A platformer game without good platforming abilities...
When you open the game you see a text written in red and explains the story, situation you are in. The princess is kidnapped by evil forces and you are about to rescue her. Well, its no big deal to not have a story for a classic, though Castlevania had impressive story too, but at least they could do a demo or something more proper to enjoy. You only see the main character, Sir Knight Arthur swears that he will rescue princess and a nice animation of his riding on a horse to the game's first level. Actually, this is enough but it would be nicer to see how evil forces kidnapped the princess because the animations are really nicely done in this game.
So the game starts in the forest and you see very nice visuals and music. Everything is there to amaze you, colors are making the visuals more lively and music is fit. So you start the game in good mood and think "time to enjoy now". But in a very short time, you notice that everything is there to annoy you.
Sometimes, actually very often, enemies appear right behind you or worse at the same spot with you, so you definitely get hit no matter what, which is so frustrating. This is not a difficulty, this is solely annoy you. Even you dont die with one hit at first, you'll die soon. Arthur wears an armor and can upgrade his armor or change it, but all armors have durability. Armor upgrades are simply rais your armor's durability point but different armors give different abilities. For example flying armor has 2 hit durability and lets you fly as you can understand. But when you get an armor upgrade, your armor's durability raise 1 and become normal armor. After your armor is broken Arthur runs around with his boxers, so the system is the same as the original game.
Platforming is the real thing in a platformer game as its obvious, so if it fails the game fails. Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins' the real big problem is its trying to find an answer to "how can platforming terrible done" question. Definitely, the developers of this game made this game to torture players and satisfy themselves by looking at numbers of people who got this game so they can laugh hard while imagining how people get frustrated. How can "jumping" action torture you? A weird question you may say, but if you want to get an answer for it, play Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins. X button is for jumping and with your touch Arthur jumps. However, that jump cant be changed until it finishes landing. In short, You can NOT move Arthur in midair which cannot be acceptable in a platformer game in this era. There will be many times you will act quick and press jump button to evade some situation but mostly those reflexes will lead you from bad to worse. Like this is not enough, in Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins platforms are done for frustration. There are many places you cant visit without Angel armor which lets you fly to get certain items and they are not optional but requirement to end the game. Platforming is hard and it needs equipment in some places, sure its done to make the game longer but since the game is hard and repetitive it just becomes more pain. Playing without knowing this you come to the last boss gate in about 2-3 hours but when you learn you need to collect 22 rings to be able to go through the gate, the gate's guardian teleports you to the beginning of the game and you start all over again to find these rings and worse they are so hard to find. I dont remember how many times I went from first level to the last.
Well after saying these, there is a big factor that helps you finish the game, infinite continues and warp sticks. When you lose all your lives you start over from the level you died, not from the beginning of the game. Thats the only thing helps player to finish the game. Your score ofcourse is start from 0 again but at least you dont lose anything. Also warp sticks let you warp to defined spots anytime you want if you got the right warp stick and have enough magic points. Magic points are maximum 10 points and you can only fill them by getting magic potions around or with a special shield which refills your magic points by blocking. If magic points exist there should be magic right ? Yes, the game has 10 different magics and one of them is a must have; "Stone Magic". This magic lets you turn your enemies into stone or break the stones which is the real deal. Because some rings are hidden in some stones ( or gravestones), a tip for new players.
Replay value in this game is really weird, to me 0. Because the game forces you to play the same levels over and over and over. If you read the Gamespot review, Ryan Davis was not exagerating about this game, 6.7 is very good score for this game. So playing the same levels makes you get bored at last, personally after I finished the game first time with 22 rings, I stopped playing the game. Even it takes less than three hours to reach the end, you are forcefully playing the same levels again and it takes longer to finish the game, but that just kills the replay value of the game.
Ultimate Ghosts'n Goblins is visually greatly designed and its supported by nice musics but the game is so frustrating and short. Playing the same levels so many times is no fun, but still it deserves to be seen at least once.