It's pretty astounding me that Ghosts 'n Goblin Resurrection is out this early year. I can't get my hand on it yet but i can celebrate this occasion by playing Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1988).
That's the sinister title logo
that we know and love. It may or may not be Firebrand/Red Arremer. It's
definitive trademark, for sure. That fire and blood effect really nail the
visual to dead! This arcade game got ported to Sega Master System and Sega
Megadrive/Genesis while Super Nintendo Entertainment System get none of that.
But SNES owners get the sequel: Super
Ghouls 'n Ghosts instead. Muahahaha! Ok, no one is the real winner here
because as you may know that Ghost 'n
Goblin/Makaimura series is evil.
Each and every game of the series is bastard hard. Kind of like the infamous Demon/Dark Soul series but i prefer Ghost
'n Goblin/Makaimura because of 2
thing: 1) No tedious stamina system on the gameplay 2) Makaimura
music/soundtrack. Ok, make it 3 because i'm fan of Capcom the
aforementioned Firebrand/Red Arremer who could be the whisperer inside my head
that tell me to play this game.
The story is significantly more dramatic from the one in other series where Princess Prin Prin get kidnapped by flying demon. No. This one is: demons kill the villagers and even the Princess herself. Also Arthur's horse which is immediately vaporized. Apparently, horse is very weak to demonic laser. Got it.
So it's up to Arthur to revenge on those...-i want to say- Ghouls 'n Ghosts as title suggested but sadly i don't see anything that can be categorized as ghoul or ghost in this game. The control is as simple as you can get: joystick to move left/right, crouch, or move ladder up/down. First button to shoot projectile in direction of Arthur's facing. Second button to jump. As usual his initial weapon is lance that flies straight in medium speed and only 2 of it allowed on screen at the time.
I happen to find golden armor within a chest and i use its power to commit vulture slaughter! Like in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts if Arthur dons golden armor, he can casts magic by holding shoot button until the bar on bottom filled and then releases it. I recommend you to keep the lance for this lightning magic because it's powerful and give you enough invincibility period.
After passing enough guillotines, mini grim reapers, and vultures, you will arrive at this section which is the half second of this stage. This place is filled with strong wind blows here and these demonic tornado. Because of the wind blow, Arthur's move become hampered even more from his usual sluggish move. But what's your expectation on how well a fully armored man can move or jump? You can't kill the tornado not while still spinning around like mad. There's a brief moment where the tornado settles down a bit to reveal a relatively cute weasel that i believe is a Kamaitachi which is a weasel yōkai that keen on cutting human's leg. But in this case, it's capable of cutting Arthur's armor into pieces and if he's down on his boxer short it can cut Arthur's flesh and turning him into (rather comedic) pile of bones. Yes, it's the usual GnG's "health" system right there.
If you can get past those windy part safely, you will arrives at this valley part where tentacles suddenly grow from its soil. To fully destroy the tentacles, you have to attack them at red exposed bit on the base part. If you destroy the same bit on the end part, the tentacle will still survives albeit shorter. As i demonstrate here, Arthur now can aim up (and down when he's jumping) his weapon. His new "ability" here allows Arthur to have more freedom on aiming his weapon and not makes him bound to horizontal plane to his target.
Then i meet a demonic pig that like to jump and hope to crush me with his buttock. He reminds me of that 2nd boss in Warriors of Fate.
Here's the first boss named "Shielder" even though he doesn't carry any shield. He should be named "Dullahan" because can survives although his head is away from his neck. He attacks you with fireball that he shoot from his head. The weakpoint is certainly his head that he carries on his hand because other part of him is well armored, you see. He positions his head in 3 angle/height: high, middle, and low. When he carries his head in high position, you can barrage him with lots of lance by aiming upward towards it. When his head is in low position, he always shoot his fireball at you torso's height so you can duck underneath it safely. Overall, he's not difficult to deal. Or at least if you still keep the lance.
Next stage takes place in windmill zone that covered with slime. Just like in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, there's demon inside chest that will changes Arthur into ludicrous form within some duration. The transformation is either duck or old man. Arthur can't attack while he's duck but his hitbox become smaller. While in old man form, his attack rate and projectile speed are halved. I think he most likely become old man if he doesn't armor when being hit by the magical projectile that come from the demon magician
If you manage to dodge those rock turtles safely, you will arrive at this quicksand area. Obviously, you have to travel via that rickety bridges. As you expect from poorly-maintained bridges, some part of them will fall if stepped. The thing is: there's no hint about it. In other platformer game (outside GnG game), the weak platform will be telegraphed with -for example- shaking for a while before falling or looks broken/cracked. Not in this case. The feeble part looks identical with the sturdy ones. So the only way to tell the apart if by sole memorization. On the center of each quick sand area, there's invincible antlion that will slowly chase you if you fall to the quicksand. But remember that Arthur is already slow git and the quicksand property will make his move even more encumbered so the antlion is still arguably faster than him.
Once you get pass of the quicksand area, you will meet the first Red Arremer King. He lazily throw human skull at you. I thought this axe is good against him because it flies in angle instead of straight line. But in this demonstration, my theory is proven wrong. You can see that the axe is big enough to hit him but the game denies that. There's one time that i manage to land one axe at him while sitting there. You have to take my word for it.
It's really hard for me to deal with the flying bastard with axe. It simply sucks. Perhaps, this means Capcom subtly says that Sega's Golden Axe sucks? So that's why they make the axe bad weapon. Anyway, i keep dying to the first Red Arremer King and sometime i drown into quicksand. Look at his clueless expression while drowning. That's our heroic knight Arthur, folks.
Finally i kill the infamous idol. When he swooped on me, i throw axe right in his face and he perishes. After passing some collapsing grounds, i reach this burning town which if inhabited by this eyeball-spitting plant for some reason. The fire in the sky will sometime burst a fire pillar that will spawn fire bats. You can extinguish them when the fire pillar reaches the maximum range and start to form them.
Woe is me as i accidentally replaced the axe with this sword because it's pure melee weapon! I have no longer luxury of projectile attack anymore. Moreover, i encounter the 2nd boss: Cerberus minus 2 other head. You can destroy the fire rain that he spawns while jumping, with your weapon. Do that to keep your privacy away from burning to ashes.
What in tarnation that i manage to kill the infernal hound with the shortest-range weapon in this game? Also there's the usual "Take A Key For Coming In!" message after killing the boss. Maybe it's supposed to be "Take a key to get inside (of next level)"?
Sword has bit vertical range by default, so it's not entirely bad weapon. But if you happen to be stuck with it while facing the first boss, you're in real bad time i tell you. According to casts at the end of the game, this flying green bums are flying goblin. So why the game not called Ghosts 'n Goblins, again? Even though there's goblins right here. Anyway, the flying goblins behave like aliens in Namco's Galaga where they fly around bit of left or right and suddenly swoop down while bombing at you.
Suddenly, i have good fortune of finding golden armor and knife! The knife's magic is shadow clone of yourself that imitate your action a few split-seconds ago including jumping and shooting. Purple shadow clone? Isn't that Capcom's take on clone weapon in Data East's Caveman Ninja? Anyway, the knife's magic is useful for this section where i have to destroy bunch of enemies that get in my way. This section is rising platform and you have to move to the right fast enough otherwise you will get crushed by the ceiling.
Then i have to go through the probably the most wicked platforming section in this game. It's filled entirely with instant-death pits. Therefore you have to navigate this area with floating platform or tongue that come out from those demon-shaped statues. It's not easy as it heard. First, Arthur's jump is really stiff. He can't change his flight during jump at all. So you need some careful flight planning regarding his jump. But on the other hand, he can freely aim his weapon without changing his jump trajectory. Second, Arthur somehow can't step on those demon heads even though it looks sturdy. Plus there's fire that can burn him. So you're forced to follow the relentlessly moving platform provided by the statues without ability to take a rest a bit. Not even some split seconds. Third, if you get in the statue's mouth you're instantaneously dead even you're well-armored. Most of the platforms here are moving toward those gapping mouth so you're in constant worry of getting eaten by the statues. There's also chests that like to spawn in spot where you will get blocked them. So they become annoying hindrance instead of magical reward as they should be. I might be crazy saying this but i miss the double jump from the sequel.
The 3rd boss is cloud with eyeball named Gassuto which i have no idea what's exactly is that. It moves around you and sometime it turns invincible and coming at you. Throw projectile at its eyeball lots of time and it will perish. Nuff said.
I'm glad they brought back the skeleton murderers in this 4th stage. They're likable sods. Really. You see that chest spawn on the top? It's trap even if it's not filled with that goddamn magician. The content could be that slow axe, sword, or -God forbids- torch the most cumbersome weapon in entire series of GnG. If the content is one of those, you will instinctively jump over it, right? Well, tough luck. The ceiling is spike that can torn either your armor or your flesh. So the best way is to go for the bottom path like what i do here. Those crystal spikes also appear in ice cavern in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts.
In this stage, there's also monstrous earthworms that eager to bite me or spit stone. They look like belong to Contra Hardcorps. Am i over-analyzing that Capcom like to make various references from other games in here?
Then you will get into this watery slopes which are home to this hand demon which has ability to throw projectile (like other enemies in this game) and lesser demon worm. You will move along the slope but you can make yourself stop on the spot while in attacking animation. Naturally the slopes leads you to hand demon and if you panic and jump into the spiked chestnut, you will die regardless whether you still have your armor or not. The thunder magic proves very worthy in this section because you can hit the enemies while making you invincible briefly.
After passing that wet section, you must negotiate these Venus mantrap to get down safely. If you jump too late, the maneater plant will eat you. There's older demon worm that spit ball at you. I mean look at those aging teeth. They can't eat armored Arthur immediately, they need can opener...operated with their mouth because they don't have hand.
At the bottom of this watery inferno is Ohme, the stage boss. I'm not sure what is it unless it's giant caterpillar with 4 heart outside of its body and it likes to spawn green maggots and flying worms. You can't kill the worms because they're invincible. They come out and in from holes on Ohme. The maggots are easier to deal because you can kill them and they move slower. This boss stage tests your aptitude on aiming your weapon downward because its weakpoint is the 4 hearts that i mentioned before. But it's not as easy as it sounds because the hearts are periodically beating in and out. You can only hurt them if they're completely out from Ohme's body.
If you get the exit key while jumping and holding down directional "up", you get bonus message "Nice catch!". Scout_award11.wav
These skeletal dragons that come out from hole in the walls, are nothing compared to this mighty lightning! Engineer_sf13_influx_big01.wav
In this final level, you have to fight 4 Firebrand/Red Arremer. Here's the demonstration on how awesome the lightning magic is. It seems they can't react against lightning as well as normal projectiles. Sniper_sf13_influx_big03.wav
Then you have to come across these skulls on the wall that roll out morning star in fixed pattern. I love the snake decoration on the ladders in this final level. Wait a minute! Snakes and ladders as in that board game, huh? Very funny, Capcom.
After defeating Astaroth which was the final boss of Ghosts 'n Goblins, i have to defeat two Shielder's heads. This probably base of Cockatrice's heads sub-boss in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Why i don't show you the Astaroth? Well, don't you worry! Because after these blockheads,...
...i will have to defeat 2 of him! My tips is to finish the one on right first because he comes out earlier and hope that you can finish him earlier too before get surrounded by two of these greater demon .
Then i have to defeat, 3 lesser Gassuto. There's another off the screen, waiting for me to destroy one of its copy first with all the fairness of demon's accomplice. You have to take my word for it.
Yes, i have to deal with another Shielder's head but this time there flying goblins and a ladder. No. I'm not kidding. That ladder prevents me to shoot upward rapidly so i can't kill him as fast as before.
This giant demonic fly is the boss of this final stage but not the final boss, mind you. He can flies quite high and spits 3 (probably demonic) fly eggs at you. So far, not bad.
...until he splits into swarm of fly and relocate somewhere else entirely random. He's invincible while doing so but you can harm him to the spot where he will reform next. Why i think this is bad is because you barely can do anything to avoid those swarms. You probably notice the podium on the center of this area and think that i can dodge the swarm by using it but no! I can't do that. The swarm is too slow or long for me to jump over them even with the help of the podium. But there's more than that. Although the swarm looks like fly beneath the podium, you can't assume safety while stand on it! The best idea i can come up with is: You have to run as far as you can go, away from the giant demonic fly and hope that he will reform before the swarms gets into your hiding corner. I think someone on the development team thinks how about making that Giant Bat the first and easiest boss of Castlevania but ramp the difficulty exponentially. Then you get this Goddamn dastard penultimate boss.
It's "able". Not "albe", dear God or Zeus or Ramuh or whatever.
Anyway, i can't have a bout with the final boss yet, Lucifer. Or Loki if you play the US version because religious people of US really hate the idea of putting Devil's name to video game's antagonist because video game is bad or so they said.
The God kindly allows the deceased Princess Prin Prin to give more hint about the magic power that necessary to defeat the final boss. She says that i must have the golden armor and open chest to get said divine power.
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES)
...i must replay all the previous stages again! So i have to endure all those tediousness once again to achieve the real ending of the game. In my opinion, finding the golden armor is easier in the first section of stage 1. Thus finding the sacred weapon isn't as hard as it should be. Here i found the Battle Goddess on 2nd chest that i found. Because the first chest always contain that sleazy magician. This is one of my big complaint on this game: the chest that contain the demonic magician seems consistent whereas in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts the chest content seems more fairly randomized. As long as you have the armor, the chance of magician appears inside chest can be minimized. While in this game whether you're armored or naked, those chests always contain the magician. Demoman_sf13_magic_reac05.wav
While i'm on my way to do the second loop, please enjoy this gif of skeleton murderers! They're shifty yet adorable. They like to peep around before start running at Arthur and hack him. They're truly bliss on this game.
There's another weapon for Arthur to pick here: Discus. It's good in term of speed and power. Also it flies along the ground if thrown while crouching. Its magic kind of lame though where Arthur casts a mirror panel in a distance that can hurt enemies and block projectiles but not much to speak of its durability. Obviously, you better keep holding the Battle Goddess' power to the final boss so you can make it easy for yourself. By that i mean you don't get kicked to repeat another level again.
This mandatory weapon isn't busted though. It's very good even. You can see that i can go through this boss rush section relatively easy and fast. One bad thing that i can think about it is: the weapon is thrown slightly above Arthur's center which can inadvertently blocked by those guillotines in Stage 1 and the big size of the projectile also contributes to that. But it helps you to hit enemies in general situation, definitely. One thing that i like to add that: the range and speed of this weapon are increased if you don the golden armor. But in return the sacred weapon doesn't have charged magic. Even if you're naked which lead to reduce the potential of the sacred weapon, it's still great weapon because the weapon power is consistent. If compared to Goddess' bracelet in SGnG, this weapon is definitely the supreme version of it. Goddess' bracelet has damaging power that scale with the distance, sounds elaborate of their work but unnecessary nonetheless. If they can make something complex like that, they should put the effort on more useful thing such as better jump control or even aiming up or down in SGnG, hmm?
Re-defeating Beelzebub, the giant demon fly is still not easy even with the Goddess' power. After that, i face to face with Lucifer himself finally! He attack by firing laser from either his point finger or his mouth. He will constantly moving his feet and if you happen to get stomped by him you will die (whether you still have your armor or not). Occasionally, he will use his unholy laser to break some of the floor that will reveal instant-kill lava. If you still have golden armor/upgraded Goddess' power, you can stand on the center and shoot at his head rapidly while occasionally dodge his laser or foot. If you have the original version of Goddess' power, well you need his foot for platform that allows your weapon to reach his head. It takes longer time but it's not entirely bad.
 |
| Cuphead (PC) |
I bet Lucifer is inspiration for the Devil in Cuphead. He looks down on player (both literally or figuratively meaning) while sitting on throne and smiling. He's final boss from the very difficult game. Yes, i bet that's the case. I think i give The Devil more sympathy because he looks cartoonish while Lucifer is just straight big schmuck with ugly face.
So, Lucifer only steal their soul
and take them inside of him. Once he perishes, the souls are free to return to
their body, if it's not ravaged by vultures or wolf that is. If you look
carefully at the souls, you notice that they have the same pose as the running
villagers in prologue. I'm afraid, Arthur's horse remains up there in great
stable in afterlife. Princess Prin Prin get the privilege: her body is
transported by mysterious white eagle from the town castle to this forsaken
place so she can be resurrected right in front of Arthur and immediately make
out with him. Congratulation Congraturation, Arthur! :)
Then the tons of text comes in. Here's some summary of it: Lucifer restored the Demon realm 3 years ago and captures human souls. During that 3 years, Arthur learn magic power and imbues it to his weapons which explain his golden armor's magic in this game. Also i learn that the Goddess' power weapon is named "Psycho Cannon"! Maybe this game is the reason why M. Bison become obsessed with psycho power.
There's no credit roll. You only get this character casts and you get to see Princess Prin Prin's measurements. Actually, there's her body's size info on Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I wonder about the consistency.
Princess Prin Prin in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES)
Her waist and hip are bigger in sequel. Maybe your highness there gains some *ehm* weight after that brief peaceful era. But she's not Fat Princess, mind you.
Nope! There's 3 sequel of this game and i finished one of them. I like this intense atmosphere
Capcom's Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1988) is the second game on Ghosts 'n Goblins series. It has considerably awesome improvement over the prequel: the ability to shoot projectile up or down, golden armor, and the charging magic mechanism. Plus greater mandatory weapon. Whereas in first game, the mandatory weapon is cross or shield in US version that has limited range but can block projectiles. The psycho cannon has longer range and significantly more attack power while also can block projectiles. Its requirement or should i say the way to get golden armor is easier because you only need to stack 1 more armor instead of 2 like in sequel. The other improvement of this game over the prequel in my opinion: the way to deal with Firebrand/Red Arremer. In first GnG, you're stuck with weapon that flies straight forward (or in worst scenario you get the torch). While in this second GnG, you have axe that flies in (rather shallow) angle or maybe sword because Firebrand/Red Arremer's AI maybe only calculate projectiles on his dodging formula. This is not tested though. Or if that don't work, use lightning magic like in my demonstration! Speaking of magic, it's ranged from powerful/useful to worthless. Axe probably the worst weapon because its attack and magic is bad. Axe's magic is just Arthur conjures small explosion around him. Firebomb behave like previous game's torch so it's bad but its magic is swirling fire tornado that fill almost entire screen. Sword has the shortest range (because it's melee weapon) but its magic is probably good: bouncing lightning sparks. I feel like in this game the platforming aspect is more ruthless than in sequel. Because there's so many instant kill elements besides chasm/pit. And remember you don't have control over his flight once he jumps! The usual 2-loop gameplay is present but in more reasonable way than in the sequel. This game has 5 stages while the sequel has 2 more stages! Furthermore, i believe the stages are shorter. The music may be more quite and slower but still appealing as ever especially -you can guess it- the first stage music, the Makaimura OST. The sound effect is pretty okay. The presentation is well blend with the atmosphere of the game.
Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1988) is very difficult platformer even with the improvements over the prequel. Judging by the length of the gameplay, i think you supposed to play this one first before playing Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Even though there's nothing in game that resemble Ghoul or Ghost. Oh wait! The human spirits can be considered ghost. My bad. ;P
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