Retro Redux: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

This game am hard. Real hard. That's the first thing you should know about Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. If you've never played that game before you are in for one of the hardest, most frustrating things you've ever played. That's pretty much all you need to know about Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, but I'll try to explain a little more.

The game starts out during a festival where the towns folk are all milling around on a bridge. The scene pans to a castle where our hero, Arthur, and his lady friend Guinevere are in an embrace, him in full armour. A member of Sardius' Red Guard bursts through a window and kidnaps said lady friend, which sets Arthur on his quest. This game is the sequel to Ghosts 'n Goblins, both games were featured in arcades as well as the home console versions. Most of my experience with the game came from spending WAY too much of my parents money in bowling alley arcades on this game, but I do own and have played through (part of) the game. I can't say that I've ever finished the game, because it's just too dang hard.

The game does feature some improvements over its predecessor such as the ability to have Bronze Armour, which allows Arthur to upgrade his weapons as well as the ability to double jump. Much of the game's difficulty comes in the fact that Capcom were just mean S.O.B.'s back then. While you can double jump, you can't change direction in mid air like most games allow you to do. You can change direction with your second jump, but once you've committed you can't stop Arthur. This will lead to a number of situations where you've jumped and an enemy will burrow out of the ground right where you will land and you've just taken one of the two hits you're allowed before you die. Enemy placements are equally devious. For anyone that thinks Mega Man is hard, pop in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and you'll think Mega Man is a cake walk. Enemy's will show up right where you need to be, but you won't see them until it's too late. Flying enemies pop into screen in the middle of your jump path and more. There will be a LOT of trial and error until you learn all the enemy paths.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts features a number of weapon options that will come in handy during the game. You start out with Arthur's trusty lance which he can throw straight ahead. Throughout the game there will be treasure chests that you can open that may contain a weapon upgrade, armour upgrade, armour that gives you a large number of points or an enemy. These are all random and you never know what you'll get until you open it. It's always a great relief when you're in your underwear and you open a treasure chest and see a suit of armour in it. It's equally frightening when you're in your underwear and an enemy pops out of the chest that you can't run away from and you're dead or have been turned into a frog. This game features the crossbow that will allow you to fire in multiple directions, the dagger that allows you to throw weapons faster than the standard lance, a scythe which flies low to the ground and a torch, which you should never, EVER pick up because it's a useless piece of junk.

Zombies will burrow out of the ground in their coffins throughout the opening level and there are a large number of different enemy types all with movement patterns that must be learned in order to best traverse through the levels. Parts of many levels will be randomly removed by an event that happens when you reach a trigger point and you have to be in a safe position or you will be killed. Many times you won't know these safe positions until you've reached that point of the level at least once and died because you were standing in the wrong area.

Once you've reached the final area of the game and saved the princess, get ready for this, she tells you that the evil baddy of evil, Sardius can only be beaten with an item known as the Goddess Bracelet, which by the way you don't have. So you're transported back to the VERY BEGINNING of the game and you have to do every over again, find the bracelet and beat Sardius for real. If that's not the definition of evil, I don't know what is.

So if you haven't been able to tell by reading this, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is hard, very very very hard. If you manage to beat this game you deserve all the gamer cred in the world because you've just made a major accomplishment. Buy yourself a trophy and put it on your mantle. You earned it my friend. Capcom were the masters of evil in the late 80's and early 90's, but they made some truly memorable games that people still pop in and mess around with today. If you're looking for a real test of your skills and you don't own this game, go out and find it and play through it. You'll soon understand.

If you've played this game, or even if you haven't and you want to discuss it, leave a comment or head over to our forums and chat with others about their memories of the game.