 Most of the popular Super Nintendo beat-em-ups were made by Capcom or Konami, but here's one out of left field from the developer WinkySoft called Ghost Chaser Densei, released only in Japan for the Super Famicom, and it's actually a port of an arcade game titled Dengen Makai. So of course the Super Famicom port isn't going to measure up to the arcade version for various reasons, but Ghost Chaser Densei is still a pretty good beat-em-up. There's three characters to choose from, unfortunately down from six compared to the arcade, there's Makai, a balanced ninja who's special move, looks like something he may have learned from Ryu or Ken from Street Fighter 2, there's Ayo, an elf-like creature who's the fastest of the three, and her special move is another spinning attack, although she's equipped with a mace, and there's also a robot named Belva. Sadly this one isn't sporting stylish slacks like the guy in Ninja Warriors, but he's still pretty powerful and his special attack is similar to Hagar's from Final Fight. Ghost Chaser Densei looks, sounds, feels, and plays just like something like Batman Returns or one of the rushing beat games or something out of the Final Fight series. The difference in the gameplay that makes Ghost Chaser Densei stand out a little bit is all the different moves each character can do. For example, Makai does these badass flame kicks if you rock the D-pad left and right while doing a jump kick, and it allows you to hit an enemy multiple times, eventually engulfing them in flames. Thankfully, instead of draining your life, these special moves are tied to a secondary power meter that can be replenished just by standing still, which makes you scream like Goku in Dragon Ball Z, I guess. Interestingly, if you try and do a special attack when this bar is empty, your character gets dazed a bit, and is vulnerable to take damage. But yeah, every beat-em-up has to have a hook to keep you coming back to doing the same repetitive stuff over and over like Final Fight's excellent sound design, Captain Commando's crazy enemy design, or just the general chaotic nature of the gameplay in Turtles in Time. In Ghost Chaser Densei, it's each character's very move set. You can flip between characters at each continue, so it's really nice to be able to organically find out which each of these characters is capable of. Most of the stuff is pretty easy to figure out, too. It's usually just hitting the forward button twice and then the special move button, or back and then forward while pressing attack, something like that. Of course, the big reason I decided to do a video on this game in particular is that it's another solidly made 16-bit beat-em-up that's two-player co-op, and many people are always on the lookout for new co-op games that they may not have heard of, so here's another one for ya. There's even combo attacks when you have a second player like this move here. Are you freaking kidding me? That's bad ass. You only have one life, but you can take a ton of damage. It takes a long while for you to die, and when you do, you can continue right there on the spot instead of starting over at the beginning of the level, so that's nice. No battery saver passwords here, so like most beat-em-ups, you gotta beat it in one sitting. And the game gives you tons of continues, so it's definitely doable. I also chose to do a video on this game because it now has a completed English patch that you can find on romhacking.net, so you get to enjoy the totally original story of being a special crime fighting unit in the year 2079 chasing down renegade criminals. Okay, so it's not that original, but that's there if you're interested. If there's any flaws in this game, it's that the visuals here are unusually dark. Everything strangely looks like you're looking through a window screen or something. It's just bleary and dark and gray looking. Also, the sound design here is weird. Everything has this huge reverb behind it, so it sounds like all the action is taking place in a giant basement. That's a bit of a disappointment. Of course, it goes without saying that the arcade version of this game is much better, but it needs to be pointed out that this game also received an arcade sequel titled Dardians, Dengen Makai 2. And man, oh man, this is one of the best arcade beat-em-ups I've ever played. There's eight distinct characters to choose from that all have unique moveset. The game is fast paced with unpredictable settings, and even some gallery shooter stages thrown in there too. If you're into playing old arcade games on the MAME emulator, you gotta check out this one. It's a blast. But what about Ghost Chaser Densei for the Super Famicom? Is that worth checking out today? I definitely think it is. It fits in right alongside the quality beat-em-ups that Capcom and Konami was churning out at the time. The different characters and the variety of moves gives the game a bit of replay value, but the big thing here is the two-player co-op combination moves. Those are freaking awesome and fun to experiment with. I'm not sure this game is better than stuff like Turtles in Time or Final Fight 3 or Peacekeepers, but if you're burnt out on those games, give Ghost Chaser Densei a shot. It's a quality beat-em-up title.