PLATFORM: SWITCH | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Known as one of the most sadistic and rage-inducing games of the 8-bit era, Ghosts ‘n Goblins has been brought back to life by its original creators, Capcom, in the form of Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection, a completely reimagined version of the 1985 classic.
The story remains the same – the Demon Lord invades a far off land, kidnaps a princess, and it’s up to a brave knight, Sir Arthur, to save the day. Resurrection takes its cues from both Ghosts ‘n Goblins and its 1988 sequel, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, using level layouts and characters that will be familiar to players of the original games while at the same time going to great lengths to reimagine the world with beautiful hand-painted storybook visuals and adding a variety of mechanics, features and other gameplay options to make the overall experience more palatable for a modern audience.
While the original game was rather limited in scope – run through the levels, take two hits and you’re dead, and that’s about it – Resurrection throws in a ton of upgrades, collectables, new magic powers, several difficulty settings, secret areas, a very generous checkpoint system and even local co-op capabilities. It’s still a brutally challenging game, though, even with unlimited lives and multiple checkpoints throughout each area. In keeping with the original game, Arthur’s movement is just as stilted as it always was, making avoiding enemies more than a little bit tricky, and enemy movement and attack patterns can sometimes be nigh-on impossible to predict – a couple of bosses in particular are absolute buggers for never doing what you expect.
In terms of retaining the spirit of its predecessors and updating the game as a whole, though, Resurrection is pretty much everything a fan of the series could ask for. All the old favourites return, from the weapons (including that pesky blue flame that nobody ever wants to use) to the enemies to the environments, the revisited sound and visuals are consistently successful, and the multiple new features both add motivation and incentive to persevere through the more aggravating sections of the game as well as helping to encourage repeat playthroughs. Retro-flavoured medieval mayhem doesn’t get much better than this!
