Welcome back, welcome back! This – THIS is The Last Official Release. I’m not sure why I keep repeating myself, but let’s just roll with it. I’m having fun. Here, I delve into the last games officially released for your favourite consoles. A pretty darn extensive list of what I’ve already covered can be found below if today’s subject is not your cup of tea – but otherwise, let’s get cracking.

Said subject is the TurboGrafx-16, released between 1987 and 1990 around the world by NEC. Some say it’s the biggest insult to the English language as far as consoles go – nothing screams that period of time more than a misplaced “x” – but if you can see around the poor spelling, the TurboGrafx-16 was quite the little 16-bit unit at the time. It never caught up with the likes of what Nintendo and Sega were offering, but it still sold a respectable 10-million before it was discontinued in 1994.

Okay, time for some real talk. I’ve very clearly titled the last game as Magical Chase, and for the most part, that’s what we’ll be rolling with today. However, everything you know is a sham. Magical Chase was released in the May of 1993, but the last actual game was 21 Emon: Mezase! Hotel Ou on the 16th of December, 1994. As you can probably guess, it was Japanese only. It should also be noted that the console was called the PC Engine over there and was much less likely to make your English teacher scream in terror.

Since 21 Emon: Mezase! Hotel Ou doesn’t have the greatest ring to it and it probably irrelevant to most of my readership (although greetings to any Japanese readers if you’re out there) I’ve opted to base this article around Magical Chase. I’m sure you understand. Although for what it’s worth, it’s a boardgame-style game (is that a genre?) where you compete to create the best space hotel against friendly aliens. Wholesome! Here’s a video of it in action.

Okay, back to the West. Well, kinda. Magical Chase was actually released back in Japan in 1991, and the 1993 American release is more or less a port. Sporting different graphics compared to its Japanese counterpart, Magical Chase is a scrolling shooter. Instead of spaceships like many of its peers at the time, however, you control a young witch named Ripple. Ripple, being the mischievous youngster she is, looked in a forbidden book which freed six demons. The goal is to get them back in the book, or her master (which is another, more scarier witch) will turn her into a frog. Bummer!

Magical Chase is incredibly rare in the present day. Not only was it the final game, but it was only available through a mail order store called Turbo Zone Direct. I couldn’t find any eBay listings as of typing (repos only), but a complete copy went for $1,500 way back in 2010 – so who knows what it could fetch these days.

If the name of this console irks you too much and you can’t find a copy of Magical Chase (or several thousand dollars), take solace in the fact that it was also released for Windows in 1998. Alternatively, there was a Game Boy Color port released by Micro Cabin in 2000.

Previously, on The Last Official Release:

Atari 7800 – Sentinel (1991)
Atari 5200 – Gremlins (1986)
Sega CD – Shadowrun
32X – The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire (1996)
3DO – Creature Shock (1996)
CD-i – Solar Crusade (1999)
Atari Lynx – Super Asteroids & Missile Command (1995)
N-Gage – Civilization (2006)
Fairchild Channel F – Alien Invasion (1981)
Atari Jaguar – Worms (1998)
Virtual Boy – 3D Tetris (1996)
Sega Saturn – Undefined Japanese Game (2000)
Intellivision – Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball (1989)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System – Metal Slader Glory: Director’s Cut (2000)
Sega Genesis – Frogger (1998)
Sega Master System – Mickey’s Ultimate Challenge
Game & Watch – Mario the Juggler
PS1 – Schnappi: 3 Fun-Games
N64 – Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3
Game Gear – The Lost World: Jurassic Park
NES – The Lion King
Atari 2600 – Klax
Game Boy – Shikakei Atama o Kore Kusuru: Kanji/Keisan no Tatsujin
Dreamcast – Karous

Brendan Meharry (0 Posts)

Growing up while the fifth generation of consoles reigned supreme meant that Brendan missed out on much of the 80’s and early 90’s of gaming the first time around. He either lacked the cognitive ability to play them, as naturally, he was a baby - or he simply didn’t exist yet. Undeterred, Brendan started a blog called Retro Game On in 2011. This followed his exploits as he collected and played everything he could get his hands on no matter what the release date. While RGO is mainly YouTube focused these days concentrating on video reviews and historical features, the itch to do some old fashion writing never went away. More recently, Brendan has been a staff writer for the gaming website, GameCloud, mostly focusing on the indie gaming scene in his locale of Perth, Australia.