Makaimura (Ghosts and Goblins)-JGC Series Overview Part 1

Known in the West as Ghouls and Ghosts/Ghosts and Goblins, Makaimura has a long history. Let's take a look at this classic Capcom arcade series.

The first game in the series, Makaimura (Demon World Village) hit Japanese arcades in 1985. Known as Ghosts and Goblins in the West, the game would soon gain infamy for its insane difficulty. This is a trend that would become a hallmark of the series. In the first game, you play as Sir Arthur, who sets out on a quest to rescue his beloved Prin Prin from the clutches of the evil Satan (Loki in the West). Armed with a flimsy suit or armour and a lance, Sir Arthur faces an uphill battle from the start.

Gameplay in Makaimura is quite simple and remained fairly consistent throughout the series. You can only take two hits before losing a life. The first hit takes away your suit of armour, and the second takes your life. This mechanic makes the difficulty of the game insane at best. This basic mechanic would be somewhat remedied in a later game, but more on that later.

The arcade original is leaps and bounds better-looking and sounding than later ports. Nowadays, it can be found on various Capcom arcade compilations across various platforms. Regardless of the platform, the game is famous for introducing one of the cruelest twists in video game history. After beating the "final boss", you are informed that a cruel trick has been played and that you must start the game over again and play through it all again to face the true final boss. I cannot imagine how few people actually did this in the days before savestates. Even with savestates, the game is extremely difficult and will drive you mad.

Despite the popularity of the arcade game, the NES/Famicom port of Makaimura was where most of us children of the 1980s were introduced to the series. The Famicom port is certainly watered down graphically. The big and colourful sprites are downgraded on the 8-bit Nintendo platform. The bright and wonderful sounding sounds are also replaced with Famicom/NES bleeps. While not horrible, the sound definitely took a hit.


Gameplay on Nintendo's machine is also quite spastic as times. The game feels choppy, and it can feel as if you lack smooth and refined control over your character and his movements. I would recommend playing the arcade original, if given the chance. It is a far more technically impressive achievement and is one of the best looking games from the mid-1980s. Despite several ports to Western computers, the Famicom port was the only major Japanese port during the 1980s and early 1990s.

If the first game was a cult classic, the second became a major ht for Capcom. Daimakaimura hit Japanese arcades in 1988. The game was a visual and auditory tour de force. With amazing graphics, great music, and impressive level design, the game is a true classic. The sequel retained all that made the original game so frustrating. You still die after two hits, you still face wave after wave of demon-spawn, and you still need to repeat the game over again after beating the "final" boss. This game is definitely not for the faint of heart. Like the original game, the arcade game is the best-looking, coming from an era when arcade games generally looked much better than their home counterparts. After Forgotten Worlds, the game was the second game to use the new Capcom CPS-1 hardware that would be used a couple of years later to create Street Fighter 2.





The game would find its way into living rooms shortly after its arcade release. First came the Mega Drive/Genesis version in 1989. While definitely taking a graphical hit, the game looked and played great on Sega's new hardware. This version of the game is the most common that most gamers have played. In 1990, a port was released for NEC's new Supergrafx console. Being a massive failure, the console never found a mainstream audience. However, the port of Daimakaimura is considered by many to be the best home port in terms of replicating the arcade original. A version was also released for the Sharp X68000 computer. This version is also held in high regard today. A Sega Master System version was released only in North America and Europe. Today, it is a prized collector's item.