Demon's World[a] is a 1989 run and gunarcadevideo game originally developed by Toaplan and published in Japan by Taito and in North America by Catalina Games.[1][2] In the game, players assume the role of two ghost hunters to fight against several ghosts and monsters that were unleashed upon Earth by the titular demonking. Initially launched for the arcades, the title was then ported to the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² by NEC Avenue and published exclusively in Japan on 26 February 1993, featuring various additions and changes compared with the original release.
Demon's World was met with mixed response from critics who reviewed the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² version as an import title despite being exclusive to Japan. As of 2019, the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin, a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now-affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia alongside many other Toaplan IPs.
Demon's World is a horror-themed horizontally-scrolling run and gun game where players assume the role of two ghost hunters through ten increasingly difficult linear autoscrolling stages across various locations, some of which have a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further in an effort to defeat several ghosts and monsters that were unleashed upon Earth by the titular demon king as the main objective.[3][4][5][6]
The player characters are armed with a gun complete with energy pack reminiscent to the Ghostbustersfranchise to shoot various ghosts and monsters that infest each stage, though players can also defeat enemies by jumping on them, in addition of performing a double jump to move across platforms as well.[4][5] Along the way, players can collect multiple a weapon power-up to change their gun to fire lasers, bombs or a spread shot.[3][4][5] Other items can also be collected during gameplay such as "P" icons that, after collecting three icons in a row, grants the players a shield that takes an extra enemy hit and heart icons that gives points.[3][4][5] Firing on determined locations is crucial to reach high-scores and get extra lives, as certain setpieces in some stages hosts bonus secrets.
While the better known version of the arcade game started in a relatively modern town at a telephone booth and continues to advance to the haunted American Old West themed levels, an alternative arcade version and the home console version for the PC Engine shuffle these levels around: There the opening stages of the title take place in an eastern setting, starting in the fantasyland of China and moving on to Japan, featuring various spirits and creatures of Japanese folklore. Some of these include ghostly karakasa, chochinobake, kappa, hitotsume-kozou and rokurokubi. The game then changes course, moving to a ghostly pirate ship and then the haunted American Old West, featuring a ghost town and a canyon inhabited by traditional ghosts and monsters from western culture such as Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, and even Jason Voorhees-style masked monsters.
In all variants of the game the final stretch takes place in a medieval setting complete with cursed castles and dungeons infested with haunted armor, goblins and dragons.[4] But the PC Engine version and the less known alternative arcade revision add a cave segment between the last dragon and the final boss. Thus both of these versions share a similar amount of content, but the PC engine version adds an additional mid-boss to the western town segment (a cowboy skeleton that throws scorpions).
Demon's World uses a checkpoint in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying.[4] Getting hit by enemy fire, colliding against certain stage obstacles, falling off the stage or running against any enemy will result in losing a life and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. Although there is an ending, the game loops back to the first stage after completing the last stage as with previous titles from Toaplan, with each one increasing the difficulty.
Development and release
Demon's World was released on arcades worldwide in 1989 by Taito in Japan as Horror Story, Catalina Games in North America and Toaplan across other regions.[2][7] The soundtrack was co-composed by Osamu Ōta and Toshiaki Tomizawa, while artist Atsushi Kawaguchi was responsible for the artwork.[8][9] The arcade board is multi-regional, meaning that it can be configured for different regions via the DIP switches and these settings change the legal warnings, display the Taito licensing message and can change the title between the English version and the Japanese version.[10] In 2018, an album containing music from the title and other Toaplan games was published exclusively in Japan by City Connection under their Clarice Disk label.[11] On 26 February 1993, Demon's World was ported to the PC Engine Super CD-ROM² by NEC Avenue under its original Japanese title (Horror Story) and published exclusively in Japan, featuring an arranged soundtrack using Redbook CD Audio. It is built on the later alternative arcade board revision along with its new stage and features a new "cowboy skeleton" mid-boss that is exclusive to this version, among other changes.[12][13]
In Japan, Game Machine listed Demon's World on their August 15, 1989 issue as being the twenty-second most-popular arcade game at the time.[18]
Demon's World has been met with mixed critical reception since its PC Engine Super CD-ROM² release as Horror Story from critics who reviewed it as an import title.[14][15][16][17] French magazine Consoles + praised the graphics, music and gameplay but noted the presentation to be the conversion's main negative point.[14] Markus Appel of German magazine Mega Fun gave mixed remarks to the graphics and sound.[16] Likewise, both Andreas Knauf and Martin Gaksch from German magazine Video Games gave this port a mixed outlook.[17]Den of Geek noted it to be a solid but forgettable title from Toaplan.[19]
In more recent years, the rights to the game and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[20][21][22][23][24]
Notes
^Also known as Horror Story (Japanese: ホラーストーリー, Hepburn: Horā Sutōrī) in Japan.
References
^"東亜プラン". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 49. Shinseisha. September 1990. (Translation by Shmuplations. 2019-11-07 at the Wayback Machine).
^ abIona; VHS; K-HEX (June 2009). "東亜プラン FOREVER". Floor 25 (in Japanese). Vol. 9. pp. 1–70. (Translation by Gamengai. 2020-10-10 at the Wayback Machine).
^ abcMusha, Ryota (July 1989). "Super Soft Corner: Video Game - ホラーストーリー". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 85. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. pp. 288–290.
^ abcdefPlasket, Michael (13 November 2017). "Demon's World". Hardcore Gaming 101. from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^ abcd"ホラーストーリー" (in Japanese). Shooting Star. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^Kermel, Laurent. "Pc Engine CDrom²: HORROR STORY". videogameden.com. Video Game Den. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). タイトー (Taito); 東亜プラン (Toa Plan). アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. pp. 43, 50. ISBN978-4990251215.
^Abeto, Kobatsu (September 1989). "東亜プランインタビュー". PSG (in Japanese). Vol. 10. F.S.G Club. (Translation by Shmuplations. 2017-05-31 at the Wayback Machine).
^"東亜プラン シューティングクロニクル". SweepRecord (in Japanese). SuperSweep. 14 November 2011. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2020-02-27. (Translation by Shmuplations. 2018-07-11 at the Wayback Machine).
^Wovou (2019). "L'histoire de Toaplan – page 2". neo-arcadia.com (in French). Neo-Arcadia. from the original on 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
^"CDST-10066 | Toaplan ARCADE SOUND DIGITAL COLLECTION Vol.7". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. from the original on 2019-11-17. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
^"PC-ENGINE Soft > 1993" (in Japanese). GAME Data Room. from the original on 27 August 2018. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^"Horror Story". pcengine.co.uk. The PC Engine Software Bible. from the original on 16 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^ abcAxel; Rocket (May 1993). "PCE Super CD-ROM Review - Horror Story". Consoles + (in French). No. 20. M.E.R.7. pp. 94–96. from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
^ abHalverson, Dave; Sgt. Gamer; Stratton, Tom; Cockburn, Andrew (April 1993). "Viewpoint - Turbo - Horror Story; Super CD Review: Horror Story". GameFan. Vol. 1, no. 5. DieHard Gamers Club. pp. 16, 74–75.
^ abcAppel, Markus (May 1993). "Test Turbo Duo - Horror Story". Mega Fun (in German). No. 8. CT Computec Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. p. 104.
^ abcKnauf, Andreas; Gaksch, Martin (May 1993). "Warpzone - PC/Engine - Horror Story". Video Games (in German). No. 18. Future-Verlag. pp. 24–27.
^"Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 362. Amusement Press, Inc. 15 August 1989. p. 21.
^Lambie, Ryan (21 June 2018). "Toaplan: the rise and fall of Japan's greatest shooting game company". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^"ライセンス事業" (in Japanese). TATSUJIN Co., Ltd. 2019. from the original on 2018-12-25. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^Bravo, Roberto (12 September 2018). "Nueva compañía "Tatsujin" asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^"Tatsujin". exA-Arcadia. 2019. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^Bravo, Roberto (25 January 2019). "Tatsujin, los dueños de Toaplan, anuncian que están trabajando para exA-Arcadia" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
^"［JAEPO2019］TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA-Arcadia。出展コーナーの模様を紹介". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas Inc. 26 January 2019. from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
demon, world, 1989, arcade, video, game, originally, developed, toaplan, published, japan, taito, north, america, catalina, games, game, players, assume, role, ghost, hunters, fight, against, several, ghosts, monsters, that, were, unleashed, upon, earth, titul. Demon s World a is a 1989 run and gun arcade video game originally developed by Toaplan and published in Japan by Taito and in North America by Catalina Games 1 2 In the game players assume the role of two ghost hunters to fight against several ghosts and monsters that were unleashed upon Earth by the titular demon king Initially launched for the arcades the title was then ported to the PC Engine Super CD ROM by NEC Avenue and published exclusively in Japan on 26 February 1993 featuring various additions and changes compared with the original release Demon s WorldDeveloper s ToaplanPublisher s JP TaitoNA Catalina GamesArtist s Atsushi KawaguchiComposer s Osamu ŌtaToshiaki TomizawaPlatform s Arcade PC Engine Super CD ROM ReleaseWW July 1989Genre s Run and gunMode s Single player Co opDemon s World was met with mixed response from critics who reviewed the PC Engine Super CD ROM version as an import title despite being exclusive to Japan As of 2019 the rights to the title is owned by Tatsujin a company founded in 2017 by former Toaplan member Masahiro Yuge and now affiliate of Japanese arcade manufacturer exA Arcadia alongside many other Toaplan IPs Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Development and release 3 Reception and legacy 4 Notes 5 References 6 External linksGameplay Edit Arcade version screenshot Demon s World is a horror themed horizontally scrolling run and gun game where players assume the role of two ghost hunters through ten increasingly difficult linear autoscrolling stages across various locations some of which have a boss at the end that must be fought before progressing any further in an effort to defeat several ghosts and monsters that were unleashed upon Earth by the titular demon king as the main objective 3 4 5 6 The player characters are armed with a gun complete with energy pack reminiscent to the Ghostbusters franchise to shoot various ghosts and monsters that infest each stage though players can also defeat enemies by jumping on them in addition of performing a double jump to move across platforms as well 4 5 Along the way players can collect multiple a weapon power up to change their gun to fire lasers bombs or a spread shot 3 4 5 Other items can also be collected during gameplay such as P icons that after collecting three icons in a row grants the players a shield that takes an extra enemy hit and heart icons that gives points 3 4 5 Firing on determined locations is crucial to reach high scores and get extra lives as certain setpieces in some stages hosts bonus secrets While the better known version of the arcade game started in a relatively modern town at a telephone booth and continues to advance to the haunted American Old West themed levels an alternative arcade version and the home console version for the PC Engine shuffle these levels around There the opening stages of the title take place in an eastern setting starting in the fantasyland of China and moving on to Japan featuring various spirits and creatures of Japanese folklore Some of these include ghostly karakasa chochinobake kappa hitotsume kozou and rokurokubi The game then changes course moving to a ghostly pirate ship and then the haunted American Old West featuring a ghost town and a canyon inhabited by traditional ghosts and monsters from western culture such as Frankenstein s monster Dracula and even Jason Voorhees style masked monsters In all variants of the game the final stretch takes place in a medieval setting complete with cursed castles and dungeons infested with haunted armor goblins and dragons 4 But the PC Engine version and the less known alternative arcade revision add a cave segment between the last dragon and the final boss Thus both of these versions share a similar amount of content but the PC engine version adds an additional mid boss to the western town segment a cowboy skeleton that throws scorpions Demon s World uses a checkpoint in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying 4 Getting hit by enemy fire colliding against certain stage obstacles falling off the stage or running against any enemy will result in losing a life and once all lives are lost the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing Although there is an ending the game loops back to the first stage after completing the last stage as with previous titles from Toaplan with each one increasing the difficulty Development and release EditDemon s World was released on arcades worldwide in 1989 by Taito in Japan as Horror Story Catalina Games in North America and Toaplan across other regions 2 7 The soundtrack was co composed by Osamu Ōta and Toshiaki Tomizawa while artist Atsushi Kawaguchi was responsible for the artwork 8 9 The arcade board is multi regional meaning that it can be configured for different regions via the DIP switches and these settings change the legal warnings display the Taito licensing message and can change the title between the English version and the Japanese version 10 In 2018 an album containing music from the title and other Toaplan games was published exclusively in Japan by City Connection under their Clarice Disk label 11 On 26 February 1993 Demon s World was ported to the PC Engine Super CD ROM by NEC Avenue under its original Japanese title Horror Story and published exclusively in Japan featuring an arranged soundtrack using Redbook CD Audio It is built on the later alternative arcade board revision along with its new stage and features a new cowboy skeleton mid boss that is exclusive to this version among other changes 12 13 Reception and legacy EditReceptionReview scoresPublicationScoreConsoles PCE Super CD ROM 80 14 GameFan PCE Super CD ROM 299 400 15 Mega Fun PCE Super CD ROM 45 16 Video Games DE PCE Super CD ROM 43 17 In Japan Game Machine listed Demon s World on their August 15 1989 issue as being the twenty second most popular arcade game at the time 18 Demon s World has been met with mixed critical reception since its PC Engine Super CD ROM release as Horror Story from critics who reviewed it as an import title 14 15 16 17 French magazine Consoles praised the graphics music and gameplay but noted the presentation to be the conversion s main negative point 14 Markus Appel of German magazine Mega Fun gave mixed remarks to the graphics and sound 16 Likewise both Andreas Knauf and Martin Gaksch from German magazine Video Games gave this port a mixed outlook 17 Den of Geek noted it to be a solid but forgettable title from Toaplan 19 In more recent years the rights to the game and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin a company named after Truxton s Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by former Toaplan employee Masahiro Yuge who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA Arcadia 20 21 22 23 24 Notes Edit Also known as Horror Story Japanese ホラーストーリー Hepburn Hora Sutōri in Japan References Edit 東亜プラン Gamest in Japanese No 49 Shinseisha September 1990 Translation by Shmuplations Archived 2019 11 07 at the Wayback Machine a b Iona VHS K HEX June 2009 東亜プラン FOREVER Floor 25 in Japanese Vol 9 pp 1 70 Translation by Gamengai Archived 2020 10 10 at the Wayback Machine a b c Musha Ryota July 1989 Super Soft Corner Video Game ホラーストーリー Micom BASIC Magazine in Japanese No 85 The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation pp 288 290 a b c d e f Plasket Michael 13 November 2017 Demon s World Hardcore Gaming 101 Archived from the original on 1 June 2019 Retrieved 2019 10 25 a b c d ホラーストーリー in Japanese Shooting Star Retrieved 2019 10 25 Kermel Laurent Pc Engine CDrom HORROR STORY videogameden com Video Game Den Retrieved 2019 10 25 Akagi Masumi 13 October 2006 タイトー Taito 東亜プラン Toa Plan アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内 海外編 1971 2005 in Japanese 1st ed Amusement News Agency pp 43 50 ISBN 978 4990251215 Abeto Kobatsu September 1989 東亜プランインタビュー PSG in Japanese Vol 10 F S G Club Translation by Shmuplations Archived 2017 05 31 at the Wayback Machine 東亜プラン シューティングクロニクル SweepRecord in Japanese SuperSweep 14 November 2011 Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2020 02 27 Translation by Shmuplations Archived 2018 07 11 at the Wayback Machine Wovou 2019 L histoire de Toaplan page 2 neo arcadia com in French Neo Arcadia Archived from the original on 2019 08 21 Retrieved 2019 11 06 CDST 10066 Toaplan ARCADE SOUND DIGITAL COLLECTION Vol 7 vgmdb net VGMdb Archived from the original on 2019 11 17 Retrieved 2019 11 16 PC ENGINE Soft gt 1993 in Japanese GAME Data Room Archived from the original on 27 August 2018 Retrieved 2019 10 25 Horror Story pcengine co uk The PC Engine Software Bible Archived from the original on 16 May 2019 Retrieved 2019 10 25 a b c Axel Rocket May 1993 PCE Super CD ROM Review Horror Story Consoles in French No 20 M E R 7 pp 94 96 Archived from the original on 22 August 2018 Retrieved 25 October 2019 a b Halverson Dave Sgt Gamer Stratton Tom Cockburn Andrew April 1993 Viewpoint Turbo Horror Story Super CD Review Horror Story GameFan Vol 1 no 5 DieHard Gamers Club pp 16 74 75 a b c Appel Markus May 1993 Test Turbo Duo Horror Story Mega Fun in German No 8 CT Computec Verlag GmbH amp Co KG p 104 a b c Knauf Andreas Gaksch Martin May 1993 Warpzone PC Engine Horror Story Video Games in German No 18 Future Verlag pp 24 27 Game Machine s Best Hit Games 25 テーブル型TVゲーム機 Table Videos Game Machine in Japanese No 362 Amusement Press Inc 15 August 1989 p 21 Lambie Ryan 21 June 2018 Toaplan the rise and fall of Japan s greatest shooting game company Den of Geek Dennis Publishing Archived from the original on 21 June 2018 Retrieved 2019 10 25 ライセンス事業 in Japanese TATSUJIN Co Ltd 2019 Archived from the original on 2018 12 25 Retrieved 2019 10 25 Bravo Roberto 12 September 2018 Nueva compania Tatsujin asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan in Spanish Gamercafe Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 10 25 Tatsujin exA Arcadia 2019 Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 10 25 Bravo Roberto 25 January 2019 Tatsujin los duenos de Toaplan anuncian que estan trabajando para exA Arcadia in Spanish Gamercafe Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 10 25 JAEPO2019 TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA Arcadia 出展コーナーの模様を紹介 4Gamer net in Japanese Aetas Inc 26 January 2019 Archived from the original on 2019 10 21 Retrieved 2019 10 25 External links EditDemon s World at GameFAQs Demon s World at Killer List of Videogames Demon s World at MobyGames Demon s World at The Toaplan Museum Portals 1980s Japan Video games Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Demon 27s World amp oldid 1142796253, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
