Another phenomenal action platformer on the Genesis. Tight design, perfect music, and a delightful mixture of cartoony sprites with an atmosphere of genuine dread.

Its best feature, though, is its difficulty, which is a masterclass in 'tough-but-fair'. Some of this shit is, for sure, downright evil, but I never felt cheated by it, and was always able to learn a way through.

Beat the first loop for now, and will be back for more.

A monumental improvement over the first game. Arthur still mostly controls the same, but you get access to vertical attacks, screen nukes if you ever find a magic armour powerup (which is admittedly extremely rare), and you aren't physically locked in place at the top of ladders or when crouching and attacking anymore. It still expects you to do two loops to get the true ending, but it's a lot less difficult and far more approachable. The game also actually tells you what you need to do to fight the final boss in advance this time. Sure, it's at the end of the first loop, but I guess doing two loops is just a Makaimura series' staple by this point. The final levels also had the decency to provide appropriate checkpoints and give you more than one armour powerup if you ever get hit this time around.

With the positive reception and commercial success of Ghosts 'n Goblins, of course, Capcom had to follow it up with a sequel, and thus, three years later, we got Ghouls 'n Ghosts, which for some reason is not called Ghosts 'n Goblins 2, because fuck goblins, amirite? As I mentioned before, I am not a big fan of the original game, despite me thinking it is ok, but thankfully, this installment turned out to be a much different story. I think this is a great follow up to the original game, and maybe it is because I am playing the arcade version, but I found it to be much more entertaining overall.

The story is basically the same as the last game, except with a few differences thrown in for good measure, the graphics are a pretty good improvement over the original game's arcade graphics, the music is pretty good this time around, the control is about the same as the original, except now you can shoot up and down, automatically making this game better than the original, and once again, the gameplay is simple enough to get a grasp on, and it is fun a lot of the time, of course paired alongside the difficulty.

Like other sequels from Capcom, it's basically just the original game again, but with more stuff. In this case, there are less stages, but there are many different types of ways to progress through said stages, the enemies have a lot more variety and scale in size, the bosses are more interesting this time around, and most importantly, we get more powerups and items, such as the golden armor and a golden sword. Not to mention, with the gold armor, you can unleash a super attack which is different depending on the weapon you have, allowing for a lot of experimentation when the time comes, and some of these attacks are REALLY helpful.

Once again, my criticisms of the game would come down to difficulty and how you beat the game. Once again, this game is brutally difficult (even more so then the original at points), but then again, given how you are more versatile in this game, and given your much wider arsenal this time around, the difficulty is not too much of an issue, although it still will kick your ass if you aren't careful. And just like the difficulty, the progression through the game thankfully isn't as bad.

Just like with the last game, you have to beat the game twice in order to truly win, but this time around, you must get not only the golden armor, but also a new power up from an angel in order to beat the game. This may sound like unnecessary padding, and yes, it is, but whenever you get this new armor and new power, you feel UNSTOPPABLE. Seriously, when you have this, every threat goes down in like 1-2 hits whenever you encounter it, and let me tell you, having that kind of power in a Ghosts 'n Goblins game feels AMAZING, so while the second playthrough is completely unnecessary, it is worth it for me just for that alone.

Overall, while it still carries some of the gripes I had from the original game, I had an amazing time with Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and I would definitely say that overall, this is the better game of the original duology. I'm gonna offend someone with that opinion, but hey, who cares.

Game #56

Ironicamente, este jogo é divertido.
Eu odeio o Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts de SNES, porém, eu realmente me diverti com este jogo, mesmo não sendo tão completo e tendo gráficos inferiores(pelo menos na versão de Mega, aonde eu joguei).
o jogo é sim desafiador e até troll as vezes, porém na medida certa, consegui terminar em pouco tempo mesmo nunca tendo jogado, o jogo definitivamente não é fácil, porém tem uma dificuldade justa, o level design é bom, as batalhas são de certa forma desafiadoras, mas justas e é possível encontrar um certo padrão, sem dizer que as fases são bem curtas e com 3 checkpoints, o que facilita bastante, diferente das fases completamente extensas do de SNES. Talvez eu não tenha achado tão difícil quanto dizem por ter jogado o de SNES antes, que foi uma experiência bem mais difícil e torturante (eu realmente detesto aquele jogo).
Enfim, um clássico, eu não recomendaria para todo mundo, mas para quem gosta de jogos desafiadores pode ser bem divertido, não é o melhor jogo em questões técnicas, mas ainda assim da para perdoar por conta da época(sem dizer que eu joguei a versão de Mega Drive, com certeza a melhor é a de arcade, que pretendo jogar no futuro).
Eu não gosto de comparar jogos, na maioria das vezes não é uma boa forma de analisar algo, mas eu realmente detesto o Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, talvez por isso vim jogar esse jogo com expectativas baixas, mas acabei me surpreendendo e me divertindo mais do que eu esperava. Enfim, o jogo nem é tudo isso, mas eu pessoalmente gostei.

i was just shy of 1cc'ing the original ghosts n' goblins a year ago and fell off practicing because life got in the way & it wasn't exactly the most pleasurable game to 1cc. i feel a lot more motivated to try and actually best this one after a couple of runs. in theory ghouls n' ghosts is easier than ghosts n' goblins but it's more accurate to describe the latter as uneven; across its campaign there were scenarios you could trivialize through exploits side-by-side with segments which were often brutally difficult. ghouls is a lot more consistently fair as an arcade title, but consequently there isn't a single segment you can cheekily sidestep here. you have to play by the game's ruleset, which naturally means there are still some quite onerous stages to overcome. aside from this now very natural difficulty curve, the movement is silky smooth, its aesthetic is immaculate, and challenge always resides in that idealized zone of strategy and reaction. the treasure chest system is hilarious once you come to grips with what's actually going on and will probably only continue to unfold its intricacies across repeat playthroughs, and unlike the original i never felt like my run became fucked just because i picked up a different weapon. might be the gold standard for the kind of arcade experiences i gravitate towards?

I always feel conflicted whenever I play a game in the Makaimura/Ghosts 'n Goblins series. All of the makings of a great action platformer are here: simple but fun movement with a good variety of enemies, bosses and setpiece-heavy levels, but the problem is with any of the games is that there's always a ton of RNG bullshit like someone just took a fat steaming dump on a wedding cake, which prevents me from really enjoying it.

Random penalty weapon drops which don't disappear, all kinds of crazy random enemy spawns and random drops from chests make the whole experience feel clustered and inconsistent. The strange thing is that I don't see many people talk about the truly insane amounts of RNG in games of this series, I think that might be because a lot of people trying out Makaimura games must think that "oh that's just how retro platformers work" and while many retro platformers are like this, there are at least equally as many that are genuinely firm but fair with minimal randomness, and those tend to be the true greats of the era.

Wow, this game is a mess on the database, with each individual port inexplicably having their own page, except for a couple of the home computer ports for some reason? And IGDB declined my attempt to just put every port on the same damn page.

I've played the Supergrafx version, which doesn't even show up on the search because it's listed with the Japanese name, my god video game databases are a disaster.

Anyway, this is one of those games where I seriously question if it's actually "good", or if nerds have just been gaslit into believing that, Battletoads style. It's surely visually appealing, but this "fuck the player!" design philosophy of the 80s and early 90s is just... not good. It's a lot of memorization and trial and error and even RNG - not every weapon is built the same, and what weapon you get is completely random.

The Makaimura series is probably best known for being extremely difficult, and while I wouldn't say that Ghouls 'n Ghosts isn't a difficult game, it remains an extremely approachable and fun one. You'll die a lot, but the tightness and simplicity of the controls typically let you see what you could have done better, and the infinite continues and fair checkpointing make it less of a slog than many action platformers of this era without resorting to save states.

You can easily get some enjoyment out of this game just doing a quick playthrough (it only takes a couple of hours even at a slower pace), appreciate the art and fantastic soundtrack, and see what the game has to offer. That's exactly what I did when I originally played the game a couple years back. Recently, however, I got a song from the game stuck in my head out of nowhere and had the urge to play it again. So I went back, got the true ending this time in its NG+ equivalent, and have beaten it several more times since. This is the first game of this type that I've really wanted to get good at and attempt to 1CC, and in that process I've seen a lot more of what makes this game great.

I praised the controls a bit above, but they really are a huge part of what makes the game fun. In your first minutes playing it, especially if you're coming from a background of mostly playing newer games, things like the slow walk speed and your jump being high commitment might feel dated or clunky, but the combat of Ghouls is all about careful positioning and reading the scenario you're in. The options available to you are simple enough that it's easy to keep in mind at any time, but the combat always feels dynamic and interesting, and the responsiveness of your moveset allows you to manage the chaos the enemies create through thoughtful play. A mix of fixed and random enemy spawns makes the levels feel a bit different to play through each time, and many of the enemies are faster than you or have attacks that will punish careless movement or overextending your position. Learning all of their patterns and how to play against them is very fun, and as you learn you'll see how Arthur's moveset is designed to complement that style of play.

My main complaint about the game is definitely with the weapon balancing. Weapon spawns are mostly random, you can learn when they'll spawn after some time with the game, but even that will seem random to inexperienced players and you never have control over what you'll get. This wouldn't be a big problem if all of the weapons felt viable, but there are some real stinkers. The sword is at least interesting, though it struggles a lot more in some levels than the good weapons. The axe and holy water are next to useless, while the starting weapon of the lance as well as the discus are serviceable, and the dagger outclasses everything with the only exception being the special NG+ weapon in certain situations. What makes this lack of balance worse is that you can get stuck with weapons very easily. Weapon pickups never despawn, so avoiding picking up an unwanted one can be challenging or even impossible without taking an intentional death. Your weapon also persists through deaths and continues, so failing to avoid a weapon or having one spawn on top of you unexpectedly can put you in a bad situation and make the game much more difficult until you manage to get back to a better one. I don't think this is a fatal flaw, but it seems like such an easy and obvious thing to improve, which makes it confusing from what I've heard that none of the future titles in the series managed to do that. Strange.

I'm not sure how many people are in the same boat as me with enjoying action platformers but being turned off by a lot of the classics for one reason or another, but if that describes you, or if you've just ever been curious about this game or series, this is an excellent game to try. I've been having a blast with it, and it's become an easy game to just pick up and play for a few minutes when I'm not sure what to do. I don't know if I'll stick with it to the point of 1CCing it, but I'm working towards that, enjoying the process of improving, and loving the game.

For being one of the first titles released on Megadrive, Ghouls 'n Ghosts definitely defends itself well: excellent use of colors, well-characterized sprites and decent animations, while the scenarios enjoy good characterization, although the top remains always the first, historic level set in the graveyard.
In the course of the game I faced a good variety of enemies, all inspired by Horror mythology: plenty of room for zombies, ghosts, evil spirits and disgusting creatures.
There is some slowdown in the more eventful stages with more characters on screen, but overall the game works well technically as well. Compared to the original arcade version, however, there is less detail and detail to the environments, but despite this the work adequately exploits the technical capabilities of the SEGA console.
The sound accompaniment, on the other hand, is one of the best aspects of the production, well orchestrated and with some tracks capable of sticking in the memory for a long time (once again, the historic graveyard track, the very symbol of the saga).