Here are my thoughts on a couple of Turbo CD (well, PCECD) games I finished recently. I might write full reviews, I'm not sure. They are both fun but VERY easy games.
Turbo CD
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Kaizoku Chounin Shubibinman 3: Ikai no Princess - I got this game less than a week ago, and finished this quite short and easy game on Normal in notime. This game has good graphics, decently good controls, lots of variety, fun encounters... and almost no content or challenge. It's really too bad, they almost had something great here, but it's just far too short and easy. This game is actually the shortest of the four Shubibinman games, despite being the only one on a CD, which is kind of sad. You'd think a game would get longer, not shorter, when it moves from HuCard to CD! The challenge of the first two games just isn't here at all, either. There is a Hard mode, and I will play the game again on that, but it doesn't add as much challenge as it should. This reminds me a bit of Download 2 or that Bakuretsu Yoshimoto Shingeki game, in being Turbo CD games which are fun, but are very short (you'll beat them day one no problem) and have limited replay value. This game has infinite continues, too, making it even easier.
Level designs are a disappointment as well. Most stages are just a path to the right. A few do have jumping puzzle elements, but as in Valis you don't die when you fall, you just lose some health. Levels aren't nearly varied enough, and there are few obstacles apart from a few segments. A good example of this games' wasted potential is that your characters have a cool wall-kick move, to jump off walls... but there is only ONE place in the entire game you'll ever need it, because the rest of the game has almost no walls! It's crazy, why put that in and then fail to use it at all? The other Shubibinman games have better, more interesting level designs. This game has better graphics and music for sure, and fun sword-slashing gameplay, but the levels are too bland in design underneath their often quite nice looks.
Another issue is that you have a gun -- hold down the attack button to charge, let go and you'll shoot -- and can even control your shot (tap fire again, dpad will move it around). That's pretty cool... but it's massively overpowered. Most bosses go down in just a few hits with the gun, it's kind of pathetic how easy it makes most of the game. They didn't balance the gun well at all.
So yeah, this game disappointed me a bit. I WAS expecting it to be easy, because that's its reputation, but the short length and bland levels are unfortunate. Shubibinman 1 may have bland and very repetitive graphics and be unfair (it's easy to moderate in challenge... until you die, at which point it becomes impossible and you should just start the game over), but I like its level-design variety and controls; I like that game a lot more than most, I think. In comparison, this one looks far nicer and the controls are better (apart from your overpowered gun), but the super-short design isn't something I'll probably go back to nearly as often as I have the first game. So yeah, this is an okay game. It's fun though, but is it worth the approximately $20 I paid, or more (I think it often goes for more than that? Maybe not... though being a sidescrolling action game on a system with far too few of them does make it more interesting than it otherwise would be. It's just kind of frustrating, because what's here is good. They just needed to make the rest of the game, and makes the levels more interesting in design as well as looks.
Road Spirits (J) - I got around to playing this game again, and finished it easily; this is one of the easiest racing games I have ever played. This is an Outrun-style point-to-point racer, but it's linear instead of branching. There are 17 races, which sounds like quite a few, but you'll never lose. The game has nice graphics for the system, good music, okay controls... but there is no challenge here at all. You rarely need to brake, I never actually ran out of time in a race except for one where I intentionally ran out of time just so I could see the game over screen. The game actually has a neat little Game Over animation, so it was worth it. Otherwise, though... this game is playable, but they forgot to include any challenge at all! Everything is here except for a game that's challenging in even the slightest way, and that makes it not that much fun to play. There are no difficulty settings, either. There are four cars and three transmissions (Automatic, 2-speed manual, 5-speed manual), but even in 5-speed mode this game is super easy, you will rarely if ever need to shift down. And the game doesn't really get harder as you go along, either. Just hold down the accelerator, shift up if using manual, and turn when the road does and you should finish every race with plenty of time to spare.
Still, this game is maybe the only behind-the-car linescroll racing game on the Turbo (PC Engine) CD, so I'm happy to have it even if it's absurdly simplistic. It does look and sound good, and it's fun for a few minutes at least. I like the varied settings, you go around the world... though oddly, this Japan-only release has no tracks in Japan, but a full seven in the US, out of 17 total! Yeah. There are as many races in Alaska as there are in Europe -- two each. Heh. Not sure if I've ever seen that before in a racing game.
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