Ghouls 'n Ghosts originated in the arcades, but more commonly known was the Genesis port. This version is identical, gameplay-wise, but has the necessary modifications made for the hardware. It has been made the slightest bit easier by giving it more restart points, several difficulty settings, and the ability to continue infinite times. You can also change directions when crouched, which actually makes the game notably easier—in the arcade version, you had to stand up, turn around, and then crouch back down. It also has a cheat mode where you can slow down the game, play it in Japanese, make Arthur invulnerable (you will be amazed at how difficult the game is even then), or select which level to begin at. Given that the game is essentially impossible without these cheats, this is easily the best version of the game and arguably the best platformer on the console. There was also a port to the Japan-only NEC Supergrafx, which plays pretty well, and looks pretty decent. But the colors are off, and the music isn't too hot either. However, the Genesis version has some simplified backgrounds in certain areas, which are intact in the Supergrafx version. The Supergrafx port also limits the credits, opposed to the infinite continuing on the Genesis.

A severely modified port was released for Sega Master System. Certain treasure chests have doors that lead to places where you can acquire different weapons or upgrade Arthur's helmet, chestplate, or boots. Boots will make Arthur run faster and jump higher, and chestplates will allow him to take more damage. Helmets give Arthur access to completely original magic spells, which are independent of the weapon currently used. These range from more powerful versions of the charged up weapons from the arcade version, to temporary invulnerability, to a spell that regenerates Arthur's armor. These spells can only be cast a limited amount of times before a MP meter is depleted, but a few of the doors lead to places where Arthur can replenish MP or regenerate his armor. The sword and torch have been removed and replaced by a very powerful fireball weapon. Other than a few enemies being eliminated, the levels play pretty much identically, except each is divided into three sections—the first and second are divided by their restart points, and the third is the boss fight. A few of the bosses had their attack patterns changed as well. Its music is much more faithful than would be expected given the hardware, but its graphics are pretty poor. This port is by far the easiest version of the game (without cheats), and the many changes that have been made are certainly interesting. The controls are also not as good as the arcade or Genesis versions, but it's a decent enough port. As if to fit in with the rest of the Master System library, the box shows a hilarious, intentionally poorly-drawn variant of the Genesis cover.

The versions for Commodore 64, Atari ST, and Amiga have more original music by Tim Follin. The Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum versions are purely bad in every respect. The X68000 version, like most Capcom arcade ports for the system, is almost pixel perfect to the arcade. Other faithful conversions have been released for Saturn and PlayStation as on Capcom Generations Vol.2, for PlayStation 2 and Xbox as part of the Capcom Classics Collection, and for PlayStation Portable with the Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded.