{"id":2772,"date":"2013-06-22T13:28:12","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T19:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2014-09-07T21:47:32","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T03:47:32","slug":"golfyssey-16-turbografx-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/?p=2772","title":{"rendered":"Golfyssey 16 \u2014 TurboGrafx-16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not many people remember the TurboGrafx-16<\/a>.\u00a0 And it’s been justly forgotten, I think.\u00a0 I lived through the 16-bit console wars in the early 90s, and I don’t ever remember seeing ads for the system on TV.\u00a0 Then again, I live in Canada, so maybe Hudson Soft and NEC didn’t see any point in bothering with the Canadian market at all.<\/p>\n

But from what I’ve read, their ads took on a distinct “Well, we were here first and we’re better so buy us!” tone.\u00a0 Accuracy of these statements aside, from looking through the TG16’s shoddy game library, you’d swear it was an 8-bit console.\u00a0 (EDIT: The TG-16 actually has an 8-bit CPU.\u00a0 The graphics processors are 16-bit.)\u00a0 Nobody really wanted to make games for the system, so most of the games that came out for it are Hudson Soft titles, and most of those are terrible.\u00a0 The only games I really enjoy on this system are the “Bonk<\/a>” games.\u00a0 Those are the best 8-bit platformers you can play.\u00a0 It says a lot that they can be found on a 16-bit system.<\/p>\n

I found three golf games for the TG16.\u00a0 Let’s load them up and play them.<\/p>\n

“Power Golf”, 1989<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

Horrible, horrible game.\u00a0 Remember a few posts down when I said that legendarily bad games could no longer be released in this era due to better quality controls?\u00a0 I’m going to have to eat my words the more I think about that statement.\u00a0 I was just reminded yesterday of the legendarily bad Captain Novolin<\/a>, so there you go.\u00a0 “Power Golf” isn’t legendary for being bad, but it’s just bad.<\/p>\n

It has some elements that I personally do not like to see in a golf game, so let’s get those out of the way first.\u00a0 The most noticeable are the cartoony graphics and the bright and poppy happy music blaring incessantly out of the speakers.<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

Admittedly, the sound chip in the TG16 can produce higher quality sounds than the Sega Genesis.\u00a0 But look at these screenshots!\u00a0 They could have been taken from an NES game!\u00a0 I can’t get over how this system was sold as being better than the Genesis and Super Nintendo, yet the games made for it consistently had that 8-bit look.<\/p>\n

When you start the game, you will see a view of the hole:<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

Pressing Select will allow you to use the direction pad to scroll up, down, left and right to view the entire hole.\u00a0 Pressing select again will show you a closeup of the putting green.\u00a0 Pressing Select a third time will return you to the view pictured above.<\/p>\n

Use the direction pad to switch clubs (up and down) and to aim (left and right).\u00a0 The I<\/strong> button (as opposed to the II<\/strong> button) will bring up your power meter:<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is where the game’s brokenness shines the most.\u00a0 It actually took me a while to figure out which button brought up this power meter because the button does not always work.\u00a0 And sometimes it is just slow.\u00a0 So press it, and wait.\u00a0 And then if you don’t see the power meter appear, press it again.\u00a0 But be careful, because the I<\/strong> button also starts your swing, and if you’re still trying to make the damn power meter appear while it actually does, you will have started your swing when you’re not ready for it.<\/p>\n

Fuck, isn’t this fun!<\/p>\n

The power meter is 3-button type.\u00a0 But it moves very fast, especially when the meter returns.\u00a0 And the hook and slice dynamics are reversed in this game from every other golf game I’ve reviewed except for “Golf” for the NES.<\/p>\n

Also, the power meter will just appear any-old-where on the screen, which I find to be highly annoying.\u00a0 That breaks my concentration almost as much as the shitty repetitive music that can’t be stopped.\u00a0 The game is also very slow to respond in general, and feels like it was rushed out the door before it was really finished.<\/p>\n

After you have made your shot, you will likely send your ball out of bounds because the power meter requires near pixel-perfect precision.\u00a0 An out of bounds shot requires a re-hit.\u00a0 And all of the shots you make will be very powerful.\u00a0 I think your golfer is some kind of roid monkey.\u00a0 Or maybe he’s got bionic arms or something.\u00a0 This also gets supremely annoying because it can be very hard to move the ball a short distance when you need to.<\/p>\n

And when you get to 13 strokes, the game quits the hole for you and moves on to the next.\u00a0 Well, I guess that’s a sign that it doesn’t want me playing.\u00a0 Noted.<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

Making it onto the green doesn’t change much, except the buggy power meter requires one button-press less.<\/p>\n

\"Power<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, yay.<\/p>\n

I think this game confuses hard-to-do with challenging.\u00a0 The latter can be fun, and is a requirement for a golf game.\u00a0 Hudson Soft got a reputation for squatting and shitting out games for this system, and “Gofer Plow”<\/del> “Power Golf” is a great example of why they deserved this reputation.<\/p>\n

“Naxat Open”, 1989<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

Another I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-8-Bit game, but this one is a lot better than “Power Golf”.\u00a0 It’s still not anywhere near what I’d call a good golf video game.\u00a0 It’s a lot like “Ultra Golf” for the Game Boy.\u00a0 This one has slightly-less-annoying music playing constantly throughout the game compared to “Power Golf”, and the graphics are marginally better.\u00a0 There is only one mode of play (solo stroke play) and you only get the option to choose which clubs you’ll bring.<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

The I<\/strong> button is where the action is again.\u00a0 When you get to the main view like this, press I<\/strong> to see this menu pop up:<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

From there you can see views of the shot, a panning view of your hole, and the putting green.<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

Once you start your shot, you will see an aiming cross on the ball.\u00a0 Controls are pretty standard.<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

Press I<\/strong> again to get the power meter.\u00a0 It is the standard 3-button press type.<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

The power meter moves incredibly slowly, but you need to be quite precise to get a good shot out of it.<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

Getting on to the green will zoom in, and oddly, the power meter looks different but it requires the same amount of button presses.<\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Naxat<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can tell from my very poor finish, I wasn’t enjoying this game much and I didn’t make it into the final rankings.\u00a0 I only finished it for the sake of these lovely 8-bit<\/del> 16-bit screenshots.<\/p>\n

“Jack Nicklaus’ Turbo Golf”, 1990<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, those graphics look a lot better!\u00a0 I’ve reviewed this game twice before, so I’ll only add that this is the best version of the game so far.\u00a0 The NES version was good, the Game Boy version was even good despite the limitations of the graphics there.\u00a0 So if you are fond of this particular game, this one beats those two in quality.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

Hmmm… what happened to the impressive graphics?<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

At least that actually looks like Mr. Nicklaus…<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

Ah, so they blew their good graphics load on the title screen.\u00a0 Well, this game is a major improvement over the other two games I reviewed for the TG16.\u00a0 While you are playing the game, pressing the Run button will bring up the game menu.\u00a0 The I<\/strong> button is the action button.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

The view is still 3D and rendering still takes a while.\u00a0 The physics are an improvement over the NES and Game Boy versions, though the controls are the same.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

I was kind of distracted to see that the swing animation begins while you are still setting up your shot in the power meter.\u00a0 I can see how it’s more realistic this way, I’m just not used to it.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

Here you are on the putting green.\u00a0 The slope and terrain of the green will affect your shot, but as far as I can tell there is no way to read or gauge this information.\u00a0 Also, the power meter on the putting green remains 3-button press just like it is on the rest of the course.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

Nice putt?<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a><\/p>\n

You lied to me!<\/p>\n

I can’t get over how the very best golf game for the TurboGrafx-16 still looks like it’s an 8-bit game from start to finish.\u00a0 If you think I’m exaggerating, load up “The Golf ’92” for the NES and play that for a while.<\/p>\n

I honestly can’t recommend any of these games to any golf video game fans.\u00a0 If you really, really love “Jack Nicklaus Golf” for some reason, there’s a much better version to be found for the Super Nintendo.\u00a0 And compared to most everything I’ve reviewed here, the other two TG16 golf games are just crap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not many people remember the TurboGrafx-16.\u00a0 And it’s been justly forgotten, I think.\u00a0 I lived through the 16-bit console wars in the early 90s, and I don’t ever remember seeing ads for the system on TV.\u00a0 Then again, I live in Canada, so maybe Hudson Soft and NEC didn’t see any point in bothering with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[510,474,38],"tags":[408,496,476,495],"class_list":["post-2772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-video-game-consoles","category-video-games","tag-16-bit","tag-8-bit","tag-golf","tag-turbografx-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7504,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions\/7504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}