Here's a nice, colourful platform game for PC-Engine that you don't often hear about. Momotaru Katsugeki is a fun, playable game that does all the platforming fundamentals well, and throws in some simple adventuring elements for good measure (there's villages and shops for buying weapon and armour upgrades as well as useful items). I'd be lying if I said it was totally import friendly (the menu, and password screen can be a little difficult to navigate at first), but generally everything in the game is straightforward, and accessible.

This is a top down racing game somewhat akin to a futuristic version of Micro Machines. The control here is great, and the courses are well designed, and memorable, with jumps, floor boosts and hazards littering the tracks. You can also upgrade your vehicle with a plethora of parts, and kit it out with all sorts of different weapons, all of which create mayhem and fun in the excellent 5-player races.

Here's a fast-paced action game which has you slashing your sword and shuriken-throwing your way through armies of bad guys. Ninja Spirit's best aspects are its rock-solid control system, which gives you a lot of room for flair and mastery, and its cool power-ups, ranging from longer sword range, to a gang of clones which follow your every move. This excellent version contains both the original arcade game, and a PC-Engine dedicated mode which has been made a little easier.

Gunhed was the early PC-Engine title that kick-started its enduring reputation as a shoot-em-up fan's dream console. Co-made by staff of both Compile and Hudsonsoft, Gunhed shows its pedigree well, with frenetic action and a multitude of different interesting weapons. Later PC-Engine shooters may have taken its core core concepts and run with them, but Gunhed remains one of the more memorable, and atmospheric Engine shooters, due in large part to its excellent music and presentation.

Devil's Crush gives you one of the most memorable tables of the genre, an occult themed table of skeletons and monsters. The game builds on the mini-table's of the first game, with more numerous table changes, and some new, cool boss fights. This has a height increas in comparison to Alien Crush, and replaces the flick screen set-up of the 1st game with smooth scrolling. The best 16-bit pinball game bar none.

Cadash is an action RPG which is similar in structure to Metroid, or one of the later Wonder Boy titles, except here you also get experience points and multiple character classes to go with the shops and upgrades. The game provides a decently lengthed adventure, but the big differences between each character class adds a lot of replay value, the projectile throwing Ninja for instance is a very different experience to the close quarters combat of the warrior. The game's art design here is stellar, and there's also an always welcome 2-player option so you can bring a friend along for the ride. Overall this is a very good arcade port, leagues better than the drab Sega Mega Drive version as far as I'm concerned

One of the most original, and under-appreciated games on the system, Gomola Speed is a fun, arcade-style puzzle game which has you controlling a snake as it sweeps through the stage growing and encircling food, whilst avoiding hazards and dropping timed bombs. Its a clever, well-designed game that has an interesting concept and a very unique feel.

The classic world-building sim was ported to the PC-Engine with everything intact. Here you get to play god to your people helping them grow and prosper with the ultimate goal of wiping out their enemies and thriving.

The TurboGraFX library got off to a blistering start in the US, launching with some of the most impressive, and playable games of the year. Legendary Axe was one of those stand-out titles, a well paced arcade style action game with excellent graphics and locales, and some of its own unique gameplay ideas. Here you have an attack bar which is used every time swipe, and then auto-recharges, when at its maximum you do greater damage. This system encourages careful timing and precision over mindless hacking and slashing, so as to maximise damage.

One of the most important scrolling shooters of the 80s, R-Type introduced some of the most intricate level designs, and clever power-up system's to the gaming world, all infused with Alien/H R Geiger inspired art design. So impressive, and unprecedented was the PC-Engine's port of R-Type that it was probably the closest the system came to having a killer application, at least in the early days. Its not quite a perfect port of the game, but it makes a pretty damn good stab at it! The game was originally released in two halves in japan, "Part 1" and "part 2" but the US Turbochip version was the full game.