Ultimate Ghosts ‘N Goblins

(Capcom for PSP)
by Mike Delano

As a 2D platforming fanatic in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, one wish I always had for the next gen systems was that platformers would get huge. Literally. Like 100 levels huge. The classics like Mario and Mega Man, Contra and Sonic, envisioned as sprawling, choose-your-own-adventure type quests, where a spin of the wheel would take you through 10 or 15 randomly generated levels. The storyline, already flimsy, would hardly suffer, and rather than blazing through the same six levels over and over again, it’d be different every time, jacking up the replay value.

It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins, unfortunately, has a lot in common with the recent updates of Contra and Mega Man that seem to leave out the characteristics that defined the series in the first place. It trades the crisp and colorful backgrounds of the past for a rudimentary 2D-in-3D makeover with a jarringly awkward color palette. The levels have none of the personality of Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts’ fiery furnaces, or rickety ghost ships, and there are only six of them.

Of course, as before, the unforgiving, spot-on gameplay is brilliant enough to warrant at least a one-through, but unlike previous games in the series, once is enough.
(www.capcom.com)