Demon's World
A horizontally-scrolling run and gun game with horror themes.
Demon's World is a 1989 run and gun arcade game developed by Toaplan and published in Japan by Taito. It casts players as ghost hunters battling monsters unleashed by a demon king. The title was later ported to the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² in Japan in 1993.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Toaplan
- Publisher
- Taito (JP); Catalina Games (NA)
- Artist
- Atsushi Kawaguchi
- Composer
- Osamu Ōta; Toshiaki Tomizawa
- Platforms
- Arcade, PC Engine Super CD-ROM²
- Genre
- Run and gun
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Demon's World is a horizontally-scrolling run and gun game with a horror theme. Players control one of two ghost hunters through ten linear autoscrolling stages, each ending with a boss fight. The characters use a gun with an energy pack, similar to the Ghostbusters franchise, to shoot ghosts and monsters; enemies can also be defeated by jumping on them. A double jump allows movement across platforms. Weapon power-ups change the gun to fire lasers, bombs, or a spread shot. Collecting three "P" icons grants a shield that absorbs one extra hit, and heart icons award points. Firing at certain locations reveals bonus secrets that help reach high scores and earn extra lives. The better-known arcade version begins in a modern town at a telephone booth and progresses to a haunted American Old West. An alternative arcade version and the PC Engine port shuffle the stage order: they start in an eastern setting with fantasy China and Japan, featuring spirits from Japanese folklore such as karakasa, chochinobake, kappa, hitotsume-kozou, and rokurokubi. The game then moves to a ghostly pirate ship and the American Old West, with a ghost town and canyon inhabited by Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and Jason Voorhees-style masked monsters. All versions end in a medieval setting with cursed castles, haunted armor, goblins, and dragons. The PC Engine version and the alternative arcade revision add a cave segment before the final boss, and the PC Engine version includes an exclusive mid-boss: a cowboy skeleton that throws scorpions.
Development and release
Demon's World first hit arcades worldwide in 1989, going by Horror Story in Japan under Taito, while Catalina Games handled North America and Toaplan covered other regions. Osamu Ōta and Toshiaki Tomizawa co-wrote the music, with artist Atsushi Kawaguchi providing the visuals. The arcade board supports multiple regions through DIP switches, which adjust legal warnings, Taito licensing, and the title between English and Japanese. A music album featuring tracks from this game and other Toaplan titles came out in Japan in 2018 on City Connection's Clarice Disk label. On February 26, 1993, NEC Avenue released a PC Engine Super CD-ROM² port exclusively in Japan under the original Horror Story name. This version uses Redbook CD Audio for an arranged soundtrack, is built on a later arcade board revision with an extra stage, and adds a unique cowboy skeleton mid-boss.
Reception and legacy
In Japan, Game Machine listed Demon's World as the 22nd most popular arcade game of August 1989. Critical reception for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² release, reviewed as an import title, was mixed. French magazine Consoles + praised the graphics, music, and gameplay but criticized the presentation. Markus Appel of German magazine Mega Fun gave mixed remarks on graphics and sound, while Andreas Knauf and Martin Gaksch of Video Games also offered a mixed outlook. Den of Geek described it as a solid but forgettable title from Toaplan. The rights to the game are now owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, which became part of Embracer Group in 2022.
More in Taito Games of the 1980s
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