Within the first 60 seconds of playing the PSP version of Ghosts and Goblins, I knew I was in trouble. Why was I in trouble? Because within the one minute time span, I managed to lose not only all of my health, but also all of my lives. Yeah, this game is hard.
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Ghosts and Goblins have been around for a long time. One of its more well known releases was the launch title on the SNES. Throughout the years, many sequels have been produced on many game consoles including GBA and the better known PS2 rendition, Maximo. Now, the PSP edition stays true to its roots by offering violently challenging sidescrolling gameplay with a new 3D coat of paint.
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The player takes control of Arthur, a knight hell bent on saving his woman from the clutches of evil. Arthur moves around in typical sidescrolling fashion. You have your jump button, your attack button, and a button that uses a magic attack. Soon enough, Arthur will gain extra abilities like a double jump and learn new spells.
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Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins is a very hard game, even when playing on easy mode. But the game is not difficult because the odds are against you, like in Smash TV for example. Instead, the play control and the way Arthur jumps make this game more difficult than it needs to be. It is as if the developers specifically limited the player to make this game hard, not by giving the player options then stacking him up against overwhelming odds. There is a difference.
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I have never jumped down so many holes in my life before. But the vast majority of accidental deaths were not entirely my fault. Like every platforming hero, jumping is a major part of the game, hence the use of the term “platformer.” Arthur, however, jumps like a one legged retard. There is no way to control your jump. If you press the jump button, Arthur always jumps at the same height and the same distance, even if the button is tapped or held down. This is vastly different from say, the Mario Bros. series, where different button pressure would result in a different height and distance of the jump. Also, Mario’s jump was also much more controllable as height and distance could be controlled in conjunction with the D-pad. This is definitely not the case in this game. I should have no trouble jumping on that rock one foot in front of me.
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Jumping from platform to platform is entirely too difficult as they can be easily under or over jumped. Even with the addition of a double jump, it does not give the player any control to compensate for a mis-jump since each hop is exactly the same height and distance from the last. This means that if you jump one hop out, then double jump your way back, the player will always land in the exact same spot. This makes platforming entirely too tough as not only does each hop require proper timing to avoid getting nailed from a ghoul, but you always have to be the proper distance away.
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Even if Arthur simply falls from one platform to another, he strictly falls straight down; there is no angle to his fall like in any Mario game. It is as if the laws of gravity do not apply to Arthur. Again, each jump needs to be strategically planned, something that should never been required for a game based on hopping from location to location. In a platformer, jumping should be so easy the player should never have to worry about using it, something that is definitely not the case in this game.
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The poor design in the jump structure is a man-made flaw. If the screen went pitch black every ten seconds, it would have the same effect. Why make the screen go black every ten seconds when the player should always be able to look at the screen? Why not give the player control over the jump button?
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Arthur can only take so many hits before dying. When he first starts his quest, he is dressed in full armor, but once a bad guy attacks him, all armor will be stripped leaving Arthur to fight the dark minions of the night in his polkadot underwear. Fighting and saving your girlfriend in your boxers has become the staple of this series, adding humor and iconic value to the title.
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Bad guys come at Arthur from all directions, which leads me to my next annoyance that adds too much difficulty. The player can only shoot in the major four directions: up, down, left and right. But no matter which weapon you are using, you can never shoot on an angle, a feature that should be in any weapon based action game. Metal Slug also suffers from this same flaw. Ghost and Goblins does have many weapons to choose from, including knives, whips, and even grenade type bombs, but you can only use what was just given to you. Enemies will sometimes drop items, but they can only be used right then and there. You cannot save them and bust them out later when it is most convenient. This also adds to the high difficulty factor.
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Unlike the pixel based versions previously, this PSP edition is still a 2D sidescroller but now supports 3D models. This allows the developers to create more lively animation and detail. While the game looks better than other versions of Ghosts and Goblins, it is by no means the best looking game on the PSP. Many characters could have benefited from a higher poly count as they often look jagged. Many of the games textures are muddy as well. Perhaps if a wider color pallet was used the game could have been a little livelier, but at the same time, this could have taken away from the dark ghoulish theme.
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The audio is really nothing too spectacular, but doesn’t really do anything wrong either. More voice over quips could have helped, but using too much could have grown annoying, especially since the player’s average life will be about 20 seconds.
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If you have been a fan of the series, then you will know exactly what to expect with this title. Some gamers will welcome the challenge while other will most definitely not. I am a part of the latter group. While I do enjoy a challenging game, such as Smash TV or Geometry Wars, I want the challenge to lie within the odds being against the player. I want to fight against bad guys, not the control scheme. If tweaking was done with the horrible jump system, then this game would have been a solid recommendation. But I can’t shake the fact that this game was created with player limitations in mind just to boost the difficultly.