• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The History of Ghosts 'n Goblins (and Makaimura) - Full Series Retrospective | ChrisB Crisps

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


The complete history of the series that broke thousands of controllers and joysticks over the years and built the foundation for difficult games like Dark Souls, Ninja Gaiden, and Bloodborne. Learn the story behind its creator, Tokuro Fujiwara, its initial design concepts, and how the franchise evolved over three and a half decades.

0:00 - Introduction
2:28 - Part 1: Ghosts 'n Goblins is Born
10:27 - Part 2: Ghouls 'n Ghosts
17:21 - Part 3: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
22:45 - Part 4: A New Protagonist
31:06 - Part 5: Fujiwara Makes His Exit
35:46 - Part 6: Maximo Takes the Stage
44:58 - Part 7: Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins
51:10 - Part 8: More Spin-Offs
56:08 - Part 9: Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection
1:02:52 - Part 10: Legacies 'n Cameos
1:06:01 - Credits & Outro
 

Pejo

Member
Definitely going to give this a watch before bed tonight. I've still never beat one of these games. I could use save states I suppose, but that feels wrong given the lineage.
 

CamHostage

Member
Definitely going to give this a watch before bed tonight. I've still never beat one of these games. I could use save states I suppose, but that feels wrong given the lineage.

Some of the GnG games area nightmare even with save states. I thought I'd play the NES game just to see a classic Capcom title for what it was at the time, and not only is the game hard, but there's a stage timer and enemies who have irregular roaming paths, so for instance you have to lure them away from ladders so that you can climb up to attack them, but if you waste too much time and they just won't fall for it, you'll time-out and die anyway.

...I wish I could like these games in a classic old-school hard-kick-to-the-balls kind of way, but they often aren't fun to me even if I accept that I don't have the patience to ever honestly beat one. That said, I only tried Maximo a bit (I own the first one and liked its spirit but the camera is pretty clunky) and then I never played the Gargoyle's Quest games and would like to try those some day.

Undeniable music always, though!
 
Last edited:
I hate the style of the sprites in the new versions of the games. To the point where I could not bring myself to play the last two games at all, like I hate this style so much that I will not even bring myself to buy the games to try them out:


UWQUVrf.png
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Definitely going to give this a watch before bed tonight. I've still never beat one of these games. I could use save states I suppose, but that feels wrong given the lineage.
I only beat the snes game.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Resurrection is by far the best traditional GnG. It has modern, brilliant level design, lots of options in the magic powers, so many secrets, and the second loop requires you to completely change your strategy and tactics. I 100%ed it on Legendary difficulty, while the only other GnG game I ever managed to finish legit without save states was the SNES one. Capcom was also clever enough to have different difficulty settings, and if GnG of all things can do it, From Software could learn a thing or two there *wink wink*

The two Gargoyle’s Quest games are very good. Way more relaxed than the Arthur games, good RPG-lite elements, great graphics for their respective hardwares. Demon’s Crest was a bit disappointing for me though - after hearing so much praise about it, I expected a better game. Didn’t like that it requires 100% completion, including a pretty fastidious mini-game, to get the true ending. Beautiful graphics though, 1994 Capcom was above almost everyone else in graphics on Nintendo consoles.

I never played Maximo. Heard it was very hard, and it wasn’t like you were starving for games on the PS2.
 

Keihart

Member
weirdly enough i think this games got harder with time, the PSP and the Switch are some degenerate shit, the psp might still be the hardest one to me and the nes one the most fair.
interesting topic, this video goes into my queue.
 
Last edited:

tygertrip

Member
Resurrection is by far the best traditional GnG. It has modern, brilliant level design, lots of options in the magic powers, so many secrets, and the second loop requires you to completely change your strategy and tactics. I 100%ed it on Legendary difficulty, while the only other GnG game I ever managed to finish legit without save states was the SNES one. Capcom was also clever enough to have different difficulty settings, and if GnG of all things can do it, From Software could learn a thing or two there *wink wink*

The two Gargoyle’s Quest games are very good. Way more relaxed than the Arthur games, good RPG-lite elements, great graphics for their respective hardwares. Demon’s Crest was a bit disappointing for me though - after hearing so much praise about it, I expected a better game. Didn’t like that it requires 100% completion, including a pretty fastidious mini-game, to get the true ending. Beautiful graphics though, 1994 Capcom was above almost everyone else in graphics on Nintendo consoles.

I never played Maximo. Heard it was very hard, and it wasn’t like you were starving for games on the PS2.
Holy shit. My son and I beat GnG Resurrections on co-op mode, and it was STILL harder than fuck. However, I was able to consistently beat (with no cheat codes or anything) the Genesis version of Ghouls n Ghosts over 30 years ago. Jesus Christ, I couldn't even imagine having that much patience now!
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom