last. It's got knockback, which always seems to hit you into a pit, infinitely spawning enemies driving you crazy, enemies attacking from all directions, frustrating bosses which can absorb a large number of hits, and more... it's a tough game. Fun, but tough.

The game has good graphics for a midlife TG16 HuCard game, with the bright, vivid colors you expect from games on the system. I like the music as well; it is repetitive, and the sound effects are mediocre at best, but the music works well and isn't too bad. It's fittingly Chinese in style and fits the game's atmosphere well. There are also bonus minigames between levels, which are simple but a nice diversion (the 'defeat the monks' one particularly, the other minigame is kind of easy to beat with the turbo switch on, and in this game turbo will probably be on on the attack button the whole time you're playing). The last level is pretty long and has multiple bosses, including some returning from the earlier levels. Visuals and enemies do repeat, but there's enough variety of environments and enemies to keep the game interesting, I think, and it all looks pretty nice.

So yeah, good game overall. It's fun and challenging and kept me coming back until I finished it, despite great frustration in a few of the later areas. It's a simple game, like most TG16 HuCard platformers, and it deserves its reputation for difficulty, but it is good overall, particularly for anyone with a system that can save. The save feature is really awesome to have, in my opinion. It's great to have a TG16 platformer that saves. Oh, and it doesn't just save your progress (it autosaves at the Game Over screen, so wait for that if you want to save), but it saves your top four high scores, too! Pretty cool, high score save is VERY rare on the TG16.

Video of the game, for anyone who doesn't know it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZhkUceV75k

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