

Youkai Douchuuki (or Shadow Land, depending on which version you're playing) is this weird, kinda brutal NES action-platformer where you play as a kid who somehow ends up in Jigoku—basically Japanese Hell. And let me tell you, it's not a fun vacation spot. You're jumping across floating skulls, dodging fire-breathing demons, and collecting these little scrolls that... honestly, I'm still not entirely sure what they do.
The NES version feels a bit clunky compared to the arcade original, but there's something charming about its janky hitboxes and the way enemies just materialize out of nowhere. One minute you're casually hopping platforms, the next you're getting bodied by a giant tengu. It's one of those games where you die a lot at first, then suddenly everything clicks.
Never got an official release outside Japan, which is a shame—it's got that classic Namco weirdness mixed with Japanese folklore. If you can track it down, it's a neat little time capsule of 80s hell-tourism.
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