Game Specs for Ghosts 'N Goblins

NOTE: When possible, the game's official manual or official documentation from the game maker's company or Nintendo is used — with spelling or terminology presented as is, despite some translation errors.

SPOILER ALERT: Some of the categories below may have a question mark to conceal important or secret revelations in the game. If you would like to see the unknown revealed, a rollover option or external link will be attached to the question mark.

Title	Ghosts 'N Goblins
Company	Capcom
Developer(s)/Designer(s)	Hasse and Fuji (Planning) Black and Hasse (Design) Kazzo (Program)
Musician(s)	Hal and Wood (aliases for Harumi Fujita and Ayako Mori, respectively)
Year	1986
Release Date	November 1986
System	NES
Genre	Action, Platformer
Ratings/Suitable For Age Group?	E for Everyone (Mild Fantasy Violence) Animated Deaths, No Blood, Cartoonish Monsters, Occult
Arcade Version?	Yes with some differences.
Port To Other Game Systems	(Nintendo 3DS) Virtual Console as a digital download from the Nintendo eShop and included in the (Nintendo Switch) Nintendo Switch Online Service.
Part of Franchise	Original title (first) in Ghosts 'N Goblins series Ghouls 'N Ghosts (Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, various other platforms) Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts (SNES) And inspiration behind side-adventure titles: Gargoyle's Quest (Game Boy) Gargoyle's Quest II (NES) Demon's Crest (SNES) Also, loosely-related to Maximo series in later generation systems
Rarity/Availability	Included in NES Classic Edition (Direct Port of NES), on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console (as a download from Nintendo eShop), on the Wii U (digital download) and on the Nintendo Switch Online Service. Cartridge is still fairly common, but going up slowly in price (at least, in the St. Louis, MO metropolitan area).
Add'l Game System Peripheral Needed To Play?:	N/A
Add'l Game System Peripheral Needed To Play?:	No
1 or 2 Player	2 Player - Alternating
Number of Reserve Players	Start with 3 Players
1-Up's	Yes, called an Extend.
Life Meter	No, but the Knight can take two hits when dressed in armor.
Password	No
Battery	No
Continue?	Yes - Unlimited
Perspective/Orientation Gameplay	2D and Horizontal/Vertical (Retraceable/able to backtrack to last checkpoint)
Number of Levels	7 Stages (Technically, 14 Stages)
Checkpoints?	Yes
Save points?	No
Uninterrupted Play?	Upon death of Knight, play stops and resumes from last checkpoint
Internal Map(s)?	Yes
Score?	Yes
Difficulty Settings	No
Time Limit?	Yes
Hero(es)/Heroine(s)	Knight
Sidekick(s)/Cast?	No
Weapons	Javelin (default) Torch Sword Axe Cross
Items	Bonus Characters - as noted in the game's manual: Money Bag (500 points) Stone Soldiers (200 points) King (10,000 points) Key (leads to next Stage after defeating a Stage-ending boss)
Power-Ups	Yashichi/Yashici (5,000 points) Armor Time (Inc.) (adds 30 seconds to time)
Power-Downs	Time (Dec.) (subtracts 30 seconds from time) Frog King statue (that transforms the Knight into a frog temporarily - worth 100 points) Magician (his spell transforms the Knight into a frog temporarily - worth 2,000 points)
Main Enemy	The Devil
Person/Place Being Saved	Princess
Objective/Goal	Save the princess
Ending?	Yes
Secret Code(s)?	Yes
Stage Select	Yes [Click here for details from Secrets & Tips - STAGE SELECT! Section of Ghosts 'N Goblins Review.]
Invincibility	No
Extra Players	No
Continues	N/A
Sound Test	No
Additional Secret Codes	Yes...Secret Message during Ending [Click here for details from Secrets & Tips - SECRET MESSAGE IN ENDING Section of Ghosts 'N Goblins Review.]
Trivia/Little Known Facts	Capcom pays homage to Ghosts 'N Goblins in Mega Man 7 from the SNES. Upon employing a secret trick while selecting Shade Man — one of the robot masters from Mega Man 7 — the main theme music from the first two Stages of Ghosts 'N Goblins will play. (This track is also called the "Haunted Graveyard".) Portrait of Shade Man from Mega Man 7 (SNES). Listen to the samples below. ↓ Compare Shade Man's version ↓ To the original from Ghost 'N Goblins (NES) ↓ It is interesting to note that this "Haunted Graveyard" theme can be heard on Ghouls 'N Ghosts, also. (The version here comes from the Sega Genesis.): ↓ Shade Man's level plays like an extension of the SNES' Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, complete with familiar coffin-enclosed robots and a touch of Halloween. Shade Man, himself, is a vampire-styled robot who swoops and steals Mega Man's power in an attack that mirrors the opening act from Ghosts 'N Goblins that shows Astaroth sweeping in and flying away with a stunned Princess, as the Knight springs to action: This is one of the early titles by Capcom that features the exclusive power-up, known as yashichi (or perhaps erroneously-spelled [?] in the manual as yashici). This special symbol can be found in 1942, Commando, Trojan and Mega Man to name a few. RETURN TO TOP

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Game Specs for Ghosts 'N Goblins