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August 18th, 2014 
Carl Williams 
This was NEC’s answer to Altered Beast, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones. There is no arcade tie-in here (though the TurboGrafx-16 did launch with R-Type). NEC was at a disadvantage as far as arcade ports went. That didn’t stop them from trying different things such as a pinball game at launch. Keith Courage in Alpha Zones is an action/platform title that was the pack-in title for the TurboGrafx-16. Man those were the days, free games with the purchase of the console.
Keith Courage was a mixed bag
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones features a bit of role playing, similar to the Legend of Zelda games. You will find yourself purchasing bombs and the like while in town for instance. In town spinning kitty cats are your number one hindrance to advancing- those things are quite regular annoyances. Once in the underground levels the enemies take center stage. Characters that are apparently part giant gun run rampant and skulls similar to those in Castlevania populate the world.
Hardware limitations prominently displayed
The TurboGrafx-16 could not perform parallax scrolling effects. So players are treated to something akin to a more graphical Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game here. Animations are limited to say the least and the underworld levels are VERY similar to each other. The over world levels do change as you progress but so much of the game is in the underworld levels.
Not completely their fault
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones is not an awesome game but it is serviceable. NEC would have been better served to have included Legendary Axe as the pack-in in North America. While we can look back and say those things, the situation was quite harsh. NEC North America was almost completely controlled by NEC Japan. The North American arm was basically here for sales and phone calls.
If you want a copy of Keith Courage in Alpha Zones you will have to hit eBay or Amazon for a TurboChip.
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