Ghouls 'n Ghosts could be considered a brother of Castlevania. Or maybe the second cousin of Castlevania. Lets say the Uncle of the  second cousin of Castlevania. But then a cousin would be the child of an Uncle....so really it should be....I'm digressing. The point of the  matter is is you live Castlevania, you're going to like Ghouls 'n Ghosts. They are similar yet different at the same time. They could be related to each-other, but by no means mistaken for each-other. This is one of those hard games that every platformer should play. So lets  journey through eerie lands and defeat odd creatures that stand in our path, as we look at Ghouls 'n Ghosts.

So the story is your a knight called Author looking to save his beloved Princess Prin Prin....Odd name, could be related for an abbreviation of "Princess". Anywho, the Princess has been kidnapped from the evil Loki, or more accurately, Loki stole her soul, who has restored the Ghouls 'n Ghosts world. So author must journy through five levels and not only save his beloved "Prin Prin", but destroy Loki and restore peace to the world. Classic story there. talk about kiling two birds with one stone. Come to think of it, it's almost like a combination of the story of Castlevania with the story of Super Mario Bros. Wow, so that's what the story would be like....

So it shows you the entire game in a pixel map, which will be split up into five levels, and 16 check points, and you begin. You start out at  the grave yard. You are a knight in shining Armour and you have a javelin as a weapon. The controller has two buttons to jump, and one to  attack with. Normally, you'll just be using two buttons, but having three can be confusing. Also, normally, the button on the left hand side (the A button), would normally be the attack button (the B Button on your NES controller, but is in the middle of this one). Here, it's the  other way around, and has made me attack instead of jump, and has always caused my untimely death. Although it's the correct way if you shift your thumb patterns bone button to the right. And thanks to Vizzed having a button configuration menu, this problem is solved. Thanks David =D

You don't have a main weapon that you keep, but more like a weapon that will constantly keep changing. You start out with javelins, but will be replaced later with a sword, or some blue-holy-water-fire-thing, or an axe. My advice, don't get the axe. It's not worth it, you throw the axe
at a stupid angle, and they are really big axes as well, you might as well use it as a melee weapon in stead of throwing it. It's the only
weapon that pierces enemies, though, but not worth it for my liking. You can also get this Gold Armour as well which can grant your item a  power-up, but holding the attack button. When the bar is full, you'll get an attack unique to that weapon. Again, don't get the axe for this. it's  not worth it, just a small fire ball with the same attack at the accrual weapon.

Now lets play the game.....*smirks* Sorry, it's just the way he runs.....*gigles* I love how he jumps. When your not moving and jumps,  he looks so mad. Like Marven the Mastain. And when your running then you jump *gigles again* who jumps like that? Wait.....*thinks about it* Do Ijump like that? *goes off to find out* No no, I dopn't think people normally jump like that. Although I think ballerinas do. not that  there's anything wrong with that. Moving on, you have limited hit points. It's like Super Mario Bros. When you get hit once, you have one  hit left,  although you can find Armour (and other weapon and Gold  Armour) In chests for an extra hit. When you get hit, guess what happens to  symbolize that. Go on, guess. Does his Armour get damages severally? No, keep guessing. Does he get smaller? No, keep guessing.  Give up? The answer is, all his Armour gets striped away leaving him naked apart  from some comical boxers with hearts on. He must be really epic to fight hoards of monsters in his underwear....hey wait a minute....that's not  Author. That's not Author at all.....It's Chuck Norris!

You look like Chuck Norris! That makes sense. Who else to fight hoards of monsters in their boxers than Chuck Norris? Forget killing two birds with one stone, Chuck's going to kill two stones with one bird (I know what I said didn't make sense, but go along with it). Well, moving along, when playing, you'll come along a chest that comes out of the ground. Open it, and you'll either find a good thing, or a  Magician. This guy will fire a ball of stars at you, and either turn you into an old man, basically you normally but twice as slow, or a duck.  Just a duck that can't do anything apart from walk and jump. There is a small window for you to kill this guy, if you time it right. Did I mention  this game is hard? You'll die a lot of times, but it's not stupidly hard like "I Wanna Be The Guy" or "Contra", but is pretty much the perfect  difficulty for people that want a challenge. It's hard, but not that hard and you'll get passed the game in about a couple of hours.

Although this game is fun, it is pretty cheap at the end. After you beat the five levels, you get the key, but before you enter Loki's room, God
himself talks to you and congrats you on how well you did. Well, you  are Chuck Norris, after all, it wasn't that hard for him. But he tells  you that you need to go back to the village and get your Magic Armour before you fight Loki. Otherwise you won't be able to defeat him. Er,  this is Chuck Norris we're talking about. He had a staring contest with the sun, and the sun blinked. Oh well, your the All-Knowing God  and....WAIT A MINUTE!! Your God, you're a All-Knowing All-Seeing Being. If you knew Chuck here....er....I mean Author here needed his  Magic Armour to to able to defeat the evil Loki, then why didn't you say so in the beginning and saved a lot of trouble? Oh well, I suppose I  shouldn't argue with that. He said that the "Goodness of battle" will help him. Then sweet "Prin Prin" comes and give Author support, in  whichthe "Goddess of Battle" would appear.....Wait what? So what is it? Is it a Goddess or just a metaphor? This game has been badly  translated as aresult of rushing to get them in the USA and Europe, so that's why, but still.....What?

So now you are at the beginning of the game again, with your "Magic Armour", which looks exactly the same as the normal Armour. So now you must play the game again to get the proper ending. How cheap is that? They are forcing you to play the game twice in order to get the  proper ending. Fine, I'll play again. Surprising not as hard the second time around. A few more enemies here and there, but not that hard.  Can you make it to Loki? I did (yay for me ^^), but it's not here as I had the "plug-in and play" version. The music nice, but also odd. The  music fromlevel three really does make you think of the Devils castle. Also creates an eerie atmosphere that goes well with the game.

The graphics, however, are my favorite thing about this game. The huge selection of monsters to kill are amazing. Almost a unique section of monsters for every level. They have everything. Bouncing turtle shells; goo monsters; fiery bird things; giant green hands that shot green balls from.....somewhere.....; even demon statues that spit their wiggly tongues as platforms. It's really awesome that they have so much of thisin this game. The bosses are fun, but some are random and will make you die even if you are really good. The the Kraken ripped of worm from level 4. I love that boss. It's balanced, offers a nice challenge, and doesn't rely on luck on what goes were to beat it.

Overall, I give this an 8.8/10 The controls aren't that stiff, the graphics and selection of monsters are superb, the music is pretty neat  and most importantly....You look like Chuck Norris! If your a fan of Castlevania, you really should play this game. If you liked this game,  then you might want to play a Castlevania game on the NES or SNES. This is a little harder than it's Castlevanian relative, and is a must play for all platform lovers.