Genpei ToumaDen

Make your way along a very strange landscape fighting enemies as they appear. The graphics are highly impressive for the time.

The player character in this game is based on a true historical person. You play as the resurrected spirit of "Taira no Kagekiyo" (d.1196), a samurai from the Heike clan who has returned from the dead to exact vengeance on "Minamoto no Yoritomo" of the Genji clan.

Genpei Toumaden is an interesting side-scrolling action game. There are three phases to it. In one, your character is depicted in a small size and things come at you from every direction and you slash your sword to kill things, but the game is relentless in its efforts to kill you. The second features a very large version of your character and is focused on one-on-one fighting between you and the stage boss mostly, aside from some other minor enemies. The third, is an overhead perspective, basically you are in the Japanese land of the dead fighting dead things to escape.