When I hear the word ‘arcade’ the first video game genre that pops into my head is the classic beat em up. This was the type of game I played most at the coin op machines, but not exclusively. During the 16-bit era I had a bunch of them in my collection, and they were kind of my go-to games whenever I had a friend over. Several of these beat em up games were never released outside of Japan though. One of these such titles was Ghost Chaser Densei. I saw screenshots and really liked the style it used. The game wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but I like it. Let’s take a look.
The story here is pretty much impossible for me to decipher. This is an import only Japanese title, and for the most part it’s not in English. It seems that you’re some kind of soldier working for an organization that is defending the world against an evil company that’s bio-engineering soldiers. That’s my take on it, at least. The game is a standard side view beat em up wherein you can move your character in all eight directions within a limited gameplay area. You can punch, kick and jump. Those are your basic moves, and that’s pretty standard for any game of this type. You move forward by defeating all on-screen enemies until you reach a boss. Rinse, lather, and repeat.
Also typical is the fact that you have three different characters to choose from. It’s the traditional one is fast, one is strong, and the third is the all-rounder. It’s something that has worked since the original Final Fight so I wasn’t expecting the developers here to buck the trend. Ghost Chaser Densei does however make the characters very different from one another. Each has the traditional three hit combo attack, and aerial kick, but they come loaded with different special moves. It’s like Final Fight 3, but the system is much better here because there are so many of them.
These special moves are performed with specific button combinations, and they aren’t universal inputs between the characters. Ghost Chaser Densei is like Street Fighter II in this regard. You can hold down buttons and pair them with directions for different effects, or follow up d-pad presses with the attack button for a variety of results. You have projectile attacks, flying kicks, spinning strikes, and so many others at your disposal. Ghost Chaser Densei takes a little more time to master than your typical beat em up, but it’s also more rewarding to master than most others.
You can’t just use your special attacks endlessly however. That would make things too easy. You have a power meter at the top of the screen (just below your life gauge) and it depletes as you perform said special moves. When the bar is empty your character grabs their head to indicate they’re out of energy. This meter recharges automatically, but you can speed it up by standing still away from enemies so as to not get hit. The special moves drain your energy fast and it can be tough to pay attention to in the heat of battle. To be honest I wish the meter was a little more forgiving because it can be a major drag to be surrounded by enemies and run out.
I like the game plenty, but I found some parts of Ghost Chaser Densei to be rather annoying. For one thing enemies take far too long to deffeat. The screen is often loaded with them, and your attacks just don’t do sizable damage to them. Some of them, especially the mechs, take so many hits before they go down. It can be very frustrating. To make matters worse there’s a specific type of enemy that appears in the later areas of the game called the sniper. The purpose they serve is to shoot bullets at you before ducking away off-screen. It’s annoying, and I don’t like it. The only purpose they serve is to knock players around in the midst of trying to drain overly large life bars.
One issue I have with Ghost Chaser Densei is the fact that it feels so repetitive. Most beat ’em ups are, but it’s less forgiving here. One of the major issues behind this is the repeating enemies. All games in this genre are guilty of this sin, but there are only like five different thugs/robots you’ll encounter here. The endless army of identical foes gets old faster than usual here, and a lot of that has to do with how long it takes to take these enemies out. I already covered that though. Even the special moves don’t fix this problem because of the limited power bar and how fast they drain it.
The graphics are very good by Super Nintendo standards. The character sprites are the perfect size and have a lot of detail by 16-bit standards. What the sprites do lack however is a lot of frames of animation. Ghost Chaser Densei animates a bit stiffly if you ask me, but that’s only a minor issue. The game is very colorful and has a pleasant anime art style that fits the action really well. The soundtrack is pretty pleasant with a lot of fast paced tracks to accompany the punching and kicking. I liked the music and once again appreciate the unique style this game has to offer.
