Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a side-scrollingplatform game developed by Capcom and released as an arcade game in 1988, and subsequently ported to a number of other platforms. It is the sequel to Ghosts 'n Goblins and the second game in the Ghosts 'n Goblins series.
Story
Makaimura One storm filled evening, Knight Arthur and his love, Princess Prin Prin were enjoying a quite night in the cemetery together, when they were beset upon by a winged Satan. The Satan dove and captured the princess, and disappeared with her before Arthur's eyes. Without a moment's hesitation, Arthur donned his knight armor and picked up his lance, and set forth to Astaroth's castle where he knew he would find his abducted love. Daimakaimura Three years after those events, the Ghosts have returned with Ghouls for revenge, initiating a mortal holocaust on the Princess' kingdom as beams of light struck through countless villagers, when Sir. Arthur returns to the village, his rescue attempt was too soon as his beloved Princess Prin-Prin also has her soul taken away from her body infront of his very eyes. Now it's up to the heroic knight once again to slay his way to the hellish castle to defeat the evil Lucifer and his legion of demons and restore the souls of Prin-Prin and every mortal.
Gameplay
The gameplay for Ghouls 'n Ghosts is similar to that of Ghosts 'n Goblins. The player controls the knight Arthur, who must advance through a series of eerie levels and defeat a number of undead and demonic creatures in his quest to restore all the people killed by Lucifer, including his beloved Princess Prin-Prin, back to life. Along the way, Arthur can pick up a variety of weapons and armor to help him in his quest. While the core gameplay remains the same as its predecessor, the game now allows Arthur to fire directly upward and directly downward while in mid air. By jumping in certain spots, players can cause a treasure chest to erupt from the ground. By firing his weapon at the chest, players may uncover new weapons, gold armor or an evil magician that changes Arthur into an elderly man or a helpless duck. The gold armor allows players to charge up the weapon to release a powerful magical attack. Each weapon has its own special attack, with the exception of the special weapon. There are six levels. To defeat the game, Arthur must complete levels 1 through 5 twice. Upon completing them the first time, Arthur is taken back to level 1, but this time a special weapon appears during the game. To enter Lucifer's chamber the player must have this special weapon equipped, and must have defeated the final Fly boss from level 5. After entering the final large door, the player goes directly to Lucifer's chamber.
Music
The original soundtrack for the arcade version was composed by Tamayo Kawamoto. Many computer ports of the game include the soundtrack by Tim Follin which consists of arrangements and some new songs. Follin's soundtrack – especially Commodore 64, Atari ST and Amiga versions – is respected among computer game music listeners and also gained appreciation from reviewers when the game was published.
Home versions
Ports of Ghouls 'n Ghosts were released in Europe in 1989 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. These ports were all handled by Software Creations and all omit a great deal of detail from the arcade version.
Sega also released a Master System port in 1990. This version introduced a power-up system that allows the player to enter secret shops and upgrade parts of their armor. This includes helmets, which give the player access to new weapons and magic spells; chest armor, which allows the player to sustain more damage; and boots, which increase the player's speed.
A version of Daimakaimura was released by Capcom in 1994 for the Sharp X68000.
In 1998, Capcom released Capcom Generation 2 for the PlayStation and Saturn in Japan, a compilation which included Ghouls 'n Ghosts along with Ghosts 'n Goblins and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. The PlayStation version of this compilation was released as a bundle in Europe with three other volumes titled Capcom Generations under the title of Capcom Generations: Chronicles of Arthur. Capcom later released in North America Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005 and Capcom Classics Collection: Reloaded for the PlayStation Portable in 2006, which includes all the Capcom Generations titles. The emulation on a number of these compilations is slightly off, in that the screen display is too dark.
The arcade version of Ghouls 'n Ghosts was re-released as one of the included games on the Capcom Home Arcade console in 2019.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Ghouls 'n Ghosts on their January 15, 1989 issue as being the second most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles like Image Fight and Truxton. MegaTech magazine noted that although the Genesis/Mega Drive version was a good game, they felt the price of £45 was too high. In 1997 Electronic Gaming Monthly ranked the Genesis version as the 48th best console video gameof all time, citing its close recreation of the arcade version.
