It is a continuous tribute to predecessors operated with the stylistic and technical maturity of modern times. The beginning of our adventure is the classic one: the little princess alone in the ever-present graveyard and the valiant Arthur who joins her to romance, only to have her taken away because of the usual spoilsport demons. The familiar map of the various levels follows, after which the real action begins. It's all just like 1985. Fortunately, this is only a quote, though self-celebration is one of the dominant themes of the entire production, with more than one playable section resembling moments from Ghosts'n Goblins or Ghouls'n Ghosts. What this Makaimura does not inherit from the progenitor is, thank goodness, the imprecision of the controls, unchanged in setting but largely revised in responsiveness. The pace of the times is underscored by other aspects as well: the animations are prodigious in frames, Arthur's pacing is very well done, the stages are numerous and varied, and the weapons are increased though some are decidedly negligible. Too bad for the music, which is cute but penalized by the console's unexciting audio capabilities, while the choice not to repurpose additional armor to the basic one, as in Ghouls'n Ghosts and its sequel for Super Nintendo, is significant, as is the exclusion of double jumping. "Back to the roots," in short.
The gameplay, then, would not seem to feature significant introductions, and instead... What impressed you most about Ghosts'n Goblins? Wild guess: the difficulty. Monstrous, daunting, for many unacceptable. Fujiwara reintroduces it, but offering us a new opportunity: saving. This feature is in obvious contrast to the arcade platforming philosophy, which dictates the need to be flawless from the early levels onward, so as to save precious lives, gain more lives, while also contemplating the endurance factor that will see players' concentration fail in the advanced stages of the game. The ability to simply restart from the last level reached is a double-edged sword: Makaimura opens the door wide to even the least gifted players, it can last a few more levels because breaks are allowed, but to do so negates all its elitist charm. This for Wonderswan is the Ghosts'n Goblins for everyone, probably the only one, certainly the one most bastardized by the times and market rules. A fine platformer, paradoxically not much recommended for fans of the series.