The early 1990s were a strange time for video game characters. Side-scrolling platformers were without question the most popular games, to the point that just about every company had to come up with a mascot or three to put in their own spin on the genre. An awful lot of those characters were simple variations on Sonic the Hedgehog, throwing a pair of big googly eyes on some kind of anthropomorphic animal with an attitude in a vain effort to create some sort of familiar look. Licensed characters from other media and even real celebrities were also popular choices for similar reasons. Then there was Chuck D. Head. He's a mummy with his face on his chest, which he stretches out to attack enemies. Sometimes he finds a head with another face on it, and he throws that head like a hefty boomerang as another means of attacking. Chuck is the star of DeCap Attack [Free], a surprisingly high-effort platformer from SEGA and developer Vic Tokai.
Although DeCap Attack represents Chuck's first (and I believe only) appearance in a video game, it's actually the final game in a very loose series of titles. The first game appeared on Nintendo's 8-bit NES console and was known as Kid Kool in the Western world. It's a pretty terrible game by most accounts, nearly reaching "so bad it's good" status. Nearly, but not quite. The next game in the series was titled Psycho Fox and was released on SEGA's 8-bit Master System console. Actually, it might be a stretch to call it a separate game...