It’s been a hard day’s knight...
Run and gun classic’s resurrection is a stunning yet punishing piece of nostalgia
Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC (PEGI 12)
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It’s one of the most infamous games ever made, and even more depressingly it’s 35 years old.
Like many gamers I still bear the scars from Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Capcom’s devilish run and gun platformer that is a lesson in pain and frustration.
On paper it’s simple. Help Sir Arthur defeat a host of zombies, demons, cyclops and other spooky foes to rescue Princess Prin-Prin.
The problem is you only get two lives, your health diminishing with each piece of armour you lose until you’re running around in your undies.
Get reduced to a pile of bones and you must restart the level – or from the midway checkpoint if you’ve managed to get that far.
And if by some miracle you complete the game and defeat the final boss, you discover you’ll have to play all the way through again on a harder level to reach the ‘real’ boss battle that will free the princess.
When it was released in arcades in September 1985 it was an instant hit, going on to be snapped up by masochistic gamers keen to experience its exasperating fun from the comfort of their own homes.
Since then it’s spawned dozens of ports and spinoffs, including the Gargoyle’s Quest series in the early 90s, and the brilliant Maximo games on the PS2 in the early 2000s.
And as he is fast approaching his 36th birthday, Sir Arthur is back to thrill and torment a whole new generation of gamers.
While Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection sticks with the beloved 2D side-scrolling format, the ‘gothic storybook’ art style developers decided to go with for the graphics was initially met with controversy.
The puppet-like movements of the baddies were a real cause for concern in some quarters.
I personally could never see what the issue was, especially when you think about how lumpy the characlooked in Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins on the PSP.
And having now spent hours in the gorgeously twisted world, I can confirm it’s pretty stunning.
The stages feel rich and full of depth, the motley crew of assorted horrors which emerge creaking from the ground, or swooping in from the sky, full of menace and gore.
There are four levels of difficulty to pick from – Page, Squire, Knight, or Legend –and even playing on Squire, be prepared to be knocked out of your armour and into your underpants very quickly.
The music gives you a warm tingle of nostalgia – tinged with fear, as that dark corner of your brain where you buried this game is activated.
And the first levels are wonderfully familiar, the eerie graveyard, the watching crows, the tumbling headstones – your gaming muscle memory almost instantly kicks in.
There are seven levels to get through, each more devious than the next, and when you’ve made your way through them all you unlock Shadow versions of each stage – which adds beautiful atmospheric touches like drifting mist and fog, and jumbles up the placeters ment of enemies to keep you on your toes.
But what you quickly find is that this game can often feel unfair.
The first ones had ‘tough’ areas, sections where timing or weaponry was everything. So if you died, it kind of felt like your own fault.
Resurrection sometimes feels like it’s doing the dirty on you, randomly spawning baddies – often in huge waves – that mean you have zero chance of
survival.
And yet I can’t stay mad at it – like when you discover the cat’s pooped in the yucca pot again, you get the big ‘puss in boots’ eyes, and everything is instantly forgiven.
It’s punishing, it’s brutal, and you’ll want to play it all the more for it.
Buy it: £17.99 from cdkeys.com