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"An unusual game with interesting twists and turns"

Chakan is an unusual game that serves up some very difficult challenges in a nicely designed side-scrolling platformer setting. Unlike other such games, this one is nonlinear and the hero is immortal. Technically, he can't die. So how do the designers handle an immortal hero while still delivering a tough game? Read on.

There are so many things that set this game apart from typical platformers. One of these things is the story, which is pretty much an essential part of the game. Chakan arrived on the scene during the early 90s, a time when a game's story usually wasn't all that important. Just a couple paragraphs or a page of text in a game manual. In this respect, Chakan is no different from anything else from his era. The story occupies all of one page in the manual. However, the story itself is what sets Chakan apart and makes for a rather interesting game.

Chakan was once a proud mystic warrior, skilled with sword and alchemy. He was so proud that he boasted he had no equal... not even death. When Death showed up and challenged him to a duel, Chakan accepted without a second thought. He battled Death and won the duel. Apparently, Death doesn't like to lose. While he did keep his end of the bargain, he placed a rather horrifying curse on Chakan as a bonus for winning the match. Instead of living forever in luxury and peace, Chakan is doomed to a life of torment and suffering until he vanquishes all vestiges of supernatural evil in the world. He has become a reluctant hero in the fight between good and evil, waging a fierce one-man battle on all forms of supernatural evil he can find. His ultimate goal is to die so that he can finally rest in peace.

It's interesting that Death doesn't consider himself to be evil. Rather, he appears to be a force of nature, perhaps neither good nor evil. Why he wants Chakan to eliminate all forms of otherworldly evil is left to the imagination. Perhaps it's explained in the comic book series that this game is based on. Regardless, Chakan has discovered that immortality can take forms other than what he was hoping for. An immortal life of peace and happiness... or one of eternal suffering.

Presumably, this game takes place late in Chakan's quest. Certainly there are more supernatural evils in the world than can fit into seven side-scrolling levels. He apparently saved the worst for last. This game is incredibly difficult. At first glance, it looks downright impossible. The forces of evil are quite formidable. In fact, they can only be overcome with practice, deft strategy, and careful use of some key items.

Chakan starts out at a hub level with portals that lead to elemental realms of Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Ice, and Lava. He can confront these levels in any order he chooses. Each level is a gauntlet of challenges that culminates with a boss encounter. If Chakan can defeat a level's boss, that realm is cleared of its evil energies. All of the enemies there disappear, and he can enter the level again and safely explore it for items he may have missed earlier. A nice touch that adds to the game's uniqueness. Being able to walk through an empty dungeon that was once infested with deadly monsters is a treat.

Chakan's weapon is a pair of swords. He's a melee fighter at heart, attacking his foes up close and personal. He can also acquire Fire Swords, Ice Swords, and Lightning Swords, each of which has a strategic value. Naturally, these powerful weapons aren't just laying around in plain sight. They're well hidden. He has to do some searching to find them. He also has some cool moves that are just as essential to success. In addition to a double jump (which allows him to reach high areas), he can spin-slash with his swords in midair, damaging any airborne foes he comes into contact with. He can also roll along the ground to quickly escape bad situations. He can attack with his swords in any direction, slashing to his left, right, above or below, and even diagonally. Kudos to the designers! That's the way things should be. Not having to struggle with a limited "left or right" attack style makes those encounters with winged demons flying overhead much easier.

Perhaps Chakan's most useful ability is his mastery of alchemy. He uses colored potions to generate a good variety of effects, including healing, double damage, invisibility, and invulnerability, among other temporary benefits that give him an edge over his opponents. Potions are scattered about the various levels, and some are well hidden. Each beneficial alchemy uses a different combination of potions. The potions and other items you have are displayed on an inventory screen, which also pauses the game. The inventory screen automatically shows which alchemies are available based on which potions you have. Neither the game nor the manual tell us which potions are used for each alchemy. There's some trial and error involved in figuring it out.

Because Chakan is immortal, he can't be killed in battle. He has a health bar, which is good for a decent number of hits before he's defeated. When he's defeated, Death ferries him back to the hub level, where he can try again. Chakan has unlimited lives. In fact, the only way to achieve a "Game Over" is by completing the game. Now anyone who has ever used an "unlimited lives" cheat code knows that this can be just as much of a curse as a blessing. Enter a level, get killed, try again, get killed, and so forth, ad infinitum. That's pretty much the situation that Chakan faces here. To make matters worse, his potions are in very limited supply. If he uses some alchemies and then gets defeated, the potions he used were essentially wasted. He starts back at square one, no closer to victory than he was before.

This game has three difficulty levels, and the easiest one is a nightmare. Regardless of which level our guy enters, he has no hope of emerging victorious. Some of the enemy characters can take a large number of hits before going down. Many of them are like mini-bosses. This isn't your typical platforming game where basic enemy characters can easily be defeated with a couple hits each. Almost everyone here is a boss character in his own right. The end-level boss characters are even stronger, able to take a pounding without so much as flinching.

However, there is hope on the horizon for Chakan in the form of some key items and subtle nuances in the game that he can exploit to overcome his insurmountable situation. I won't give away any secrets here. I'll just say that this game is very beatable. I'd given up hope and was just playing around with it when I stumbled onto one of the game's most guarded secrets. This game is like a puzzle. When you figure out its secrets, a good portion of the battle is already won. The rest of the battle involves some deft strategy and careful use of potions. It's quite interesting, how Chakan starts out facing an impossible situation and slowly turns the tables on it with smart strategy.

This is an action game for the thinking gamer, the strategist who looks at an incredibly tough situation and says "Okay, let's find a way to beat this." I'd say that a good eighty percent of the game's difficulty for me was figuring out what to do first, exactly where to go to accomplish some crucial early-game goals, and developing a game plan for confronting each tough situation. The other twenty percent of the difficulty involved practicing and becoming proficient with Chakan's abilities. There are also a few subtle nuances I discovered that make the game much easier when properly exploited.

Visually, this game is well above average. Chakan was brought to us by the same team that brought us the X-Men trilogy on the Game Gear (X-Men, The Gamesmaster's Legacy, and Mojo World). It has a similar look to it, with large character designs like those used in The Gamesmaster's Legacy and Mojo World. Some of the winged demons, dragons, and other large creatures that Chakan goes up against are impressive to see in action, moving about fluently and sometimes quickly. Chakan is well animated, sporting some good-looking attack moves. There's a good variety of enemy characters here. Each level has its own menagerie of evil creatures. Winged demons, fire-breathing dragons, gargoyles, undead wolves, zombies, lizard men, shark men, large praying mantises, axe-wielding goblins, and poison-spitting spiders, just to name a few.

The environments are all well presented. Many of them are labyrinthine, offering us some pretty good exploration. Chakan explores eerie castles, dungeons, a spider-infested cave, ice caverns, lava caves, and a technologically advanced fortress. Adding to the otherworldly feel of a couple environments are waterfalls that go upward as well as downward. I kind of wish more freaky elements like that had been added into the mix. The interiors of castles and dungeons have some good detail but aren't as imaginative in design.

The sound department here is a mixed bag. The music is expertly composed and does a great job of setting the mood for each level. There's just one tune that is sort of annoying. I got used to it. Boss music is appropriately suspenseful. Sound effects are sparse and lackluster. A decent sword slash sound and a few other crunching sounds for when Chakan is hit or scores a hit on an enemy. His boots thump on the floor when he jumps and lands on the ground, and there's a decent effect for his airborne spin-slash. On the whole, there aren't any snazzy sound effects here. A fault I overlook because the gaming here is good. This game has a couple voice effects. A pretty good voice says "Chakan, the Forever Man" in an ominous tone at the title screen, and our hero makes an appropriate wail of remorse when he gets defeated. Considering that this game arrived on the scene in 1992 and this is the Game Gear we're talking about here, these are some impressive effects.

Chakan is an unusual game that has some unique game-play elements and an equally unique ending. However, the difficulty is also unusually high. If I hadn't figured out the secrets, I'd say it was impossible. Having seen all there is to see here, I have to say that it's a quality game. The uniqueness is a big part of the appeal, as are the ways that Chakan cleverly overcomes his impossible situation.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/05, Updated 08/19/11

Game Release: Chakan (US, 1992)