Mystic Defender - Fire a hadoken fireball at demon babies!

Growing up with the Genesis as a kid, I spent a lot of time with Mystic Defender. Despite the name changes and graphic altering, this game was actually based on a Japanese Anime known as "Kujaku Ou". I honestly never seen it, nor is it really required, as this game stands on its own as a fine action-packed platformer.

The basic plot is your typical "rescue the hot girl" routine. Zareth is planning on sacrificing her to resurrect an evil god named Zao and it's up to "Mystic Defender" Joe Yamoto to say: "NOPE!" As a kid, I thought Joe was really cool because I compared his constant shooting of energy balls to Ryu's hadoken from Street Fighter. Picturing it as a game where you do nothing but throw hadoken at anything and everything made this game more amazing than it probably was. Of course, it's not REALLY a hadoken because it's not fire based and the orbs just freely fire from Joe's hands instead of thrusting forward like Ryu would. So in reality, Joe is more closer to Mega man than Ryu in retrospect.

Good luck with this level.

Luckily, that's not the only technique Joe has up his sleeve. During your journey, you'll pick up skills that help out tremendously in the various situations you're going to find yourself in. From the powerful flamethrower to the screen clearing multi-orbs, you're going to end up using all skills you find because this game isn't easy. You encounter a ton of hellish things in this game like men who swallow their own bodies to creepy demon babies that, when attacked, turn in a moving pile of blood and guts. In fact, as a kid, I never beat it. Stage 4 is the hardest level in the game and it's all downhill after it. I wouldn't know though, since level 4 is just plain crazy. The level features tons of floating enemies and you have to jump from platform to platform avoiding the death water below. Easier said than done, because those enemies can easily knock you into it.

Despite the crazy level 4, it's a fun ride right up to it. The game had fun action with bizarre enemies, and some inspired boss fights to boot. Though you can attribute most of the game's style to the fact that the game is actually based on an anime. If you have no problem with difficult games, you can go ahead and check this out. But it's obviously not for everybody though, so here's your damn gameplay video.