Lately, I’ve been doing some digging around in hopes to uncover some really obscure retro games. My latest stumble is a rather odd platformer for the Sega Genesis (or for you foreigners, the Sega Mega Drive in Europe and the Sega Master System in Japan) called Decap Attack. Don’t be fooled by it’s cheery and colorful box art, this game is pretty darn morbid. You play the role of “Chuck D. Head” (Durrrrr!) and as you might have assumed already you have been “D” – headed. The evil lord “Max D. Cap” (super clever names I know) has risen from the Underworld and plans on using his vast army to conquer the surface world. You’ve been summoned by the one and only “Dr. Frank N. Stein” (man these puns are just painfully bad) to stand up to Max and save the world from total destruction. Your only weapon in this fight against the army of the Underworld is apparently your face? That seems to spring out like an alien from your chest because you don’t have a head… But don’t fret, sometimes you find your head in random idles or boxes and you can throw it at your enemies.
The origin of Decap Attack is not entirely what you’d expect based on the games appearance. It was based off a Japanese game for the Sega Master System called Psycho Fox. Psycho Fox was then turned into Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure (MFHTA), which took the original Psycho Fox game and added new character models and levels. MFHTA was then ported over to the US and Europe with the name Decap Attack, again replacing all the character models and levels. The gore and darker level design was intended to be more appealing to the US audience. Jeez Japan, do you really think we’re that bloodthirsty?
Despite the game’s clunky controls and poor level design, I still found myself having a really good time. It had a certain charm about it that most games nowadays just can’t compete with. It beckons me back to a time when video games were just that, video games. There was no inclusion of dramatic cinematic elements, you simply had the gameplay and just enough story to keep your attention. It didn’t matter if the story was completely and utterly terrible. Decap Attack, you’ve snuck under the radar for far too long, now’s your time to shine! Let’s give this game the respect it deserves and fight to get the series revived! No… that’s probably a terrible idea. It’s probably best we just leave this game where it belongs, in the very back corner of our heart; the spot where we keep our friend’s pets, the ones we like, but don’t see very often.
What's Your Tag? 
“Jeez Japan, do you really think we’re that bloodthirsty?”
Well.. The popularity of Mortal Kombat in US alone proofs that we are bloddthirsty indeed. :))
Haha I know, I thought the re-texturing of this game was rather hilarious. You know us Americans, we like to violently kill stuff whenever we get the chance.