Easter eggs and secret zones in your favorite games are right where you left them.

If you weren’t rocking a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis in the early '90s, chances are you got your game on with a TurboGrafx-16. Or maybe you didn’t -- the console never matched the popularity of rival systems, but offered plenty of nifty original titles and sturdy translations of lesser-known arcade games. Those days are here again with the TurboGrafx-16 GameBox, a free app that lets you browse, buy, and play these grunge-era favorites emulated on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Unfortunately, the library of games -- mostly scrolling shooters, platformers, and RPGs -- is a little sparse. Just 21 titles are available as of this writing, including classics like Bonk’s Revenge, Ninja Sprit, Neutopia, and Military Madness. A free copy of lackluster Olympics sim World Sports Competition is included, but fan-favorites like Splatterhouse, Blazing Lasers, and Ys Book I and II are nowhere to be found. Many titles originally released only in Japan are also available, although they and their instructions are in Japanese only. Games cost $2.99 a pop, cheap if you’re jonesing to relive fond memories, steep if you’re only retro-curious. One title is available free to play for 10 minutes daily, but otherwise you can’t try games before you buy.

Buying games is easy. Beating them with a touchscreen is hard.

Despite occasional slowdowns, gameplay is as fast and fun as you remember, and each game has one save slot to help you retry difficult spots. There’ll be plenty of them, too, without a physical D-pad and buttons. But a range of display and control options help make the games more touchscreen friendly. You can play games vertically or horizontally, in a 4:3 window or stretched fullscreen, and you can control them with a standard virtual D-pad or one that appears only when you tap. You can even flick to move without covering up much of the screen, handy for shooters with plenty of fast action. Better yet, you can customize unique settings for each title so you don’t have to change your setup every time you switch games.

The bottom line. TurboGrafx-16 GameBox leaves plenty of room for improvement -- we’d love to see more games and a way to play on an iPad or a real TV using your iPhone as a controller. But for now it’s a more than adequate way to satisfy your Turbo-nostalgia on the go.