Chakan the Forever Man

[Melf]

Ever wonder what would it be like to defeat death, only to find that your prize was worse than the price of losing? Such was the fate that befell Chakan, who beat the Reaper in combat and found himself trapped as its servant. As the Forever Man, the comic hero must wander the world, defeating supernatural evil wherever it's found, and his latest adventure found him on the Genesis! We have a full review of the game that's STILL waiting for the sequel-that-almost-was, so read on and remember: be careful what you wish for...

[Kollision]

nice review but...
no screenshot of the fire/sun level, with that balzing sun in the background? tsc tsc...

[tomaitheous]

From what I remember (the screen shots in the review where a reminder), the graphics were terrible and something about poor controls and high difficulty. I remember some hype about the game before it came out, in the mags. And not so much when it finally came out.

[Benjamin]

That's a good review of a good game, but I will never play through Chakan ever again. Must be the only game I own that should I ever want to play it, I'd pass over for an emulated ROM just for the ability to save. The level trick helps, but the game desperately needs a password feature. I can only imagine if Ecco the Dolphin didn't have a way to resume play as with Chakan. :/

From what I remember (the screen shots in the review where a reminder), the graphics were terrible and something about poor controls and high difficulty. I remember some hype about the game before it came out, in the mags. And not so much when it finally came out.

I think the graphics are excellent but the animation is pretty stiff. Chakan's got some great artwork and parallax effects. Jumping in the game is a bit awkward, especially the timing of Chakan's rolling jumps, but it controls well enough to remain playable.

[Nicpezer]

I could never get used to the awkward controls and platforming it just made the game unnecessarily hard.

[Diosoth]

I once owned a copy of the short novel(it was hardly a comic book- a drawing on each page doesn't count) the game was based on. Until the book just vanished without a trace.

[Devil N]

Interesting fact: That Chakan sequel-that-almost-was eventually evolved into Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2. Not quite surprisingly, that turned out to be the weakest game in the LoK series. Read more about it here.

[vintagegamecrazy]

energy. I don't think that infinite lives will make things easy for a moment because the game is composed of twenty-four long levels and gets torturously hard in the later stages.

Melf there's a typo in this paragraph that I think will throw some people off, it's the fourth paragraph down, I wanted it to say "energy, and don't think that infinite lives"

I actually wanted to give the score a 7 too, I may have accidentally pressed 8 but if you could change that when you get a chance.

Otherwise thanks for posting this so quickly and for never failing to post reviews like clockwork. Great Job!

I hope everyone else enjoys this review, it took time to write and I've heard several saying this was a gaping hole in the review section and they were surprised it wasn't done yet, anyway here it is. Enjoy!

[Tanegashima]

I hate this damn game.

[TheEdge]

Remember the Mojo level in X-men 1?

That is what this game felt like. One long Mojo level with no end.

[ButtonMasher]

I may have to give this game another go tonight. I love the mood and atmosphere of the game, but easily has above average difficulty. I'd consider giving it a 6.5 or 7 out of 10.

[TjN001]

I rented this game a long time ago, but back then it was too difficult. I've been thinking about buying a copy though, and giving it another try.

[Dirt Ball Gamer]

Great review. I'm ashamed to say I have never played chakan. I remember seeing ads for it in comics back in the day and thinking it looked cool but then I heard it sucked so I avoided it.

[jerry coeurl]

Yeah I played this on an emu for about 20 minutes once... it seemed freakin' difficult! Frustratingly so. I suppose I would pick it up if I saw it cheap, though.

[vintagegamecrazy]

It may be best played on an emulator. It's a difficult game for sure, it also has a slight difficulty and learning curve from the beginning but once in, you can definitely make progress even though it's challenging to do so especially in later stages.