After successful remakes Resident evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis company Capcom decided to revive another legendary project – a hardcore action platformer Ghosts’ n Goblins, which tells about the dangerous adventures of the brave knight Arthur in the world of monsters, demons, sorcerers, ghosts and other evil spirits. Supervised the development Ghosts’ n Goblins Resurrection great and terrible Tokuro Fujiwara, also known by his pseudonym Professor F is the author of the original game, returning to work in the industry for the first time since 2009. With its help, the authors managed to recreate the pristine atmosphere and carefully transfer the classics of 35 years ago to the engine RE Engine…
To match many games of that time, the plot is very simple – the villain Astaroth kidnaps Princess Prin Prinne, and her beloved Sir Arthur immediately rushes to the rescue. In the absence of traditional narrative elements, the game tells a story through a colorful, memorable visual design reminiscent of a picture book of dark medieval fairy tales coming to life.
The bright and distinctive visual style is pleasing to the eye, although it just slightly falls short of the level of modern masterpieces in two-dimensional perspective, such as Cuphead and the Ori dilogy. Nevertheless, all the classic levels have been redrawn so well that they will make even the most persistent shed a mean tear of nostalgia, recalling the glorious and carefree days spent in childhood for consoles “Dandy”And Mega Drive… Yes, you heard right – Ghosts & Goblins Resurrection offers to replay in a new quality not only all the levels from the original Ghosts’ n Goblins, but also Ghouls’ n Ghoststhat came out on the console from Sega (among other ports).
The main distinguishing feature of the series has always been a truly ruthless complexity. Forget your successes in Dark souls or Super meat boy – Ghosts’ n Goblins has been and remains the undisputed authority among old school hardcore games. To be honest, the first part became famous for the fact that most unlucky gamers could not even pass the entrance level, which is why the original version for arcade machines had a reputation as a “coin eater”. Rare daredevils who managed to crawl to the finale with sweaty palms learned to their horror that for a full ending it was necessary to go all the way of suffering again from the very beginning. With this in mind, several difficulty modes were added to the remake, allowing mere mortals to adjust the balance at their discretion and save their nerves.
However, loyal fans should not worry too much, because by setting the maximum difficulty, you can experience all the delights of virtual masochism straight from the late 80s: no checkpoints, monsters stick from all the cracks, after the first touch, Arthur loses his armor, continuing the fight with evil spirits in some shorts, and after the second turns into a pile of bones. The lower the difficulty level, the more blows the hero can withstand, the number of enemies becomes smaller, and the number of checkpoints becomes larger. The desire to make the project more accessible, of course, is always beneficial for attracting a new audience, but, nevertheless, it is worth warning that all kinds of simplifications and giveaways in Ghosts’ n Goblins Resurrection do not correspond in any way with the original concept, openly discourage the player, depriving the game of its corporate charm and a sweet sense of overcoming challenges, so we recommend that you don’t go below “Knight” mode for a full, authentic gaming experience. Well, for those who still do not want to strain at all, a very funny cooperative mode has appeared, where the second player controls the spirit of a fallen knight, who is able to fly in any direction, throw magic and help Arthur in every possible way, for example, by creating platforms hanging in the air.
