365//365: Day 003 – Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (GEN)

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Most gamers know of Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on the Super Nintendo, and how hard the game can be. Not only was the game extremely difficult, but you’re forced to play the game twice in order to reach the final boss. There’s so much going on at once, with tough jumping and somewhat stiff controls mixed in, you were always in for an uphill battle.

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Little known to many, and little played by those who knew, the Sega Genesis had its own version, which was an arcade port. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, released on the system in 1989, was a title that flew under the radar of most gamers. With Ghost ‘n Goblins on the NES achieving a cult following, you would think the Sega Genesis version would have had more mention from those trying to spread the word. Since I have never heard anything good nor bad about it, I decided to give it a go. What I found was pretty shocking, in good and bad ways alike.

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I’ve never played the arcade version of Ghosts ‘n Goblins or Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, but I do own Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and can attest to the legendary difficulty. GnG holds a punishing difficulty of its own, although it’s not as severe. I wouldn’t call it ‘tamed’ but you will notice quite a bit of a difference. A more generous checkpoint system helps out quite a bit, as well as early bosses that hold very little in the way of a tactical assault. You’ll definitely do your fair share of dying, but the punishment for dying isn’t as bad as it could have been. It’s nice to die at the boss on your first encounter, losing your last life, and continuing 10 feet away, without having to redo the whole stage. Later stages do have their cheap bits, like the part where you have to jump from demon tongue platforms, onto other ones, without them eating you or flying enemies killing you. Near the end, there’s a ton of stuff flying all around you, and a part where you have to kill variations of each previously defeated boss. It gets pretty chaotic, but actually getting through the game is a lot less more frustrating than Super GnG.

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Get used to seeing this screen. Although it's not as hard as Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, you'll see your fair share of Game Over screens.

For the most part, each stage has a decent amount of detail, and are quite colorful. When compared to Super GnG though, the difference is quite clear. Background detail lacks on GnG, as does the the color palette.  Animation wise, it’s simple, and at the same time lacking. The animation is probably simplified because of how much that goes on during peak chaos times. Thankfully, you don’t get bouts of slowdown like Super GnG would get when a ton of things are going on at any given time. So in some ways, lacking in detail helps GnG run smoother compared to Super GnG, but the lack of detail, as well as color usage render GnG inferior on a comparison.

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Top: Ghouls 'n Ghosts (GEN) .. Bottom: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (SNES)

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About the biggest knock one can give GnG is the audio. The sound effects, and especially the music, are lacking big time when compared to Super GnG. Without a comparison, the music still comes off as very weak, and does not flow well with the action going on. Attacks, deaths, and other sound bytes are very reminiscent of what I would hear in the 8 bit era. The unusual oddities with how certain things sound the way they do is very hard to forgive. Why do my daggers hitting a brick wall sound like an 8 bit car horn? I’ve noticed over the years, Sega Genesis games really struggled with audio in a large portion of their titles. If it were not for this, I’d pass the weak and sketchy audio off in GnG due to the fact that it was an early Sega Genesis release.

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As a stand alone title, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts does an admirable job blending a stiff difficulty with enough fairness to lighten the blow. Checkpoints are modest enough so that you don’t have to do huge bulks of a stage again because you missed one jump at a key point in the level. Compared to its somewhat successor, Super GnG, it does severely lack in some aspects, but it thankfully does not have an oppressive difficulty. If you want a good challenge, but not feel extremely overwhelmed, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on the Sega Genesis is a game you’ll want to check out.

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Owned.

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Rating: 7.4