Here's a video game that's very good, yet extremely hard to beat.
Graphicswise, the game retains it's arcade feel, with a few liberties taken to make it possible. The game's six stages are shown in it's entirety from it's original arcade counterpart, with zombies, ghosts, Ogres and the occasional knight in shining armor turning into a pile of bones. Unfortunately, the sprite animations completely suffer in this NES port, as they are choppy compared to the original arcade game's smooth animation effects.
In terms of sound and music, the game is really good. While not all of the music from the arcade version makes it's way to the NES, what's there is very catchy and adds a sense of urgency. Also of note that the sound effects of this game are well maintained on the NES.
In the control department, the game is about as classic as you're going to get. Just like most platformers of it's time, you press the A button to jump and the B button to throw projectiles at your enemies. The projectiles in this case are the game's five weapons, which include the torch, daggar and lance.
As far as game play is concerned, prepare for one Hell of a fight. While the game is only six stages long, it greatly gets extended by means of requiring the player to go through the six stages twice in a row to officially beat the game. The stages themselves are as varied as the monsters that you'll fight. Finally, if you get a game over, not all is lost, as you'll get a much-needed continue feature to resume the game and exact vengence on the Red Arremer that just killed you
Overall, this is a very good, yet extremely difficult NES game. While it is certainly not noob-friendly, it is still a very fun game to play, nonetheless.