I remember years ago how I use to think this was one of those crappy box covers. However, now that I looked at it properly, its way better then the Super Ghouls N Ghosts' box art and I'm loving the hard rock fantasy style cover. Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner and we are only several days away from Halloween. For the review, we take a look at the Genesis port of Ghouls N Ghosts from Sega. In 1989, a year after the Arcade game got released they brought the rights to GNG and ported it to the Genesis. That means Capcom wasn’t publishing or developing the port but Sega instead. During 1989 and 1990, they sold the Genesis to American gamers and advertised it as an arcade style console. I’m not referring to their “Sega does what Nintendon’t” advertising but a different one about arcade gaming. Sega was able to get publishing rights for some of these titles and would bring them to the Genesis. In one commercial, they showed several games with side by side comparisons between the original and the Genesis ports. GNG was in fact among one of those titles in the commercial and the point is that you could have the same experience at home. The Genesis port of GNG would have the exact gameplay as the original version however; the console couldn’t handle everything from the CPS-1 system. Check out my GNG Arcade review if some of you missed it to see the difference graphically. Gameplay Nothing saw a big change from the original as the game mechanics were the same. I can see why Sega designed a three-button controller as it's meant for 80s style arcade gameplay. The controls felt perfect as if I was using the actual buttons from a cabinet’s controller board. The D-Pad for the 16-bit consoles was just more flexible compared to their 8-bit predecessors. They absolutely did GNG justice as moving Author and performing attacks and jumping felt spot on. The extra four angle movements on the D-Pad made this come close to the Arcade's analog stick. It's a true improvement over the first game's NES port. The level's challenges didn't see any changes either and every enemy and hazard appeared at the same spots. Now that I tried a play through with the torch, it's actually more capable than all of us thought. The weapon's regular use was actually limited and would only cause a wall of fire for ground enemies. When charged with the Magic Armor the spell will have several torches circling around the area Author is standing in. I bring this up here because I never tried using the torch as it was always the worst weapon in the game. Now, I might consider it as a decent option and something that should've been tried by me in the Arcade version. This was one of the areas Sega was able to leave in as other versions has the center pieces missing. They must've been on a deadline to only add a select few and I'm confident the Genesis could do more judging by the console's later released games in the 90s. I also can tell that the difficulty got reduced a little as this port isn't challenging. Of course, Sega programmed a practice mode (easy) so this version can feel accessible to gamers. If you opted for the original challenge the professional option is also available to choose. I have to hand this to the studio, and they knew an easier difficulty would help sell the port. The Genesis version was a great conversion from the CPS-1 in more ways than one. Sega always made it possible to take a game (especially from the CPS-1) and have the program work on their console. The gameplay and level design was the closest to the original experience compared to the other ports (not including the SuperGrafx version). Rating: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation Like all console ports, they will get downgraded in some form to work around the system’s limitations. The Genesis version would have such limits as GNG got released in the launch window of the system. As stated many times, a console in its launch window never showcases the true power. Let’s talk about the features that were retained starting with the environments. I noticed the differences of color being used as any broad textures got stripped and replaced with lighter hues. It wasn't most of the time as the castle stage even had animated textures as seen from the CPS-1. In level one, lightning strikes in the sky and a storm rages at the start of the second area along with the trees swaying in the wind. In level 3, as the platform moves up I noticed they were able to retain the center long piece between the walls. While in the castle stage the background props probably were the best textures to properly get animated from the source. Even though the Genesis supports a terrible sound chip, Sega managed to make the OST come off good. Sure, there are some changes to the sound effects and tones. However, it's nothing drastic and if anything the Genesis' sound chip gives the music its own charm. Let's do another side by side comparison image and you can see the massive differences between the Genesis and the CPS-1. I honestly feel that Sega could've emulated some of these backgrounds and textures if they were given more time. Now, we move on to the downgraded areas as even the 16-bit consoles still had to go through their limitations. The backgrounds took most of the hit since they had to get redrawn to work around 512 colors. The first two levels had the entire backdrop redrawn with scaled down visuals. In most cases some of the backgrounds were even removed completely. Take the boss area in the third stage, and there was no sky texture, fog below or even stalagmites in front of it. I also noticed several tile textures got taken out such as the wall and dirt crevices or props featured along the environment. It's very noticeable in the graveyard and village stages especially the starting locations. As you move up the hill in the ruined village a clear black spot is on the backdrop which shows they didn't program this part properly. The intro for some unknown reason got removed as I'm going to chalk that up to the development team running on a deadline. I'm also confident Sega could've added the intro when the SuperGrafx port (an updated TurboGrafx) had this feature. Oh and let's not forgot to mention that a few bosses had some animation frames removed. It was mostly their facial expressions when you strike them as they either flinch or open their mouths. Like I said, I know Genesis could support these animation frames but the studio likely had limited time to add them. Rating: 8.2/10 Features/Content As I stated many times about Sega, they always knew how to give gamers their monies worth. Unlike the Original Arcade title, on Genesis there are actually several features to play around with. There are obviously no bonus rounds as mentioned in the previous review. However, there are a couple of codes to input that can make the whole experience fun. For starters, I love the way Sega put in the Japanese mode as the title screen and the text gets changed. Often, we never see developers go out of their way to add such a mode, and it's downright awesome. The level select was another code I found really enjoyable as this made it easier to warp to any part of the stages. The best one yet is the Debug mode and this allows you to slow the frame rate down or enable invincibility. Come on now, Invincibility in a Ghosts N Goblins game, what more can anyone say. It did make this enjoyable for me to play without any difficult moments when I needed the armor. The Invincibility cheat has always been a staple feature in classic gaming regardless of what title included the code. It's really up there with those level selects and limitless supply of lives cheats. I guess you can say Sega does what Capcan't, eh? I seriously need to stop with these puns.
Rating: 8.5/10 Final Rating For an early Genesis title, the GNG port did satisfy year one adopters way before Sonic hit the scene in 1991. It sold on bringing the Arcade experience home with virtually identical features. The gameplay and level design had no changes performed except for its difficulty being reduced to an easier form. All the enemies, stage hazards and bosses have the same challenges. The graphics didn't take much of a hit like most arcade to console titles usually does. It's true that half the foregrounds and backgrounds got redrawn or removed altogether. However, this is actually made up by having the sprites and most of the environments intact as they consistently appear on the CPS-1. Even a handful of special effects like lightning flashing with a storm and fire blazing in a ruined village stood out the most. Even the gleaming wall textures from the castle stage made these nearly identical to the Arcade game. The music and sound effects weren't the same quality from the CPS-1 system, but Sega still gave each track a charming feeling. The content saw a massive improvement over the original versions in many ways that benefited the game even more. With cheats such as a Japanese mode and a Debug mode that enables slowmo gameplay and invincibility is a vital step up. The Genesis game is a quality version that truly brings home the arcade experience. Gameplay: 8.5/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.2/10 Features/Content: 8.5/10 Final Rating: 8.4/10 Very Good
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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