One of the hardest video games returns to torment today’s players – but don’t worry, there’s an easy mode too now
- Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection for the Nintendo Switch still wears difficulty like a badge of pride but now has options for gamers to get further into the game
- Its bold, colourful art looks as appealing as today’s strongest TV animations, though its story is still flimsy and cliched
When I first played Ghosts ‘n Goblins as a kid in the mid-1980s, little me enjoyed the digital squeaks that accompanied every throw of a spear, the zombies that pop out of the cemetery in the first level and, well, I’m not sure if I got much further than that in the game.
My nostalgia for the franchise pretty much stopped there too. I feel no shame for failing to advance. The game itself would essentially express annoyance if players managed to reach the ending, throwing them back to the beginning to do everything all over again. Satan wasn’t actually defeated.
But as a child of the ’80s, whose first vision of all things spooky was more or less the video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the fairy-tale-meets-horror mash-up of the early levels of Ghosts ‘n Goblins was enough to make a visual impression – and make me excited to explore its return.
The original Ghosts ‘n Goblins was instrumental in its early video game exploration of fantasy horror and Western myths, putting players in control of a character who is more or less King Arthur with colourful underpants.
The game is also notorious for being difficult. Creator Tokuro Fujiwara, who has returned to the series this week with the February 25 release of Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection for the Nintendo Switch, wears difficulty like a badge of pride.