38| Momotarou Katsugeki

Released: September 21st, 1990

Available On: PC Engine

Throughout this list, there have been a fair share of Japan only games. Most of these games have been on the NEC's PC Engine. As explained before this is primarily due to the fact that the PC Engine was very successful in its homeland of Japan, but struggled to find success elsewhere. Due to this, most of its games didn't leave Japanese shores. Out of all the games on the PC Engine, I feel that the one that sticks out to me the most is Momotarou Katsugeki. This is more than likely because it perfectly embodies what the PC Engine was.

Released in 1990, the game is an action/platformer hybrid. In many ways it works like most games of its era as the player walks around the screen as they hop over platforms and take out enemies. The main character is a ninja who damages enemies by using his projectile flame attacks from his trusty sword. It sounds simplistic, and to be honest it is, but that is sort of its charm. There are primarily two reasons to as of why the game manages to stand out from similar games of its era.

The first reason is the game's presentation. It has a Saturday morning cartoon feel to it, however there is a bit of twist. It is very Japanese complete with cute oni, a feudal era theme, and various cultural gags such as tiny angels with equally tiny penises.  The game's art style does very well to complement this. The PC Engine struggled in making detailed sprites with precise pixels, however, it did well in making base colored sprites. As a result of Momotarou Katsugeki taking in the classic cartoony PC Engine art style, it looks very much like a cartoon. This is artstyle does well to complement the various bosses and enemies that take up a significant amount of screen space. Not much room for pixelation when most of the pixels are a solid color. This results in some pretty looking moving pictures across the screen. That said, it isn't just the graphics, as even the music is very Japanese . You can just imagine the 1980s style Japanese child anime tropes coming to life just by listening to the soundtrack. Unfortunately that is about as standout as the music gets, as it is average at best. Though there are a few standout tracks.

The second reason why the game differs from its peers, is the game design. Most games of the era revolved around the player walking to the right side of the screen until they get to the end of the level. While this is true much of the time with Momotarou Katsugeki, it isn't always the case. There are many parts in the game that has the player moving up, down, left, right and which ever way the level takes you. It seems that as soon as the player becomes bored traveling primarily one direction, the game switches things up. Luckily it does more than just merely changing the direction the player is traveling in. Some levels mix things up by having ice stages that add friction to the ground floor, others will have new enemies throw objects from above while the player tries to scale a mountain, etc. Considering that the game came out at a time when Super Mario Bros. 3 was the gold standard in its general genre, it was way ahead of its time.

In reality Momotarou Katsugeki wasn't really a revolutionary game. It merely expanded and refined what 8-bit games had been doing for years. To me, that is what the PC Engine symbolizes. While Nintendo's and Sega's consoles of the era had titles that were focused on pushing gaming from a presentation based perspective or an arcade purity one, the PC Engine took a different route. Sure it didn't specialize in beat-em-ups, fighting games, role playing games, or action-adventure titles. But what it did specialize in was titles that people enjoyed playing during the 8-bit era. The platform primarily focused on shoot-em-ups, action platformers, and action games. Due to this, I always saw the PC Engine as the "true" Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Because looking at its library, that is what it was. Simply the classic style NES games, just with better graphics, bigger sprites, and tighter gameplay.