I played Ghosts 'n Goblins so you don't have to | NES & Famicom Review 1986
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Retro Odyssey ep.010
An IN-DEPTH Review of Capcom's notorious port of Ghosts 'n Goblins (魔界村) for the Famicom & NES.
~ note: all gameplay footage for 𝑹𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒐 𝑶𝒅𝒚𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒚 is recorded on original hardware ~
Let me know what you think in the comments!
Timestamps:
0:00 - intro
0:50 - basics
3:10 - disclaimer
4:00 - stage 1
6:39 - stage 2
9:53 - stage 3
12:24 - stage 4
13:05 - stage 5
14:02 - stage 6
18:20 - astaroth
19:58 - final thoughts
Next up: Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Dōchū (がんばれゴエモン!からくり道中)
Music: outmind.bandcamp.com/
~ if you would like to support the show: ko-fi.com/hprshredder ~
#RetroOdyssey #GnG #Famicom - Ігри
![Ghosts 'n Goblins Longplay (Arcade) [60 FPS]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SugLAqaPhqA/mqdefault.jpg)
I am binging all of these as soon as I found this channel, amazing NES reviews
It's definitely built like a quarter muncher for arcades just with a downgrade to the look and sound of the arcade. Considering how this "play the game again" trope came back yet again for the next title apparently they thought we actually enjoyed that! I'm just glad we got Demon's Crest from all of this
I'm stoked to play both Demon's Crest & Gargoyle's Quest in the future.
The authentic experience is very important and it is great you acknowledge this. I tried the arcade port that's on the Switch with a friend. I will say it's a bit of fun with someone else, especially since we had a gulp of beer every time we died. Afraid we didn't play long enough to get properly hammered though. Anyway, great review, Master Shredder.
I may pick up the port when my OLED Switch arrives to appreciate the contrast! That actually sounds like a blast to be miserable with someone playing it lol. When I played Ice Climber part of the fun was marveling at the clipping with the person I was playing with
@@HPRshredder I think there's a lot of overlooked potential when it comes to co-op and 2 player games from the past. It's territory that is waiting to be mined by UA-camrs. Anyway keep it up. Any chance you will play the Famicom version of Contra instead of the NES one? It's still the same gameplay only with some enhancements such as cutscenes.
I am going for the Famicom version for all “product shots” and only really switching to the everdrive if I need an English patch or something. Contra will definitely be Famicom.
I've left my NES on overnight so many times lol.
Speaking as a member of the Cool Kids Club (beat it twice some 15 years ago now), you're spot on with identifying level 2 as the real problem in the game. Moooost of G&G falls into the tough, clunky, but fair category -- power-ups (and power-downs) are hidden in the same place from game to game so you can learn and grow, enemies more or less spawn in the same place, and you can develop strategies to fight certain enemies that actually work.
But the big boys in the big house portion is just so random that you can struggle even when you have a good idea of how to approach things -- they might camp on a ladder for far too long, a bird might come along and get in the way, or you might have the wrong weapon at the wrong time. [There is an extra suit of armor somewhere in the top left of it that helps, but still.] You really have to be in a mental space to accept death and lots of it if you even want to take it on. And there are plenty of other tough, but fair AND well-implemented games out there, so in the end? I think you came to the right conclusion.
Edit: I do think this is a useful experience for seeing what a good game Castlevania is. Not that it isn't obvious even without the comparison, but CV takes a lot of what's going on here and improves upon it in basically every way possible. Funnily enough, I'm part of the Cool Kids Club here, but I haven't actually managed to beat the first Castlevania yet. I'll have to give it another serious go at some point.
I’ve heard other people reference 3 or 6 as the main issue, but it’s 2 for me and it’s not close. GnG for me was more frustrating because it felt so close to being so much better of a game, but it just went a little too far in a few locations to point where it really soured the experience for me. I plan to play other versions of this game eventually and I expect my opinion will vary from version to version. Parts of the game I liked, and I may eventually come back to it, but after just finishing Castlevania myself I think I agree with you that it does a better job of balancing challenge with better checkpoints, and less randomness. (Spoiler alert 🚨) but Dracula was harder than any boss in GnG for me by a mile, but the game gave you a checkpoint right before the fight, so it didn’t feel so impossible like GnG can at times having to go through an entire stage more difficult than the boss itself just for another shot. I remember thinking on that last stage that if they made you repeat the rest of the level every time you used a continue it would have really filtered the number of people with the willpower to keep going.
I was actually willing to give GnG a second run through as detailed in the video, but stage 2 a second time proved too much to feel worth it. Had I gotten through it in under an hour I think I would have gone on to beat it as 3, 4, & 5 I think are actually pretty fun stages with more manageable frustration. And once your AT 6, you’re so close that’s motivation in itself. But 2 just didn’t agree with me. If there weren’t crows that would be one thing, but having to pump ten javelins into the big boys and keep an eye out for crows and bile from above… I just had to move on. Thanks for the comment though!
For sure. It was definitely an all-day event for me when I did it, and I had tinkered around a little bit before that to figure things out. I am not sure that I have ever played it again. Definitely not seriously, at any rate.
re: Dracula -- 100%. I have made it to the Count a couple of times, but have just not had enough time to figure out his second form... yet.
Ghost N Goblin's is a game that puts you on a special tier when you beat it.
Good review I never played this port I loved Super Ghost n Goblins for SNES though. Can't believe how brutal the game is especially stage 6 I also don't blame you for not beating it twice you took one for the team by playing it once lol mad respect.
When I make it to the SNES I'll be playing that version! As well as Demon Crest & the Genesis port. I want to play more despite the shortcomings of this port.
@@HPRshredder Ghouls’n Ghosts arcade is a great game, my favorite in the series.
Wow a UA-cam video instead of a virus. Nice
The music keeps me playing through it like how Castlevania the adventure music does.
The tracks for GnG get stuck in my head, but it’s nowhere close to Castlevania’s soundtrack in my mind. The GnG music actually makes me stressed just thinking about it lol.
This game was my childhood.
This game is so absurdly frustrating. I applaud you for your dedication, sir!
[insert unfunny joke using the video game "dark souls" as an adjective for describing difficulty here]
nah dude fuck this game, you're right beating it is definitely some kind of bragging rights reward. imagine thinking a game made for the sole purpose of devouring your coins would be a perfectly fine title to sell as an at home experience.
t. seething
Dark Souls you can level up and beat the game. Ghosts n Goblins you can enter a cheat code and it’s still crazy difficult.
Mad respect for getting as far as you did.
Back in the 80s , I saw my brothers playing. This and laughing at their frustrations.
I hated this game.
Now talk Super Ghouls and ghost. ...
I will play that as well eventually
Cant wait for your next video. Hope all is going well.
If you check my community tab there’s a link to an unlisted video with updates if you’re interested. Next video should be out in a few weeks
i played a lot of NES games on 3DS as a kid and ofc used save states bc they're hard and i was a kid but this one i dropped part of the way through level 3. even with generous save states it was just absurd and i couldn't be bothered
It is so unforgiving and clunky that I 100% get that. I still feel like it’s one of those games people beat mostly just to say they beat it. It can be a miserable experience. I do think there’s some good in there, but it’s unintentionally punishing.
LOL, 19:49 ... I remember it being a real hard game. A friend of mine... who is crazy and loved hard games back then... beat it with one life. In front of me, just to show the game to me. After seeing him beating it... I didn't have any want to try too, lol. The second playthrough is slightly harder, as enemies shoot more... but since you need to use that Shield, you can shoot the projectiles and they vanish, at least if I remember it right.
I owned this game as a kid, one of the first NES games I owned. I'm sorry you had to experience it. "Sadistic" is the word. Like it's just goddamn mean, to children. I see the home video clip of little James Rolfe playing this on Christmas morning or whatever, and it's just sad--that poor little boy. I respect you playing it on original hardware to get the original experience, but personally I would save state the shit out of this one. Your videos are beautifully produced btw, you deserve more subs.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Can you believe I've been thinking about going back to beat it a second time to get the true ending? It still haunts me.
@@HPRshredder Oh I believe it! For some reason it's been in the back of my head for what, like 35 years now? That and the Ultra (aka Konami) Ninja Turtles game continue to haunt me.
This is how I feel about the entire Era. So many 8 and 16 bit action and platform games are frustrating and tedious. This is part of why Mario 64 was so revolutionary. It wasn't designed with that arcade DNA of trying to produce a game over and wipe your progress as soon as possible. And it let you circle back to challenges that were frustrating when you got better.
The nostalgia probably makes this game forgivable to a certain extent. It’s incredibly difficult. Somehow memorable despite the nightmare difficulty.
I'd like to know how many quarters worth of continues that you used? Enough to buy the cart back in the day?
Super Ghouls n Ghosts is to be considered the remake and true way to play
Aw you can't commit to going that far and not finish the 2nd loop! It goes much, much faster.
Thanks!
Thank *you* ! That was unexpected! I saw this comment earlier and lol'd because of how it played on the title but I just noticed it was a super thanks now that I'm not on mobile. What a nice surprise! 🥹
Cool Kids Club is even more cool than you think
To enter it you are supposed to beat the game twice without using continues.
No continues seems like speedrunning territory to me lol. I'd be satisfied with just seeing the credits at this point.
lol imma cool kid too, i completed this game twice on my wii's virtual console. i think it has a certain magic to it that makes it so memorable. maybe its the aesthetic of the nes graphics. but you ever try the master system port? thats a good one.
In the second loop, some enemies are VERY slightly faster and have somewhat improved firing rate. It's barely noticeable, not enough to really qualify as being a different experience but hey it's something.
Now if you choose to play a *third* time after viewing the true ending, the difficulty jumps considerably and things get real stupid. The burrito ghosts in Stage 1 come at you in huge numbers and super fast speed, to the point where avoiding them is pretty much luck. And then Stage 2, third loop difficulty was so bad I just gave up. Wasn't worth it.
A shame they screwed up the level designs so badly. This could have been one of the all-time enduring NES classics.
I feel like with minimal modding it could be fixed. What I would do;
• add a checkpoint after the big house in stage 2
• item pickups you can rotate between with select
• armor can drop from enemies rarely not just secret locations
Just off the top of my head
@@HPRshredder I'm sure there are multiple hacked versions out there that have fixed all the issues. Unfortunately, short of time travel, there's no way to fix it for those who played it back in the day. What should have been as fun as Super Mario Brothers or Castlevania was likely a masochistic slog for most. (Strangely, it was still rated rather highly in the gaming magazines of the time.)
I have nostalgia for this game. Played it in the arcade on release and also on the American NES. The NES port was..subpar at best. I like to fire this game up on MAME just to get the nostalgia kick. This series was always difficult on purpose and for masochists to complete twice through (f*ck that). Better left in the past. My favorite version of this series is Ghouls N Ghost on Genesis and arcade and that has some of the same complaints but better in just about every way.
I really would like to play the arcade version at some point. I have a hunch that the performance issues in the NES version are part of what made the experience so unpleasant for me.
I beat this legit with both playthroughs on the Wii virtual console.
I love this game. Yeah its awful, but man I had a lot of fun/funny nights trying to get through this as a kid.
My favorite modern Ghosts n Goblins moment was watching a guy play this blind on twitch. Level 3 was really killing him. When he finally made it to the boss, the boss never spawned and he just had to let the time run out LOL. Welcome to Ghosts n Goblins
*Edit: I just saw the end of the video. "Beating the game twice" is not actually simply doing the same thing twice. The second loop is actually more difficult as the enemies are significantly faster and the randomly spawning enemies spawn more frequently. So I say to you: "Go ahead dauntlessly! Make rapid progress!"
I love the game I beat them all the best one is the super Nintendo one
sneed
Honest question here... how many of you went to _arcades_ in the mid to late 80's? Because if you did, you wouldn't have any particular ire for this game on account of seeing Capcom pull this crap _all the time._ I'll just give you the list: Gun.Smoke, Legendary Wings, The Speed Rumbler, Section Z, Side Arms - Hyper Dyne, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Strider, Willow. It was pretty simple, checkpoints = DEATH.
As for the NES game, I mostly used the level select trick to get to level 4 for some fun with the axe before saying screw it and going straight to Lucifer (both times). I never had much patience for this sort of thing even in my more foolish days.
This game is Satan's revenge on humanity 😂. It's like an mental endurance test. How much patients do you have before you break! I still love this game though 😅
I put some time into trying to beat this game on NES because of the unlimited continues. I distinctly remember enemies - Red Devils in particular - respawning if you walked back to the left too far. As in, if my killing shots landed but Arthur was too far to the left of the area, the Red Devil would simply be there again.
Am I misremembering?! Seems a really odd thing to have left out of your commentary.
11:51 Your biggest discovery should have been discovering Mario kart 64 and reviewing that
Stay tuned my dude, it's definitely right around the corner!
First game I got together with smb and ice climber. Hated it and after beating it once finding out I had to do it again, I never played it again.
I will play this with save states
The game that BTFO the Famicom Disk System, the Angry Video Game Nerd, and millions of gamers. Really cool game though! I love spooky themed stuff, I need to get the splatterhouse famicom game.
That game looks sick. That and Kid Dracula. Can’t wait to play those myself
@@HPRshredder Kid Dracula is really great! The first levels’ boss is pretty spicy though, if this was a really big channel UA-cam would NOT be happy with it, lol. Also you might want to actually play on your flashcart, due to one of the bosses being a quiz that’s entirely in Kanji. Whether you beat that boss or not is pretty much entirely RNG since the questions are in a different position every time.
@@samuelbaugh4952 By the time I get to it maybe it will be 😎 I’m gonna try not to spoil myself though. I have the first Castlevania coming up real soon and I know it’s based off that
I have to dissect that game beat by beat with savestates to beat it. I don't have the patience anymore.
Just the 1 built in Wii save state. You can't save scum it on it. Yeah this game is brutes. Unlike Recca summer carnival 92 where it's hard but fun.
I have a Genesis mini and Ghost and Goblins is on there. I enjoyed the little I have played of it. I imagine it’s better than the NES port. Super is a sequel to my understanding.
I need to beat things in some sort of order. Depending on the logic I’m using it’s release order and or chronological.
I have the Demon’s Crest games downloaded on the 3DS thankfully so I don’t need to overpay for a cart. Sorry for those that missed that window.
I’m not sure how those spin offs fit in time wise but having those makes me want to play G&G more.
I have heard that the Genesis version is much better. I plan to play it eventually along with Super!
That’s actually a different game completely called Ghouls and Ghosts.
Yes it is far superior! I don’t get anywhere as frustrated with the Genesis version. I have the NES version actually. It’s very flawed and crazy difficult. It’s still nostalgic for better or worse.
I'd say that if you don't beat it at the second loop, you beat the game, you just didn't complete the game! Imo tbf though ;) ;)
So, they were out in a field fooling around? Why was he in his underwear? Lol
I must admit...for the most part, I don't understand the nostalgia for this game.
I mean, the first level is kinda fun - kinda - but, after that, like the video says, the game descends into madness.
And, don't get me wrong, I don't mind a challenge... I've been sidescrollin' for about 35 years now, I can hold my own. But there's "fun" challenging, and there's trolling "randomly-punch-you-in-the-face" challenging, and this is definitely the latter. And it's not even a good-quality game. Localization errors, flickering, slowdown, sprite tearing...it's a mess.
I've picked it up plenty of times...and yeah, every time, a few minutes in, and I'm ready to go play something else. Seriously, this is a console that brought us actual classics like the Super Mario Bros series, Castlevania, Mega Man, Capcom's Disney licenses...stuff that actually felt good to play. Why would I waste my time with this trash?
Holy Diver >>>>> any hard NES/Famicom game
Haven't tried it yet, but I plan to lol
@@HPRshredder you need to try it,this game is a hardcore MASTERPIECE made by IREM !!!
A lot of those flaws exist on the arcade version too, although they seem worse here. It's just not a good game tbh. Some enemy behaviours are fun but the level design is uninteresting. The sequel Ghosts and Goblins (and its various ports) were way better.
I’m not gay but $20 is $20.
I played only the arcade version and I used save states in stage 5-6 to practise the boss fight. .. as you said it's too difficult (40 attempts to just reach the boss).. almost impossible to beat the level.. I never complete it in a legitimate way..
The only way I can play NES games through and have a stress free life is with emulators where I can save and rewind 😂..... actually, I think I quit this one even with an emulator.
I played then and played it now- NOT a good game!
No, this game is for masochists only... for those who thrive on frustration and shattered hope.
Sooo…Jets fans? 😂
As many others have said before, f*€# this game!!!!
I despise the NES port of Ghosts 'n' Goblins. Everything about it, for me, is terrible. It's almost as if the game is designed to mess with the player in every possible way: with the real kick in the pants being that everything has to be completed twice... with a specific projectile weapon the second time.
To be honest I was fortunate to play this the first day it came out for the NES and being only 10 I thought it was awesome close enough for me.... But nothing beats playing this in the 80s at a ghetto ass liquor store in bell gardens ca Gage liquor.... It was the ish.....