Demon's World

About Demon's World

Demon's World (1989) is Toaplan's horror run-and-gun in which two Ghostbusters-style ghost hunters fight monsters unleashed by the demon king, from Japanese yōkai to Frankenstein's monster.

Demon's World in Depth

Two ghost hunters battle ghosts and monsters unleashed on Earth by the titular demon king across ten increasingly difficult auto-scrolling stages, some ending in bosses. Their guns come with energy packs reminiscent of Ghostbusters, and they can also defeat enemies by jumping on them and double-jump across platforms. Weapon power-ups switch the gun to lasers, bombs or a spread shot, collecting three "P" icons in a row grants a shield that absorbs an extra hit, hearts give points, and shooting certain spots reveals bonus secrets crucial for high scores and extra lives.

The better-known arcade version begins at a telephone box in a modern town before heading to a haunted American Old West. An alternative arcade version and the PC Engine version reorder the levels, starting in a fantasy China and then Japan, with creatures of Japanese folklore such as karakasa, chōchin-obake, kappa, hitotsume-kozō and rokurokubi, before moving on to a ghostly pirate ship and the haunted Old West, with a ghost town and a canyon full of Western monsters such as Frankenstein's monster, Dracula and Jason Voorhees-style masked killers.

Making Demon's World

Toaplan developed it, and Taito published it in Japan in 1989, with Catalina Games handling North America. The Japan-only PC Engine version added various changes and received a mixed response from critics who reviewed it as an import, Consoles + praising its graphics, music and play but criticising its presentation.