Ghouls'n Ghosts

Ghouls'n Ghosts
Promotional flyer for the original arcade iteration of Ghouls'n Ghosts
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Designer(s)	Tokuro Fujiwara Shinichi Yoshimoto Hisashi Yamamoto
Composer(s)	Tamayo Kawamoto
Platform(s)	Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, CP System, Commodore 64, Sharp X68000, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Playstation 2, SuperGrafx, Sega Master System, Mega Drive/Genesis, Virtual Console, ZX Spectrum
Release date(s)	Arcade December 1988 Amiga NA July 1989 PAL August 19, 1990 Mega Drive/Genesis JP October 29, 1988 NA August 14, 1989 EU November 30, 1990 Sega Master System March 1989
Genre(s)	Hack and slash, Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	CPS-1
Display	Raster, standard resolution, horizontal orientation

Ghouls'n Ghosts (Japanese: 大魔界村, Hepburn: Daimakaimura, lit. "Great Hell Village") is a platform game/run and gun developed by Capcom and released as an arcade game in 1988, and subsequently ported to a number of other platforms. It is the sequel to Ghosts'n Goblins and the second game in the Ghosts'n Goblins series.

Gameplay

The gameplay for Ghouls'n Ghosts is similar to that of Ghosts'n Goblins. The player controls the knight Arthur, who must advance through a series of eerie levels and defeat a number of undead and demonic creatures in his quest to restore the souls stolen by Lucifer (Loki in the English-language Mega Drive and Sega Master System versions), including the soul of his lover, Princess Prin Prin. Along the way, Arthur can pick up a variety of weapons and armor to help him in his quest.

To defeat the game, Arthur must complete the game twice. The first time completion allows a special weapon to appear in the next round of play. To enter Lucifer's chamber the player must have this special weapon equipped and must have defeated the final Fly boss from level 5. After entering the final large door, the player goes directly to Lucifer's chamber.

While the core gameplay remains the same as its predecessor, the game now allows Arthur to fire directly upward and directly downward while in mid air.

By jumping in certain spots, players can cause a treasure chest to erupt from the ground. By firing his weapon at the chest, players may uncover new weapons, gold armor or an evil magician that changes Arthur into an elderly man or a helpless duck. The gold armor allows players to charge up the weapon to release a powerful magical attack. Each weapon has its own special attack.

Weapon	Description	Special Attack
Javelin	Arthur's default weapon	A lightning bolt strikes all enemies right, left and above of Arthur
Dagger	Faster than javelin, it is thrown at slightly different heights between throws. It is the fastest-paced weapon in the game.	A twin-Arthur, who is invulnerable, appears for a brief time and mimicks Arthur's moves - including attacks, which hence are doubled in intensity
Axe	Very powerful, it goes through all enemy characters. Ascending trajectory of awkward use.	A fire bomb wraps Arthur in two rapid shots, with great destructive effect. Such bomb protects Arthur from enemy projectiles.
Shield	Slightly more powerful than javelin. Once thrown, the shield bends its trajectory keeping at low height from the terrain	A magic wall appears at short distance from Arthur protecting him from projectiles and low-level enemies for a while.
Fire ball	Short and rapid trajectory, falling down in front of Arthur. Once fallen, the ball causes a small fire which damages enemies who get into it.	Two big fire balls wander through the screen spinning rapidly, thus hitting most of the enemies
Sword	The only non-projectile weapon. Sword inflicts double damage with respect to the other conventional weapons.	Two lightning bolts go diagonally through the screen, inflicting damage to the enemies
Psycho Cannon	The most powerful weapon, it can be obtained only if the game has been completed once and only if wearing the magic armour - even though, after losing the armor, the Psycho Cannon is still available.	Wearing the magic armor does not allow any special attack, but the power and reach of the Psycho Cannon is greatly enhanced, and it also protects from enemy projectiles.

Music

The original soundtrack for the arcade version was composed by Tamayo Kawamoto. Many computer ports of the game include the soundtrack by Tim Follin which consists of arrangements and some new songs. Follin's soundtrack — especially Commodore 64, Atari ST (which both implement each machines' 'chiptune' synthesizers although the selection of pieces and some scoring differs slightly between computers) and Amiga versions (of which the playlist is again slightly different) - is respected among computer game music listeners and also gained appreciation from reviewers when the game was published.^{[citation needed]}

Home versions

Reception
Review scores
Publication	Score
Computer and Video Games	88%
CRASH	92%
Sinclair User	82%
Your Sinclair	91%
Zzap!64	96%
The Games Machine	90%
ACE	905
Awards Entity Award Zzap!64 Gold Medal Crash Crash Smash C+VG C+VG Hit

• Ports of Ghouls'n Ghosts were released in Europe in 1989 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. These ports were all handled by Software Creations and all omit a great deal of detail from the arcade version even on very capable 16-Bit machines like the Amiga.
• A Mega Drive/Genesis port of Ghouls'n Ghosts was also released by Sega in 1989 in Japan and North America; and in 1990 in Europe. This version was re-released as a handheld TV game with Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition in 2005 and as a downloadable Virtual Console game for the Wii in 2007 .
• Sega also released a Master System port in 1990. This 8-bit version made changes to the game by introducing a power-up system that allows the player to enter secret shops and upgrade parts of their armor. This includes helmets, which give the player access to new weapons and magic spells; chest armor, which allows the player to sustain more damage; and boots, which increases the player's speed.
• The Supergrafx port of Daimakaimura released by NEC Avenue in 1990 was one of the five games released for the short-lived system.
• A pixel perfect version of Daimakaimura was released by Capcom in 1994 for the Sharp X68000.
• In 1998, Capcom released Capcom Generation 2 for the PlayStation and Saturn in Japan, a compilation which included Ghouls'n Ghosts along with Ghosts'n Goblins and Super Ghouls'n Ghosts. The PlayStation version of this compilation was released as a bundle in Europe with three other volumes titled Capcom Generations (in plural) under the title of Capcom Generations: Chronicles of Arthur. Capcom later released in North America Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005 and Capcom Classics Collection: Reloaded for the PlayStation Portable in 2006, which includes all the Capcom Generations titles. The emulation on a number of these compilations is slightly off, in that the screen display is too dark.

See also

• Ghosts'n Goblins (series)

External links

• Ghouls'n Ghosts at the Killer List of Videogames
• Ghouls 'n Ghosts Dossier Titan (French fan page)
• The Ghosts 'n Goblins Series Online
• Ghouls and Ghosts Remix (released under GNU GPL license)
• Ghouls'n Ghosts at World of Spectrum