Decap Attack is a side-scrolling platform game, developed by Vic Tokai and published by Sega in 1991. This game was originally released in Japan, in 1990, as “Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken“, but developer Vic Tokai failed to secure the Magical Hat license for use outside of Japan, so decided to remove all traces of it, and completely re-skin the game. So Decap Attack is essentially a Westernised re-skinning of Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken.

All the levels, artwork, music, and storylines have been changed. In fact, if you look at the original Magical Hat game, and then this, with fresh eyes, then you might be surprised, and maybe even mildly impressed, by the changes.

In Decap Attack you play as Chuck D. Head, a headless mummy created by Dr. Frank N. Stein, who is on a mission to defeat a demon from the underworld that is threatening humanity. You must jump and fight your way through seven different areas or stages, and beat numerous bosses on the way.

Your basic skills are jump and punch, and you can also find a stone head that you can wear and throw at enemies. Each level provides a variety of objects that you can use to your advantage, like springboards, collapsing bridges, and bouncy poles, and – in general – the aim is to avoid collisions with enemies, lava, and other nasty stuff that can hurt you, and to find whatever vital item the game is telling you to locate. Note that if you beat an end-of-level boss, and haven’t yet found the game’s current ‘McGuffin’, you’ll be told that you need to go back and look harder.

You can also collect a variety of items that imbue you with special powers or abilities (pressing the ‘C’ button brings up an item menu), like harder punches and longer jumps, but I found myself not using them very often.

There’s also a decent little bonus game between levels.

Overall, Decap Attack has colourful, characterful graphics; decent, jolly music; and fairly relaxed gameplay. It has a nice feel to it. Boss battles are just a tad too over-simple, but that’s the only real criticism I have.

More: Decap Attack on Wikipedia