If sequels, ports, remasters, remakes and other reboots are more and more numerous in the video game industry, license revivals over thirty years old are still relatively rare. With Ghosts’ n Goblins Resurrection, Capcom is definitely looking retro since the original arcade game was released in 1985! Famous for its legendary difficulty and its hero who wears both armor and boxer shorts, this uncompromising platform game is coming to Switch today in an updated version that does not deny its roots.
The blow of the princess who is kidnapped and the hero who must go and deliver her by fighting the forces of evil, has it already been done to you? From a storytelling standpoint, Ghosts’ n Goblins Resurrection is easy and at no point looks further than this cliché. We can certainly see a tribute to the original work, but Capcom could have taken advantage of this half-remake, half-reboot to develop more in depth a universe that has marked many players in the past. No worries about the graphic redesign however, the pixelated sprites of yesteryear having given way to the RE Engine. While we’ve already seen the publisher’s proprietary engine in action in Resident Evil 7 or even Devil May Cry 5, it’s used here in a whole different way. Faithful to its origins, Ghosts’ n Goblins Resurrection favors a classic 2D profile view, embellished with decorations scrolling according to different levels of parallax. We easily recognize our knight hero and his cartoony animations, while the zombies and other skeletons are more beautiful than ever.
Readability is excellent … maybe even too much! The artistic direction favors a technique that makes the characters look like figures cut out of paper or cardboard. This aspect is completely voluntary and assumed, the goal being to recall the scrolls of ancient times. But it will also remind some players of the Flash games of ten years ago, which is immediately less attractive. Depending on your sensitivity, you may therefore be charmed as well as embarrassed by these particular graphics. In any case, you will necessarily appreciate the automatic zoom effects of the camera, which subtly reinforce the staging, as well as the presence of a few bosses taking up a lot of space on the screen. The technical aspect is irreproachable for a Switch game, since we are entitled to a resolution of 1080p in television mode and 720p in portable mode, the sixty frames per second being guaranteed in both situations.
THE GAME THAT WILL PUT YOU IN SLIP
In 1985 many players never made it past the first level of Ghosts’ n Goblins. In 2021, the experience is a little more permissive but the general level of difficulty remains high. Resurrection offers us four different modes called Laquais, Squire, Knight and Paladin. The former grants an immortality spell that is a bit too practical, so Squire Mode should be considered normal. Even then, it is enough for our hero to receive a few hits, and his shining armor will fall apart. All he has to do then is fight in his underwear, the next blow received being inevitably fatal. Add to that creatures that appear endlessly, chests that sometimes turn into enemies, collisions that are likely to make you fall into the void, sometimes shifting scenery, enemies with improbable movements, and a few more whatnot. ! To rebalance the scales in your favor, the game gives you access to several checkpoints in each level, and even offers you to temporarily lower the difficulty if you ever die several times in a row.
Another way to simplify your life can be to activate local and asymmetric co-op mode, which allows a second player to play as a support character, to choose from among three. One creates protective barriers, the other is able to carry the hero, and the third can create bridges. Nothing revolutionary, but it’s still a welcome little novelty. This is not the only one since we are now entitled to the Brocéliande Tree, a skill tree that gives access to different active or passive powers. On the menu: lightning bolts, walls of fire, transforming enemies into frogs, repairing armor, summoning doubles, increasing movement speed, transforming into rolling stone, possibility of resuscitation in case of death, or even doubling the power of the first attack after putting on underpants. If the knight is therefore now able to use magic, the latter is however limited by a fairly long charge time, itself coupled with a significant cooldown. The adventure should not turn into a health walk! Moreover, to unlock these different skills, you have to catch fairies who roam the levels, and which are not easy to spot or reach.
GHOULS ‘N GHOSTS’ N GOBLINS
The adventure is divided into different chapters called Kingdoms, and leaves us the choice at each stage between two paths. The first gives access to a level inspired by Ghosts ‘n Goblins while the other draws its inspiration from Ghouls’ n Ghosts, its sequel released in 1988. We can only salute this duality, which reinforces the variety of situations. Some passages are identical to those of the two original games, others have been extensively modified, and still others are completely new. This is why Ghosts’ n Goblins Resurrection is both remake and reboot, the level design remaining permanently of quality. It is possible to revisit the levels of the previous kingdoms as desired, which on the one hand avoids having to restart a new game just to visit the alternative paths, and which on the other hand allows you to revisit with a character boosted a level that we have already covered. In addition, the knight in the silky boxer shorts has eight weapons at his disposal (lance, dagger, hammer, disc, crossbow…) and can carry up to three simultaneously, provided that the right skill is unlocked in the Brocéliande Tree.
Unfortunately, this welcome flexibility in terms of arsenal does not extend to the rest of the gameplay which, it must be admitted, seems quite dated. Lack of double jump, limited four-way shots, and extremely steep character make for a combination that’s certainly true to the past, but quite frustrating at times. Deaths are often due to this maneuverability from another age, which may bother some players. We may also regret that the adventure ends in just five to six hours. Fortunately, the game offers us alternative versions of the different levels once the final boss is exterminated, just to prolong the fun a little more and to die a few hundred more times!
