Recommended PC-Engine games?

[Ryu the Grappler]

Played Kaze Kiri, but couldn't get it running with the soundtrack, so it was a brief silent playthrough. It's very different from what I expected. Nothing at all like Shinobi. The comparison to Spartan X weren't far-off actually. The fighting system is actually quite interesting (particularly the moves available for the player like front/back flips, dash, and so on) but some of the battles between grunts tend to drag on a bit too long (then again, I did set it to the hardest difficulty). Maybe it would've been more exciting if I had the soundtrack playing, but I found it so-so thus far. It's not bad, but I can see why some would consider it overpriced if it regularly sells for over $100.

[Ryu the Grappler]

Got around to playing Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo with working sounds. Oh my God! Now this is truly a game worth the hype. A true work of art. I'm ashamed to admit that I had the cash and opportunity to buy an actual copy of the game and I let it go by (the game was purchased by someone else the next day). I was told it was great, but I didn't expect it to be blown away. Easily the best action game on the PC Engine and possibly the best of the classic-style Castlevania games (and since I don't care that much about the Metroid-ripoff formula, that means it's the best for me). I'm one of the few people who actually liked the pseudo-port that came out for the SNES (which I think gets more thrashing than it deserves) and I can now see why they consider that version to be a bastardization. To think that Nintendo still considered CD-ROMs to be a mere fad back then.

EDIT: I also downloaded Kaze Kiri with sounds. It's still lame by the way.

[Ryu the Grappler]

I played enough of Kaze Kiri to form a concrete opinion and whoever said it was a"Shinobi killer" was talking out of his ass. I'm guessing if you pay over $150 for a game, you will try to oversell it as much as possible, but saying it's better than The Super Shinobi (a true classic) is a bit too much. They don't even have anything in common other than they're both ninja games featuring a sword/shuriken attack system.

Kaze Kiri is boring as hell. I seriously don't know why the game penalizes the player with lost of health for throwing shurikens and using the invisibility technique (kirigakure no jutsu) while at the same time having his health regenerate one hit point per second. The regenerated health makes the game way too easy, since the player can spent time avoiding the enemy until his health is back at a decent level. I can understand why they would do it with the invisibility technique, but shurikens are not really that effective to abused. It would've made more sense to allow the player to use all of his techniques without penalty, but without a regenerating health gauge. That way, the game would've a retain some semblance of challenge.

In my third playthrough, I got to Stage 14 on the hardest level and three lives. The grunts segments can be easily clear by hacking and slashing all the enemies until submission, but some of the boss battles require a bit of skill to clear though, since their attacks can take a chunk of your health in one strike. If they had made the grunts segments more exciting, perhaps the game wouldn't be so boring.

I downloaded Renny Blaster as well and my first impressions are not-so-great either.