Here's a very good port of the classic Sega arcade game that even manages to rival Sega's own Mega Drive version, with its smooth scaling and colourful graphics. Outrun's main focus as a racing game is on all out fun, there's no real competition from other competitors here but instead a frantic race against the clock, with each checkpoint replenishing some time, its a great system and its used to its max here, often creating a lot of tense situations and exciting near misses.

Konami favoured the PC-Engine with great versions of a lot of their best shooters, and Salamander is no different. All in all it tries to be a close port, but there seems to be some attempt at honing the game, with some more elaborate enemy behaviour, and an increase in difficulty curve (here you get sent back to a check-point instead of having on-the-spot respawns). All in all the changes are great, but I think the new check-point system does make things a little more frustrating at times so I've dropped the placing accordingly.

The game that introduced the world to Bonk (or PC Genjin as he was originally known), the star who would become the console's mascot. Bonk's Adventure is a platformer that has you controlling a caveman as he head butts and flips his way through the stages. Two elements which set this apart from other platformers (other than the excellent humour) are the ability for Bonk to spin in mid-air (allowing him to glide), and his talent for head butting enemies from both above and below, together these elements make for a fun, rewarding game where experienced players are able to bounce from enemy to enemy, gliding, or juggling them as they go.

This has to be Face's best Hu-card as far as i'm concerned, an underrated top-down shooter which has you driving a land craft which can be powered up with multiple gun types, each of which can be upgraded independently by finding the pods hidden throughout the levels. The controls take a little getting used to (one of the buttons locks/unlocks your direction in place allowing you to fire one way whilst moving another), but before long you find yourself double-tapping your way through the stages. The pacing here is great, the levels have a lot of variation from one to the next, always throwing in new elements, its a good length, and the weapon upgrading works well.

Zipang is an enhanced version of the classic puzzle game Solomon's Key, now with updated, revamped graphics and loads of new levels. Its a fantastic improvement, making this quite possibly the best version of the game in available. The simple premise here is to collect the wand (which opens a door in each stage), and then reach the door. The interesting thing is that you can create and destroy blocks out of thin air, for instance to make steps, or to pull the ground out from under an enemy.

This is a vertically scrolling 2-player cute-em-up from Konami. Having played the attractive, but narcolepsy-inducing SNES game I approached this with some level of trepidation, but happily my fears were quickly allayed. This is a fantastic game! the graphics obviously aren't up to the standards of the aforementioned SNES title, but they're still pretty good, and happily the challenge which was so completely absent in that game is here in spades, with the levels requiring you to properly practice and master them to make progress. Good layouts, good difficulty curve, great boss fights, and a tricky (but interesting) power-up system.

One of the more original games on the 'Engine, this has you controlling a photographer as he walks through the levels, its your job to help him avoid hazards, and take pictures of weird things as they happen (photo's give you a certain amount of money), each level has a required monetary objective to pass, so you have to make the most of every picture. Its a good premise which provides a lot of memorable fun, and some laugh-out-loud humour.

This plays kind of like a Japanese take on Gauntlet. You get Gauntlet's action-packed dungeons, monsters, spawn points and multiplayer focus (except here 5 players can take part), but with some Japanese sensibilities added in, such an overworld with villages, story dialogue, and experience points. Overall the combination is a compelling success and this is some of the best multiplayer fun to be had on the system.

The sequel to Hudson's earlier Zelda clone. Here we have the same core gameplay seen in the first game, but now with improved graphics and music, and some further advances in the gameplay department, such as diagonal movement, and a more cohesive world. Unlike the original game with its teleporters, the overworld here is now fully connected, each section contains items which, when found allow you to progress futher into the map.

Here's a wacky, humourous scrolling shooter starring the character Zonk, who was created to be the futuristic, updated counterpart to the earlier character Bonk. This game has to be one of the most impressive on the system, the screen is never less than packed with action, with enemy sprites flying around and huge death-dealing attacks coming from Zonk at a rapid pace, there's loads of smooth parallax in the backgrounds, and everything is colourful, and drawn with lots of charm. Gameplay wise this is generally just explosive balls-to-the-wall shooting action, but other features do add some tactics, you get to choose a support character for each level for instance, each giving you combinations of different attacks. All in all very good.