This Week in Retro: Ghosts ’N Goblins [1985]

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September 19, 1985: Capcom adds boxer shorts to the annals of Arthurian legend

by Diamond Feit

What was in the air 35 years ago this month? What magnitude of coincidences came together to congregate two seminal video games so close together? September 13, 1985 gave us Super Mario Bros., the definitive 2D platformer (and, at the time, the ultimate game that Nintendo's Famicom console could handle). Yet within one week of Mario's grand adventure hitting store shelves, Capcom would release a very different platformer in arcades, one that edged towards the darker—and harder—side of video games: Ghosts 'n Goblins.

Super Mario Bros. and Ghosts 'n Goblins have a lot more in common than their convergent release dates, as both games tell tales of a hero running from left to right in order to rescue a princess from evil in a fantasy kingdom. Mario's jaunt through the Mushroom Kingdom, though, feels like a lark: Most stages are bright and sunny, and even the darker underground levels come across as more "moody" than "spooky." But when Arthur begins his journey, he's in a cemetery at night, where the dead literally rise from their graves (why was he on a date here, anyway?). From there, the game only leads him deeper into the underworld.

It's true that Mario must visit castles full of lava, which are most definitely not friendly, but the worst thing he can find there is an angry turtle slightly larger than himself—one he need not even fight, as he can simply shuffle past his foe to escape. Ghosts 'n Goblins ends each level with a large monster that must be killed in order to unlock the door to the next area, and there is a definite pattern of escalation at work here: Fight a boss once, then face two of the same boss at the end of the next stage. There's even a boss-rush level right before the final battle, though only the pair of Satans at the top of the tower must die for Arthur to proceed.

Oh, did I say Satans… plural? Yes, though regional differences and varied localization choices have altered all the proper nouns in Ghosts 'n Goblins over time, Arthur's royal sweetheart is abducted by a Satan, though he's not the final boss. That battle is with, depending on which localization you believe, the "Great Demon King'' or Astaroth, and he has two faces—both of which breath fire and look quite unhappy about it.

Unpacking the localization of Ghosts 'N Goblins is a whole topic unto itself. In Japanese, the original game is called Makaimura, "Demon World Village," and each subsequent release appended prefixes or suffixes as needed. In English, we got a good title that evokes the spirit of the game (fighting supernatural creatures) but it does obfuscate the fact that Arthur is killing actual demons, including Satan. The sequels got different creature names for some reason: Are Ghouls scarier than Goblins? Do any of these games actually contain any Ghosts, Goblins, or Ghouls?

One of the most infamous elements of Ghosts 'n Goblins—one which became a defining feature of subsequent games—is its difficulty. Let us not dismiss Super Mario Bros. as "easy" (I have still never, ever beaten it without save states); compared to Ghosts 'n Goblins, however, it’s downright a gentle experience. Mario can run and jump, and he’s constantly finding power-ups along his quest to rescue his princess. Opportunities to earn extra lives are plentiful—infinite, even, if you’re adept at bouncing on Koopa shells. Arthur, on the other hand, starts with a suit of armor and a lance, and that's more or less his strongest possible form. The slightest brush with an enemy or hazard shatters his armor, which leaves Arthur in just his underwear; a second hit is fatal. Other weapons can be picked up during play, but none of them are dramatically better than the starting lance (though the short sword is much faster).

There's also the fact that Super Mario Bros., as a console game, has a definitive end: Eight worlds of four levels apiece, and then Mario sees the princess. It's possible to play again on a harder difficulty, but that's how the story concludes. Ghosts 'n Goblins players who make it to the final room and slay the Great Demon King are told, "This room is an illusion and a trap devised by Satan," and they must then restart the game from the beginning. Beat the game a second time, and Arthur does save the princess… only to start over from the beginning anyway, because that's what arcade games were like in 1985. The sequels offer Arthur a proper ending with credits but retain the exhausting double-loop requirement before he is allowed to reach the princess.

35 years later, the legacy of Ghosts 'n Goblins is a curious one. The game was absolutely a hit with multiple sequels and spin-offs, though the series has sat idle for a decade now (and that 2010 release was a mobile phone game). Arthur and Firebrand (aka Red Arremer, the irritating flying red monster seen in every level) are the series' most enduring mascots, making cameos in other games and even appearing as playable characters in titles such as SVC Chaos and Marvel vs Capcom 3.

The NES port is perhaps better remembered than the arcade original, as it arrived in 1986 just as that console was building an audience in the U.S. That version has since been re-released on the Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console, the NES Classic, and Nintendo Switch Online.I know all my Ghosts 'n Goblins memories were forged in a living room rather than an arcade, and the game never struck me as "too hard," because I was 10 years old. What else was I going to spend my time on besides Nintendo?