Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts – Haunted Graveyard

The jump from 8- to 16-bit was one of the biggest shifts in video game history.  Many beloved series saw a massive improvement in visuals and sound with the move from the NES to the Super Nintendo.  Sprites were larger and more defined, environments included greater detail and flourish, and classic themes were remastered with the larger set of composition tools.

For example, the main theme from Ghosts n’ Goblins went from this:

To this:

For Super Ghouls n’ Ghosts, composer Mari Yamaguchi took the theme originally created by Harumi Fujita and Ayako Mori to the next level.  The harrying melody and stark tone of the song is enhanced by the use of organ and brass samples.  What was once a sort of arcade action theme transforms into a lively dirge that encourages the dead to rise again.

Of course, the march of technology means that games will continued to be remastered, along with their classic soundtracks.  For the Sony PSP, Capcom released updated versions of many older games, including Mega Man, Mega Man X, and Ghosts ‘n Goblins.  When the Ultimate version of this spooky arcade game moved to handhelds, an updated version of the Level 1 theme came with it.

Super Ghouls and Ghosts

As a child, I was afraid of many things that simply did not exist.  Various monsters, magics, and malevolent forces were always waiting just behind my closet door, under my bed, or in other prepositional phrases.  One game in particular had an opening scene that somehow terrified my childhood self once the sun had gone down.  Super Ghouls and Ghosts was a fantastic (but ridiculously difficult) game, that was one of the first spooky titles that graced the Super Nintendo.  In the opening of the game, a Princess is stolen away from her castle by a demon who barges in through her bedroom window.  Somehow, the following intro freaked me out something fierce, to the point I had to just stop playing altogether.

It’s great being an adult and laughing at what I was afraid of as a kid.  Now I just have adult fears, which are much, much more frightening (and real, yay!).  If only I could go back to a time when the most I had to be scared of were imaginary red gargoyles.