Konami PC Engine Core Grafx Mini: the complete Review

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The wave of "mini" reissues of the old consoles – which continues with the announcement of the Game Gear by Sega – makes a small detour through the exotic territories of gaming with the arrival on the market of the Core Grafx. A health home console released in Japan at the end of 1987 and sold to over 10 million units. If it is 18e best selling health home console in history, this honorable success is a bit of a sham, since 40% of this volume concerns Japan, its country of birth where it had a real influence on local video game history .

In the rest of the world his destiny was much more complicated: the French distributor of the time bought consoles which he modified himself to make them work with our televisions! As for the USA, where most of the rest of the consoles have been sold, the ambitions in the video game field of NEC / Hudson Soft, the designers of the first PC Engine consoles, took off against a Nintendo which signed exclusive agreements for the games and Sega which counter-attacked with its Megadrive (Genesis on the US territory). (Read our review of the Megadrive Mini)

Called PC-Engine in Japan, TurboGrafX-16 in the USA and Core Grafx in France (which is the only European country to have officially distributed it) the console of NEC / Hudson Soft is rising from the ashes in three different appearances depending on the market. In Europe, the Core Grafx mini takes on the black dress of the time and the controller looks like it was mistaken for the original.

A console, two identities and a double toy library

The duality of the console, which has mainly been sold in Japan and the USA with quite different catalogs, has led Konami to offer not one but two game libraries. And in order to easily sort between the two, the developers of the graphical interface separated them into two virtual consoles. A button at the bottom right of the screen switches between the Japanese catalog ("PC Engine" in red) and the American (TurboGrafX-16 in red and gold).

The advantage is twofold: it avoids the clutter that an interface of 57 games would have represented (less in fact, read further) and highlights more the cultural differences of the two catalogs. The console having experienced several variations and evolutions (II, CD, etc.), the interface presents each time which version of the title it is.

Do you speak english?日本語 は 話 せ ま す か?

Friends defenders of the French language, go your way: no title is in the language of François Villon. No game having indeed passed the course of translation at the time – for cost reasons – all titles are displayed in English … or Japanese. No worries, given the horde of platform games, shoot-ups and more, this is not a crippling handicap.

But some titles in the Japanese catalog will make you work your hirakanas, katakana and other kanjis since they are 100% in Japanese language. Ideal for otakus, fans of Japan and other perfect masochists. But if you don't interfere with the language of Major Katsuragi, good luck playing "Snatcher", an interactive novel based on Cyberpunk in Neo-Kobe which consists essentially of reading text (in Japanese) and choosing options (in Japanese) or to ask questions (you understand: in Japanese). Genki desu!

Varied catalog but some duplicates

Theoretically, the console has 57 titles: 25 from the North American catalog, 32 from Japanese. But there is a little circle: three of these titles are duplicated! Dungeon Explorer, Neutopia I and Neutopia II are thus present in the two toy libraries, for reasons that are not known to us at present. This makes "only" 54 playable titles, minus a few Japanese-Japanese adventure games whose playful reach is beyond the reach of non-Japanese.

The nostalgia effect will only affect the lucky few who were able to play with it at the time and its 8-bit enemy, the NES Classic Mini, obviously has the advantage of the notoriety of franchises. But the Core Grafx offers a completely satisfactory catalog, in quality as in variety.

RPG fans are entitled to the very beginning of the Ys saga (Book I and II), those in need of Zelda-like can try Neutopia I and II (much prettier than the Zelda Nes) or The Legend of the Valkyrie, which looks a lot like The Story of Thor released a few years later on Megadrive (with a few menus and item names in Japanese). Shoot'em up enthusiasts are among the most cherished as the offer is large with, to name a few, R-Type, Blazing Lazers, Soldier Blade, etc. Or the funny mix of knight of the Zodiac and horizontal scrolling shooter that is Lords of Thunder.

The only weakness is to look for in platform games: only Bonk (PC Gaijin) is in good shape, the other titles are a little too simplistic, a New Adventure Island can not claim the quality of a Mario. But this is made up for by good titles, especially in the beat them all, as well as two titles from the Bomberman franchise.

Exemplary graphical interface

The CoreGrafx mini's graphical interface and software ergonomics are the best of all mini consoles. Besides the fact that everything is controlled with the joystick, the shortcut to access the menu is more effective than that of the SNES Classic Mini for example. Instead of having to hold more than one second four buttons (Start, Select, L and R), on the CoreGrafx Mini, just press Select + Run to see the save menu arrive and return to the progress of games. Faster, more efficient. And prettier.

Because there is an interface that is both efficient, perfectly fluid, beautiful and neat. With the possibility of changing the sorting system of the games (alphabetical order, release date or type of media). And take advantage not only of beautiful period illustrations (the jackets appear large) but also of fun animations that add a little more to the experience. The loading of the games varies according to whether it is a HuCard (cartridge) or a CD. All this while little loading characters roam the background of the interface constantly. Even the flip-flop from the catalog of the TurboGrafx-16 (USA) to the catalog of the PC-Engine (Japan) is classy: the signal is scrambled and the screen turns black like a CRT screen. A sum of details which shows that it is indeed enthusiasts who developed the interface!

By the way and more marginally, this sense of detail can also be seen on the page of the Konami website dedicated to the console – in French, don't be afraid. Many games being little known to the general public (apart from Bomberman), Konami took care to present and contextualize each title.

All this to say that, apart from the quality of the titles (since it is variable), the gaming experience is really good. Not only did Konami not botch its console like Sony did with its PlayStation Classic, but the Japanese studio also paid for the luxury of doing better than Nintendo.

A good controller … but a little lonely!

The reproduction of the controller is very faithful to the origin and incorporates the "turbo" levers which avoid destroying the fingers when playing shoot’em up, for example. Another very good point, the USB cable measures 3 m which allows you to place yourself at a good distance from a television. A much more comfortable size than the NES Classic controller cables which measure less than a meter to ensure compatibility with the old communication protocol of the old controllers.

Without being a model of ergonomics (we have progressed a little in thirty years!), The controller is nice even after an hour of play, the finishes are very good and the buttons perfectly adjusted.

Everything would be perfect in the best of worlds if the controller did not feel so alone. Because many titles of the PC-Engine / CoreGrafx / TurboGrafX-16 were played with two players or more, and the console is delivered only with one controller. For now, while the console is barely available in Europe, it is impossible to find a second official wired controller.

The specialist for 8-BitDo controllers will offer a wireless model via dongle, but not only is the controller not yet available, but it will also not have Turbo modes. Same fight for multitap, this adapter which allows you to play up to 5. Aquestion béntennoncé, it is not yet available.

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