The game moves fast, the scrolling is smooth, and there’s no slowdown even when the screen is filled with enemy ships. Regardless of what system they were working on, they always seemed to push the hardware further than other developers could. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Compile pretty much dominated the world of vertically-scrolling shooters. It’s seldom mentioned on the Internet and even Wikipedia seems to be unaware of its existence. There’s no reason why Rude Breaker should be so obscure. So many games on the PC-98 were aimed at adult audiences, so a whimsical adventure like Popful Mail was a breath of fresh air. This is time well spent, however, since the characters are charming, the dialogue is witty, and the game is genuinely hilarious at times. You’ll visit shops, find new equipment, and spend a lot of time talking to people. The action sequences are supported by traditional RPG conventions. This is similar to how combat works in the Y’s franchise, and it’s a lot of fun to mow down enemies in the game. Enemies in the game are defeated by jumping on them or by simply running into them. Although versions of the game were subsequently released on the Sega CD and Super Famicom, the PC-98 version is different by virtue of the fact that there is no attack button.
Each character has their own unique abilities, and players are free to switch between them at any time. The game follows the exploits of an enthusiastic elf, a naïve wizard, and an adorable bat dragon thing. Popful Mail is a bright and colorful 2D platformer with some RPG elements thrown in for good measure. Chitty Chitty Train has the happiest music this side of Bubble Bobble. You’ll inadvertently cause thousands of derailments when playing the game, but the upbeat music helps lighten the mood. It’s possible to slow trains down momentarily by placing stop lights on the map, but this often causes other trains to crash into them. Even though the switches are controlled by a simple mouse click, it’s hard to keep up with the action. You have to watch over multiple trains at the same time, and the courses have many paths for the trains to take. It’s a simple concept, but the trains move very quickly so its almost impossible to plan ahead. Players aren’t given any control over the trains themselves, and instead direct them by operating switches placed at various intersections. Your objective is to watch over trains as they move along the map and prevent any derailments from taking place. It’s basically a real-time train-routing puzzle game. Chitty Chitty Train is difficult to describe because there aren’t really a lot of games like it.