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Is the remake of Ghosts 'N Goblins worth the wait over the somewhat botched Amstrad CPC version from 1986?

The game starts with a nice intro, just like the arcade version. You play a knight named Arthur. While with your new bride in a graveyard surrounded by beautiful forest, wearing nothing but your underwear, she is brutally kidnapped by demonic forces who grabbed her from the sky and flew away with her to Satan's palace. Being an honourable Knight, it's your job to fight the hoards of the undead and other evil nasties as you make your way to rescue your love.

The game is a side scroller where you must progress from the left of the screen to the fight through six stages. Your weapon is a throwing lance but you can find other weapons such as flaming torches, axes and the best weapon, in my opinion, knives.

There are several improvements in this remake. For example, in the original, the game only scrolled when you get near the end of the screen, and it kept scrolling until your character is back to the centre of the screen and then scrolls again as you move your character to the end of the screen again. While this sounds very annoying, once you engrossed in the game, you'd hardly notice. However, the remake has constant smooth scrolling and it's a massive improvement in gameplay. The graphics are also improved with much nicer sprites and the 4096 colour palette of the Amstrad Plus/GX4000 range. The sprites are big and detailed, especially the enemies and especially bosses.

The improvements aren't just graphical either, the original CPC version only had the first three levels of the six-level arcade game, this remake, I'm happy to say, has all six levels. The difficulty level is much fairer too. Ghosts 'N Goblins is still frustratingly hard, but at least now, you don't get put back to the start of the game when you are first hit. Instead, you lose your armour and get to run around in your underwear (again), giving Arthur a chance to finish the level and indeed, find more armour. Now the game feels possible to complete, still hard as nails but not too hard as to put you off playing.

Like the original, the game never feels unfair, just difficult, but it is the type of game where you improve as you play. It's a case of remembering your enemies movements and positions as well as your own character's limitation, such as a short shooting distance and being able to only shoot left and right. It's impossible to shoot in any other direction, unlike later games in the Ghosts 'N Goblins series.

The controls feel tight and responsive, and while many said the game plays faster, it isn't that much faster but it's just right. It's certainly a lot smoother, not just the scrolling as previously mentioned but the sprite animation. Yes, Arthur still walks weird and shakes his arms like a mad man but he did that in the arcade version too.

What I like more than anything, is that there are now a total of six levels, with the options of various weapons. That's the biggest improvement, then it's the scrolling and sprite design. The sound effects are spot on too, nothing special, but again, just like the arcade version.

While the music is good, it does seem a bit repetitive as you play. Another annoying factor is that the game is still frustratingly hard, but the only difference now is that it offers the chance to at least make one or two errors and still be able to complete it.

If this game came out during the life of the Amstrad Plus/GX4000, it would have been highly praised as one of the best games available on the GX4000/Plus. It's certainly a game where the desire to play just one more time is strong, just to get a little further. Highly enjoyable.