Tuesday 1 February 2011

Chakan - The Forever Man (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Zombie Zorro?

Whoever he is, he's got some moves*  
(*Not an actual screenshot)

Shame the rest of his animation is kind of jerky. Maybe I've been spoiled by the last few games, but this isn't as fluid and smooth as it could be.

Okay, through the portal into the next level!

Hey, nice scrolling cloudy background. Okay, just gotta jump up there and...

Aww c'mon. And I'm back outside the portal again? Damn that's harsh. Most of these games at least restart you at the beginning of the level you're on, not the end of the previous one.

YOU CAN DO IT, JUST A LITTLE HIGHER! And he plummets to his death for the 500th time. Back to the portal again.

I feel like I'm missing something... wait, no, it can't be? Can I dare to dream?

DOUBLE JUMP BITCHES! We have a game with double jump! Wooooooo.

Aha, yeah! I just double jumped up to your ledge in a slightly jerky fashion and I got two blades to whoop yo ass!

Oh. He's got a big brother. This guy took about a thousand hits to take down, with me taking as much damage back in return. By the end of it I'd had enough of the game. It's not a brilliant game but it's certainly better than the average so far.

I don't get how the perspective is supposed to work on the top of that wall though.

5 comments:

  1. Ah, I was going write to Hardgrit and suggest adding Chakan to his long games to play list, but since he has already tortured himself some of this hack n' slash platformer he is not probably going to touch it again even with a 10ft pole.

    So instead,
    For everyone who has heard genesis owners praising this game and is now curious what it is all about, let me summarize some things about it:

    THE GOOD:

    - It has a nice dark atmosphere. You play as undead swordsman who can't die becouse he beat the Death itself in a fight. And now to earn his eternal rest he has to kill other immortal beings.

    - Some really nice music and sound effects.

    - Instead of collecting power ups as usual you collect potions which you mix to make spells like healing, invisibility or flaming swords. You can carry eight potions at once and you do keep your potions even if you die or teleport out of level.

    - Infinite continues. I have been told you can only get an game over in the final boss fight.

    THE BAD:

    - You can't double jump when you are falling. This takes some time of getting used to...

    -You can't see where you are falling or jumping to. There is no way to look down.

    - There is a roll move (jump+downleft/downright) which is needed to get over some gaps. The usual way to find these is to try to double jump them and fall to death couple of times.

    - It is sometimes hard to see wheter you can reach a platform by double jumping from your current loaction or are meant to jump on it from somewhere else.

    - You pick up an anchor like alternative weapon on the first water level. It is supposed to be used to swing from holes in the walls and from "jump trough platforms" so you can reach higher areas. I have never learned how to do this in one try. It always takes multiple attempts from me to pull it off and the fact that it is sometimes raining monsters while you try to concernate on it does not make it easier.

    - Some, if not all, enemies respawn constantly. Some times even rather fast rate, I once found a sweet spot where every time I killed a skeleton bug thing by holding my sword up still at its flight path, another one flew in to the view at the moment the first one's soul ascented offscreen.
    This combined with all the other reasons to fall to your death in this game adds up to so much fun!
    The enemies don't drop potions by the way, you don't even get points from them like in super star wars series that too had near constant never ending enemy bompardment.

    THE UGLY

    -The level desing. It's not much to look at and it isn't good gameplay either. The level on those screen shots abowe that looks like it is just several random floating platforms and realy that is all there is to it. There is another level early on that is just a straight long walk in a river with rapidly respawning piranhas.
    In short this certainly isn't in par to any Castlevania game, or Demon's Crest a similary dark platformer. The levels are just kind of bland without any set pieces to draw your attention.


    Bottom line:
    The only things I liked where that fact you could hold down the attack button and then press the dpad to wave your sword in the air and the power up alchemy system... actualy maybe I should steal that Idea for that 2.5D platform I have on the works.

    "Fun" fact: This game was going to have a sequel for Dreamcast, but It was canceled.
    There have been rumors that parts of its visual designs were carried on to Blood Omen 2.
    Which is a game I should probaly get around playing one of these days, first I just need to get my mind over the fact that it has nothing to do with Blood Omen 1 .

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    Replies
    1. I actually wouldn't be against playing this one again, as I honestly can't remember playing it the first time. Maybe I'll add it to my 'games to replay' list for next year.

      This is from back when I was still copying across content I'd originally written for an 'Adventures in Gaming' forum thread, and I was burning through a dozen games a day at that point so I wouldn't be surprised if I really did just screw up the first jump a few times, hit two monsters, and then move on to the next game. At least now the article has a bit of content attached to it, seeing as you've written three times as much as I did about the game.

      Also yeah, Blood Omen 2, I really need to get around to that one myself some time.

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    3. [Horrible typos went in to the post abowe so I deleted and reposted it as fixed]


      Yeah that post ended up being a bit long, as you can only see five lines at once while typing in this box so I didn't notice until I posted it.

      P.S.
      Decided to get an emulator and recheck some things about this game while having nothing better to do this morning.

      To clarify:
      - (some) large enemies DO drop potions. And good thing too as you pretty much need to use the spells to kill them.
      - You can carry four of each potion at once so thats total of 16 not 8.
      And atleast the first four levels have to be done in certain order, as you can't for example finish that floating rocks place without the anchor, becouse you need it to hang on the bottoms of the platforms that lead to the hammer.

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  2. I really like Chakan. And it's really not as hard as a lot of people make it out to be -- it's just that most people attack the game from the wrong angle. If you try to play it as a brute-force platformer, you're doin' it rong!!
    No, this game is a resource-securing game. Potions, potions, potions! Chakan is an awesome alchemist, and he can create all the magical effects he needs to make the game easy. THE most important spell is Portal! With this spell, you can create your own checkpoint at ANY location on any level and return there the next time you enter the level's gateway. With that knowledge alone, it should become pretty obvious how to proceed. Yeah, the levels are tough, but you can just keep moving your checkpoint farther and farther forward, and return to your base if you need to refill health or potions (by entering other levels, where you conveniently dropped checkpoints right next to the respawning potions).

    So basically, here's a tip for you should get started: Go to that Air level, head to the right (tricky jumps -- hang one foot off the ledge at each jump and you should make it to the next ledge). You'll come to a place with 2 potions -- Air and Fire. Those are what you need to create Portals. Grab them, make a portal, then head right back to the Air portal again and grab the 2 potions again, then leap to your death to get a free return to your Base. Head back to the Air portal and repeat till you have a full stock of Air & Fire potions. then head to any other portal and find a good place to drop a checkpoint in there (near other colors of potions) and stock up to a full supply of those. Now use your awesome magic to dominate the monsters, moving your checkpoints along from one potion pickup spot to the next, always keeping your potions as maxed out as possible.

    You can figure out the rest on your own, but this game is easy(ish) when you know how to play it.

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