Game Review: 'Ghosts 'n Goblins: Gold Knights'

Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Gold Knights is a solid game, but the iPhone can’t handle the chaotic gameplay of the classic.

Two decades ago, Ghosts ‘n Goblins was one of the first great side-scrolling arcade games – and, unfortunately, the mobile version doesn’t give the intense, difficult game justice. To the uninitiated, Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Gold Knights stars Arthur, a lance-wielding knight, who must slay the undead, demons and eventually Lucifer himself to save the princess. The running-and-jumping action is fierce, with plenty of tricky platforms and ghoul shooting. Truthfully, Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Gold Knights owes more to the later sequel, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, with its half-dozen weapons, suit power-ups and complicated level designs. The stages are gorgeous with medieval architecture, breathing backgrounds and parallax layers. And therein lies the problem: Fast gameplay and complicated graphics equal slow play responses. The controls aren’t as sharp as they should be, particularly when a monster taking up half the screen is trying to eat you alive, and the game will actually slow down during heavier points – an unwelcome throwback to the Nintendo days. Capcom should have included a “lower resolution” option so we could sacrifice the lush settings for, well, a playable game. Ghosts ‘n Goblins: Gold Knights has great traits, including a new hero and monsters worthy of the series, but the iPhone/iPod Touch version of this is too flawed to be recommended.

Publisher: Capcom

Genre: Arcade

Release Date: October 2009

Reviewed On: iPhone/iPod Touch

Available For: iPhone/iPod Touch

Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars