Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner and the days to Halloween are almost over. We take a look at the third title in the series called Super Ghouls N Ghosts which got released on the Super NES in 1991. It isn’t a port like the Sega Genesis received but rather a console exclusive built with the system in mind. The theme takes place four years later as the Kingdom saw peace once again after Lucifer’s defeat. Arthur gives Princess Prin Prin a visit during a celebration at the Castle Town. However, he was unaware that a new demon called Samael from the Demon Realm has risen to power and wants to conquer the Human Realm. During his quality visit with the Princess, a demon called Satan crashes into the upper window of the castle and kidnaps her. Now, Arthur once again has to brave the obstacles of the Demon Realm to stop Samael and rescue the princess. Just like the second game, this installment saw improvements that tweaked the gameplay further and to make it a little easier. Gameplay Much like the previous installments, there are many returning gameplay mechanics as you face waves of enemies, avoid obstacles and face a boss. The controls are essentially the same quality with no stiffness to them like it was in the original. There is a new feature to the controls as you can now a double jump. It always helped me to get by not only from the enemies but to add an attack or to get through an obstacle. No longer do I have to worry about falling into a gap when missing a jump towards a narrow platform.it comes at two levels this time. The green armor making your attacks stronger. The gold lets you charge up a magic attack. I always loved the way they improved the magic armor and that's because there's more to your arsenal. Whenever obtaining these upgrades I knew this was going to make it easier especially against the bosses. The level design saw a slight improvement in terms of challenge and now the terrain will change as you move through a stage’s area. Whether the ground moves up or down, an avalanche of snow comes down or water waves thrashing up and down, this made the challenge more varied. At this point, I need to discuss an issue, and Capcom should have taken the gameplay mechanics further and not staying the same with a few tweaks. Taking two hits shouldn’t have been used for the third game again and is an outdated design from the mid 80’s. Its one of the reasons this series never took off even compared to Castlevania which actually progressed better. Despite the level design getting better after each installment, the gameplay should’ve been accessible to other gamers. The same idea used in the Sega Master System port of the second game would have worked here with the hearts representing the defense points. Another thing about the level design is it’s the same concept of replaying the game again after supposedly reaching the last stage. The levels might not be cheaply designed anymore, but this type of concept is truly outdated. Capcom must have forgotten they were developing a console game and not something that belongs in the arcades. The whole “developers verses players” design should've been retired by 1991 considering it was the next-gen consoles. Rating: 8.8/10 Graphics/Presentation After Sega received a port of the second game on their Genesis; Capcom instead would develop the third game on the Super NES. The game is truly on par graphically with the other titles in 1991 showcasing good visuals. The environments are well detailed with many dark props and backgrounds as you venture through. My favorites were the Graveyard, the Towers, and the snowy mountains which had lush and dark detail. Of course the shock value was missing this time (i.e. skeletons nailed to crosses like the previous game), but regardless these were still dark environments. The sprites look more detailed compared to the second game’s Arcade version as they were much broader. The animation does have a little more frames for most of the characters as seen from Arthur’s double jump or the red demon dancing. As for any other animations, they are about the same quality as seen from the second arcade game for some of the sprites. For the environments, they have a lot more animation around the levels especially when they move about on the foregrounds or in the backgrounds. The best ones were the water effects of waves splashing onto the narrow strip of the graveyard. It's illustrated even more during the other half of the haunted sea level on the background with waves moving up and down. I also love the other additional effects and seeing something as little as fire gleaming off the stone walls was a fantastic way to set the mood. The intro was the best one out of the three games as it opens to Arthur running up to the castle casually with several villagers celebrating. I love how the demons outside the town would slowly creep out of the shadows, every time the lightning flashed during an upcoming storm. The way Satan (a minion to Samael) slowly came to the castle’s top window in its perspective outside would create anticipation. That was a great way to not only set the theme up but give the feeling something bad was going to happen upon the intro. The soundtrack has taken a step further in this installment and completely outdoes the previous titles. There wasn’t one song that was dull as each track set the mood perfectly for the levels they represented. The remix of the graveyard stage was the best one yet from the others. It was catchy but at the same time created a mood that still would make you feel that this stage felt menacing. The tracks that stood our include the Graveyard, the Towers, the Flesh Caverns, Samael’s Castle and even the continue theme sounded great. The only thing that was an issue here was the lack of a parallax effect as the backgrounds were still images most of the time. Of course, there were some animation being used like fire gleaming off the stone walls or water moving about. Even the Genesis port of the previous game had this effect which is surprising when the Super NES is more capable. It’s more ridiculous that Sega was able to leave this effect in the Genesis port of the second game but yet Capcom couldn’t do the same here. Yes, I’m certain Capcom was still learning about the hardware of the Super NES and what it could do at the time. However, using that will come off as an excuse especially when other titles that year like Super Castlevania IV had such detail. Aside the lack of a parallax effect on the backgrounds, this installment still takes the graphics a step further for the series. Rating: 9.0/10 Features/Content The third installment has about the same content as its predecessors with playing the game twice to beat it. Similar to the Genesis port of Ghouls N Ghosts, there are difficulty settings but they come at four levels of Beginner, Normal, Expert and Professional. The only difference between these difficulties is the enemies re-spawn and move faster. It's truly better than the second game’s Genesis port as the harder difficulties. That was always a problem with the Genesis version as a Professional mode got listed in the Option Menu but it really wasn’t anything by this description. The two player function got removed seeing as it was useless anyway especially when nobody wanted to wait their turn playing these games. The best features come from the cheat codes which allow you to play around with the Sound Test and select any level. I’m glad Capcom took notes from Sega with the second game’s Genesis port and designed this idea in the game. It also was a lot better to use this compared to the previous game where you needed to press a button combination on the title screen. Unfortunately, the other features from the Genesis port like the Debug Mode which included invincibility or even the Japanese Mode were left out. It would’ve been so great to have these features included in this game because being invincible would’ve beem fun. There might be no bonus stages but the four difficulties and the level select cheat were still great improvements. Rating: 7.8/10 Final Rating The third game was the best one out of the three showing improvements in both gameplay and graphics. The gameplay got tweaked further with two upgradeable magic armors that increased the attacks and the double jump. The level design saw better structured stages with enough challenges to create a diverse and fair difficulty. These were really seen in the terrain as it moved as the player progressed and even changed the landscapes and created different challenges. The graphics have surpassed the second arcade game thanks to the power of the Super NES. The console allowed Capcom to create lush and dark environments as this only made the textures and sprites have broadness. The soundtrack is also the best one as each theme was very impactful and would match the stage and screen they represented. The features were only tweaked by offering four difficulty modes and a level select code. There were a few things that could’ve been considered during the production stage. With no parallax effect and using outdated gameplay mechanics did hinder the experience a little. A concept that forces a player to replay the same levels again to beat the game should've not been considered. The last thing is only a disappointment, and some of the features from the Genesis port of the second game were not included. It truly would have been awesome to have the Invincibility cheat and both the Debug and Japanese modes. Gameplay: 8.8/10 Graphics/Presentation: 9.0/10 Features/Content: 7.8/10 Final Rating: 8.7/10 Great
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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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