Ghosts N' Goblins (NES)

Ghosts N’ Goblins for the NES is one of the hardest games I’ve ever played. Actually, Ghosts N’ Goblins for the NES is the hardest game I’ve ever played. I was only three years old when my parents bought this game. I’ll never forget playing it for the first time. Mostly because of the sheer difficulty of the game. And for the fact that it scared me. The title on its own would probably be enough to scare most three year olds. I can remember those nights while playing this game alone in the dark. The music was scary, the way the enemies looked was scary and the environments were scary looking. Combine the three and you get a game capable of frightening a toddler. The music was not only scary but it was good, for the most part. It really suited the game well. The one sound from this game that I will always remember is the sound it made when you died. Its not like I didn’t get to hear it enough.

Something about this game that scared me as a child was when you were killed you would turn into a pile of bones instantaneously. It really creeped me out.



An image that will always stand out in my mind is the introduction for this game. The cut scene when that devil thing, takes the girl away from you. You end up facing him shortly after the cut scene, so you get to seek retribution. I personally enjoyed avenging him for that. I suppose you could say it provides some motivation to beat the bad guys. It really makes you want to defeat them even more when you see them take someone from you. Its only my opinion though. I guess I get that quality from growing up playing Double Dragon. The same thing happens in Double Dragon with your girlfriend, only in Double Dragon it’s a bunch of thugs kidnapping her. But I guess the whole damsel in distress theme was a very common one amongst most video games in that era. But enough about that.


I think the reason this game was so hard was because of the amount of enemies that could appear on the screen at once. Sometimes there were so many enemies on the screen at once that it became preposterous. Not to mention that most enemies could throw some sort of object at you, whether it be a flying orb or fireball. The enemies were relentless with their attacks as well. I couldn’t stand the fact that once you lost your body armor there was no way of getting it back. At least not until the next level.
For me Ghosts N’ Goblins ended at level 2. The end of level 2 is nothing short of a joke. In level one the boss is that white colored ogre guy with the Mohawk. He was a fairly difficult boss to defeat. At the end of level 2 you have to face the same ogre again but this time there’s two of them. And I thought one was bad enough. It was very hard, especially for a three year old. That’s as far as I ever got in this game. I don’t even want to know what level three is like. To tell the truth I don’t care what its like either. Mostly for the fact that I just dont have the patience for it. The only reason to ever give this game a try again would be to take a trip down memory lane. The only other reason I can come up with is if you wanted to infuriate yourself, but who would want to do that? I have a lot of respect for someone that can beat this game. It would have to take a lot of patience and plenty of skill. I’m sure if I really tried I could beat it now, but like I said I just don’t want to put myself through that. The only thing I wish I could change about this game is the difficulty setting. Judging by the difficulty it clearly wasn’t a game directed towards toddlers anyways. I cant say I didn’t enjoy playing this game as a child because I would be lying. I had a lot of fun with it. I would also easily consider this game a classic. But now its nothing more than a memory from my childhood in the early 90’s.