Virtually Overlooked: Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Sega Master System)
Welcome to our weekly feature, Virtually Overlooked, wherein we talk about games that aren't on the Virtual Console yet, but should be. Call it a retro-speculative.
You can play three different Ghouls 'n Ghosts games on the Virtual Console right now. For just 500 points, you could have the most difficult game in the series, Ghosts 'n Goblins for the NES. Or you could play the two 16-bit sequels on the Genesis and Super NES, with different weapons, levels, and powers (and still plenty of challenge). They're all great.
But why play those great games when you could be playing a weird, downgraded, unfaithful version on the Sega Master System? Because it's totally unique!
Well, okay. It's not extremely unfaithful. It's still Ghouls 'n Ghosts in most ways, which is pretty incredible for an 8-bit port of a CPS1 game -- especially considering that Sega made it and not Capcom. It still looks pretty much the same, if scaled down, and most of the levels are still there. Jumping and throwing javelins is still accurate to the arcade and Genesis versions (without the double jump found in Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, of course). Sega's SMS port diverges from the original in ways it doesn't have to.
For example, the weapons. In every other Ghouls game, Arthur is constantly switching from javelin to dagger to torch to various other stuff. That's out here. There are some spells that emulate the magic-enhanced weapon functions in the other games, but no weapon swaps. That's an artifact of the biggest change in the game: the treasure chest system.
Like every other version, chests constantly pop up out of the ground. You have to backtrack and jump up and down on random spots to trigger their appearance. Unfortunately, in this game, about 90 percent of the treasure chests contain magicians. These guys are as huge of jerks as ever, turning Arthur into a duck or an old man, and pretty much guaranteeing death or armor loss. But the payoff for the remaining 10 percent is almost worth the risk. When a chest doesn't reveal a magician, it reveals a door. Inside, you're given the option to upgrade your helmet, armor, or boots. The armor increases Arthur's life, the boots increase speed and jumping, and the helmet actually gives Arthur access to spells that range from the upgraded weapons from the other games to armor-healing to special attacks. In theory, this is really cool, but in practice it's oh God another magician.
