Of the many, many shooters available for the Turbo Grafx-16 Air Zonk is one of my favorites. The combination of insane production values and great mechanics still ranks it as of my favorite titles in the genre overall. When I started to explore the PC Engine library as I got older one title that stuck out to me was Coryoon. This cute little gem caught my eye in a magazine as it looked extremely like Air Zonk. Little did I know the reason it was made by many of the same staff. It’s a mystery as to why Coryoon was left in Japan but we missed out on a great hidden gem and one of the system’s best shooters.
Coryoon is one of the cutest games you’ll ever see. The sprites are large and expressive, the color palette is exceedingly bright, and even the enemies look like they want to be your friend. Behind the cute art is a game that is technically incredible. Coryoon throws around a ton of sprites and absolutely never slow down. It really is amazing. Add to that the beautiful, five-layer deep backgrounds and you have a game that defies the hardware. Considering this is from some of the creators of Air Zonk it shouldn’t be as surprising. The music doesn’t reach the same heights but is still pretty decent.
Coryoon has a light set of weapons at only three. While each is powerful and effective I’d be lying if didn’t want more choice. Red grants fire, which produces a powerful stream of flame that lacks range. Blue is water, which is the Coryoon equivalent of a wave beam. Yellow is this game’s version of a spread gun. Each can be powered up three times, with the lightning undergoing the largest change and firing in eight directions. In addition there are playing card style secondary power-ups. These offer the typical options like a smart bomb and options but two in particular are really cool. The club is a magnet that attracts fruit, extremely helpful to rack up points and avoid danger. The diamond shrinks you, like the reduce option in Gradius III. Your dragon is already a large target so this is the best of the bunch.
Don’t let the game’s cute face fool you. Coryoon is one of the most maniacal shooters I have ever played. The best way to describe the pace is manic. There is rarely a moment where a wave of enemies isn’t crowding the screen. Sometimes they come in pairs of two, sometimes they fall from the sky. They even come from behind! Every enemy drops fruit of varying sizes which also adds to the chaos. When you add frequent power-ups and your own fire it and it nearly becomes a disaster. Honestly, I think it becomes too hectic for its own good at times, but the game doesn’t solely rely on that.
More so than its ability to handle all this madness Coryoon succeeds due to its variety. Every stage is themed and while many follow the standard tropes (forest, water, fire) the way they are implemented is what counts. The theme informs the hazards and such, like the exploding crystals of stage seven. Stage six takes place in a crystal cavern that features enemy waves from all sides. This is one of the few instances where the lightning weapon is indispensable, especially against the mid-level boss. Speaking of bosses, Coryoon has a great set. Every stage has two and, in some cases, the mid stage boss is more of a threat than the end level mayor. Fighting grueling battle only to watch these bastards come back with a completely new attack pattern is both thrilling and frightening. Air Zonk was kind of similar so I shouldn’t have been so surprised.
Despite its on-screen chaos Coryoon is one of the easier shooters on the market. This comes down to a few factors. So long as you have one power-up you cannot die. Taking a hit reduces your power to its base level, with another resulting in death. It is like the ring system in Sonic the Hedgehog. This might be one of the most generous shooters when it comes to power-ups; even during boss battles they still come regularly. The scoring system makes it incredibly easy to rack up extra lives as well. It isn’t out of the ordinary to receive three lives after each boss fight. This makes it easy to brute force your way through the game’s worse choke points. Outside of the boss rush at the end few will have any trouble with this one, not that it is a detriment.
In Closing
Coryoon is a fantastic game and one of the strongest shooters in the Turbo Grafx library. We needed titles like this in the US and less crap like Deep Blue or Darkwing Duck.
