A forever mediocre mess
Mix of RPG and magic can’t save Chakan from terrible fate
As Sega and Nintendo fought for more territory in the final arc of the 16-bit era, Sega tried to stick with new original properties in unrealized genres. I recently was reintroduced to Chakan: The Forever Man, a game with a cool original theme that didn’t grow to the potential that developer Extended Play Productions envisioned. I would even dare say that with its dark theme, it could have been the Genesis’ answer to Castlevania, which later appeared on Genesis. However, dark and spooky doesn’t equal great.
Based on Robert Kraus’ comic book series, Chakan is what happens when the supernatural meets a legendary swordsman. You take on the role of Chakan, a legendary swordsman with blade and spell skills who boasts he can defeat Death without any problems. As a result, Death challenges Chakan to a duel to the death stating if Chakan wins, death will grant him eternal life. The battle ended with Chakan victorious and Death, keeping his promise with a sinister twist: While Chakan won eternal life, he is now tasked with eliminating all evils of the underworld. With the heavy burden of everlasting life upon him, Chakan must embark on a righteous requiem to earn eternal rest.
The graphics in Chakan are the usual fanfare for 16-bit systems. The theme of supernatural battle would be a meaningful change for a Genesis game that could have been expanded on, but the graphics placed the game at an unfair disadvantage because they are so bland and boring. Despite the handicap placed on the graphics, the music sticks to the game’s theme of fighting demons and perfectly pairs the music to each stage.
Controlling Chakan is easy but can be customized. Chakan has a special spin attack like Sonic the Hedgehog and can use fire and other elemental attacks using alchemy potions. My problem with the controls is obviously immediately: the Genesis controller has too many functions. Everything from movement to weapons and alchemy is time-consuming and a test of my patience.
While it’s a neat concept game, Chakan isn’t great at all. The many problems really start with the lack of hindsight to hire Kraus to consult on game development. This would have allowed more insight into the character. It’s also frustrating that Chakan’s time limit prevented me from locating his special weapons. Also, the various symbols representing alchemy were confusing. Trying to determine which symbol matched the element Chakan would need to fight multiple enemies was a chore.
Chakan: The Forever Man is sadly a game with a great concept that was decades ahead of its time. While I give Extended Play Productions credit for trying to introduce a different concept, the pressure to help Sega defeat their competitor blinded Chakan’s potential. More time should have been used toward the game’s development and introduction of Chakan as an anti-hero. Kraus will continue Chakan’s quest for a peaceful death but, for now, he deserves a well-earned rest.
From titles like After Burner, Outrun, Shinobi, and Virtual Fighter, Sega has mastered the art of separating one from their gaming tokens without fail. During my arcade travels, I saw a Sega title that turned out to be not only a classic arcade hit, but also was the inspiration for the Bloody Roar series: the revered but maligned Altered Beast for the Genesis.
games, I instantly took to the basic punch, kick and jump mechanics. As you go through each enemy, you’ll get a power-up orb that literally says “Power-up!”; this made me think that Zeus came down and gave commands. On the third power-up, you’ll go into your actual beast mode, which consists of forms such as a dragon, werewolf, werebear, weretiger, and a golden werewolf, each with their own unique powers. At this point, I’m thinking that this game is the origin for the popular phase “Beast Mode.” At the end of each level, you battle Neff in various forms. 
Altered Beast does have a few flaws: When you defeat Neff at the end of each stage, he somehow takes away your power-up forms as a last parting shot, which is obnoxious. Also, the brief intermission scenes are grainy, making it hard to understand what’s going on. On the bright side, the replay value is awesome for those who want to relieve the golden days of the Genesis and those who want side scrolling action with a mix of horror.
you a choice of three warriors: Ax Battler, who wields a broadsword; Gilius Thunderhead, a dwarf warrior with a battle ax; and, an Amazonian warrior, Tyris Flare, whose weapon of choice is a longsword. These warriors were brought together by twist of fate thanks to an evil entity known as Death Adder, who has captured the kingdom of Yuria along with its king and his daughter. The three heroes have also lost loved ones at Death Adder’s hands and set off on their quest to destroy Death Adder and restore hope and peace to Yuria. 
Tyris have is their unique ability to cast magic spells that does serious damage to all enemies on screen. However, this special attack comes with two caveats: magic energy has a high cost and protecting your necessary magic potions from thieving elves is a chore. Now, this is the part where you ask, “what’s the payoff with the character’s magic attacks?” Good question! Tyris wields fire magic, Ax’s specialty is earth spells and my favorite character, Gilius, literally brings the thunder with lighting spells. It’s easy to understand the mechanics and use everything in the heat of battle. 
fighting, and climb to reach higher areas. Hiryu also has use of his plasma sword, Falchion, to assist in removing enemies from any direction on the screen. I also found that Hiryu has two reliable techniques that are game-changers: a sliding move that gets him in tight areas, and a cartwheel move that allows you to glide from surface to surface while in a spinning wheel, making Hiryu unpredictable when he lands. Hiryu also can perform a vertical jump, hanging and squatting attacks with Falchion. Hiryu will also get some mission support from three battle robots: Dipodal Saucer, which fires lighting bolts wherever Hiryu swings Falchion; RoboPanther, which covers Hiryu from frontal attacks; and, Robot Hawk, which assists Hiryu by severely attacking airborne enemies. Apart from the usual powerups in hack-and-slash games, there’s also a powerup that increases Falchion’s power.
basics, progressing to combos and various weapons such as handguns, automatic rifles and katanas. There was liberal food and other power-ups such as cash, gold bars and diamonds that increased my score and restored health since the amount of enemies coming at me was nonstop. 
an experience because if you were around at the time that Jam hit the streets, you’d remember the sheer amount of hype that surrounded the arcade release. You’d also remember the hype that came home with it. Was it justified hype? Yes and no.