Well, I am talking about a quite a specific and distinct game here, that being Devil's Crush for the NEC TurboGrafx-16.
From what I've gathered about life and the universe in my 29 years on the planet, pinball games and video games exist in two fundamentally different realms. They intersect at a number of points, but the bottom line is that pinball machines always involve some sort of physical manipulation as a measurement of skill, while video games can only simulate such manipulations at best. In current times that line is becoming a bit more blurred, what with things like VR, the Wii-motes, the Xbox Kinect, the Playstation Move and so on, which do involve some fundamentally physical movement in order to interact with a simulation. However, I'm talking about the early 90s here, where pinball and video games were just two different things, full stop. What does this have to do with Devil's Crush? Not much, I'm just kinda thinking out loud (or, in text).
But where I was going to segue there is that the two have been combined in the interesting specimen of pinball video games, which have existed as far back as the age of Atari in the 80's. That's been a concept that's always interested and perplexed me at the same time. How does one go about meshing the mechanical manipulation of a silver ball with a simulated experience? Why not just go play an actual pinball machine, if one desires an authentic experience? What's the point of getting a high score if you and your friends and siblings are the only ones who will ever see it?
For that reason I've never really gotten into pinball-themed video games (minus that one that came with Windows XP that every millenial knows well), but I'm willing to give them a try if a good one comes along. Devil's Crush is one such good one.
I've already mentioned ad nuaseum in previous entries that the TurboGrafx-16 really fascinates me, and I've mentioned Devil's Crush's cousin Alien Crush in a previous entry as well. So when I received my tax return recently and went straight to my local retro gaming store with a bag of cash, I walked out with a boatload of TurboGrafx games I'd never played before and a newfound appreciation for some obscure and rare games.
The first on my list to try out was Devil's Crush, and I was not disappointed by it in the least. The first thing I noticed was the music. Holy crap. Ever wondered what Slayer would sound like if you fed one of their albums into an 8-bit processor? If you play Devil's Crush, you'll get an idea. It's awesome, probably the best I've come across on the TG-16 thus far.
The graphics are quite nice. The movement of the ball is quite smooth, and unlike its predecessor Alien Crush, the screen moves seamlessly between the upper and lower portions of the pinball arena instead of cutting back and forth between the two, which can be pretty jarring. The arena looks like something Danzig would come up with if he made a pinball machine- there's skulls everywhere, medieval knights, a disembodied female head which slowly transforms into a reptilian monster, and a pentgram with robed figures circling around it. In a word, it's fuckin' awesome.
There's a number of little mini-games interspersed throughout to mix things up a little bit, but they mostly just consist of launching your ball at skeletons, demons, or other monsters to rack up points. I've never actually been able to beat any of these mini-games, but they're a fun change of pace.
I think the most fun I get out of the game is just rocking out to the tunes and enjoying the graphics while trying to keep my ball in play. Which, I suppose, is the entire point of pinball, but I digress. There's not a whole lot to say about it otherwise, but it's definitely a game that will keep you entertained for quite a while and probably one of the most noteworthy titles for the TG-16 that I've encountered thus far. So if you like pinball, metal, the occult, and you've always wanted to see all of those things in pixelated video game format, Devil's Crush is for you. It's a must-have for TurboGrafx-16 fans, as far as I'm concerned. Thanks for reading.
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