The plot follows the protagonist Yusuke Urameshi, who is tasked by the ruler of the afterlife with solving detective-style cases involving both humans and demons threatening the living world.

Makyō Tōitsusen was produced at the height of a global fighting game boom for home consoles in the early 1990s, brought on by hits like Street Fighter II.

After the company made its debut on the system with Gunstar Heroes, Treasure began development on Makyō Tōitsusen as one of a quartet of Mega Drive games to be published by Sega.

The gameplay and four-player options were praised by many reviewers, several of which have even considered it among the best fighting games of the 16-bit generation, although its graphics and sound received criticism.

The manga follows protagonist Yusuke Urameshi, a juvenile delinquent who sacrifices his life to save a child and is resurrected by the ruler of the afterlife in order to solve detective-style cases involving humans and demons threatening the living world.

[6] Since the three-button controller is standard and pushing the back button changes a character's direction, combos are fairly simple to execute.

A charged attack can be temporarily cancelled and stored by pushing back on the directional pad and then instantly unleashed at that strength the next time the player uses it.

After Treasure's debut on the Mega Drive with Gunstar Heroes, Makyō Tōitsusen was one of four games in simultaneous development by the company for the system with Sega as publisher.

[15] Despite the developer's seemingly close relationship with Sega, Maegawa claimed the publisher's communication was poor and that it offered no help to Treasure during the game's creation.

[12][17] The game's main theme, "Tokenai Hono" (溶けない炎, Insoluble Flame), was written and arranged by Hata, who also performed a vocal version of the song for its official soundtrack CD and later one of her own albums.

[21] The Mega Drive was less commercially successful in Japan than it was overseas and because Treasure maintained profits by shipping small numbers of its products, few units of the game went to retail.

[19][23] A Portuguese dub of the anime by Rede Manchete[23] had already begun airing in South America, while the Mega Drive maintained a strong presence in Brazil throughout the decade largely due to a distribution partnership between Tectoy and Sega.

Retro Gamer summarized Makyō Tōitsusen as "highly enjoyable in single-player" as an over-the-top and zany anime-styled brawler, in addition praising the multiplayer as well.

[6] Kulata similarly credited the plane-shifting mechanic for allowing an equal emphasis on player defense and offense and noted that projectile attacks are made less powerful than standard punches and kicks, as opposed to its fighting genre contemporaries.

[7] Mean Machines Sega writers Gus Swan and Steve Merrett and Anime News Network contributor Todd Ciolek were all pleased with the variety of extra game modes.

[2][5] Kulata made similar, constructive remarks about its voice samples and sound effects, but considered the soundtrack to be "forgettable" in contrast to other Mega Drive games by Treasure.

He criticized it for having small character sprites, a "bland" soundtrack, "scratchy" voice-overs, and dynamic backgrounds that "try to compensate for frequently boring scenery with changes in lighting".

[3] Swan and Merrett were complimentary of the sprite animation and voice sample quality, but echoed complaints that the backgrounds lacked detail and coloring and that the soundtrack was "not up to the standard of Treasure's other in-game music".

This game features 2D sprites and gameplay mechanics resembling Makyō Tōitsusen like simplified combos and multiple horizontal planes in battle.

[3][36][37] For Guardian Heroes, Treasure president Masato Maegawa told gamesTM that the developer wanted to "evolve" what they had created in Makyō Tōitsusen into an original game with "more madness and excess".