You couldn't be yourself — so you had to understand everyone else.
Most games give you a hero and ask you to master their strengths. Avenging Spirit took that away. You are a ghost — no body, no weapons, no way to touch the world. To survive, you must step inside someone else: a gangster, a soldier, a martial artist, a wizard. You borrow their hands and fight with their instincts, until their body gives out and you are alone again. Tokuhiro Takemori, who designed the game, built a mechanic that was quietly philosophical long before anyone called it that. To inhabit another is to understand how they see. The gangster runs differently. The wizard floats. Each body carries its own weight, its own limits, its own way of meeting the world. You don't play as a hero. You learn what it is to be something other than yourself.
— inspired by Tokuhiro Takemori
About this game
Tokuhiro Takemori took the main planner's seat on a game whose hero cannot touch anything. Avenging Spirit reached arcades in Japan in May 1991 and the Game Boy there on 6 November 1992, under the title Phantasm. Your girlfriend is held by the syndicate, and a ghost cannot open a door or throw a punch — so the only move left is to step inside somebody else and wear his body until it gives out under you. Gangsters, soldiers, karate fighters, wizards: more than twenty hosts wait across six stages, each with its own health bar, its own weapon and its own way of moving. Three keys are hidden in stages 2, 5 and 6. Arrive short of even one and you leave her behind. Carry all three to the last stretch and you can open her cell and possess her, so she fights her way out beside you.
Key Features
Ghost possession: you inhabit enemy bodies and fight with their weapons. More than twenty possessable enemy types — guns, swords, flamethrowers, magic; some walk, some fly. The ghost form carries a rapidly depleting timer. Six stages. Two endings.
Gallery
The Story Behind
After 1991, games built on wearing another body appeared only sporadically: Messiah (2000), Second Sight (2004), and Geist (2005) — the last of them published by Nintendo itself, twelve years before Super Mario Odyssey made capture a mainstream verb.
Tricks & Tales
Tokuhiro Takemori, credited as the game's main planner, came from Aicom, where he had worked on Amagon (1988), The Astyanax (1989) and The Legendary Axe. The Game Boy version arrived a year and a half after the arcade cabinet, and it carried more than twenty bodies on a handheld with a fraction of the arcade's power.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
The game was released in Japan as Phantasm on 6 November 1992 and in North America as Avenging Spirit that December. The Game Boy is region-free, so either version plays on any Game Boy hardware worldwide. On a Game Boy Advance, hold Select and press Start if the image appears stretched to restore the original 1:1 proportions. The game was not widely distributed, and complete copies — with box and manual — are harder to find than loose cartridges.
Maintenance Tips
Avenging Spirit cartridges contain no save battery — there is nothing inside that degrades over time beyond the contacts themselves. If the cartridge is not being read, clean the gold pins gently and lengthwise with a cotton swab dampened in 90%-or-higher isopropyl alcohol, then let them dry before playing. Never blow into the slot: breath moisture slowly corrodes the contacts you are trying to help. For storage, keep the cartridge away from direct sunlight and heat — the grey plastic of a 1992 Game Boy cartridge does not forgive years of UV exposure, and the yellowing that results cannot truly be reversed.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Avenging Spirit copies regularly.
Does Avenging Spirit have a save battery I should check?
No — Avenging Spirit has no internal save feature and no battery inside the cartridge. The game is designed to be played through in a single sitting, arcade-style, with infinite continues available. There is nothing to back up and nothing that wears out. The cartridge you receive is simply a ROM, and it will read the same way thirty years from now as it did on the day it was made.
Is a Japanese copy of Avenging Spirit (Phantasm) compatible with my Game Boy?
Yes. The Game Boy has no region lock, so the Japanese cartridge — sold as Phantasm from 6 November 1992 — runs on any Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, or Game Boy Advance anywhere in the world. The title screen and the label differ from the North American release. If you play it on a Game Boy Advance and the picture looks stretched, hold Select and press Start to restore the original proportions.
My Avenging Spirit cartridge isn't being read — what should I try first?
Almost always, it is the gold contacts and not the cartridge itself. Dampen a cotton swab with 90%-or-higher isopropyl alcohol and wipe the contacts gently along their length, then let them dry fully before slotting the cartridge in again. Please don't blow into it — the moisture in your breath corrodes the very pins you are trying to clean, and that damage quietly builds over time. Avenging Spirit cartridges from 1992 are over thirty years old; a gentle clean usually brings them back without trouble.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Avenging Spirit
A short checklist for buying a used Game Boy cartridge wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Good news — Game Boy is region-free
Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges are not region-locked, so a Japanese copy plays on any Game Boy worldwide.
Just confirm the hardware family — original GB, Color, or Advance — matches the cartridge.
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If this title saves your progress, check the battery
Cartridges that save use a small coin-cell battery that fades over decades — a dead one wipes your save without warning.
Ask the seller whether the save function was tested. Replacing the battery is possible, but doing so erases any existing save.
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Check that the contacts are clean
Dirty edge contacts are the most common cause of startup and sound trouble in cartridges of this age.
Choose a seller who cleans the contacts before shipping. A note that it was tested and cleaned means the basics were handled.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See what we have in stock →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Avenging Spirit sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑From the Museum's Screening Room
Avenging Spirit — Max Explains