Old School
Like the old games, the game is challenging, enemies will come from every direction and death pits are a comment thing in every level, luckily now, you can resist multiple hits depending on the armor and difficulty your playing in. Also, if you're a fan of the series, you'll now that you have to beat the game twice to see the real ending, in Ultimate Ghost n' Goblins on the other hand, you have to collect a certain amount of golden rings to get to fight the final boss, a little fact that the game forgets to tell.
One of the latest additions I enjoyed was that now you can carry multiple weapons, such as shields, which help you block enemy attacks and even get pass seemly impassable areas; and also be able to use magic to destroy large groups of enemies and open secret reas.
The downside to this is that all shield break after a few hits, including the vital dragon shield, which you need to get through most levels; The magic, while being varied and fun to use, have to find it first and you need certain magic spells to get other spells.
In short, if you're a fan of the series then you'll also enjoyed Ultimate Ghost n' Goblins, newcomers on the other hand, will probably be turn away by it's hard difficulty.