I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect games to play and review for this Halloween season. I’m trying to avoid the obvious choices here, and my search led me to the obscure retro Japanese PC the MSX. There’s one game in particular that looked interesting to me. This is Yurei-Kun which translates to Mr. Ghost (I’ll refer to it as that just to keep things easy). It’s a game that doesn’t take itself to seriously and instead goes the kid friendly route which is just perfect for All Hallows Eve.
In Mr. Ghost you play as the titular buck-toothed character. There’s no story I can discern from here, and from what I gather he’s setting out on a journey to defeat a mad wizard. The text is all in Japanese so that’s the best I can deliver on a synopsis.
Mr. Ghost is a pretty unique game. I want to say it’s a shooter but that’s doing it a disservice. It’s a side view game wherein you can fly in all eight directions. It kind of reminds me of Fantasy Zone. You have two different means of attacking incoming foes; either by shooting a short range whisp at them or by using a butt slam move that hits either left or right. You have to be up fairly up close and personal to do damage. These are all horror themed monsters such as bats, spiders, etc. You get the picture. They change based on what level you’re in and there’s a fair bit of variety.
There are a few things that make Mr. Ghost unique. For starters the screen doesn’t scroll with you. This may be a hardware limitation of the MSX2 hardware because it’s a common theme with games released on it. Each area of every stage is a single screen and you move on to the next by touching the edge of it. There are some moments in the game where the level scrolls vertically but this is a rare occurrence. In the beginning I didn’t like the single screen nature of this game. I eventually got over it.
The game uses a very unique power-up system. Most enemies that you defeat drop coins, or Yen, and you have to stockpile this money because picking up power-ups will cost you. Yes, you actually have to spend your money to pick up bonuses even when the icons are just laying around. Unfortunately they’re a little more difficult to come by than that as you’ll have to use your butt stomp move to break blocks wherein they’re hidden. Some of these are mis-colored and are easy to spot, but others blend in so you’ll have to experiment if you want to find the goods.
Unfortunately you can’t just go and recklessly try to break everything in sight. Mr. Ghost is limited in his attack abilities by a stamina meter at the top of the screen just above his life bar. When this is drained you’re helpless, but it recharges on its own. The problem is you regain stamina far too slowly. While on the hunt for power-ups I found that I had to wait around far too often for Mr. Ghost’s energy to recharge. It’s really annoying actually. The whole game is based around limiting you what with the cost of energy and spending money to pick up power-ups.
Speaking of the latter this game has some pretty decent pick-ups with which to give your goofy ghost character new abilities. By default he has just one whisp but by picking up a flame icon you gain one additional. This goes up to three total. Furthermore you can also pick up a stop watch which freezes the enemies as well as a heart which recovers life. This is yet another aspect of the game which made Mr. Ghost feel more like a traditional shooter.
Mr. Ghost is a pretty tough game. I’m not saying it’s unfair or anything like that but the odds are certainly stacked against our goofy looking spirit. You have to purchase power-ups so you’re constantly managing money. To find them you need to break blocks which requires you to pay attention to Mr. Ghost’s stamina as well. That’s quite a bit of things to manage especially when you’re busy dodging enemies and projectiles. It’s far from being one of those insane bullet dodging shooters that have become popular but the game does like to throw a lot of things at you.
The boss fights are incredible. These battles are well done and represent the most challenging moments of the game. These often require strategies not used in the rest of the game such as knocking smaller foes into specific targets on the boss. It’s pretty interesting and will keep players on their toes. Generally you can win if you have enough health by simply ignoring everything and attacking the boss endlessly.
Mr. Ghost is one of the best MSX games I’ve seen even considering it requires the second iteration of the hardware. The backgrounds are a real treat and each stage is chock full of sprites and details. It looks exceptional for the hardware. The characters are decent. Mr. Ghost himself looks amazing and full of character. Every frame of his animation is funny and cute. The enemies are kind of generic but that’s not really a big deal. Their designs are serviceable.
What really surprised me was the soundtrack. Mr. Ghost features some very amazing arrangements of music, and that’s not something MSX games are usually known for. It’s rare to find a game where every single stage theme is enjoyable, but that’s just what we have here. The compositions are just bleeps and blips but the composers managed to make them memorable. The music fits the action exceptionally well with a lot of upbeat tracks but some that play off of the kid friendly horror theme very well. You’re going to love it.
The game surprised me. I wasn’t expecting much given this is a title you never hear about. It also lacks the traditional scrolling screen and that’s usually a pretty big put-off. Mr. Ghost succeeds in spite of this. This is a title I would absolutely pay for again to have on a modern console. The level design is really charming as are the characters and obstacles. Managing your stamina and money can be slightly cumbersome but it never gets in the way. This would definitely be a fun game to curl up with on Halloween thanks to its cute horror-lite graphics and bouncy soundtrack.
