Ghosts â??n Goblins was first released into the arcades by Capcom in 1985. You played as a knight in shining armour, or occasionally your underpants, and had to fight an array of supernatural baddies in your quest to save the princess. It was a fantastically imaginative 2D side scrolling game with addictive and challenging platform game-play.

 

You were actually playing as Arthur and your Guinevere was kidnapped by a big ugly demon king called Astaroth. He was a master of the undead and so as you embarked on your quest you had to face all manner of nasties. Each level held multiple enemies including the ubiquitous zombie, ghosts, goblins, crows, demons, skeletons and then a series of boss characters like the Cyclops or Dragon. The bad guys were worth various point scores and you could also collect a wide variety of pick ups like coins, dolls and items belonging to the princess for bonus points.

 

You started the game with lances which you could throw at enemies but as you progressed there were axes, swords, daggers, flaming torches and few other weapons besides. If you got hit by an enemy your armour would drop off leaving you in your pants and so two hits were needed to kill you. You could also collect various power ups and improved suits of armour and the game was packed with hidden secrets, tricks and exploits. You would often find the tricks were needed because this was not a forgiving game; death cast you all the way back to the start. As if the enemies weren’t enough there were also environmental hazards to look out for and falling in water or fire would also kill you. Some of the platform game-play was really tough with moving platforms which required perfectly timed jumps. The developers were obviously feeling cruel because they didn’t stop there they also added a time limit for each stage and this encouraged you to rush which tended to bring about frequent death.

 

There were seven levels in all including the final boss chamber and if you managed to make it through the graveyard, forest, town, caves and castle to defeat him then the princess would reward you with a cuddle. The art style was really cute and the demonic styling was a big draw. The original Japanese name for the game translates as Demon World Village and it really was packed with demons. The game also featured a great soundtrack.

 

It was released as stand up cabinet with an eight way joystick and two buttons, one for fire and one for jump. It was a popular arcade title but it was so tough I can remember spending a fair bit of cash on it without ever getting out of the graveyard. It was ported to the vast majority of home computers and systems available at the time and it spawned loads of sequels including Ghouls nâ?? Ghosts and Super Ghouls nâ?? Ghosts. Despite the difficulty factor I have fond memories of this game.