New Turbo Grafx-16, also known as PC Engine in Japan, games are not all that regular today.  Fans have become accustomed to maybe one new game for this console per year, if that.  Compared to the Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 new game output by independent developers, this is rather sad.  Someone didn’t tell Sarumaru though who has taken Henshin Engine to the popular crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, and is hoping to reach his minimum goal in about 30 days.

From their Kickstarter page here is the basic story of Henshin Engine:

Henshin Engine is the story of gaming-gal Yuki Shirokawa who just started an apprenticeship for the Jipang Electronics Corporation (JEC). Her favorite gaming console is the FX-Engine, a product of JEC. She later discovers something crazy about her beloved FX-Engine that would change her life.

What fans can expect is a fast paced 2D side scrolling action platform game with eight stages of horizontal scrolling shooting.  Henshin Engine is being developed with the Turbo Grafx-16 and PC Engine hardware in mind from the start so this is going to work quite well on real hardware.

What is interesting about Henshin Engine on Kickstarter is the stretch goals.  Since this is being developed for the Turbo Grafx-16 it probably won’t see much improvement on newer hardware as to preserve that retro feel.

The first stretch goal is to port Henshin Engine to the Playstation Network and Xbox One.  The second stretch goal includes porting Henshin Engine to one disc based retro platform such as Sega CD or Dreamcast, or could it be Saturn, 3DO or Playstation? What about the Jaguar CD-ROM?  Pippon?  They will decide based on a poll taken after the Kickstarter ends.

The third stretch goal brings a 30 minute mini documentary.  The fourth goal means a cartridge based port specifically mentioning the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and Game Boy.  Could this mean Neo Geo Pocket Color and the Game Boy Advance are in the running too?

Finally, the last stretch goal is left up in the air.

If you want to see a new Turbo Grafx-16 game then head over to Kickstarter and see if Henshin Engine is for you.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams