Chakan

Chakan: The Forever Man, so called because he duelled with Death himself and won. Now he is immortal, but he can never find rest or peace until he has rid the world of evil once and for all. All right, I'm hooked! There's nothing cooler than a withered, thousand-year-old walking corpse wearing a wide-brim hat and wielding two flaming swords. OK, they're not on fire all the time. Sometimes they're electrified!

Anyway, it's a really cool game. The graphics are great, with lots of detail and texture, and the game-play is very fun and varied. The music is really cool and exotic-sounding, and there's a good variety of sound effects.

Directions:
Chakan's health is displayed in the top right corner of the screen in the form of ghostly faces. As you take damage these faces will disappear. If they all vanish you'll be taken back to the level select part of the game where all the blue doors are.

In addition to his two swords, Chakan can also acquire several other weapons with various powers and uses: a grappling hook, a scythe, a battle axe, and a mallet. The different weapons will help you get past many obstacles in the game. If you can't get past something, try hitting it with different weapons. Also, they affect different enemies in various ways. Some enemies are immune to certain weapons and quite vulnerable to others. Try different weapons on each enemy until you figure out what works best.

But here's the really cool part: Chakan is not only a great warrior, he's also an Alchemist. Use potions of Air, Earth, Fire and Water in different combinations to produce a variety of effects, from adding the aforementioned flames or lightning to your blades, to boosting your jumping power, even making yourself invisible. You can access materials you've picked up in the start menu. You will need at least two potion jars before you can do anything. After you've collected two you can go into the start menu and there will be a mark on one of the tiles. Move the hand to that tile and press start. Now Chakan will be holding the two potions. Press B to combine them or A to cancel. Two dark green potions will give you electrified swords that are blue and two red ones will give you electrified swords that are green. Not every combination will give you something.

In addition to the controls listed below, there are several special moves you can do. To execute a spinning jump, press the jump button again while in midair. This will make you jump a little higher and help you to reach higher areas. You can also do a spinning attack if you press the attack button while in a spinning jump. To quickly move a short distance along the ground, hold diagonally down and press the jump button to roll. Also, if you hold down the attack button, Chakan will continue to hold his swords in attacking position. You can move the directional pad around while holding the attack button to move into several interesting attack poses. There are areas where you can stand on a platform that you can also drop through. To drop through a platform press down and C.

This is a complex and difficult game, but it's a lot of fun and definitely worth it. There are a total of 24 stages in the game, each of them maze-like, and you can't go through each all at once. You have to go through the first stage in each realm to collect the special weapons. You'll need these weapons to get through the rest of the worlds. This means you go through each blue door once (by standing in front of it and pressing C) to get the weapon and then come back after you have all four. Then you'll have to go through them again and this time they'll be different. Now you should be able to complete each one. As you move through the worlds, it's crucial to remember that you can go through many walls. You'll never find everything if you stick to the obvious paths.

At the end of each world (and sometimes in other places) there will be a boss. Bosses will take many more hits to kill than normal enemies, and will require specific weapons to defeat each one. Persevere and develop a strategy for each one.