Developer: Winky Soft Publisher: Banpresto Release: 09/23/94 Genre: Beat ’em up
Final Fight lit a spark that reinvigorated the beat em up with many clones following. It was an exciting time as many titles were pushing the envelope in terms of presentation and gameplay. But by 1994 the genre had become over saturated, both on home consoles and in the arcade. It’s not that the games were bad but many were generic and content to ape Capcom’s hit to a tee. The best games that truly pushed the envelope in terms of gameplay rarely left the arcade. One such case was Denjin Makai, a truly fantastic arcade game that never left Japan. The Super Famicom port has the strange title of Ghost Chaser Densei. Yet there are no ghosts. While there are some cuts it is a pretty good game that captures the magic of the arcade original.
Denjin Makai in the arcade has a robust lineup of six playable characters. Sadly there are only three in this home port. Only Makai, Iyo, and Belva are playable and the three conveniently fit the established niches of well rounder, fast but weak, and big slow strong guy. It is a huge blow to the game as the other playable characters were unique. In fact their play styles were so different it was worth going back and replaying the game to see their special attacks and move sets. The missing characters are relegated to small cameos or even used as palette swapped boss characters. Lame.
On the surface Ghost Chaser Densei looks like a simple Final Fight clone. Yet it probably has one of the deepest combat systems in the genre. Aside from your standard attacks and throws characters can block, counterattack, back attack, dash, and juggle enemies. There are even desperation moves when your health is low. The list of moves per character is pretty large yet the controls are simple enough to pick up as special attacks have their own dedicated button.
What really puts it over the top are the special moves. Most brawlers sap your life to perform a special attack. Here it has its own separate bar. Each character has five or six special moves, all performed with simple button combinations that use the meter in varying amounts. Refilling the special meter is as simple as staying idle or taking damage. With this the pacing of the game changes significantly. You will want to use special attacks as much as possible since they clear enemies faster and the mechanics encourage it. It might sound like the game would have an uneven pace however the meter charges fast even in the middle of combat. If the full cast of characters were available this would have been truly special.
Unlike nearly every game in the genre you only have one life per credit. Despite that I still found this easy overall. It takes a while to whittle down your health and unless you suck you can survive until the next power-up. The game is pretty generous with health items of all stripes. Med kits that fully restore your life meter show up at least two or three times per level next to smaller food items. Until you reach the midpoint most enemies inflict little damage with their attacks. By the late stages they get you in groups of four or five with exploding robots dropping left and right. Yet I still saw the end with just two credits. Maybe I’m just a savant?
The designers were certainly proud of the combat engine and rightfully so as there are countless enemies to pound on. One level from the arcade is gone, leaving the total count at five. Ghost Chaser Densei is still a pretty long game in the worst way unfortunately. Each level is pretty long but that is because they are padded out by a ridiculous number of enemies. By the end it is unbearably bad and tedious, especially due to the limited variety of enemies. No matter how deep the combat is it cannot hide the fact you are fighting the same four or five enemies in different colors using the same tactics.
In the arcade this was not the most stunning title visually, especially compared to Capcom’s later games like Alien vs. Predator or the Dungeons & Dragons series. However it did boast some of the largest sprites in an arcade brawler with incredibly smooth animation. The SNES version in comparison is a severe downgrade. The sprites are smaller but are still pretty large however the animation has taken a hit. There is a pretty sizable amount of background detail missing as well. The story is set in the future yet it isn’t apparent going by the generic city, sewer, and military installations you fight in. It is not a bad looking conversion but as evidenced by Undercover Cops a more faithful port was possible.
In Closing
Despite missing elements Ghost Chaser Densei is a good port of the arcade game and a strong entry in the system’s library based solely on its varied combat. I would still place it below Undercover Cops but it does make a nice alternative when you are done with that classic.
