| Manufacturer: | Capcom |
| Genre: | Platformer |
| Board: | Capcom Z80 hardware |
| Year: | 1985 |
Halloween is upon us once again, which means it's time for another spooky Classic of the Month. Last year I talked about the dreary Splatterhouse, which can hardly be called a classic, unlike this year's game, Ghosts 'n Goblins.
The game begins with our hero, Sir Arthur and his beloved Princess Prin Prin, relaxing in a graveyard (for some reason) when a winged demon swoops down and steals the girl. Who hasn't been there - am I right? Quick as a flash, Sir Arthur dons his armour (did I mention he's just in his boxers at the beginning?) and immediately finds himself waist deep in the undead. And so begins an epic and absolutely rock-hard run and gun (well, javelin) adventure, which quickly cemented itself in the collective conscience of arcade gamers around the world. A big part of its appeal was it's personality, like the way Sir Arthur could take two hits from enemies, but the first hit knocked off his armour.
If you play it today, you will still enjoy it, but you may well be put off by its difficulty - especially since part of that difficult is imposed by the sluggish controls. You cannot actually fire javelins and run at the same time; instead, Sir Arthur pauses for a split second, which gives the zombies, demonic crows, skeletons, vampires and other monstrosities plenty of opportunity to do you in.
Three years after its release, Capcom brought out a sequel, Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, the one and only arcade sequel. Capcom did bring out numerous ports, sequels and updates, across dozens of different platforms, but for me, the one to play was the Maximo series on the PlayStation 2. It was the perfect reimagining of the game for (then) modern consoles, with gorgeous 3D polygonal graphics, but all of the gameplay, charm and of course difficulty that made the original so great.
MTW
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