Clash at Demonhead

Clash at Demonhead is a video game released by Vic Tokai for the Nintendo Entertainment System on January 27, 1989 in Japan and January 1990 in North America. Cover illustration by Lawrence Fletcher.

Gameplay
Clash at Demonhead is an open-ended platformer. The player takes control of Billy "Big Bang" Blitz, who is capable of running, jumping, and shooting. He is initially armed with a handgun, though various upgrades can be purchased from a shop. He later gains the ability to perform various powers by collecting Force, including shrinking, teleportation to previously-visited areas, flight, healing, and invincibility. The player chooses levels from a world map that consists of over forty routes. Various objectives must be met to complete the game.

Plot
Billy "Big Bang" Blitz is a sergeant in S.A.B.R.E. (Special Assault Brigade for Real Emergencies). He is contacted during a vacation at the beach with his girlfriend Mary to save Professor Plum, creator of a Doomsday Bomb capable of destroying the world. Bang soon encounters Tom Guycot, the mastermind behind the abduction, and he learns that the Doomsday Bomb is controlled by seven medallions which have been distributed among the governors of Demonhead. On his journey, Bang encounters Michael who claims to be Bang's ally and tells him about a grieving sprite. Upon meeting the sprite, he learns of a captured hermit who teaches Bang various force powers upon rescuing him. While searching for the rest of the medallions, Bang repeatedly experiences strange mental discomfort.

Bang later discovers that the discomfort is a failed attempt at mind control by a demon trapped beneath the mountain at Demonhead's north end. The demon failed to control Bang, but manages to control Bang's ally, Michael. The demon sets up a plot through Michael to entice Bang with treasure requiring the use of a Magic Stone. The Magic Stone ends up being the key to freeing the demon from its imprisonment. After Bang fails to defeat the demon, it seeks out and kills Tom Guycot and steals his medallion. Bang learns from the hermit that the demon can only be destroyed with the Sword of Apollo.

Upon defeating the demon and recovering Guycot's medallion, Bang attempts to rescue Professor Plum but learns the Doomsday Bomb is already complete. The bomb turns out to be technology from an alien race responsible for creating humanity 1,000 years ago. They have grown disappointed with their creation's destructive tendencies and intend to use the bomb to hasten what they believe is the inevitable end of the world. The only way to diffuse the bomb is with the medallions, but with no instructions, Bang can only guess where each medallion is placed, and is working against a countdown timer that triggers the bomb. When Bang succeeds, the alien voices its disdain that humanity will live on and announces that the alien race intends to leave Earth to its own devices and never return. Bang responds that from now on humans will look after themselves. Bang escapes Demonhead with the Hermit to reunite with Mary and receive congratulations from his commander.