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»Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
"The real first name in survival horror comes to the GBA."
Riddle me this, PR faithful. What game series do you think comes to my mind when I think of the “survival horror” genre? Silent Hill? Clock Tower? Resident Evil? HA! All good guesses, but I’m afraid I think of something one might not associate with that particular class of video games: Ghouls ‘n Ghosts.
Sure, the creepy atmospheres and random surprise attacks do evoke a
certain idea of “survival horror”, but let me ask you this: what could
be more terrifying than running through demons, giant leeches, zombies
and other assorted creatures of the night armed with nothing more than
a lance and dressed in naught but your tighty-whities? So, it gave me
great cheer more than half a decade ago to hear that the third game in
their trilogy of terror was coming to the Game Boy Advance, and while
newer ports of the game have been released in recent history, this one
holds up pretty well in spite of that.
The
plot follows the traditional Ghouls 'n Ghosts set up: after questing to
find weapons of white magic, Sir Arthur returns to the castle and his
beloved, the lovely Princess Prin-Prin. Unfortunately, their reunion is
short-lived – Prin-Prin is quickly nabbed (yet again) by a demonic
army, in the employ of the evil demon Sardius. So once more, Arthur
must venture into the demon world once again and save the princess from
a hoard of zombies, demons, and other assorted monstrosities.
SGnG
draws heavily on its predecessors, producing the most difficult game in
the series to date. Players once again take on the role of the brave
Sir Arthur, who jumps, runs and chucks weapons through innumerable
unholy hordes. Arthur is only able to take two hits of damage. He will
first lose his armor (leaving him clad in only his boxer shorts), while
the other causes him to lose everything but his bones, losing a life.
There are extra armors and alternate weapons hidden throughout the
stages in treasure chests. The game does follow some conventions: at
the end of each stage, there stands an immense boss, which takes
several hits in a certain area to destroy. There is one major
difference: the boss is the EASIEST part of the stage. Not to decry the
quality of the bosses – they’re actually fairly difficult – but when
the first three stages involve a romp through a never-ending onslaught
of enemies, sailing through turbulent waters on a wooden raft, and
navigating through a labyrinth that rotates and will randomly shift the
surfaces in the stage and line them with spikes, well, let’s be honest:
a giant leech that constantly circles around the level and hacks up
balls of ooze at the protagonist is really no big deal.
Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts,
even in its original form, offered its own changes to the gameplay of
its predecessor. For starters, in addition to the green “Bronze” Armor
found in the original Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, there was the Golden Armor,
which offered both the Bronze Armor’s special weapons, as well as its
own unique magic attacks, which varied depends on which item Arthur
holds at the time. There were also two new weapons added to Arthur’s
already immense arsenal: the Bow and Arrow, a weapon that allows Arthur
to throw two arrows in diagonal directions; and the Scythe, a powerful,
but slow-moving straight-forward attack.
Furthermore,
the GBA version adds a new dimension to the gameplay by implementing
some new features of its own. First and foremost, there’s a new Save
feature, that allows players to save their place in-game. Of course,
this does undermine the game’s difficulty a fair amount, because it
acts much like a save state: allowing players to save their current
hoard of items and armor, and return to it if they are left in a
compromised situation. Then again, considering the game’s legendary
difficulty, it’s understandable.
The biggest addition to the GBA port would have to be the total of two
ways to play. While the original quest seen on the SNES returns in the
aptly-named Original Mode, there lies a new experience in the
aptly-titled Arrange Mode. Sure, the basic concepts, controls, etc. are
the same, but this mode has a nice little quirk: three alternating
paths. The first is the standard path from the original, the second
include revamped stages from the earlier games in the series and the
third (and true) path offers rearranged versions of the original
stages. To get on those alternate paths, players must pass a certain
criteria: finishing each stage with one of the “special” armors fully
intact. Sure, it’s a brutal undertaking, but if you’re accustomed to
the Ghouls ‘n Ghosts games, you’ll know what to expect.
The
visuals are more-or-less the same as they were before, albeit in a new
ratio to fit the smaller screen of the GBA. Of course, this does result
in a mild loss in quality, but nothing drastic. On the other hand, the
game has seen better days – it was over ten years old at the time of
the GBA re-release. Not to mention the fact that a mild makeover
would’ve definitely helped the Arrange mode, considering the
differences in gameplay.
The same can be said for the audio. Like most SNES-to-GBA conversions, SGnG
does a good job emulating the classic songs from the 1991 classic, but
there is a significant drop in quality. Then again, the same can be
said for any SNES-GBA port – try comparing the music between Super Mario Advance 2 and the original Super Mario World
one of these days. However, in spite of its technical limitations, the
GBA version does justice to the score and sound effects found in the
original.
The one area where this game beats out the
original is the replay value, without a doubt. As I mentioned earlier,
this port includes both the original game and an arranged version with
several additional stages not found in the original. Of course, since
many of the new stages come from earlier games in the GnG series, one could probably get just as much enjoyment out of the Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded
on the PlayStation Portable. Granted that wasn’t out at the time of
this game’s release, but it does include arcade-perfect versions of the
entire GnG collection. In the end however, this is an excellent port and it’s definitely the best way to experience Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on a Nintendo portable, even today.
Article by: Wolfdogg
Posted on: Oct. 31st, 2007 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| The Arrange mode adds a new twist to the gameplay, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same game as before. |
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Graphics |
| The graphics are about the same, but the smaller screen hurts their quality. Besides, like most games, they haven’t aged well. |
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Sound |
| A noticeable drop in quality compared to the original, but nothing devastating to the overall integrity to the score. |
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Replay Value |
| Two game modes, each with their own paths. Still, the game’s legendary difficulty may turn off some gamers. |
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