Virtual Console Review - Shockman (Turbografx-16)

Shockman - NCS for Turbografx-16 - 3/10

For reasons I've never understood, the PC Engine/Turbografx was home to a thousand excellent space shoot-em-ups, but hardly any good action-platformers.  When it comes to competing with Super Mario or Contra or Mega Man, the system's games just cannot compete.  Why is this so?  I really don't know.  Sometimes in life, these things just happen.

If you're feeling generous, then NCS' Shockman might pass as mediocre, but I say it's just terrible.  I don't see any reason to waste your time on a shallow Mega Man ripoff when you could just as easily play Mega Man.  And if you're paying to play on Nintendo's Virtual Console, there's really no excuse.  The controls on this game are so floaty, so slow, that Shockman feels unplayable.  It's broken.  Simple as that.  And any degree of play testing would have born this out.

This doesn't feel like a console game.  It feels like a C-list arcade game from the mid-'80s, the kind of sloppy game that would be tried once and then immediately forgotten.  Save yourself the quarter and move straight to the forgetting.  How did NCS drop the ball on this one?  Maybe they were only skilled at making space shooters (they designed Gley Lancer on the Mega Drive/Genesis).  Whatever.  This game stinks.