Ghosts 'N Goblins
Ghosts 'N Goblins is a Gothic fantasy-themed platform shooter video game developed and published by Capcom originally for the arcade on 1985-09-19 as the first game in the Ghosts 'N Goblins series. As it is a pioneer in the genre, the game became quite popular and was ported to about a dozen other platforms. In Ghosts 'N Goblins, you control Arthur who must rescue princess Prin Prin who has been kidnapped by demons. The NES port was made by Micronics who made a faithful conversion, which is a shame because shortly after Capcom discovered it's far better to retool their arcade games to better suit home platforms.
I learned about Ghosts 'N Goblins because of its inclusion in The Official Nintendo Player's Guide, but I never played the game in its heyday, not in the arcade or on home consoles. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it because it is so obscenely difficult it would only cause me frustration. However, I do have to give the game credit for being so influential, both to platform shooters and Gothic fantasy.
Contents
Status
I own this game for the NES.
Review
4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 3 |
Best Version: 46% — This section contains spoilers! —
Good
- For 1985, the game has really good graphics and sound.
- I like the Gothic fantasy theme.
- Having Arthur's armor shatter to reveal his boxers underneath is a good gag.
Bad
- Only two hits is not nearly enough for such a difficult game. It would be more forgivable if the game was more liberal in rewarding replacement armor, but it's stingy.
- Most enemies are allowed to walk through walls, which hurts the immersion.
- The weapons are not very evenly matched. The dagger is objectively better than the lance, and the torch and axe are pretty awful.
- The NES port is very buggy.
Ugly
- The game is stupid difficult; partly because enemies move way too fast and attack at odd angles, partly because the player is slow and unresponsive.
- Punishing players for keeping the best weapon in the game to the final level by sending them back two levels is very mean.
- Requiring players to beat the game twice in order to see the proper ending is cruel.
- The home computer ports are terrible and cut out large portions of the game.
Media
Box Art
Game Boy Color, USA. Great cartoon, but I don't know why they switched the typeface to Serpentine.
Documentation
Screenshots
Fan Art
Videos
- youtube.com/watch?v=94Y6y1MOoEo - Angry Video Game Nerd.
- youtube.com/watch?v=ERtkhZx0f-A - Longplay, Amiga.
- youtube.com/watch?v=tIlTIzvyiBc - Longplay, Amstrad CPC.
- youtube.com/watch?v=SugLAqaPhqA - Longplay, Arcade.
- youtube.com/watch?v=wB8Jw6OW9-c - Longplay, Atari ST.
- youtube.com/watch?v=WC809188Pss - Longplay, Game Boy Color.
- youtube.com/watch?v=KP15wQERQxg - Longplay, MS-DOS.
- youtube.com/watch?v=5ZgqugtReso - Longplay, NES.
- youtube.com/watch?v=OwxhxbkFjic - Longplay, Commodore 64.
- youtube.com/watch?v=5ZiVwbJni4k - Longplay, ZX Spectrum.
- youtube.com/watch?v=YRkN4Rl36ek - Game play, Commodore 16.
- youtube.com/watch?v=xTXXiGubsGs - Game play, PC-8801.
Titles
Language | Native | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
English | Ghosts 'N Goblins | ||
Japanese | 魔界村 | Makai Mura | Demon World Village |
Links
- arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7938 - International Arcade Museum.
- Video Game Rating - 4
- Video Game Graphics Rating - 6
- Video Game Sound Rating - 6
- Pages with broken file links
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- Game Mechanic - Unlockable Difficulty Levels
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