Avenging Spirit was developed by C.P. Brain and distributed into arcades by Jaleco in 1991. It is an obscure platform/action game about the ghost of a dead man avenging the abduction of his girlfriend.

At the beginning of the game players can possess one of four characters with the man’s ghost. This is a direct result of the main character being shot to death by a criminal gang, while on a walk with his girlfriend, who is then kidnapped. The aim of the game is to rescue your girlfriend from this gang, so you can eventually rest in peace.

There are six scrolling stages in total, each with a boss battle at the end. The library of enemies expands and changes with each stage and if the player loses all their health the ghost appears and allows you to possess an enemy and continue as them (as long as it’s done quickly). The long bar at the top of the screen (labelled ‘energy’) is the ghost’s health, and the smaller bar at the bottom of the screen is the health of the individual character that you’re controlling. When the top energy bar is empty the game ends, although you can continue (and retain your score) by inserting more coins.

Each character has unique abilities, but all can jump a variety of distances, depending on how long the jump button is held down for. It takes a little while to get used to the jump mechanic and how characters can be controlled while in the air, but it’s important to do this because there’s a lot of jumping required in the game. Every character can also attack in some way. Some use guns, some fire from wands or send out waves, while others can only kick or punch.

Graphically, the game is somewhat similar to the the classic SNK Metal Slug games, with cartoony ‘super deformed’ characters and enemies. The in-game music is jolly and borderline appropriate (it may be a touch too ‘jolly’ for some tastes).

Avenging Spirit has different endings, depending on your actions in the game. To rescue your girlfriend you must collect three keys that are hidden somewhere in the various levels. If you miss a key and fail to rescue your girlfriend she will not survive and will meet you in the afterlife. If you manage to rescue her instead she’ll return to a life of happiness.

Initially I thought that Avenging Spirit might have been a cooperative two-player game, but it isn’t – players take it in turns to play. It’s an okay game overall, but nothing special. Boss battles are disappointing. The possession mechanic is good fun, but it doesn’t really feel like it’s been used to its full potential in this game.

Avenging Spirit is known as “Phantasm” in Japan and a Game Boy port was released in 1992. The arcade version has been re-released and is currently (at the time of writing) available via a number of online services.

More: Avenging Spirit in Wikipedia