Josh Miller – The Family Man

Decap Attack (Sega Genesis)

I believe it was Christmas of 1991 when my parents…ahem…I mean Santa….gifted me a Sega Genesis. To this day, it is still one of my most favorite consoles. Along with the system itself, I was given Gaiares (a game I was trash at) and Decap Attack. While Gaiares would be a game to rarely see playtime because I couldn’t get past the second level, Decap Attack would become one of my top games for the Sega Genesis.

In Decap Attack, you play as a headless mummy named Chuck D. Head. I was confused as a kid because although he was headless, he still had a face in the middle of his chest. This was probably done through experimentation from Dr. Frank N. Stein who created him to fight a demon named Max D. Cap. It was a platformer in which you would obtain powerups in the form of potions, find a head that could be thrown to kill enemies, and fight bosses at the end of the third stage of each level.

The game wasn’t perfect. Chuck was slow as molasses at times and some of the bosses were downright cruel to fight. That damn mole had me shred lives thanks to the ridiculous speed he would gain close to death. Despite all of that, Decap Attack was an absolute blast for me. Bouncing on enemies would result in them slowly sinking into the ground until they turned to bones for instance. I also LOVE the sound of Chucks face protruding out to hit enemies with every button press. Even Chuck’s twinkle toes to slow down his momentum as he fell to the ground is something I would enjoy. I have so many vivid memories of Decap Attack that I absolutely adore, and I’ve had them ever since I received my Sega Genesis.

I’ve owned many new consoles over my 34 years of life, but Decap Attack is probably THE game I look at the most fondly that I received on the same day I received a console. It’s certainly not one of my favorite games of all time, and it’s not even in the top 10 best games on the console itself, but it’s definitely one I look back fondly at after all of these years. Maybe I’ll introduce it to my son. Some of the content in it is right in his wheelhouse, and it’s possible he’ll fall in love with it just like I did.