Memories #23: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

The first time I had ever heard of Super Ghouls'n Ghosts was through a special edition of one of Electronic Gaming Monthly's magazines. This particular issue each had a section devoted to the Genesis and SNES with a list of top 10 games for each. Among the SNES picks was Super Ghouls'n Ghosts. Due to space, they didn't go into detailed length on each game listed, but the difficulty of Super Ghouls'n Ghosts was mentioned. I'd read that EGM in 1998.

I wouldn't actually play Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts until early 2001. Long before GameStop became the king of video game retailers, some associated stores were called Funco Land and it was here that I found a copy. I kept that EGM issue within sight frequently and had begun to mark games on those top tens off the list as I collected them. Seeing as how Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was only $9.99, I gladly parted with my money. Kinda wish I had a time machine. Not so I could warm my past self of what lay before him. So I could laugh out loud for about 30 seconds and then leave.

The less than stellar North American box art.

By the time I picked up Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, the game was about 10 years old. Even so, gaming in 2001 was a bit different than it is today. Word didn't spread as quickly about a game as it does in the times we live in now. It is no secret that Cuphead is a game that will shatter your happiness. The odds of anyone finding out how brutal that game is all on their own are extremely rare. I can tell you that discovering how ball bustingly hard a game is all on your own makes for quite the experience.

As I popped the game into my SNES, sat back and enjoyed some the 16-bit cut scene. "Another damsel that needs to be rescued? I've played dozens of Super Mario games. I got princess rescuing on lock." OK so I wasn't thinking that but I do recall approaching the game with some level of confidence. Said confidence was quickly obliterated.

Oh, joy! All the other areas of the game I'll
never get to see!

Right off the bat, Arthur felt so much stiffer to most characters I was accustomed to controlling in side scrolliners. What made it easier in a game like Castlevania is that Belmont and company weren't being swarmed by enemies. Zombies would constantly pop out of the ground, wolves would pounce from high ledges, ghosts would appear out of thin air to give chase. This was just the first stage and it felt like mass sensory overload. As if to rub salt into the wound, every death would bring up the map, screen, showing me that I had quite a ways to go.

How I spent most of my (alive) time in this
game: in my underwear.

I remember holding my controller in disbelief, thinking "How can the first level of a game be this difficult?" Mercifully, the game had checkpoints and after dying to wolves, zombies and ghosts, I came across something else that wanted dead: the freaking ocean. The first level of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts has a nasty tidal wave section that I died on over and over and over and over again. I must have died more than 20 times but for some reason, probably sheer stubbornness, I pressed on and against insane odds, I managed to clear the first stage.

Stage two took place on a ship and had more those annoying ghosts I'd come to love from the first level. As if that wasn't bad enough the water level would rise as I progresed through the stage and wouldn't you know it, Arthur couldn't swim! Before I passed level 2, I died more than 30 times. The only reason I didn't throw in the towel was because it took me forever to pass the first level but somewhere between all those deaths, I must have realized that this game was not going to get any easier and that I didn't have the dexterity that this game clearly demanded, nor did I feel like investing the time to acquire it. I actually did manage to make it to the third stage but by the time I did, I was mentally drained and shortly after dying for the billionth time, I turned the game off.

I thought Stage 1 was a killer. Then I made
it hear and built up an even higher death count.

I wouldn't play Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts again until 2005 when I picked up the Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 on the PS2. This compilation release also contained Ghouls 'n Ghosts, the predecessor to Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, but Ghosts 'n Goblins, the game that started the entire series. Playing Ghosts 'n Goblins was a real eye opener. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was originally released exclusively for the SNES, a home console. Ghosts 'n Goblins and was released in arcades. All of a sudden, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts quarter consuming difficulty made perfect sense. My time spent with the original Ghosts 'n Goblins showed me that it is a much, much, much much harder game than Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts could ever hope to be.

Its actually kind funny when I look back on my first experiences with Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. Most of my time was spent dying in that game. And yet, for as much agony as the game cause me, I don't hate it. If I were to harbor any feelings of animosity towards a game in this franchise, it would probably be Ghosts 'n Goblins because despite the classic status it holds, it is full of plain bad game design. I think Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts a wonderful soundtrack, composed my Mari Yamaguchi (she also wrote the music to Mega Man 5 and the SNES version of U.N. Squadron/Area 88). The Map jingle (one I heard over and over thanks to dying so many times) is actually one of my favorite game jingles and the music for Stage 2 sounds so lovely. Maybe one day I'll return to Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I think this might be one of the games in Capcom's demon world village franchise that I could actually finish.