Anyone that was a fan of Capcom and owned a SNES is familiar with a particularly challenging 2D side scrolling game set in a eerie graveyard that put you up against Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins alike-and No it's not Maximo. Ghouls and Ghosts was based off the SNES and made an impact with rather wicked challenging yet addicting gameplay of a knight and his quest to rescue his lovely Princess Guinevere.
To relive the experience some ten years ago, Nintendo has released this entertaining classic as a nearly perfect port that has been enhanced for the Game Boy Advanced that contains the same look, feel and challenge as before that will make you want to rip your hair out and come back for more.
-GAMEPLAY-9.5
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G&G is your standard 2D platform game containing 8 frustrating levels of undead torture as you work your way with Arthur to rescue your beloved princess. This is basically a straight up port from the SNES with the exactly look and feel as the original but with some new enhanced features in the portable unit. The game contains two different modes- original version that present in the SNES and the arranged version lets you change up the difficulty in three parts after you finish the first level.
There are four different settings of difficulty from novice to expert that only serves to make your enemies move and attack faster the higher that it's set. The battle the undead, Arthur is armed with a variety of weapons that can be acquired from treasure chests that are triggered to appear as well as from certain enemies. Most of weapons range from the standard lance, torch and the crossbow, each having there own different strengths and weaknesses.
To defend against an attack, Arthur follows a two hits and your out approach as his plate mail armor only absorbs one hit then breaks off into pieces to reveal Arthur scantly clad in only his bare boxers and becomes vulnerable to turn into the pile of bones with the next hit. The armor can also be upgraded to more advanced versions that actually enhance your weapon currently in use and making more powerful. The ultimate golden armor allows you to charge your weapon with white magic which creates a special attack that specific to each individual weapon.
A rather unfair element in acquiring the golden armor is the fact that if you get hit you still go back down to your bare boxers. Getting your hands on the Golden rod armor isn't something that happens every level, the least they could have knocked Arthur down to the basic steel armor but I'm sure this gave the designers a little chuckle.
No matter what setting you use for Super G&G the insane difficulty will still be there due to unpredictable and random appearances and movement of the various enemies that launch out of the ground in coffins, materialize out of thin air or rise through the flames. Think you're an over confident one and can shake of the rust and breeze by the first level in a couple of tries you better think again as the cold reality keeps coming to smack you in the face over and over again which is guaranteed to make you frustrated to no end.
It is completely impossible to pass through the first stage in one try, unless you got some mad skills of the force or a rather handy cheat code. Patience and timing are really the essential keys in order to complete each unique stage in one complete piece
Despite the rather high frustration levels, Super G&G with keep you wanting to constantly play the levels over again due the fun factor level in the Gameplay that makes you really determined to pass a particular level you have a problem with. Although most of the time the game never really gives you any breaks or makes anything easy on you.
The game is basically one big chess match the requires you to use a trial and error strategy approach to learn the levels and the enemies abilities to successfully pass each area, simply blazing through throwing down a spread of cross bolts will just get you nowhere really fast except the pile of bones route. Thankfully, Capcom has provide a couple of save slots in the game that can be accessed in the start menu at any given time to save the progress you have made since playing straight through in one sitting is absolutely ludicrous
-GRAPHICS 9.0-
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The visual transfer from the original classic on the SNES to the sleek little handheld is rather flawless as it shows all the elements of environments and characters in a it's colorful eerie sprite filled design. Each level is made up of it's own unique structure and colorful backgrounds that vary from the initial graveyard, ghost ship, to a cavern filled with hot lava that is enhanced with numerous details. The environmental effects really aid the background in creating a more darker and disturbing atmosphere with all the flashes of lighting in the sky and the effects generated by special charge attack of the weapons. You can't ask for a better transfer from the SNES to the nice sleek handheld, even though the graphics contained here are rather out of date
-CONTROLS-8.5
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Another aspect that makes Super G&G rather difficult is the learning curve needed with the movement of Arthur. Arthur has the typical movements that you would expect to have with a side scrolling game and well as the original Ghouls and Ghosts but in this version he is equipped with the double jump. The catch here is that the player can not control the movement of Arthur jump once he is in the air so basically you must constantly use strategy to figure out before you jump how far you will go and where your going to eventually land. This becomes really complicated since the level layouts make you have to adjust your jumps at certain points so timing is really the key as well as learning what kind of jump is needed for that particular area.
-SOUND-10.0
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The audio quality for Super G&G contains the same elements of the soundtrack from the original as well as some new variations that make for one of the strongest points in the game. The soundtrack overall represents many qualities the blend well with this dark and eerie environment and has a surprising clear and crisp sound that usually would be unexpected from a handheld that makes want to slap on some headphones on while you play, which for me is practically rare. The sound effects have the same realistic genuine quality that blends well with the general soundtrack.
-PROBLEMS-
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Super slow-mo action- Moving at the speed of .1 impulse
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The animation in general have a constant flow but sometimes there are slow freezes in certain movement that happen occasionally but it's nothing too distracting and sometimes enhanced weapons such as the crossbow in particular seems to want to loop around a target without any way to stop it but just to wait for it, this delay can hurt since there's no way to attack at this point.
-Weapon weaknesses-
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The problem here is that there is somewhat of a good and bad tradeoff concerning the weapon and it's special attack. The stronger weapon you have the weaker or worthless special attack or have and vice versa, personally the crossbow is a great weapon but uncovering treasure chests as a special is completely worthless in the long run. Where as the torch is a rather weak and limited short range weapon but it's force shield special can be rather helpful in certain situations.
-Patience factor-
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This is definitely one of the hardest games period on the GBA and it will take some degree of effort and time to even pass the first level depending on your patience level and your ability to adapt to skill required for the game. It's definitely going to make you want to throw things and require multiple times of replaying the level over again to pass through successfully, you will not pass through on the first try. If you don't respond to difficult challenges very well and have little patience you may want to steer clear from the agony and the torture
-FINAL THOUGHT-
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Super G&G is simply another must have games that is a rather rare statement compared to the lack of quality found in many of the other games for the system. This may be quite a challenge but it will keep you constantly coming back for more due to the fun factor as well as the extended replay value that's present even with only 8 levels to progress through due to the strategy needed to be successful, be prepared to die quite frequently.
