Review | Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection

LifeisXbox’s Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection review | I wasn’t even born when the original Ghosts ‘n Goblins was released in ’85. It was one of the pinnacle experiences on the arcade machines. Fair to say I think a lot of young gamers have experienced this franchise before though, in one of the many ports or in the Capcom Arcade Stadium collection on Xbox that VicciVulpix reviewed. Now it returns in full glory with a remastered version that includes updated visuals, an orchestrated soundtrack, and a local co-op. It is just a damn shame that they haven’t modernized the controls a bit! In hope that this won’t scare away new players, this resurrection of Ghost ‘n Goblins is definitely worth checking out.

This is a short review, our usual the good, mixed and the bad was difficult because of the nature of this game. We played Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection on Xbox Series X

Capcom found a sweet spot for the difficulty in this typical old-school action platformer. Your knight Arthur’s mission to save the damsel in distress can be adjusted to your gaming skills. Originally this game is incredibly hard but you can lower the savagery by changing the difficulty, lots of options here going from surviving more hits or even immortality in the form of instant respawning. I decided to take the punishing way of the second-hardest difficulty and yeah… swearing occasionally happened. Pretty neat is that the game understands when you are struggling and even asks if they need to make things a bit easier mid-level. This will severely impact your level points though, but I gladly took this option on hair pulling occasions. At some moments my controller was shaking but not for the vibration function but because it was scared to be thrown around the living room.

Gone are the simple visuals from the past, Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection has a more modern look that fits the current gamers’ vision in graphics. Environments are fairly detailed, especially when inside churches and enemy designs manage to stand out. It’s far from being on par with the Ori games but it has character in the visuals. I was a bit shocked that they rock-solid decided to remain with the outdated controls of the franchise. A sluggish way of moving knight Arthur seriously damaged the fun of the game and will scare away many first-time players. An almost exact movement that makes the game even harder than it is, directional shooting and jumping simply isn’t from this time anymore. Even if you are aiming for retro gamers…

It has a few highlights though and one of them is the remastered music. Absolutely beautifully orchestrated, giving it an almost emotional edge. Another one is the local co-op option that allows the second player to move a ghostlike character that helps Arthur progress in the levels, not a must-play mode but it is a nice touch to play with a friend.

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