Chakan

"A hard but very good game"

Graphics: 6/10

The stages are often too dark to really see where your going our where the enemies are. Item drops which are restricted to keys tend ot get lost behind the foreground elements.

Sound: 8/10

The sound is nothing memorable and gets a little annoying after a while. The sound your sword makes when you attack gets annoying very quickly. One thing that's kind of cool is how on the title screen it says. "Chakan the forever man" but the audio quality is so poor you can barely make it out.

Gameplay: 9/10

This is where the game shines Chakan can swing in all eight directions, double jump, and attack in the air. All of which will be necessary to master if you want to win the game. You also have various elemental swords to fight your enemies as well as your alchemy skill. I couldn't find a use for two of the eight spells. One which takes you back to the navigation level but since there seems to be no penalty for dying I don't see much use for it. The second is a spell that reverses your d-pad. Which would seem to be a counter spell to an enemies attack but I never found one.

Story: N/A

I was unable to give this a score because the game gives absolutely no story. If you want the story you'll have to find a copy of the comic book this was based on.

Difficulty: 9/10

Chakan has three difficulty settings wicked, deadly, and mental. It's incredibly hard even on the easiest setting. It's also often hard to tell which of your elemental swords the enemies are weak against. The only redeeming quality to this is that you have unlimited lives but any potions you used before you died do not respawn so the potions in the game are limited.

Reply value: 8/10

Once you beat it you can always try it on a higher setting. I'm sure that mental will have even veteran gamers going for a while.

Overall: 8/10

Overall despite its faults it is a worthy addition to any gamers collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/05