RetroGameClub #3 - Magical Chase + Coryoon (Double PCE Shmup Feature!)

[Sayo]

The concept behind this thread is quite simple, one (or more) game(s) are chosen and you are all invited to play till completion (or at least as far as you can) and we use this thread to discuss the game and anything relating to it.
The deadline for this current thread is that of 14 days or two weeks, as two games have been chosen. These are both shmups and most STG tend to lean on the shorter side, with a bigger focus on score attack than completion for the mere sake of completion.

• A game is chosen (suggestions are encouraged)
• It can be a game for any retro console or computer, if it's something like a modern port or decompilation that's okay too
• Preferably lesser known titles instead of something everyone has already played
• Play the game till completion or at least as far as you can get in the game
• Use any means to play the game, be it emulation or real hardware
• Links will be provided, preferably from CDRomance, if the game is not available there, I can curate it for CDR.
• If you are using save states or similar, please be honest and disclose it

For this second entry of Retro Game Club, we will be playing both Magical Chase and Coryoon, two cute 'em up titles for the PC Engine that boast colorful visuals and chipper tunes. Magical Chase in particular has some of the most spectacular visuals that the system ever featured and is worth looking into for that alone if anything, but it has some pretty polished gameplay to boot, easily ranking it among the best STG on the platform.
As for Coryoon, I don't know much about it, I only played one stage from it once long ago and thought it felt and looked nice so I wanted to add it here as well.

• Magical Chase can be downloaded from CDRomance here Magical Chase (USA, Japan) TurboGrafx-16 ROM (Both Japanese and US releases feature visual differences)
• Coryoon can be downloaded from CDRomance here Coryoon (Japan) TurboGrafx-16 ROM

Neither of these titles gets talked about enough so I think this will make for a fun thread, shmups are pretty easy to get into and don't require nearly as much time investment as platformers so I have a good feeling about these picks.

Some links of interest

• Hardcore Gaming 101 article about Magical Chase
• Hardcore Gaming 101 article about Coryoon: Child of Dragon
• Magical Chase Soundtrack on Youtube

 

[sandogma]

I think the only cute 'em up I've played was Pop'n Twinbee on the SNES (which I love) so I'm definitely interested in checking these out. I started with Coryoon because it sounded like Magical Chase is really special so I figured I'd save the best for last.
I finished the first stage of Coryoon and I'm really liking it so far. I gotta say, I love the large sprites that that PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 is capable of putting on the screen!

 

[Spike]

I played Coryoon up to the boss on stage 3 I think (the gryphon).
Game is definitely not for me.
The graphics are nice and colorful. gameplay is simple.
But the difficulty is next level, there's much shit on the screen there's no way I can react to it fast enough, it comes at you from all 4 sides.
And the worst part for me is that there's no distinctive enemy "bullet" anything can damage you so I end being scared to touch anything, even the good stuff, the fact the enemies drop fruit doesn't help the clutter, sometimes it's even giant fruit. I tried learning what bullets were the enemies but they kept changing. With no infinite continues I can't go on. But even if there were I'm just suffering the game lol.

 

[Sayo]

I think the only cute 'em up I've played was Pop'n Twinbee on the SNES (which I love) so I'm definitely interested in checking these out. I started with Coryoon because it sounded like Magical Chase is really special so I figured I'd save the best for last.
I finished the first stage of Coryoon and I'm really liking it so far. I gotta say, I love the large sprites that that PC-Engine/Turbografx-16 is capable of putting on the screen!
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I cannot believe how good these old games look on a system that was generally considered to be weaker than the competition! I can't wait to play Coryoon once I finish Magical Chase!

I played Coryoon up to the boss on stage 3 I think (the gryphon).
Game is definitely not for me.
The graphics are nice and colorful. gameplay is simple.
But the difficulty is next level, there's much shit on the screen there's no way I can react to it fast enough, it comes at you from all 4 sides.
And the worst part for me is that there's no distinctive enemy "bullet" anything can damage you so I end being scared to touch anything, even the good stuff, the fact the enemies drop fruit doesn't help the clutter, sometimes it's even giant fruit. I tried learning what bullets were the enemies but they kept changing. With no infinite continues I can't go on. But even if there were I'm just suffering the game lol.

Hey I can totally understand if the game isn't for you, I have yet to get to Coryoon so I can't speak on it much but I can see how it might be overwhelming, still I really got to thank you for checking it out, it means a lot to me that people participate in my threads
I am currently playing Magical Chase, it's very fun and I do believe it has infinite continues or at least its far more forgiving, it also has three difficulty settings which is a very nice gesture. I got to say, it's gorgeous, like it's on par with some of the nicest Genesis games visuals wise.
Each stage has a mid boss and a regular boss, you can also stop by a flying shop and refill your health and buy additional hearts that you can use later at any time as well, there are also weapons to buy.
It's not the hardest shmup, for sure, but its a bit challenging none the less.

 

[sandogma]

Its true this game throws a ton of crap at you and its hard to make out the enemy fire at times.
There is a power up that shrinks your character, making it easier to dodge but it also makes it harder for you to keep track of your character amidst the chaos on screen. Thankfully its pretty easy to rack up extra lives as long as you catch all those sweet succulent fruit that enemies drop.

But I'm enjoying all the colorful levels and interesting enemies and bosses. Except for this mini-boss, he was annoying as you could only hurt him through that small opening.

 

[Lime]

Heads up for anyone playing Coryoon, you can press select on the start menu to cycle through options such as a difficulty and stage select (along with cute art). I don't know what the 2 min. or 5 min. options mean.

Maybe it's obvious, but I don't think I would have figured that out if I hadn't looked it up.

 

[Don Patch]

Coryoon is a hoot!
I played it a bit ago actually. I had a huge PCE phase when Spike first started to throw the games up on the site.
I like shooters well enough and this one has some really great features, but man-oh-man, it really throws the hot sauce on after like level three, lol.

 

[RetroLaw]

All right I always wanted to play Magical Chase, let's gow !

 

[Sayo]

Sup everyone, I am back with news. Said news are as follows, Magical Chase is one of the best looking PCE games ever made and one of the most technically impressive ones too. It successfully manages to simulate different effects by masterfully utilizing the background and sprite layers. It's very very pretty but also very challenging, about half your time will be spent in the last stage which is by no means forgiving.

Now it's Coryoon time!