Akazukin ChaCha: Osawagase! Panic Race!

NEC PC-FX - Released - October 25, 1996

The game is based on the manga Akazukin Cha-Cha ("Red Riding Hood Cha-Cha") by Min Ayahana, and subsequently on the animated TV series that followed it. The manga tells the story of a little girl named Cha-Cha who lives with her teacher on a mountain and studies magic. In the anime, the story was expanded to include the villainous Demon King, whom Cha-Cha and her best friend Riiya, a werewolf boy, must eventually defeat. Akazukin Cha-Cha is a game for up to six players. Each player corresponds to a character from the TV series. It is also possible to play just as Cha-Cha and to let the AI control the other characters. Each player advances on the board by throwing dice. Landing on different fields leads to different results: finding items, being attacked, etc. The game's strategy elements are expanded by giving each character unique statistics and abilities, that have to be used under special circumstances. Certain obstacles are only solvable if two or more characters gather on the same field. Taking a cue from Battle Heat, "Akazukin Cha-Cha" accompanies every single move by an anime-style FMV.

Angelique Special

NEC PC-FX - Released - December 22, 1995

Angelique Special is an enhanced version of the original Angelique for Super Famicom (SNES). There are no changes gameplay-wise (a mixture of adventure, strategy, and dating sim) or story-wise (a simple girl named Angelique Limoges must befriend nine Guardians to become a queen). This version features slightly improved graphics, CD-quality music, voice acting, and anime-style cut scenes.

Angelique Special 2

NEC PC-FX - Released - December 20, 1996

Following the events of the first Angelique game, Angelique Limoges has become the queen of Cosmos, and her former rival Rosalie - her aid. Now a whole new Cosmos has appeared, and it's time to choose a new queen for it. The candidates this time are Angelique Collet (the protagonist of the game) and Rachel Hart. The gameplay system remains largely unchanged in this sequel. Once again, Angelique has to use diplomacy to make the Nine Guardians lend her their powers (making the inhabitants of her land happy), or develop stronger feelings for her. New in this sequel is the ability to work with three different instructors, developing mind, sense, or dignity of the heroine, which will influence the way she interacts with other characters and also affect the behavior of the Guardians.

Angelique: Tenkuu no Requiem

NEC PC-FX - Released - April 2, 1998

The first RPG entry in Angelique universe, adventure/dating simulation games specifically created for female players and revolving around young girls on a quest to become queens of various planets. Player takes the role of Angelique Collet, the heroine of Angelique Special 2. Angelique Limoges, the protagonist of the first game, and now the queen of Angelique Collet's home planet, is threatened by a mysterious man named Leviath. Her Guardians are imprisoned and her life is in danger. Angelique Collet must liberate the Guardians and save her homeland. The game plays like a traditional Japanese RPG, with top-down view, turn-based battles, etc. However, the dating simulation element from other Angelique games is also present in this RPG. The heroine is able to have conversations with the male characters in her party. Depending on her answers and decisions, she will become involved with one of those characters.

AnimeFreak FX Vol. 1

NEC PC-FX - Released - August 12, 1995

NEC had the idea of releasing what is essentially a PC-FX game magazine in a game CD format. This is the first of what will later become bi-annual animefreak releases. It contains: - A demo of Akazukin Cha-Cha: Osawagase! Panic Race! - A slide show of photos of voice actresses - A karaoke mode for some of the songs used in PC-FX titles - A collection of movies dedicated to Lilith, the heroine of Megami Tengoku II PC-FX-related news - "Voice Idol" mode, which contains information about songs used in PC-FX games - The first episode of an anime mini-series called "Private Eye Doll" A "Making Of..." section. What still allows this CD to qualify as a game is the fact that it also contains a rock-paper-scissors mini-game, which is played against a real actress. The player has to press one of the three main PC-FX controller buttons in time, which correspond to the international hand gestures for rock, paper, and scissors.

AnimeFreak FX Vol. 2

NEC PC-FX - Released - December 22, 1995

The second in the animefreak FX series contains: - The second episode of the anime mini-series Private Eye Doll - Another issue of "Voice Idol" with information about songs from PC-FX games - More photos of voice actresses - A small collection of videos featuring characters from Cutey Honey FX - A karaoke mode - PC-FX news - "Making Of" section - "Pretty Girls Gallery", with pictures of heroines of various PC-FX games - Information and videos from Blue Seed (which was never released for PC-FX) And finally, what justifies calling this compilation a game: a card-based mini-game called "High and Low", which is played against a real actress. The actress deals a card, and the player must guess whether the next card will be higher or lower within a time limit. Guessing correctly will give the player a star, which will be accumulated in the top left corner of the screen. Guessing wrong pushes the player back to the beginning of the game, so what really matters is winning as many times as possible

AnimeFreak FX Vol. 3

NEC PC-FX - Released - April 5, 1996

The third volume of animefreak FX contains: - continuations of the anime mini-series started in the first two volumes, "Private Eye Doll" and "Voice Idol" - several anime FMVs dedicated to Ryō-ōki, the spaceship/funny animal from Tenchi Muyō! Ryō-ōki FX - Karaoke mode - New in this volume: the voice actress Junko Iwao in a special video - "Voice & Talk", a slide show of photos of voice actresses, including a diary-like commentary - "Making Of" section - New: Presentation of 20 prettiest girls from PC-FX games, one-by-one, starting with nr. 20 - Demo of an upcoming Neon Genesis Evangelion game, which never made it to the PC-FX - Trailer for Angelique Special - Information about anime-making and voice actors in particular - PC-FX-related news, and finally - A game called Heart o Sagase, meaning "look for the heart". As before, the game is played against a real actress. The goal of the game is to find the heart belonging to a little penguin. The player is shown 10 boxes, only one of which contains the heart. The player and the actress take turns in guessing where the heart might be. Each turn has a time limit of 10 seconds. The box can either contain the heart, be empty, or have a "Chance" icon inside, which will grant an additional turn.

AnimeFreak FX Vol. 4

NEC PC-FX - Released - February 28, 1997

Animefreak FX: Vol. 4 is the only volume in the series that does not contain any mini-games. Along with a PC-FX game catalogue, a live-action video involving Japanese "idols", information about shopping for PC-FX products, a geographical database along a Japanese railway route, and a preview of the upcoming Last Imperial Prince, this volume contains the opening chapter of an anime mini-series entitled Prism Knights, its plot focusing on a group of high school girls who gain access to powerful transformation abilities in order to face evil extraterrestrial beings.

AnimeFreak FX Vol. 5

NEC PC-FX - Released - August 29, 1997

The fifth installment of the series brings back mini-games, and this time with something far more challenging than the simple luck-based games from the first three volumes: a quiz game. The quiz is all about NEC's two consoles, PC Engine (TurboGrafx) and PC-FX, ranging from game-related to technical questions. Not only does this quiz require extensive knowledge of the consoles, but it is also timed. Other than this quiz, Vol. 5 contains most of the regular stuff seen before (Making Of, anime database, etc. - without the karaoke mode this time though). It continues the anime mini-series Prism Knights from the previous volume. It also has full walkthroughs for several PC-FX games. Vol. 5 takes a decisive step towards less kid-friendly approach: it contains a large collection of videos of various anime-style girls (from PC-FX games or otherwise) changing clothes. There is no explicit nudity, but it comes close! This volume also has videos of voice actresses in bikini on a beach and in an amusement park.

AnimeFreak FX Vol. 6

NEC PC-FX - Released - February 27, 1998

The final volume of Anime Freak returns, so to say, to the roots of the series: instead of slightly naughty videos of scantily clad young women (real or drawn in anime style), it focuses on actual game-related material. Unfortunately, by that time PC-FX was nearly extinct, so Vol. 6 contains a trailer for only one game - one last game for PC-FX: First Kiss Story. It also lacks many of the features available in other issues of Anime Freak, such as karaoke mode, news section, or walkthroughs. It concludes the mini-anime series Prism Knights and Kodomo no Omocha, started in previous two issues. New material available in this volume includes interviews with voice actors, as well as a detailed video about working in recording studios. The game in this volume is the same as in the first volume (albeit against a different actress), namely "Rock, Paper, Scissors".

Blue Breaker

NEC PC-FX - Released - September 27, 1996

The world of Blue Breaker is called "the path in the middle of empty sky": floating islands connected with each other by bridges. It is the tradition of the people in this world that a fighter's full initiation can be completed only when he finds his true love and marries her. Such day has come now in the life of a young warrior named Kain, the hero of the game. His father explains to him that besides the usual warrior's goal of defeating the evil Dark Lord, Kain also has to find the girl of his dreams. He introduces to him a young sorceress named Asha, who becomes his first companion. But on his journey Kain meets many other young women, and it won't be so easy to choose one to whom he can give his heart! Labeled as Love Role-Playing, "Blue Breaker" is a genre-crossing game that combines traditional Japanese RPG with town and dungeon exploration, party-based combat, etc., with "love adventure", in which your behavior towards girls influences the story. "Blue Breaker" features branching story progressing: events appear depending on the progress you have made with your female companions. Your typical RPG activities will influence your relationship with the girls. For example, if you fight too much, the girls will be tired; if you give a girl too many orders in battle (you can set battle in auto mode and only interfere occasionally) she will be displeased, and so on. It is also important to form a party in which the girls will have as few internal conflicts with each other as possible.

Blue Breaker: Ken yorimo Hohoemi wo

Sega Saturn - Released - November 27, 1997

The world of Blue Breaker is called "the path in the middle of empty sky": floating islands connected with each other by bridges. It is the tradition of the people in this world that a fighter's full initiation can be completed only when he finds his true love and marries her. Such day has come now in the life of a young warrior named Kain, the hero of the game. His father explains to him that besides the usual warrior's goal of defeating the evil Dark Lord, Kain also has to find the girl of his dreams. He introduces to him a young sorceress named Asha, who becomes his first companion. But on his journey Kain meets many other young women, and it won't be so easy to choose one to whom he can give his heart! Labeled as Love Role-Playing, "Blue Breaker" is a genre-crossing game that combines traditional Japanese RPG with town and dungeon exploration, party-based combat, etc., with "love adventure", in which your behavior towards girls influences the story. "Blue Breaker" features branching story progressing: events appear depending on the progress you have made with your female companions. Your typical RPG activities will influence your relationship with the girls. For example, if you fight too much, the girls will be tired; if you give a girl too many orders in battle (you can set battle in auto mode and only interfere occasionally) she will be displeased, and so on. It is also important to form a party in which the girls will have as few internal conflicts with each other as possible.

Chip Chan Kick!

NEC PC-FX - Released - September 13, 1996

This is a platform game similar in style to Bubble Bobble and particularly to Parasol Stars. There are two playable characters, both of which are little girls. There is no difference between them gameplay-wise: both use a large blob-like animal to hit enemies from a short distance in a yo-yo-like fashion. It is possible to choose one of them as a single player, or to use them both cooperatively in the two-player mode. Each level of the game is divided into 10 stages, all of which are single screens with platform constructions. The player must eliminate all the enemies who wander around the stage before being able to advance to the next one. Once the enemy is successfully hit with the blob, the enemy becomes stunned for a short while. It is then possible to kick him off screen. Defeated enemies turn into random power-ups, which include speeding up the character, making her have two or even three blobs instead of one, adding an extra life, making her invincible for a while, etc. The 10th stage of each level requires the player to defeat a boss. The bosses have two forms: the first is a character the same size as the player character, which takes a while to defeat and which has the ability to revive regular enemies; the second form is a traditional platform game over-sized monster. The monsters have different attacks, including projectiles and generating smaller enemies, and have to be hit many times with the blob to go down.

Dead of the Brain 1 & 2

NEC TurboGrafx-CD - Released - June 3, 1999

J.B. Harold: Blue Chicago Blues

NEC PC-FX - Released - March 22, 1996

Following Murder Club, this is another detective story about the fearless private investigator J.B. Harold. This time, an unknown woman in a red dress was murdered in Chicago. A female detective who began investigating the murder was killed as well, and this time the killer made it look like a suicide. J.B. Harold arrives at Chicago and has now to work together with the local police and to solve the mystery. Blue Chicago Blues is an interactive movie. Most of the player's time is spent watching movie footage (with real actors and scenery). At certain points, the movie freezes, and the player is presented with a screen with two or more choices. Each choice advances the clock, so it is necessary to plan well in order not to run out of time and to successfully solve the case.

Metamor Jupiter

NEC TurboGrafx-CD - Released - January 22, 1993

Sci-fi shoot 'em up. The following information was kindly provided by Brandon Sheffield of www.insertcredit.com: Metamor Jupiter represents the first (major, he had one previous collaboration) foray into games by musician/designer Masaya Matsuura, of Parappa the Rapper fame. Matsuura, hot off the disbanding of his pop group PSY'S, wrote a vocal song and some incidental music for the game. As for the game itself, it's a rather standard shooter, but is also notable as an early creation of Flight Plan, the developer that went on to create such notable titles as Summon Night, Black/Matrix, Poison Pink, et al. Definitely worth a go if you're a fan of either Matsuura or Flight Plan, and a decent enough, if merely workmanlike effort otherwise. Try it. I actually bought a copy of this game when last I was in Tokyo, and presented it to Matsuura at his office during an informal interview. He was incredibly surprised to see the game, as he'd lost the original copy of the track, and ripped the disc on the spot in order to get it back! Pretty nifty. Honestly though, I only played it for about 30 minutes. It's really quite ok, but is way more interesting for its history than anything else.

Sengoku Turb: Fanfan I love me Dunce-doublentendre

Sega Dreamcast - Released - December 23, 1999

Sengoku Turb: Fanfan I love me Dunce-doublentendre (戦国TURB Fanfan I ♥ me Dunce-doublentendre) is a follow-up to Sengoku Turb, also released exclusively in Japan in 1999. It appears to be nothing more than a minigame collection hidden underneath the veil of an RPG. Sega of Japan's catalogue page refers to the game as Sengoku Turb: Fanfan I love me Dance-doubletendre, correcting the misspelt "dance" but missing a letter from "entendre".[2] It also abbreviates the name to Sengoku Turb F.I.D..