From the Memory Bank: My History with Video Games

Reflections: "Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts" (SNES)

From the files of "Game Series I Largely Avoided for Most of My Life": Say hello to Ghosts 'n Goblins, everyone!

Man--talk about relationships that got off to a rough start.

My aversion to the series developed immediately after I finished up my very first session with the original arcade version of Ghosts 'n Goblins, which had only been around for a few months. It turned out to be a miserable experience, and I walked away from its cabinet feeling completely exasperated. In following, all I could do was hold my hands up and wonder, "What the hell kind of stupid, awful garbage was that?"

To say that I despised Ghosts 'n Goblins would be an understatement.

My lasting impression of Ghosts 'n Goblins was that it was unfairly difficult, horribly designed, and poorly programmed; and certainly it wasn't the type game I could ever be good at--not as someone who didn't consider himself to be an "advanced player" or anything close to that level. So I just didn't go near it. In the years ahead, the closest I got to Ghosts 'n Goblins was to its Commodore 64 port. I returned to that version of the game on a regular basis, yeah, but not because I enjoyed playing it; no--it frustrated me in the same exact way, and I couldn't even beat it first stage; I kept returning to it, rather, because I loved listening to its awesome main theme (what I later learned was its only musical theme)--a uniquely composed, amazingly epic piece of music that was exclusive to this version of the game (it's one of my all-time-favorite Commodore 64 tunes).

A couple of years later, I played the NES version of Ghosts 'n Goblins, but only for two or three minutes. That's about all the time I needed to learn that it was the same exasperatingly awful game only now with the wonderful addition of jarringly choppy screen-scrolling! At around that point, I decided that that the Ghosts 'n Goblins series just wasn't for me, and so I largely ignored it for the next 28-plus years.

So as you can imagine, I wasn't exactly bubbling with excitement when Nintendo Power announced that Super Ghouls 'n Ghost, the newest entry in the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, would be coming to the SNES as one of its launch titles. Really, I was so uninterested in the game that I didn't even care to give its coverage a cursory look. Reading about it would be pointless, I thought, because I already knew what it was going to be: an unreasonably difficult, spitefully designed horror show of an action game. That's what the series stood for, after all.

My suspicion was later confirmed by reviews, all of which put a heavy emphasis on Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts' "high degree of difficulty." I knew exactly what those words were meant to intimate, and thus I had no misgivings about making the decision to completely ignore the game and to do so until the end of time.

Well, I only managed to hold to that vow for about 8 years--until the days when I got heavy into SNES emulation. That's when one day, on a whim, I decided to load up Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and give it a fair shot--find out if I'd misjudged it (I'd become a bit more open-minded during this period).

As you might've guessed, it didn't go so well. In fact, it went rather terribly. That first experience with Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, I'd say, was a total replication of the one I had with the original Ghosts 'n Goblins: It was frustrating, aggravating and ultimately exasperating, and the difficulty was so overwhelming that I couldn't even make it to the first stage's halfway point! After greatly struggling with the game's nonsense for about ten minutes, I finally said "Screw this!" and angrily closed the ROM file. And in the following moment, I swore the game off and told myself that I'd never go near it again!

"And this time I'm serious!" I said in the sternest voice I could muster. "I want nothing more to do with this game or this series!"

Cut ahead to September 4th, 2019--the day Nintendo added an SNES application to its Nintendo Switch Online service. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, because it was apparently held in high regard by a great number of masochists, was one from its "select group of games."

For a couple of reasons--mostly because I'd seen a number of Twitch personalities play through the game and speak fondly of their experiences with it--I decided that now was the time to get over my fear of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts and play it through to the end. "After all," I thought, "I should always be eager to seek out and play the SNES' most classic games--especially those that did best to define the console in its early years."

And I came to the conclusion that the best way for me to have the most enjoyable experience possible and thus minimize frustration was to make tactical use of the application's save function. "I'll save after clearing a stage and reload my save file only if I get a Game Over," I decided. "Then I won't have to worry about running out of continues (at the time, I thought there were a set amount of them)!"

And once again, things didn't work out like I thought they would. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, even with my having the advantage of saves, still turned out to be one of the most ungodly frustrating, punishingly difficult games I'd ever suffered through. The only reason I didn't abandon the game midway was because I was adamant about not letting it get the best of me (me and my pride). I was mostly in a pissed-off state as I played through it, and I couldn't wait to be done with it so I could promptly swear it off again--this time for good. And when I struck the finishing blow on the final boss, I was truly done; I passive-aggressively watched the credits, not caring what was being said or shown, and immediately after the "The End" screen appeared, I angrily switched the game off and damned it while doing so.

"No, really--screw that game," I said while shaking my head. "I'm so glad I never have to see it again!"

But then something strange happened: In the following days, I started having the urge to replay Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, though I wasn't sure what was causing the impulse (my first thought was that I was either mentally deficient or completely insane). The only thing I knew for sure was that the urging wasn't going to cease until I submitted to it.

Soon I came to understand the true nature of the "urging" and see it for what it was. I realized that it was actually the persistent, pained wailing of a badly bruised ego. In truth, the game had gotten the best of me, and I just couldn't handle it. This wasn't like the old days, when I thought of myself as someone who could never be an "advanced player," no; I'd since become one of those. The 2019 version of me was someone who could beat Rolling Thunder, Blaster Master and many other super-difficult games in one life! "So it stands to reason that I can beat this one legitimately!" I thought to myself.

Now I just needed to prove it. I needed to beat the game and do so without relying on save-states and thus prove that there's no game that's "too difficult" for me! So I loaded it up and started playing through it again.

It was another highly frustrating play-through, yes, but this time I managed to make it to the 7th stage of the second loop with 9 continues in the bag. And honestly, I thought I was in a pretty comfortable position. "I mean, I have up to 27 attempts to take down two bosses," I thought. "That's way more than I need!"

I thought as much until I was faced with one of the most absurdly difficult challenges I'd ever faced in a video game: having to take down both Astaroth and Nebiroth with the Goddess' Bracelet--the weapon that was most ill-suited for the job of taking out bosses who had elevated weak points and long-range attacks. It was an extremely aggravating battle, and I failed over and over again; and each death was more spirit-crushing than the last. At one point, I thought I'd lose my mind!

In the end, I wound up expending all 9 continues and putting myself in a dire situation. Though, mostly out of fear of having to play through the entire game again in order to get another shot at these guys, I dialed in--focused as hard as I possibly could--and managed to take down the fiendish Demon Lords with only one life remaining. Then I capped off the effort by promptly destroying the real final boss, Sardius (which, really, isn't worth bragging about because he's a final boss in Ghosts 'n Goblins game and thus, as per series tradition, easily defeated; and, also, I already knew his patterns because, as I've said, I'd watched people play through the game).

As those credits started to role, I felt a strong sense of accomplishment. I'd just beaten one of those games--the type that I once considered to be beyond me. And once the weight lifted away, I was no longer afraid of the game; in that moment, I desired to play through it again and improve my performance. And that's what I did. And that's what I've been doing ever since. I've been regularly playing through Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts for over the last two years, and I've continued to derive great enjoyment from it. In fact, it's become one of my favorite SNES games!

The whole time, I've been desperately wanting to spread the word about Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts--a game that I fear others have likely dismissed after spending only a few minutes with it. If you've done this--if you've sworn off this game like I once did--you're making a mistake. You're missing out on a great game.

And here's why.

 Of course, we can't talk about Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts without first stating the obvious: This is a very difficult game. If you're planning on picking it up and playing through it, you should know that you're going to have to dedicate a large amount of time to the effort, and, quite often, you're going to become extremely frustrated.

But you should also know that much of the hullabaloo surrounding the game's difficulty-level is steeped in misperception. It's a highly challenging game, sure, but it's certainly not the "impossibly difficult" nightmare game you've heard about; it's not in the top-tier of difficult games with, say, Battletoads, Adventure Island and others that have been correctly deemed "insanely challenging." Rather, it's a difficult game that becomes quite manageable once you learn how to approach it.

The problem is that you probably won't get that sense the first time you play it. No--you'll likely struggle horribly with its first four or five screens and fall victim to their enemies and obstacles a countless number of times; and chances are that you won't come close to sniffing the very first checkpoint. And all the while, you'll be thinking to yourself, "This is absolutely absurd! What sadist designed this game?! And who in the world could find any of this 'fun'?"

Well, you could, reader, if you put time into the game and get a fine grasp of its mechanics and weapons system. You'll see why quitting would have been a mistake.

Now, when people talk about Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts' difficulty, they're talking specifically about the stages and the level design. This is a game in which the terrain is always unsteady and enemies are constantly emerging from surfaces and flying in from in every direction. And if you don't understand how to control Arthur's jumps and read and react to the enemies' movements, you're going to have a rough time of it; the game will seem completely impenetrable, and you'll be understandably pissed at what's occurring. Though, once you figure out how to fluidly navigate your way over, under and around the game's hordes of enemies and death traps, you'll come to find that Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is one of the most thoughtfully designed and engaging action games in existence!

That's not to say that the game won't aggravate you or annoy you at times, no. There are still parts of this game that are especially demanding (like the Red Arremer encounters), and you'll struggle with them no matter how skilled you become. It doesn't help that a lot of the enemy activity is random; most enemies are specially placed, yes, but still many of them--mainly flying enemies like bats, ghosts and those obnoxious imps--tend to spawn in random locations or fly around erratically. So even if you know a stage's layout, you still have to remain vigilant; if you lose focus, your every jump will become a risk, and you'll be in danger of colliding with a randomly appearing enemy and getting knocked into a death pit.

Still, you'll be able to perform very well if you (a) learn how to weave around enemies and obstacles, (b) memorize enemies' locations and understand their movement-patterns, and (c) utilize the right weapons (I'll talk more about these later on) and attack from advantageous positions and angles.

If you can make it to the end of the first stage, you'll do battle with the long-necked Cockatrice and likely take it down without much trouble. And in doing so, you will have learned something about the game's bosses in general: Compared to the stages, these cats are easy to beat! Some of them behave unpredictably, sure, but what they all have in common is that they're large, easily assailable targets and pretty light on HP. You can take 'em out in seconds with a concentrated barrage or a couple of well-placed magic attacks.

In this game, a boss fight is basically a breather (save for one fight in particular)!

So in truth, you see, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a very beatable game. And if we're really being honest, its entire challenge basically boils down to "Can you beat the second loop's penultimate bosses--Astaroth and Nebiroth--with the horribly-ill-suited Goddess' Bracelet?" That's the only part of the game with which you'll truly struggle. Those battles can be infuriating, even if you know what you're doing and are well-armored. So be prepared to (a) expend a lot of lives in the process and (b) traverse the entirety of the exacting Stage 7 many, many times (since there are no checkpoints). I promise you, though, that you'll feel a sense of euphoria when you finally defeat the demonic pair!

 Of course, a big part of the challenge, like in all other Ghosts 'n Goblins games, is learning how to deal with the incredibly evasive, fear-inducing Red Arremers. The first time you encounter one of these winged terrors, you're likely to think, "Why is it impossible to hit this guy and avoid his swoop attacks?!"

It's not impossible to do either, no, but you won't realize as much until you get a grasp on the Red Arremer's pattern and learn how to manipulate his movement. Also, it helps to have the right weapon, like, say, the crossbow, whose multi-arrow spreadshot confuses the Arremer's AI and causes him to unwittingly parry into one arrow in his attempt to evade the other. Otherwise, he's highly susceptible to magic and can be one-shot by most magic attacks; hell--he doesn't even attempt to evade them!

So those Red Arremers are tough, yeah, but there are plenty of ways to effectively deal with them. And then it's all a matter of positioning and execution.

If you forgo learning their patterns and try to use brute-force instead, you're going to get repeatedly torn apart. That's what happened to me in my earliest play-throughs. I kept trying to weapon-spam them to death, and it'd only work about 5% of time, when I got lucky--when the Arremers just happened to parry into a thrown weapon.

And it's no use trying to charge past and then run away from them, since they don't despawn no matter how far ahead you get. They just relentlessly pursue you. And they always catch their prey. I should know; I repeatedly tried the charge-and-run strategy in Stage 6, which is home to three of them, and I got hounded to death each time. It was infuriating! (This was the point at which I almost lost my mind.)

The point is that you're going to have to learn to deal with Arremers at some point, so you might as well do it early on!

 You'll be happy to know that Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts has a rather-generous continue system.

You start with only a limited number of continues (5 in all), but you can earn more continues by collecting money bags, which are strewn throughout each stage. The number of money bags you need to collect differs depending upon the difficulty-level you chose: In the Beginner mode, it's 16; in the Normal mode, it's 18; in the Expert mode, it's 21; and in the Professional mode, it's 32.

Since there are plenty of money bags to be found, it's easy to build up your continue-count. Though, it's still possible to run out of continues in the later stages, some of which are light on money bags; and it's especially possible to run out of continues if said money bags start appearing in a stage's second segment but you're not able to capably clear its first segment. If you find yourself in that situation, you'll definitely be feeling the heat! And obviously it becomes harder to build up continues in the higher difficulty modes; you know--because of the increased money-bag requirement.

Honestly, though, there isn't much else that's different about the game's difficulty modes. When I play in Professional mode, I observe only two differences between it and the Normal and Expert modes: Stage 1's zombies move faster, and the gastric liquid that emanates from the entrails in Stage 4's second section ("The Ghoul's Stomach," as it's called) spews for an extra second or two. And that's about it. The enemy-rate doesn't increase, nor do the the bosses' HP-totals (from what I can see, at least).

So, really, there's no reason to fear the higher difficulties. Their increase in challenge is, at best, negligible.

 Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a Capcom game, so it's not surprising that it's a great-looking one (90s-era Capcom could always be counted upon to deliver visually impressive games). It's certainly the launch-era-SNES' best-looking game and its most ambitious in terms of visual effects (which sometimes works against it; I'll tell you how in a bit).

When it comes to art direction, it's in line with previous series games, yes, though it differentiates itself in one key way: Its characters and environments are more vibrantly colored and shinier than those you see in Ghosts 'n Goblins and Ghouls 'n Ghosts, whose worlds, in comparison, are rendered in drab and washed-out-looking colors. I'm not saying that either of them are bad-looking, no; I'm just pointing out that there's a noticeable tonal difference between these games--that Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, though just as darkly themed, is more richly colored, and thus it's able to provide you some positive energy (which you're definitely going to need).

It's just an overall different feel.

The designers' focus on using a greater range of colors makes sense because this is, after all, an SNES game, and apparently it was a requisite that SNES developers put those extra 32,000 palette colors to use! Or, more likely, this was just another way for Capcom to provide the game a unique personality and furthermore create the type of visual contrast that said to incognizant audiences (magazine readers, mainly), "This is not a port of arcade Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I repeat: This is not Ghouls 'n Ghosts with the word Super obligatorily prefixed onto its title."

And it all looks terrific. The game's environments and textures are finely rendered, highly detailed, beautifully shaded, and at times wonderfully animated; and the world they create is visually engaging. There are always fun things to look at--strikingly rendered objects and structures that steal your attention and stoke your imagination and thus draw you into the game's wonderfully haunting world.

What the designers do with their background work is much more subtle--more tactically reserved. The majority of backgrounds are static, and those that scroll never contain more than one layer of parallax (a design decision that was made for an obvious reason--the one I'll be talking about momentarily). Sometimes they animate or glow, and occasionally lightning strikes will temporarily illuminate them, yeah, but mostly they're intentionally darkly shaded and softly hued and thus deemphasized as to not steal your attention--as to not distract you from what's going on right in front of you. Basically the designers want you to focus on what they worked hardest to create: the stages' design aspects and the special effects.

Oh, I'm not saying that the background work is uninteresting, no. It's actually very good. And in many cases, the imagery on display is quite picturesque. Such eye-catching images include Stage 2's large sunken ship, which bobs up and down within the ocean waters that surround it. Stage 3's distant towers, whose luminous interior lighting escapes through their portals and causes the exterior environments--both the sky and towers' walls--to redden. The appropriately ghastly pulsating innards of whatever creature you're traveling through in Stage 4's second half. Stage 5's mountains and the snow that endlessly cascades down their sloped surfaces. And the castle stages' pillared corridors with their lattice windows, barred portals, dark prison cells, radiant braziers, and eerie carved symbols (like those devilish-looking, glowy-eyed faces that are chiseled into the final area's walls). All of them, too, are fun to gaze upon and examine (if you can find the time to do so, of course).

Though, what Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts' designers really want you to see--what they're really eager to show you--are all of the special effects they've created. Its these spectacular occurrences, more than any of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts' other visual or artistic elements, that work to define the game and provide it a distinct personality. And therein, they're what make it an unmistakable "SNES game," which is to say that Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts gives us exactly what we expect to see when we play an SNES game and especially one that has the word Super prefixed onto its title.

Almost every stage section shows you something special and does so with the intention of taking your breath away. In Stage 1's first half, surfaces suddenly transmogrify as you traverse upon them; they slope, flatten, curve and undergo other radical changes and do so in striking fashion. In Stage 1's second half, huge tidal waves emerge from the background and slam into the sprite layer; and the sheer force of their impact violently alters the landscape--wipes away certain structures and platforms--and thus creates new challenges.

In Stage 2, the ocean waters wave and undulate along separate planes, and at certain points, the fish-like monsters seen floating around the back layer will jump to the sprite layer!

Stage 3's cylindrical towers use a three-dimensional wrap-around effect (the type you've seen in Battletoads and Tower Toppler): Arthur remains centered as he runs along tower ledges, and the towers, themselves, spin forward and back to reflect the change in his position! This is the kind of effect that remains impressive even if you 've seen it before! (Though, I have to acknowledge the technical limitation that causes spawned chests to float away from the towers, to the screen's edge; admittedly, "chests floating across empty space" registers as bad-looking.)

In Stage 4's first half, the entire stage area--every part of it--rotates anywhere from 180 to 450 degrees each time you stand upon one of its floating platforms, and it completes each rotation smoothly and in a flash. For these reasons, it puts Super Castlevania IV's rotational effect to shame! In that game, only the immediate area rotated, and it did so choppily and at snail speed! And still Stage 4 has more to show us! In its second half (the aforementioned "Ghoul's Stomach"), both the sprite and background layers creepily undulate side to side as you ride along the area on a floating platform; all the while, the entire screen is constantly shifting about! Talk about trippy!

And there are other effects that, while they're not quite as impressive as those listed, make their mark and contribute to the personality-carving effort: waters rise and thus flood entire areas, stony pillars emerge from pools of flame, avalanches sweep you up and carry you back, and magic spells produce huge entities that fill the screen--wave, whirl and spin their way across it--and insofar destroy any enemy they strike.

And each and every one of these effects is utterly memorable. Even if you go twenty years without playing Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts--if nothing else, you'll remember the transmogrifying landscapes, the spinning towers, the rotating rooms, and the trip through a creature's undulating innards. They're that special.

I know that the 13-year-old version of me would have been absolutely blown away by all of this. Oh, if only he hadn't been so damn close-minded!

Really, I don't know what to say about the character design other than that it's topnotch. The characters are finely drawn, nicely animated, and quite lively (every initially-stationary enemy has an antsy-looking idle animation). And all of the bosses are large, impressive-looking and very expressive (which is to say mean- and scary-looking).

So yeah--Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a graphical feast!

 But then there's the thing we simply can't avoid talking about--the technical element that we can't ignore because, sadly, it also kinda defines the game: the unfortunate slowdown issues.

It's hard not to notice that Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts suffers from performance lag and sometimes an embarrassing amount of it. There are multiple instances in which the game's action slows to a crawl and does so for prolonged periods. It's sad that it happens because it creates the impression that the game isn't well-made--that it's broken in some way.

And, inexplicably, the designers allow for the worst of it to occur right up front, in the game's first stage. Once you advance past the first few screens, the game starts chugging, and it continues to do so until you reach the first checkpoint. In those moments, you're essentially playing the game in slow motion. We can blame the transmogrifying-landscape effect for this, sure, but's it's not the only culprit, no; there are multiple guilty parties, including the processing shortfall that prevents the game from capably rendering more than three medium-sized objects and enemies at a time. You'd think that the designers, realizing that such limitations existed, would have toned things down in the early going and tried to conceal the slowdown issue by only allowing it to occur in the proceeding stages. You know--delay players' cognizance of the issue and hope that it results in them not seeing it as the norm.

The fact of the matter is that the SNES simply can't handle what Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is throwing at it. From a visual standpoint, it's too ambitious a game for launch-era SNES hardware (SNES game cartridges didn't yet provide that level of memory expansion). The team at Capcom simply ignored that fact and said, "Screw it--we're going to do exactly what we want to do regardless of any memory limitations!" (See, also, Mega Man V for Game Boy.)

And because they went that route, you get boss fights like the one against Death Crawler, a multi-sectioned caterpillar-like creature whose revolving effect is very impressive, yes, but also the cause of major slowdown; the moment the creature begins moving, the frame-rate instantly drops to somewhere around 10FPS! It gets even worse when you battle the Hydra boss, whose body is composed of multiple large sprites; never once during the battle does the frame-rate rise above 10FPS, so the whole affair occurs in what is essentially extended bullet time.

Now, do these performance issues wreck the experience and thus render Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts a lesser game? No, they don't; they don't prevent it from being a high-tier video game. However, they certainly do serve to drag it down a bit and prevent it from being the top-tier video game that it would have been otherwise. And that's a shame.

Of course, I put a lot of the blame on Nintendo for being its usual penny-pinching self and its putting a cheap, outdated 8-bit CPU in its 16-bit machine, yeah, but, even then, Capcom should have been conscious of the fact that slowdown was plaguing its game--and in effect making it look bad--and done something to mitigate the issue. I appreciate that the designers were ambitious in their efforts, certainly, but I also recognize that it probably would have been best for them to show some restraint.

 And, again, because Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a 90s-era Capcom game, it of course has an excellent soundtrack. Quality-wise, the game's tunes are first-rate, as expected.

What's most significant, though, is the job these tunes perform. The composer, Mari Yamaguchi, uses them to describe stage environments' mood and character and insofar convey to you the dark and twisted nature of the demon realm on the whole, yes, but more so to describe the nature of Arthur's exploit. His, the music tells us, is an epic adventure whose stakes are as high as can be imagined! And because that message is so powerfully communicated, we, the players, feel the weight of his burden every second we're in control of him.

The game's music has to it, of course, an appropriately medieval flare. Each tune is composed using organs, trumpets, flutes, violins, and other instruments associated with the era of yore. And these instruments are used to develop booming compositions whose separate strains beautifully coordinate to imbue the entire game with an epic-feeling vibe. It's all about the bassline-melody relationships: The basslines use heavy, low-pitched horns and violins to create deep, harrowing resonance while the melodies use organs and flutes--and thus a lot in the way of sharp, high-pitched notes--to generate feelings of unnerving intensity. And together they create an air of horror--an unrelentingly haunting, ominous vibe; they tell you that you're the only thing standing in the way of a world-ending demon invasion.

Thus you're made to feel as though you're on a grand, epic adventure! (This is in contrast to what you feel when you play Ghouls 'n Ghosts, whose music is more whimsical-sounding, and thus the game's action feels somewhat lighthearted.) The feeling of epicness consumes you the moment you hear Stage 1's superb, vivifying rendition of the series' classic tune The Haunted Graveyard (arguably the best version of this tune), and it stays with you all the way to the end, until Sardius' amazingly thunderous battle theme suddenly comes to a halt.

On the aside: I don't know if Yamaguchi intended it, but Sardius' theme is more inspiriting than it is in intimidating. Just hearing its opening notes, alone, drives you to put on your best scowl, lean toward the screen, and say, "This game has put me through absolute hell, and now I'm going to take my anger out on you, big boy!"

In that sense, it's actually the reverse: This is the player's theme--one that captures the emotion that you're feeling after being made to suffer through that horrible Astaroth-Nebiroth battle--and it's what Sardius hears when you enter the room. You're the true boss in this instance, and he's the hapless challenger!

It's easy to feel that way when you know going in that he's a pushover.

Well, that's how I feel about Sardius' theme, at least.

 In terms of sound design, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is more Mega Man X than it is Ghosts 'n Goblins, which is to say that the sounds it produces are intensely violent. Weapons blisteringly pierce enemies and chests. Enemies explode violently and do so over several frames. Environments thunderously shake, shutter and rumble. And each spell, tidal wave, and thunder strike hits with a loud bang.

And all of it is beautiful. All of these sounds help to make Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts an audibly rich, wonderfully immersive game. (The weapon sounds, in particular, make the game's action extremely satisfying. I'll expand on this later on).

Though, I do have to point out one minor sound issue. It happens during the Astaroth and Nebiroth battles: Sometimes, for reasons I can't explain, the sound channel dedicated to their secondary attacks cuts out, and thus they silently fire their respective lasers. This is a problem because beating these guys requires listening for and reacting to their lasers' audible cues. A fired laser comes in fast, and if you don't hear it coming, there's a high chance that you'll be caught off guard by it and potentially struck or killed. During a long, intense Astaroth or Nebiroth battle, getting caught by a silent laser can be extremely annoying.

Maybe it's the fault of "sound overload." Or something. I'm not sure.

All I know is that it sucks when it happens.

 So about the actual gameplay.

First let's talk about the game's formula.

It's what you expect from a Ghosts 'n Goblins game: When the game starts, you're shown a scrolling two-screen-long map that displays the Ghoul Ream--the place in which Arthur's adventure plays out--and therein miniaturized representations of the game's eight stages ("Quests," as they're called). And you should get used to seeing it, because, much like all other Ghosts 'n Goblins mini-map designers, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts' really love their previewing map, and so you get to see it every time you restart a stage (you can skip this intro by pressing any of the controller's buttons, yes, but only after the map image loads in, which takes about a second)!

As is typical, each stage is split into two sections, and it has a checkpoint placed somewhere in its middle portion. Each stage section has a 5-minute time-limit (the time resets back to 5 minutes when you reach the checkpoint), which can sometimes be really strict; so there will be times when you can't afford to be patient or dawdle about for too long.

And as per tradition, the only way to access the true final boss and view the game's ending is to complete two loops of the game. When you beat the first loop, the imprisoned Princess Guinevere, Arthur's beloved, will project her image and inform you that you cannot beat Sardius without the "Goddess' Bracelet," which can only be earned in the second loop. So after you beat Astaroth and Nebiroth, you're sent back to the very first stage and now have to play through the game again; and in this loop, the difficulty-level raises (though, as I said when I talked about the higher-difficulty modes' changes: the difference is negligible; the only variation, I find, is that the zombies move faster and the gastric liquid spews a bit longer).

And the game's not joking with you: You need to have the Goddess' Bracelet to beat the game. If you make the mistake of defeating Astaroth and Nebiroth without it, the game punishes you by making you repeat the entire stage from the start (which is actually generous in comparison to the penalty assessed to you in Ghosts 'n Goblins; that game sends you back one whole stage!).

At its core, the game's action is simple: You run about and platform your way across the game's environments, and you attack enemies with your throwing-weapon (your starting weapon, as always, is the Lance). You can survive one hit (if Arthur takes damage, he'll lose his armor, at which point he'll only be wearing boxers; though, under special circumstances, he can reclaim his armor). And you can cause hidden chests to spawn by moving and jumping around in an effort to hit unmarked trigger points. These chests can contain weapons, armor, or, distressingly, evil magicians who use dark magic to temporarily transform you into something weaker--something that lacks an attack and is far less mobile (if you're armorless, you turn into a baby; if you're wearing steel armor, you turn into a seal; if you're wearing Bronze Armor, you turn into a bee; and if you're wearing Gold Armor, you turn into a young girl). Very rarely, a chest will troll you and drop a damaging bear trap.

Over the course of the adventure, you can earn extra lives via its lives system. You get an extra life at 20,000 points, 40,000 points, and 70,000 points, and after that, you're awarded a life for each additional 80,000 points you accrue. You earn various amounts for killing enemies and collecting money bags and small armor icons. Also, you get a special 5,000-point bonus for completing a stage and grabbing the "entrance" key. And you can get yourself an extra 5,000 points if you hold upward while you pick up the key; doing so will earn you the "Nice Catch!" bonus, as it's called.

This time around, Arthur can only throw his weapons left or right, which is a departure from the Ghouls 'n Ghosts scheme that allowed for him to throw weapons in four directions: left, right, upward and downward (I guess they realized that four-directional attacking only works to trivialize certain challenges). Though, in compensation, he's been given a major physical enhancement: He can now double jump!

Double jumping adds a new dimension to the gameplay and allows for the designers to do more with the platforming aspect and thus truly put your air-control abilities to the test! It serves to make Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts much more of a platformer than its predecessors. In this game, successful advancement often hinges upon your ability to capably control the double jump and therein skillfully clear long gaps and redirect yourself while in the air.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is different, also, in that it's also slower-paced. The developers wanted for Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts to be a more-measuredly-paced "adventure game" (read: a console game), and so they they sought to distinguish it from the previous entries, which were fast-paced arcade games, by slowing the action down a bit. So in this game, Arthur's movement feels more deliberate.

Again--it's just something different. It's a slower-moving game. If you're looking for a game in which you can speed along at a brisk pace, you'll want to try Ghouls 'n Ghosts instead. That one is probably more up your alley.

What might cause you issue are the jumping controls. By design, they're stiff and floaty. Arthur's jumps occur slowly, and he tends to hang in the air--particularly when he's double jumping; and because his jumps can't be modulated, he's forced to commit to a direction once he executes a regular or double jump. This is something you have to get used to, especially if you've spent a lot of time playing the previous series games.

Still, even then--and even with all of the slowdown issues--the controls manage to be fast and responsive. I don't recall an instance in which the game ate one of my inputs.

 Super Ghouls 'n Ghost's basic controls are rather simple: You move forward by pressing left or right on the directional pad. You attack by pressing the Y button. You jump by pressing the B button. You double jump by pressing the B button while you're in the air. You crouch by pressing down on the d-pad. And you climb ladders by pressing up and down on the d-pad (you can only grab onto ladders from a grounded position).

Otherwise, Arthur is able to turn his torso when he's aerial and throw weapons in the opposite direction. This maneuver allows him to attack enemies while he's jumping away from them, and thus it gives him the ability to be evasive and offensive at the same time!

The game's most complex action, if you can even call it that, is spell-casting. To do it, you have to hold down the Y button until the spell meter--which appears on the screen's top-middle portion, on both sides of the HUD's weapon box, after you equip Gold Armor--is fully charged and then release the button. If you release the button when the meter is fully charged, Arthur will unleash a powerful magic attack.

There are a few control limitations: When Arthur is on the ground, he can't move while throwing weapons. He can't turn while crouching. And he can't attack while climbing ladders.

That's about it.

 The game's true complexity lies in its weapons systems.

First there's the weapon arsenal.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts has eight weapons in all. Arthur uses a normal version of each weapon when he's donning steel armor or when he's armorless, and he uses an enchanted version of each weapon when he's donning Gold Armor (except in one instance). These weapons include:

• The Lance, which is Arthur's default weapon. He throws it straight ahead. He can throw two lances at a time. When the Lance is enchanted, it becomes a flame lance that travels faster and hits harder.
• The Crossbow. It allows Arthur to throw two arrows upward. Each travels at a different angle (the top one travels 45 degrees, and the bottom one travels 25 degrees). When the Crossbow is enchanted, it releases three homing-style fireballs.
• The Dagger. It's a quick-but-weak throwing knife that travels the length of the screen. Arthur can throw three of them at a time. When the Dagger is enchanted, it becomes a more powerful laser-type weapon.
• The Scythe. This bladed weapon travels straight ahead and crashes into its targets. If Arthur throws it while he's crouching, it'll arc downward and travel along slopes. When the Scythe is enchanted, it becomes larger and stronger.
• The Torch. It travels in a short arc, and when it hits the ground, it causes engulfing flames to wave forward at about half a screen's length. When the Torch is enchanted, its flames becomes larger and stronger.
• The Axe. This slow-but-powerful double-bladed axe travels forward in a circling motion. When the Axe is enchanted, it grows larger and stronger and now arcs upward before traveling forward.
• The Tri-Blade. It slices through the air in weirdly random corkscrew patterns. Arthur can throw two of them at a time. When the Tri-Blade is enchanted, it becomes larger and stronger and can now pierce through enemies.
• The Goddess' Bracelet. It allows Arthur to toss a supremely powerful fireball. Its range, unfortunately, is really short. The Goddess' Bracelet has no enchanted form. And like I said: It can only be obtained in the second loop. It starts appearing in treasure chests after you don Gold Armor.

Though, as is typical of Ghosts 'n Goblins weapons, only a minimal amount of them are useful. In fact, I'd say that only two of them are any good: the Crossbow, which fires pairs of arrows diagonally, and the Dagger, which can be tossed three at a time and very rapidly (and the powered-up versions of these two weapons are amazingly effective).

The others, as usual, seem to be purposely designed to be awful. It's like they were designed to screw you over and therein make the action far more difficult. Some of the weapons are weak, some are unwieldy, some have trajectories that are hard to figure, and the worst of them possess all such qualities. Thus, finding ways to avoid obtaining such weapons becomes part of the game's challenge, as does finding ways to quickly replace unwanted weapons. This entire situation is only a good thing if you're the type of player who likes to challenge yourself and find out if you're the type who's capable of beating the game using only a pathetic weapon like the erratically moving Tri-Blade or the Torch, which is only effective at extremely close range.

The Goddess' Bracelet, whose use is required, is not the worst of them, no, but it's definitely in the bottom tier. It's a powerful weapon, sure, but it has two very troublesome limitations: Its fireball blast travels a short range (and an even shorter range when you're armorless), and you can only throw one fireball at a time (you can't throw another until the first one dissipates or leaves the screen). When you possess it, killing enemies becomes a chore. Though, it does have some special properties: (1) If you're wearing stronger armor, the fireball travels farther and inflicts more damage. (2) The closer you are to an enemy when you throw a fireball, the harder it hits. And (3) a fireball has more damage-potential when you throw it while double jumping.

Still, none of that makes up for the fact that it's an awful weapon. So it's best to wait till the final stage to pick up the Goddess' Bracelet. In the meantime, you should stick with either the Crossbow or the Dagger.

Then there are the armors.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, in contrast to Ghouls 'n Ghosts, has two levels of special armor: bronze and then gold. Both, similarly, enchant your weapons and thus allow them to take newer, more-powerful forms. Though, the higher-level Gold Armor provides some extra benefits. Most importantly, it gives you the power to execute magic attacks.

Each weapon (save for the Goddess' Bracelet, which is purposely designed to be limited in function) has a magical attack attached to it:

• The Lance fires out lightning bolts in three directions (left, right and upward).
• The Dagger summons a fiery dragon that arcs down and around and destroys anything with which in comes in contact.
• The Crossbow unearths all of the treasure chests hidden on the current screen. 
• The Scythe sends out two large, whirling tornadoes in either direction.
• The Torch provides you a rotating shield that consists of three absorptive, damage-inflicting glowing orbs.
• The Axe fires out electrical beams in eight directions.
• And the Tri-Blade generates a ball of nuclear energy that explodes and sends damaging emissions in either direction.

When you acquire the Gold Armor, a meter will appear next to your weapon icon on the HUD. This relays to you that you can now use magic attacks. What you can do now is charge the meter by holding down the attack button; then when you release the button, you'll unleash a magic attack! And unlike in Ghouls 'n Ghosts, you can charge while while climbing! As an added benefit, you're invincible as you execute the attack and, furthermore, for an additional two seconds in following!

The Gold Armor, also, allows you to carry two types of defensive shields: the default Moon Shield, which can block one projectile or absorb one hazard-inflicted shot, and the chest-contained Sun Shield, which can block three projectiles or absorb three hazard-inflicted shots. The Sun Shield, in addition, allows you to charge up magic attacks faster.

Note that you'll lose your Bronze or Gold Armor if you take a hit and be reduced down to ol' boxers-wearing Arthur. Neither offers extra protection.

The biggest winners here are the Dagger and the Crossbow. The Dagger becomes the beneficiary of what is by far the game's most useful magic attack: the fiery dragon, which can one-shot any minor enemy and some bosses! This attack is most effective against those pesky Red Arremers; you can use it to pick them off when they're lurking near the edge of the screen and thus still in an inactive state; it's a guaranteed one-shit kill!

And then there's the Crossbow, which benefits greatly from just the standard weapon-enchantment. When it's upgraded, its arrows home in on enemies, and for that reason it becomes the game's best weapon! I always use it for stages 3 through 8 (I use the Dagger, if I can find it, in the first two stages). Though, I have to mention that the upgraded Crossbow has a mechanical issue attached to it: Sometimes--for, again, reasons I can't explain--its arrows refuse to strike a sought target and decide to instead circle it for a prolonged period. This is a problem because you can only fire one arrow-set at a time; and if one of the arrows continues to linger onscreen, doing much of nothing, you can't fire off another set, and you're essentially defenseless. During such a period, there's a high probability that you'll take a shot or get knocked into a death pit. It's annoying, yes, but something you just have to learn to deal with.

All of these weapons, armors, shields and such are of course contained within chests, which appear when pass over a hidden trigger point. Like in the previous games, there's a clear system in play: When you're donning steel armor, the first chest will contain a weapon, the second will contain Bronze Armor, and the third will contain Gold Armor; the chests unearthed in following will contain weapons. When you're armorless, the first chest will contain a magician, the second will contain a weapon, the third will contain a magician, and the fourth will contain steel armor. And when you're donning Gold Armor, the first chest will contain the Sun Shield, and all of the proceeding chests will alternate between weapons and magicians.

You can otherwise obtain weapons by killing any enemies that are in possession of pots. When the pots, thereafter, crash to the ground, they'll leave behind weapons or points-awarding armor icons. These pot-holding enemies fly or spawn in randomly and basically act as wild cards. They can either help you or screw you over. At the least, their existence ensures that you'll always have the chance to pick up a new weapon if you dislike the one you currently possess and there are no chests around.

 What makes Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts so addicting, I think, is that its action is so very satisfying. I'm telling you: There's nothing more viscerally pleasing than setting an enemy up and then absolutely unloading on it! Getting up in its face and rapidly pumping arrows and daggers into it! Furiously tapping that attack button and overwhelming lumbering bosses with endless barrages! Talk about great fun!

And the wonderful sound effects, which I gushed over before, certainly help to amplify the feeling; all of that piercing, crashing and exploding make the weapon-throwing action all the more pleasing!

This is why I play games, man.

 On another aside: I really like how Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts goes in its own direction but still finds the energy to pay homage to Ghouls 'n Ghosts, of which it's ostensibly a remake. It has certain structural similarities that you may or may not have noticed. For one, its first boss, the Cockatrice, is a long-necked enemy and basically equivalent to Ghouls 'n Ghosts' Shielder; and likewise, it's severed head and neck appear in the the final stage as a wall-embedded minor enemy.

Also, a couple of its enemies are clearly inspired by those from Ghouls 'n Ghosts' cast. The flaming Skull Flowers and the vegetative Doomblossoms bear resemblance and function similarly to stony Evil Faced Towers and snake-like Noop Noops. The Ice Snakes are basically icy versions of the tendril-like Evil Roots. And Sardius is very reminiscent Lucifer--at least in terms of the nature of his battle (enormous boss hangs around the background layer and dares you to work your way up to and strike his vulnerable head).

These are some of the "little things" that wind up meaning a lot. To me, at least.

 I haven't talked much about the story because, well, it's the least-interesting part of the game. There's not much to it: According to bits I've gathered from the manual and the game's intro, things on Earth have been peaceful ever since Arthur rescued Princess Guinevere (who's also known as Princess Prin Prin), his beloved. But now the kingdom has become shrouded in darkness, and a new terror has emerged: Sardius, the Emperor of Evil. His minion, Satan (an antagonist from Ghosts 'n Goblins who appears in the intro but, strangely, is never seen again in following), kidnaps Guinevere and takes her to the Phantom Zone (which, I suppose, is a sphere within the Ghoul Realm). So now it's up to Arthur to once again journey through the Ghoul Realm and rescue his beloved.

It's a standard video-game story and basically a rehash of those told in the previous games.

Honestly, since I'm relatively new to the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, I'm not entirely sure of what its canon is or if there's any kind of clear chronology to it (and none of the Ghosts 'n Goblins fan sites are clear on the matter). For the longest time, I was under the impression that all post-Ghosts 'n Goblins entries are retellings of the same story (much like how most of the Bionic Commando-titled games are remakes of the arcade original), but now I'm not sure.

Is it that Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts are the second and third parts of an ongoing story? Or is Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts simply a reimagining of Ghouls 'n Ghosts? I don't know. It's a mystery I'll have to unravel.

And I don't know where the Gargoyle's Quest games fit in, either (I've been discovering and enjoying them, too), so I guess that's just one more mystery. It looks like I'll probably have to do some deep research!

Closing Thoughts

 So if you want to talk about one of the most amazing turnarounds ever, you need only look at my changing relationship with Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I mean, there have been plenty of cases in which I swore a game off and then later came to embrace it, yeah, but none of them had an arc quite like this one. I've never come back to a game 20 years later, after basically damning it, and then expend an endless amount of energy advocating for it.

In truth, I was wrong to dismiss it--to attribute to it the "sins" of its ancestors and then, upon playing it, hastily cast judgement upon it. I swore it off without truly knowing what it was. And I'm guessing that many of you have done the same. If you have, I implore you to rethink your decision and give the game a second chance. Believe me: What you saw in the first half of the first stage really isn't all that indicative of what the rest of the game contains; really, it gave you a false impression. It's like I said: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a difficult game, yes, but its action becomes manageable and thus very enjoyable if you learn the enemy patterns and use the right weapons (the Dagger and the Crossbow).

If you stick with it and play past the first half of the first stage, you'll find that a worthy action game lies beyond that point--beyond that early mess. And then you just might learn to love Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, as I have.

 What more can I say? Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts looks, sounds and plays great. It's a high-tier action game, and more people should play it. Now, I can't deny that the performance issues are detrimental and that at times they make the game (and the SNES, for that matter) look really bad, no, but I can grant the game some leniency in this regard because the worst incidents of slowdown are localized (you encounter them in Stage 1's early portion, in Stage 5's ice cavern, and during the Death Crawler and Hydra boss battles); the rest of the slowdown occurs intermittently (mostly when you use magic attacks), though, fortunately, it doesn't have much of an impact on the action.

And again: When it comes to the problem of slowdown, I put most of the blame on Nintendo for sticking an 8-bit CPU into a 16-bit console that it released four years after the PC-Engine hit the market. Anything to save a penny, I guess.

Cheap bastards.

 Not to brag, but I've since become quite a Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts expert. I can reliably beat the game without expending a single continue! I haven't yet achieved a no-death run, no--mostly because of the game's more-random elements (specifically bats and imps that fly in from out of nowhere and knock me into death pits)--but it's inevitable that I do so! I won't stop till it happens!

I bet you'll do it, too. And if you do, kindly boast about it in the comments section. You know--just to make it look like it's busy down there.

 It was because of my positive experience with Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts that I became so eager to get into the Ghosts 'n Goblins series as a whole.

Right away I sought out Ghouls 'n Ghosts (which, similarly, I once bluntly dismissed). I looked forward to playing it because I'd seen it action and was intrigued by its fast-paced arcade-style action. And it delivered to me everything I desired; I've since come to love that game, too, and I've been playing it regularly--both the arcade and Genesis versions of it (I'll probably talk about my experiences with both versions in a future piece).

Also, I've been enjoying the recently released Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection, which is a pretty solid remake/reimagining of Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I haven't yet earned the "true" ending, no, but I'm close to do doing so (I just need to finish collecting a few more Demon Orbs so that I can unlock the "true" final stage)!

I was already fond of the Gargoyle's Quest games, but now I want to get deeper into them--discover more about their lore!

And it's all thanks to Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts--the game that made me a fan of Capcom's terrific Ghosts 'n Goblins series. And I'm thankful for what it's done for me.

I'm still not and will probably never be a fan of the original Ghosts 'n Goblins or any of its console or computer ports, all of which are unreasonably difficult and poorly made from a technical standpoint, but at the very least, I can still look upon it with reverence in appreciation for what it helped to build. It's because of Ghosts 'n Goblins' vision that we have great games like Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and the Gargoyle's Quest games.

 My experience with these games has reinforced one very important idea: The more you expand your interests, the more enriched you become. That's been the main takeaway for me. That's what I've learned from my experiences with Bionic Commando, Metal Gear, Shinobi, and all of the other game series I got heavy into after initially dismissing them.

I'm a better enthusiast for having these series in my life.