Looks like Virtual Console isn’t the only source for classic TurboGrafx games, anymore.
Hudson recently announced PC Engine Archives, a service for PlayStation 3 and PSP that will bring the company’s classic 16-bit titles to Sony’s platforms in Japan. Currently available are four games that are also downloadable for Wii: New Adventure Island (pictured), Devil’s Crush, Bomberman ’94, and Sengoku Mahjongg.
While the price is the same as Virtual Console (600 yen, about $6, for each game), there are more features. You can save any game at any time using five save-data slots, letting you start from tricky spots without having to replay the entire game. Saved data for games that originally featured it can be swapped between the PS3 and PSP, letting you take your RPGs and such on the road.
This announcement is significant because it is the first time that either Microsoft or Sony has made any move to directly compete with Nintendo’s Virtual Console. There are some Sega Genesis games available for Xbox Live Arcade, but these must conform to all of Microsoft’s many rules and regulations for Arcade titles.
PC Engine Archives, meanwhile, would seem to have a significantly lower barrier to entry — looks like they’re just dumping the ROMs into an emulator and doing some tweaking, just like Virtual Console. If Nintendo’s experience with this concept is any guideline, we could be buried in TurboGrafx games before we even know it.
Assuming that Hudson and Sony bring the service to the U.S., I mean. SCEA’s opinion circa 2007 was that they were absolutely uninterested in releasing a flood of classic games. Perhaps PSP Go has changed that.
Hopefully the increased competition will cause Nintendo to get on the ball and think, hey, maybe *we *should let DSi users bring their classic games on the go, too. Or release more TurboGrafx games, lest PlayStation start getting exclusives. Or anything.