Wii remember: Devil's crush
I love pinball machines. Which is sad considering that they disappeared in this country around the time when I became a teenager. Still, there were digital pinball games and they made sure I found some kind of outlet for that love during my youth.
Since I had a Sega Mega Drive, and yes, I refuse to call that machine by any other name, I played Sonic Spinball, a rather underrated spin-off of the Sonic franchise. It had a neat spin on the pinball formula, adding some light platforming and a clear level progression. It's one of the few games on the Mega Drive I managed to beat back in the day, even though I found it to be difficult.
Speaking of underrated and maybe even overlooked games, the TurboGrafx16 (or PC Engine) had plenty of those. Never really having been released in a greater capacity in Europe, the console completely flew under my radar until I got a Wii. It was a great surprise to me when Nintendo announced that the Virtual Console was going to include games from that device, even in Europe.
Enter one of the many droughts that the Wii experienced and me being intrigued by this weird little pinball game called Devil’s Crush. I read a lot about it, saw some videos, and thought to myself it would be a great idea to get it. And it sure was!
Devil’s Crush takes the basics of pinball and heightens them in the right ways. You have one pinball table with three levels and several extra stages. So far, so normal for digital pinball games. But this game is special is in the optics and audio departments: Devil’s Crush exudes a forbidden, ghoulish energy that was rare in the 16-Bit-days. Especially in the context of the way more prevalent Nintendo games, which were kid and family friendly, the TurboGrafx16 seemed to me like the little sister of the Sega Mega Drive. While Sega very obviously tried to cater to teens by being edgy, Hudson’s system was inviting much of the same energy. This might explain why this game got a port to the Sega Mega Drive too.
Every part of this pinball table takes the opportunity to add in as many demonic elements as possible. You have hooded figures, dragons, coffins that explode and give you many more creatures. The centerpiece is what you assume is a nice and attractive lady, but she turns into a lizard if you hit her often enough with your pinball. There’s nothing truly benign in this game and add to this an absolutely mesmerizing main track that keeps looping and creates a very dense atmosphere and you have the masterrecipe for a spooky 16-bit game. I feel reminded of the Splatterhouse games at times, which again is a Hudson franchise. Really, the soundtrack is the part of the game that stayed with me for the longest. Written by Toshiaki Sakoda, of MUSHA-fame, it builds so much of the atmosphere. According to an interview over at hardcore gaming, he has ghostwritten many soundtracks in the 80’s and 90’s, so you might have heard some of his stuff without knowing so.
When this game came out in July of 2007, it had been months since a new game had come out, that I was interested. As I mentioned before, Mario Strikers Charged was a lot of fun, but it didn’t get all that much playtime from me and I was already done with Twilight Princess and Red Steel. I was still happy with the Wii and the promises surrounding it, but this first real drought was already shifting my perspective. It was a good thing I had other gaming options. If I were limited to only Nintendos newest console, it would have been pretty bad. Then again, there Is Gamecube backwards compatibility, which meant I still kept playing the Wii, even though there were not that many games.
Since I enjoyed taking my Wii to my friend’s places, I also wanted them to get into this pinball game. Normally, a pinball game is a natural fit for some decent competition, with that focus on high scores and all. Unfortunately, it never became popular with my friends, which again limited the appeal of that game. But I still love it and it’s amazing music. And yes, I still need to check out the other games in the franchise. The only game I played that could be compared to this is Demon’s tilt, which I had some fun with when it was on Gamepass. Just looking at that game is like a horrifying terrific fever dream.
There is no legal way anymore to get a modern, digital version of Devil’s Crush anymore, which is a huge disappointment. With the discontinuation of the Virtual Console, most if not all TurboGrafx16 games are pretty much unavailable now. This is pretty sad, and I feel we are collectively missing out on many very interesting games.
But that’s enough of me complaining. It would only take another month for my favourite game of 2007 to arrive. So look forward to my next blogpost, which will hopefully take less time to come out than this one.
As always, thanks for reading. If you want to follow me on mastodon, you can do so over at @[email protected]