Ghosts ‘n Goblins (1985) [Arcade]

“Being the wise and courageous knight that you are, you feel strongth welling in your body.  Return to starting point.  Challenge again!”
-the true ending, Ghosts ‘n Goblins

They say that love can make a person do crazy things; of course, so can insanity. I can’t say that I love Ghosts ‘n Goblins, but I play it from beginning to end (and from beginning to end again) at least once annually. Typically, I do this as an annual pre-Halloween ritual in October, though I have been known to play during other times of the year.  I suppose that presents a reasonably compelling argument that I am insane.

While I still maintain a modicum of lucidity, I’d like to examine Ghosts ‘n Goblins and the design philosophy behind the game. I believe that it has a strong philosophy guiding its design—perhaps not a good philosophy, but an undeniably consistent and well-communicated philosophy. Furthermore, I will compare its design with those of its contemporaries and spiritual successors. Finally, I will render my judgment on the game itself—for better or for worse.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins was originally released in Japanese arcades as Makaimura (“Demon World Village”) in the summer of 1985, arriving in North America and Europe that fall. The arcade manual summarizes the plot:

The princess of a certain peaceful country is abducted by a messenger from Hades and a knight who loves the princess leaves for Hades to rescue her.  However, to rescue the princess, the knight must pass through six gates guarded by Satan’s generals.  Of course there are also demons that attack the knight between the six gates.  The knight has five kinds of weapons which he uses skillfully to destroy the attacking demons.  The knight needs your help to rescue the princess and escape from Hades so test your skill!

Go Ahead Dauntlessly!

At the onset of the game, the princess is treating the knight’s injuries in a cemetery when she is abducted by a large, batlike demon that the NES port’s manual calls Satan.  This will not stand, so our heroic knight dons his nigh-worthless armor and prepares to traverse the cemetery and adjoining forest to seek the first gate of Hades.

Though at first glance it might appear to be a platform game, Ghosts ‘n Goblins plays more like a run-and-gun arcade shooter. Certainly, you can run to the left and right. You can crouch and climb ladders. You can even jump, though doing so is of limited use; the jumping physics resemble those of games like Castlevania (or, you know, real life), in that the jumps cover relatively short horizontal distances, are minimally vertical, and commit to a direction (no changing trajectory while airborne). The knight’s offensive options are strictly ranged: a standard lance, with a long-range and a decent rate of fire; a torch, which is thrown in a short arc and temporarily leaves a fire on the ground; a dagger, whose rate of fire is fast enough to stunlock certain tough enemies; an axe, which has a short range, is thrown in an arc, and passes through enemies; and a shield, which has a short range but can destroy enemy projectiles and is required in order to complete the game.

Such an arsenal might sound quite appealing, but there are catches (because a singular catch would be far too generous for Ghosts ‘n Goblins): you can only carry one at a time, the weapon drops are random, and they persist through death—and even continues. If weapons could be swapped on the fly, I could imagine this game becoming an engaging experience, as the player would need to switch to different weapons to deal with different threats.  Need to stunlock a Big Man? Use a dagger. Have multiple enemies spawning in waves near the ground? Throw a torch and create a fire. Fighting an enemy with troublesome projectile attacks? Equip the shield. Are the enemies grouped tightly together?  Hit them all at once with an axe. Unfortunately, this is not how the game plays.  The weapon you have is the weapon you have until you pick up another.  Accidentally pick up the torch (which is something you never want to do)?  Better farm weak enemies until the time runs out or until you get something useful, because nothing short of a game over will rid you of that worthless weapon. Player empowerment is simply not a priority in this game’s design philosophy.

Earlier, I called the knight’s armor “nigh-worthless.” To be clear, he is decked out in full plate mail… until he sustains a single hit from any enemy in the game. It seems plate mail is quite fragile and is not meant to take any damage at all, because in the incredibly likely event such a thing occurs, the armor flies off, and our heroic knight must continue his quest wearing nothing but strawberry-patterned boxer shorts. Any further damage will instantly reduce him to a crumpled pile of bones, signifying his death in an undeniably clear manner. It is possible—though quite uncommon—to find a suit of armor to restore that lost hit point when you are in your boxers. When this happened to me, I almost felt like I was playing a different game for a couple of glorious seconds… until something else inevitably spawned right on top of me and took that armor away again.

Malice of Forethought

In my earlier playthroughs of Ghosts ‘n Goblins, I accused the game of being underdesigned and random, lacking a guiding design philosophy. I have since decided that I was wrong about that. As I stated earlier, there is a design philosophy at work; it’s just a bad one. Ghosts ‘n Goblins is a contemporary of 1985 arcade games such as Paperboy, Commando, Gauntlet, Space Harrier, and Hang-On.  As such, it wears on its sleeve its arcade sensibilities:  the first Red Arremer (called “Red Devil” in the NES Manual) occurs at precisely the point arcade game designers want the player to insert another quarter, for instance. Certain segments of the game are almost impossible to complete without taking damage—and they usually involve the placement of enemies near ladders.

As hinted by the plot synopsis, there are six levels and a final boss fight, all of which must be played twice to earn the true ending.  The first four levels have checkpoints at which players can respawn if they die or continue after a game over.  Levels five and six—the shortest but easily the most challenging levels—do not.  Prior to each attempt, a memorable jingle comprised of ascending and descending semitones followed by the punctuation of an octave drop accompanies a scroll through the world map.  A similar technique would be employed the following year by Castlevania, though the latter game would be more judicious in its use, only playing between levels.

Ladders in a Cemetery, Ghosts in the Forest

The first level begins in a cemetery, and the player is quickly assailed by infinitely spawning Zombies. Some Zombies carry items in pots, which is a helpful signifier when battling zombies and a bit silly when birds carry them later. The game features occasional branching paths, though most of these decisions are inconsequential. The first such path is found only seconds into the first level, and the player must choose whether to climb a conspicuous ladder or to continue on the lower ground. I almost always take the high road here, though I can’t really explain why. It’s possible to become stuck at the top of this ladder due to a control quirk that occasionally requires an additional input to climb all the way up. It’s not a huge problem here, but it will be in future levels.

After this opening section, the zombies will stop spawning, and the player will encounter one of the signature set-pieces of the game:  a lone Red Arremer, sitting passively in the cemetery.  I have a lot of problems with how these enemies are used in later levels, but I think the presentation and combat arena make this first battle particularly effective. Red Arremers are the first enemies that will take multiple hits to bring down, and landing those hits can be difficult. The more aggressive the player is, the more difficult the first will be.  They can fire projectiles and fly, and they will typically evade attacks unless they are locked into a swooping or charging animation.  The trick to beating these enemies is to lure them into attacking and take advantage of their own aggression. It’s a bold move to place the most difficult non-boss enemy in an unavoidable location thirty seconds into the level, but this is almost certainly meant to ensure that non-experienced players will not be able to play too long on a single quarter.

The first checkpoint is immediately past this encounter, following a simple floating platform puzzle.  The knight is now in the woods, which are, of course, haunted.  After a few waves of Flying Knights, which approach in groups of three, move in sine-wave patterns at varied heights, and carry shields, the player is introduced to one of the most obnoxious enemies in the game: Forest Ghosts. These foes spawn out of nowhere, make horrible squeals, throw spears vertically or horizontally, and change their y-axis position when they turn around.  At the end of the level, a horned cyclops (called a “Unicorn”) guards a gate. He can jump, shoot fireballs, and do little else.  After defeating him, a key floats down from the sky accompanied by the text, “TAKE A KEY FOR COMING IN!” I suppose this gives insight into the mindset of the development team:  keys are for coming in, not locking out. That’s what bosses are for.

Inconsequential Towers and Big, Annoying Men

The second level begins with what might be the least sensical portion of the game:  nondescript blue towers over the water. This segment contains infinitely spawning enemies, the Blue Demons, which are small and like to travel on paths just outside of your ability to land an attack. The player is allowed to take multiple paths through this area and ascend quite high on these towers, though the most sensible path is straight ahead, as this area can and should be cleared in a matter of only a few seconds.

The checkpoint is just beyond this audaciously easy and brief section.  After a quick jog past some dilapidated buildings occupied by weak enemies called Petite Devils, the real challenge of this level begins, as the next area is teeming with two of the most dangerous enemies in the game:  Big Men and ladders.  Big Men are ogre-like brutes with matching heart tattoos who slowly walk back and forth along a path, stopping occasionally to drop a spiked ball on a chain.  When they see the player, they will charge at high speed, occasionally throwing projectiles forward.  Where most enemies take only one hit to destroy (Red Arremers take three to four), Big Men take ten.  This, combined with their propensity to wait at the top or bottom of ladders, makes them disproportionately powerful foes.  During the second half of this level, it is possible to run out of time (because this is an arcade game) waiting for a Big Man to move far enough away from the ladder to make a climb for it.  Once the player reaches the top or bottom, the highest priority must be attacking the Big Man rapidly in hopes of stunlocking him to death.  This is contingent on 1) the knight not becoming stuck on the ladder, 2) not being interrupted by a bird or Blue Demon, and 3) the finicky controls registering each attack.  It feels good when this works out, not because I’ve accomplished anything, but because it serves as a reminder that sometimes good things do happen to mediocre people.

Once the Big Men and the ladders are in the proverbial rearview mirror, a brief gauntlet of moving platforms stands in the way of the knight and his certain-to-be-epic boss fight.  In truth, these platforming segments are at best rote and serve as little more than a minor waste of time.  There is a hidden time extension powerup in the NES version, but I would rather not have had my time wasted in the first place.  Finally, a cave appears on the horizon, and its entrance is guardian by another Unicorn… and yet another Unicorn beside him.  Yes, bosses begin repeating as early as the second level.  The only additional challenge this time is ensuring that the Unicorns are not engaged simultaneously.  Following their defeat, another key slowly descends.  Earlier, I alluded to a time limit, and here is its most egregious complication:  it is possible to have spent so much time with the Big Men and ladders that the player can defeat the two unicorns and run out of time while waiting for the key to descend.  Please don’t ask how I know this.

Red Arremer Party!

Level three is infamous in its difficulty, but I actually think I enjoy this level the most.  The challenge comes from a gauntlet of Red Arremers, but this level seems fairer in its difficulty than most of the others.  It takes place in a cave, and the player is immediately swarmed by bats and zombies, which can be avoided entirely by ducking and firing.  Another branching path through the level appears in the form of a ladder, similar to the first level, and also similar to the first level, it makes no real difference.  Another new enemy is introduced:  the Monster Tower.  It is exactly what its name explicitly states—a stationary tower that is also a monster.  It flashes red, a face appears on the top or bottom (or both), and it spits a projectile, during which time it may be attacked.  It serves as little more than an obstacle to momentum, forcing players to wait for it to become vulnerable.

The caves abruptly shift color palettes, and a welcome checkpoint places the knight just before a Red Arremer.  The remainder of the level will be spent fighting Red Arremers, Forest Ghosts, occasional Petite Devils, and one pointless Monster Tower.  A branching path lies just beyond, and armor powerups can be found on the upper path… as can a Red Arremer who spawns out of nowhere.  The boss is a serpentine Dragon, whose long, segmented body moves in unpredictable patterns.  Individual sections of its body can be destroyed with a single hit, but in order to defeat the boss, its head must be destroyed.

Bridge Over Troubled Fire

After taking a key (for coming in), the fourth level begins with a rare moving platform challenge.  In truth, this section seems to contain very little in the way of real challenge.  The physics behind the platforms seem underdeveloped, and the entire beginning of the level boils down to waiting for the platform that will take you furthest up and to the right.  Playtime is over at the halfway point, as a Red Arremer awaits just before the checkpoint.  If you die here, you’ll be punished by having to repeat the monotony of the platforming again.s

The second half of the level features an evocative setpiece:  a bridge over a lake of magma.  Fire jets will periodically erupt in fixed locations, but their appearance is far worse than their actual threat; I’ve practically had to go out of my way to be damaged by them, as they are only dangerous when they are nearly as tall as the knight.  Blue Demons spawn endlessly and harass the player, and a Red Arremer blocks the path to the boss.  The boss of this level has an interesting twist:  it is absolutely identical to the boss of the previous level!  Whereas the first level had one Unicorn and was followed by the second level’s two Unicorns, the third level had one Dragon and was followed by the fourth level’s one Dragon.  Take a key for coming in, I guess.

More Ladders! More Big Men!

The fifth level is terrible.  Its design is reminiscent of the first level in Donkey Kong:  the player needs to climb to the top and must wind through corridors and ascend ladders.  Unlike Donkey Kong, however, there are Blue Demons, Forest Ghosts, a Red Arremer, Big Men, and Satan standing in your way, and there will be no checkpoint to make life more bearable.  The decision to eschew a checkpoint here seems to be an intentional decision made by the developers to pad the length of the game at the cost of frustrating players.  The first ladder players will find in this level leads to a dead end, wasting time and allowing Blue Demons and Forests Ghosts to spawn and complicate matters.  Encountered for the first time are Skeletons, which appear as skulls on the floor and can be dispatched before they become a threat.  If they are engaged, they will jump from side to side, in the manner of a skeleton that jumps from side to side.  This time, the Blue Demons will sometimes carry single-use fireballs to complicate things.  As in the second level, the true nightmare comes in the form of Big Men on narrow platforms that must be accessed via ladder.  Dodging Forest Ghosts, Blue Demons, and Big Men is as fun and challenging as it sounds, provided you don’t think that sounds fun at all.  The boss of this level is Satan.  You know a game is shooting for the moon when Satan is the boss of the antepenultimate stage!  You’ll recognize Satan from the opening cutscene in which he kidnapped the princess.  He hovers in one spot, firing intermittent projectiles, and then he will fly at the player.  These swoops can be difficult to dodge, and he has a tendency to hover just out of range of most attacks—particularly if you’re using the shield, which you probably should be at this point.

The Gauntlet (And More Ladders)

Having defeated Satan, one might assume that little else will stand between the gallant knight and his beloved princess.  Of course, we know better than this.  The final level is also a vertical gauntlet, but this one is far worse.  Immediately, the player must dispatch a handful of Skeletons on the bottom floor before they can activate.  Meanwhile, a Forest Ghost spawns immediately overhead.  There’s no surprise about what awaits, as two Unicorns are visible in a small room at the top of a ladder as soon as the level loads.  You don’t stand a chance here; just jump and take the hit, and you’ll end up on the floor above them in your underwear.  Up a couple more ladders in a large arena is another Dragon, no different than the ones encountered twice already.  Climb up to the left, and you’ll have the opportunity to replace the armor that you almost assuredly lost to the Unicorns.  The next section teems with Skeletons, Big Men, and Reg Arremers.  Timing your ladder climbs is of paramount importance during this stretch, though the randomness of some enemy behaviors will probably impact this as much as careful timing.  Have fun.

The boss is—and I wish I were making this up—two Satans.  They can (and should) be engaged individually, but be wary:  this is a long level with no checkpoint, and it’s very possible to run out of time during (or even after) this boss fight.  Also, do you recall my admonition that you should be using the shield by now?  Well, if you aren’t, be prepared to be taken all the way back to the beginning of the fifth level.  That’s right—this game’s punitive measures seem to have inspired some of the worst nonsense in games as notoriously unreasonable as Ninja Gaiden.

Resolve Your Battle!

Assuming our heroic knight has defeated the twin Satans with his shield, he must now face off against none other than the Devil (sometimes called “Astaroth”) in a one-on-one duel.  In this stage, the player always faces his enemy, fighting game-style.  That’s right—the knight in Ghosts ‘n Goblins was a Capcom fighting game star before Ryu and Ken.  The Devil shoots fireballs diagonally and has two faces:  one on his head (naturally), and one on his torso (decidedly unnaturally).   The trick is aiming just below his beard.  This will probably end up being the easiest stage.  I appreciate the final boss battle being something of a victory lap, and I genuinely enjoy this fight.  In good literature, the climax is almost never the end; there must be falling action to conclude the story in a satisfying manner, and the same can apply to gameplay difficulty (see Dark Souls for a particularly effective example).

Unfortunately, Ghosts ‘n Goblins doesn’t really seem to care about this structure, after all, as we are about to learn.  Following the fateful duel, the knight is free to bask in the rapture of victory for all of a microsecond.  A blank screen appears with the following words:

This room is an illusion and is a trap devised by Satan.  Go ahead dauntlessly!  Make rapid progress!

And just like that, Ghosts ‘n Goblins reminds its players that everything is terrible and that nobody likes them.  The knight has returned to the graveyard with the shield equipped, and the game begins anew, with very little different about this second playthrough.  I’m told that enemies are more aggressive, but I haven’t observed this myself.  It seems like the worst kind of busywork.  Upon beating the Devil a second time, the princess embraces the knight, who erupts in hearts above his head as text appears on the screen:

Congratulation.  This story is happy end.  Being the wise and courageous knight that you are, you feel strongth welling in your body.  Return to starting point.  Challenge again!

There are no prizes for guessing what happens next.  This is an arcade game, and it will keep looping until there are no more credits inserted.  If you’re looking for a meaningful new game+ mechanic, you won’t find it here.

Inviting Evil Into Your Home

To be perfectly clear, this critique is focused solely on the 1985 arcade game, which I consider to be the best version of the original Ghosts ‘n Goblins.  The 1986 NES port of Ghosts ‘n Goblins was handled by porting studio Micronics, who had previously worked on the disastrous port of 1943.  Ghosts ‘n Goblins fares better, but not by much.  The graphics are far less detailed and distinctive, the framerate is atrocious, sprite tearing abounds, hit detection is questionable at best, the sound effects are almost unbearably grating, and several bugs are introduced.  Notably, however, the religious terminology and iconography escaped Nintendo of America’s infamously heavy-handed censorship.  Crosses can be seen on graves, and there are enemies explicitly named “demon,” “devil,” and even “Satan.”  The shield in the arcade original featured a chevron design, though the NES port replaces it with a cross; in fact, the Famicom version replaces the shield entirely with a cross, though Nintendo of Japan was less concerned with religious censorship.  There is little to recommend this version over the arcade original.

The 1985 arcade original can easily be played at home via a number of easy and inexpensive legal methods, most notably the Capcom Arcade Stadium, where it is frequently on sale for less than a dollar.  It can also be played on PSP and Vita as part of the Capcom Classics Collection, which also features Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, among other games.  For the true masochists in the crowd—you know, the type of person who would like to play Ghosts ‘n Goblins—it is available on mobile devices.  Beating this game on my iPhone with touchscreen controls is one of my most pointless and frustrating accomplishments, and that requires a generous definition of the word “accomplishment.”

Game Design Makes Rapid Progress

By the time Ghosts ‘n Goblins arrived on home consoles and computers, it was a relic of design that would prove incompatible with the home console market.  Super Mario Bros. was released for Famicom just before Makaimura was released in arcades, and Akumajo Dracula (given a cartridge release for NES the following year as Castlevania) was released for Famicom Disk System about three months after Makaimura came to Famicom, immediately obviating the appeal of the older game.  These games were much more successful in providing meaningful home gaming experiences than the ports of Ghosts ‘n Goblins.  Capcom themselves would abandon such arcade sensibilities in its future home console releases, such as 1987’s Mega Man—although it still featured vestigial arcade elements, such as an entirely meaningless score system that would be abandoned as early as Mega Man 2.

As stated above, Konami’s Castlevania took clear inspiration from Ghosts ‘n Goblins, but it did almost everything better.  Combat felt less random.  Rewards felt more meaningful.  Level design seemed hostile, but not hateful.  Worthless Ghosts ‘n Goblins weapons like the axe and the torch became powerful Castlevania subweapons, with the holy water functioning like the torch but becoming much more effective by virtue of its status as a subweapon—you can still attack while the flame is on the screen.  Both games drew their aesthetic from cheesy horror films of the past, but Castlevania became iconic due to the fact that it was immaculately designed and fun to play.  Its enemies followed patterns and did not rely on randomness.  Combat setpieces were challenging in their design, but they seldom felt unfair.  Castlevania’s last-level hassle of crossing the bridge to the clocktower while being attacked by giant bats is arguably no worse than Ghosts ‘n Goblins’ second-level hassle of climbing the ladders guarded by Big Men.  The mere act of comparing these games makes me appreciate the masterpiece that is Castlevania all the more, and I thank my lucky stars that its game design philosophy won out over that of Ghosts ‘n Goblins.  It’s worth noting that the 1988 arcade port of Castlevania, called Haunted Castle in North America, is significantly worse than either Castlevania or Ghosts ‘n Goblins, lacking the good qualities of either of those games.

Ghosts ‘n Goblins is not a game without its charms, and its sequels improved on it in nearly every way.  Ghouls ‘n Ghosts introduced directional firing and more dynamic stages, while Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts was designed for the SNES home console and seems like a more cohesive experience.  All games in the series feature fun music, distinctive enemy design, and a quirkiness that is difficult to describe in text.  The 2021 Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection seems like it is engineered to be a game for series newcomers and veterans alike, with robust difficulty customization options and plenty of replay incentive.

The 8-bit Review

Visuals: 7/10

Ghosts ‘n Goblins boasts fairly detailed sprites for 1985, but its backgrounds are often spartan in design, seldom offering anything truly evocative.  The action can be hectic, but it is seldom too busy to be readable by the player.  The defining character of its art style wouldn’t truly be evident until its refinement in Ghouls ‘n Ghosts.

Audio: 5/10

The music does a lot of heavy-lifting here.  Some of the tunes on display are classic arcade earworms and are well composed, brought to life by glorious FM synthesis.  Unfortunately, there are only a handful of themes, and they inevitably overstay their welcome.  The sound effects range from forgettable to irritating.

Gameplay: 4/10

Any joy that can be found in mowing down Zombies in the graveyard or successfully dueling a Red Arremer is forgotten the moment an enemy spawns directly on top of you, you are unable to lure a Big Man or Skeleton away from a ladder you must climb, or your knight ignores the inputs you give via the fickle control scheme.  It’s also a bad feeling when you are forced to prove mastery again over a challenge you have already conquered.  There is precious little room for playstyle experimentation, and the experience somehow feels simultaneously rote and random.

Uniqueness: 7/10

In 1985, arcade shooters were not uncommon, but Ghosts ‘n Goblins is distinctive in its style, setting, and general aesthetic.  For better or worse, there’s not much else like it.

Challenge: 3/10

I enjoy games that are considered difficult.  Some of my favorite games belong to the Castlevania series and FromSoftware’s Souls-like games.  Those games are difficult, but Ghosts ‘n Goblins is unreasonable.  Much of its challenge is derived from random enemy behavior, poor level design, and the need to drive token-feeding in arcades.  Passing a challenge did not make me feel like my skill was up to the task the game presented; I merely felt lucky that the conditions most conducive to victory randomly presented themselves.

Replayability: 4/10

I’d rate Ghosts ‘n Goblins lower in this category, but I can’t really justify doing so, because I replay it frequently.  There’s not much reason to; every playthrough will be extremely similar.  Furthermore, the replayability forced onto the player in order to complete the game feels insulting, to put it mildly.

Accessibility: 3/10

Ghosts ‘n Goblins has a simple control scheme that somehow still fails to get the job done.  Button presses frequently go unregistered, and climbing ladders and crouching are absolute chores with no guarantee that the knight will leave the position when the player tells him to.  It’s easy to tell how many hitpoints your knight has:  two if he’s in his armor, and one if he’s in his boxers.  On the other hand, there are a plethora of items that can be collected.  Some are weapons, some provide time extensions, and most provide points.  Still others might take time away from you or otherwise curse you.  Many of these look similar enough and are sufficiently poorly signified that it’s often in your best interest to avoid them.  The requirement to beat the sixth level with the shield is not communicated in any way within the game, as far as I can tell, unless you make the mistake of beating it with another weapon.  Being taken back to the previous level is a harsh punishment for an infraction the game did not previously communicate.

Personal: 3/10

I don’t like Ghosts ‘n Goblins.  I think it is objectively bad, even by the standards of its contemporaries.  That said, I come back to it every single year.  I don’t know why, but I do.  Perhaps I hope to find some hidden secret in its design that will unlock the ability for me to have fun with it.  Unfortunately, it is evident that the very philosophy of its design precludes that possibility.  This is a game designed to provide unfair deaths, meaningless branching paths, and weapons that will punish you for trying something different.  As a piece of gaming history, it’s certainly interesting.  As a piece of entertainment, it fails more checks than it passes.  I’ll keep playing it, but 37 years after its release, I doubt I’ll find anything to love.