Stretching your 2 minute long game out to be thinner than atoms by making it exponentially hard is not good game design I must admit.
Holy crap this game is hard. I'm shocked I even beat it. Super Ghouls'n Ghosts is a sidescrolling action game devised by Capcom, like many SNES greats are. You play through 7 levels to save the princess. Super original plot, I know. But, Super Ghouls'n Ghosts really shines with its meticulously tuned levels and difficulty. The theming of each level is pretty cool, The spritework is goregeous for an early snes game, and the music is unique and memorable.
From the very beginning, this game isnt afraid to show how difficult the journey will be. You can take 2 hits before you die, and your weapon can be swapped out for a different one through random drops. You've got a double jump, but it takes some getting used to as you have zero air control. It asks for constant spacial awareness and focus so that you don't get hit after a bad jump, or from a poorly telegraphed enemy attack. But... there is just enough leeway in the control scheme to get good at handling the stiff movement.
Once you've gotten used to the controls, found a decent weapon and have memorized most of the levels, the game tells you that you need to beat it again. As if it wasn't difficult enough to make it to the end once, you also need to find a new weapon exclusive to the second playthrough to beat the final boss. Doing the second runthrough was much more challenging, as the weapon you need drops randomly only when you have gold armor. Yeah, you can't get hit at all, you've gotta get two random drop armor upgrades, and THEN you can get the randomly dropped weapon to beat the game.
Plenty of people havent been able to beat level 1, let alone all 7, and hearing the news of a second playthrough is enough to make anyone stop playing. It cannot be understated how challenging this game is and how much focus it requires. The boss at the end of level 7 is notoriously difficult to beat with the required weapon too, so you might run out of time and die before you can get the boss's health low enough.
I haven't even mentioned that Super Ghouls'n Ghosts doesn't have a save or password system, so you need to do two playthroughs in one sitting to have a chance of beating it. Capcom, would it have killed you to put in a password system like some of your other snes titles!?
So... yeah. It's a great game if you like challenging titles, but it firmly sticks in the "NES hard" category of games. It is unfair at times and can be pretty BS too. I will admit I used NSO's rewind feature sparingly to be able to finally beat it. On original hardware, I only ever made it through the first playthrough.
I'd love to hear what others think of Super Ghouls'n Ghosts in the comments and any tricks you might have to beat the game without rewind!
From the very beginning, this game isnt afraid to show how difficult the journey will be. You can take 2 hits before you die, and your weapon can be swapped out for a different one through random drops. You've got a double jump, but it takes some getting used to as you have zero air control. It asks for constant spacial awareness and focus so that you don't get hit after a bad jump, or from a poorly telegraphed enemy attack. But... there is just enough leeway in the control scheme to get good at handling the stiff movement.
Once you've gotten used to the controls, found a decent weapon and have memorized most of the levels, the game tells you that you need to beat it again. As if it wasn't difficult enough to make it to the end once, you also need to find a new weapon exclusive to the second playthrough to beat the final boss. Doing the second runthrough was much more challenging, as the weapon you need drops randomly only when you have gold armor. Yeah, you can't get hit at all, you've gotta get two random drop armor upgrades, and THEN you can get the randomly dropped weapon to beat the game.
Plenty of people havent been able to beat level 1, let alone all 7, and hearing the news of a second playthrough is enough to make anyone stop playing. It cannot be understated how challenging this game is and how much focus it requires. The boss at the end of level 7 is notoriously difficult to beat with the required weapon too, so you might run out of time and die before you can get the boss's health low enough.
I haven't even mentioned that Super Ghouls'n Ghosts doesn't have a save or password system, so you need to do two playthroughs in one sitting to have a chance of beating it. Capcom, would it have killed you to put in a password system like some of your other snes titles!?
So... yeah. It's a great game if you like challenging titles, but it firmly sticks in the "NES hard" category of games. It is unfair at times and can be pretty BS too. I will admit I used NSO's rewind feature sparingly to be able to finally beat it. On original hardware, I only ever made it through the first playthrough.
I'd love to hear what others think of Super Ghouls'n Ghosts in the comments and any tricks you might have to beat the game without rewind!
Dark souls sem rolagem
The name is really misleading, this is not a port of Ghouls N Ghosts for the SNES. It's the best of the original trilogy by far, but it suffers from that slowdown that plagued early SNES games. And that probably helped it, because it forced the developers to put less enemies on the screen at once and it helps avoiding projectiles more easily while the game is running super slow. The soundtrack is top notch as everything else Capcom did in the 1990s. A classic, must play title.
Ghosts and Goblins is one of those series that was made entirely difficult at the time because they started on the Arcade, so making the game incredibly tough would have let people spend more coins on it.
Super ghosts and Goblins wasn't designed for arcade, but consoles, so you can imagine maybe Capcom added an option to change the diffcìiculty-NOPE THEY WENT HARDER.
The brutality of this title is insane and it can turn a normal session into a bad time.
THe issue is not the difficulty itself; tons of titles can result completely enjoyable while also rank up the difficulty: DK Country Returns, some of the classic megaman titles... even other games designs for the arcade, like Metal Slug 3, are able to be difficult while also providing a fun experience.
What makes Ghost and Goblins different is, in my opinion, the unfairness: most of its levels designs are full of surprises, in the forms of traps, bottomless pits, dangerous hazards and enemies with bizzarre patterns are everywhere, and even things like mimics hidden as treasure chests, and some upgrades are literally debuffs for Arthur moveset.
Ironically the levels can become so pranked with things that can oneshot you at any time that some of the bosses can feels easier.
I Played this one thanks to the Nintnendo Switch Online.... I grew irritated by some of these designs even with a option to Rewind, I can't imagine how it would have been for people that played it at the time.
The thing that absolutely kills this title for me.... is the fact that finishing the game.... doesn't finish the game! You beat up Astaroth, you rescue the princess and she goes "Thank you my hero, but I think I forgot my holy bracelet or something, PLEASE REDO THE WHOLE GAME with that one. Miss it or change weapon and you gotta go the whole game all over again".
I honestly gave up on the second run. Even with a rewind option I kinda felt like miserable.
I still have some respect for this title: it got some great spritework and atmosphere, and these types of brutal experiences are hard to find nowadays.... but also I am not really a fan of it. Still, it's worth a shot, even if short
Super ghosts and Goblins wasn't designed for arcade, but consoles, so you can imagine maybe Capcom added an option to change the diffcìiculty-NOPE THEY WENT HARDER.
The brutality of this title is insane and it can turn a normal session into a bad time.
THe issue is not the difficulty itself; tons of titles can result completely enjoyable while also rank up the difficulty: DK Country Returns, some of the classic megaman titles... even other games designs for the arcade, like Metal Slug 3, are able to be difficult while also providing a fun experience.
What makes Ghost and Goblins different is, in my opinion, the unfairness: most of its levels designs are full of surprises, in the forms of traps, bottomless pits, dangerous hazards and enemies with bizzarre patterns are everywhere, and even things like mimics hidden as treasure chests, and some upgrades are literally debuffs for Arthur moveset.
Ironically the levels can become so pranked with things that can oneshot you at any time that some of the bosses can feels easier.
I Played this one thanks to the Nintnendo Switch Online.... I grew irritated by some of these designs even with a option to Rewind, I can't imagine how it would have been for people that played it at the time.
The thing that absolutely kills this title for me.... is the fact that finishing the game.... doesn't finish the game! You beat up Astaroth, you rescue the princess and she goes "Thank you my hero, but I think I forgot my holy bracelet or something, PLEASE REDO THE WHOLE GAME with that one. Miss it or change weapon and you gotta go the whole game all over again".
I honestly gave up on the second run. Even with a rewind option I kinda felt like miserable.
I still have some respect for this title: it got some great spritework and atmosphere, and these types of brutal experiences are hard to find nowadays.... but also I am not really a fan of it. Still, it's worth a shot, even if short