Chakan (Game Gear) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
172A playthrough of Sega's 1992 license-based action-platformer for the Sega Game Gear, Chakan.
Played through on the "deadly" difficulty level.
Chakan is an 8-bit portable adaptation of the Genesis game Chakan: The Forever Man. It follows the same story: Chakan, wanting to prove himself as the strongest man ever, defeats Death. However, in doing so, he finds himself cursed with immortality, and the only way to free himself is to rid each of the planes of evil. All in a day's work for someone who conquered mortality itself, right?
You can choose the order in which you want to tackle the stages, and Chakan retains his full 16-bit move set on the portable. He can double jump, attack in every direction, and use a wide variety of spells by combining various colored potions that can be found scattered through each level.
The level designs are greatly simplified and far less open than in the Genesis game, and the game is a fair bit easier as a result. In this case, that's a good thing: Chakan is still a challenge, but it's a far less frustrating one on the Game Gear. The controls are a bit looser here, but overall, the experience retains much of the feel that made the original so good.
The single aspect of the game that impressed me the most was the graphics. Despite the hardware differences, the Game Gear version comes pretty shockingly close to its 16-bit sibling. The level of detail is about on par, and the colors actually look better since the GG version is much brighter overall, mercifully ditching the murky dithered patches of blue, green, and purple that the Genesis game was so fond of. Just check out that animated sky effect in the hub world!
The sound doesn't fare so well, though. There are some cool digitized voice effects, but the music, which was already a bit grating and harsh in the Genesis game, is not at all helped by the conversion. Am I the only one that's reminded of the whistling sound of Wile E. Coyote falling from a cliff when listening to the fire stage's music?
If you enjoyed the Genesis game, or if you feel like you might have if it had been a bit easier, the Game Gear version just might entertain you as much as it did me. It's an impressive piece of work for a 1992 handheld title, and its horror vibe makes it a thoroughly unique experience for the system.
You can find my video of the Genesis game here: https://youtu.be/0a3UQXMAdD0
And if your looking for any further Halloween/horror style games, check out my playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3gSj_kh1fHuN8U3j4lnYxDOPIpgoQNv3
*Recorded using an LCD shader in Retroarch to mimic the look of the original hardware.*
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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