GHOSTS 'N GOBLINS

GAME INFO: Ghosts 'n Goblins is the first in a series of games under the umbrella of its Japanese name Makaimura, including rephrasings such as Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and the offshoot series Gargoyle's Quest and Maximo. This game is a side-scrolling action game where the player controls an armored knight named Sir Arthur, whose love interest, Princess Prin-Prin, has been abducted by a red devil while the two lovers were spending time together on the outskirts of a graveyard. Players navigate several levels filled with unending enemies, precarious platforms, and randomized weapon drops that can prove beneficial or detrimental depending on the player's preferred style gameplay.

SETTING: The game takes place in a fictionalized version of Medieval Europe, presumably England given the protagonist's name, but precise eras or geographical locations are not established. Following a vague outline of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, players guide Sir Arthur from the graveyard where Princess Prin-Prin was abducted into a village populated by demons, down subterannean crypts, through the flames of Hell, and finally into the lair of the great demon lord Astaroth, where the player is thrust back to the very beginning in order to replay the entire game to achieve its true ending. Players have access to simplistic versions of medieval-era technology, including lances, torches, and daggers, as well as Sir Arthur's famously flimsy armor, which shatters to reveal him in his underwear upon taking a single hit from an enemy or projectile.

FUNERARY IMAGERY: All gameplay originates in a graveyard with presumably Princess Prin-Prin's castle far in the background, even during its introductory scene where Prin-Prin is seized by a flying red devil. She and Sir Arthur are seen facing each other, with Sir Arthur clad only in his undergarments, in the presence of headstones and a weathered fence. The headstones are upright and capsule-shaped, some of which are leaning over while others are topped with a crucifix, resembling gravestones typically that appeared after the eighteenth century and became common into the twentieth century.

ANALYSIS: The Makaimura series is an example of aberrant decoding, which in this case is a form of unitentional anachronism that occurs when images or symbols are used outside of their original context. Essentially Medieval European gravestones did not resemble the upright headstones that we are generally familiar with, but were instead horizontal grave slabs, stone sarcofagi, or chest tombs in the uncommon situations where a permanent burial occurred in the graveyard, which was typically a communal burial space without permanent markers. It certainly goes without saying that Japanese gravestones did not resemble those found in the game either. That being said, the placement of post-medieval headstones in the opening environment of Ghosts 'n Goblins appears to be an attempt to flavor the game's visuals with images that would be familiar to Western audiences, or to signal to Japanese audiences that this is a game with Western European themes. Consequently, historical veracity does not matter if the general intention was to market games to Western audiences, who, perhaps ironically, would not recognize the anarchronism anyway. As one of the earliest examples of this phenomenon, along with the Castlevania and Legend of Zelda series, Ghosts 'n Goblins established an expectation among video game enthusiasts to encounter graveyard levels beginning in the mid-1980s, and to be able to recognize them regardless of historical accuracy in future games.

Gallery

Overworld map with graveyard at the beginning


Detail of graveyard on overworld map


Sir Arthur and Princess Prin-Prin lounge in the graveyard


The empty graveyard


Detail of the graveyard


Detail of the graveyard


Upright headstone


Leaning headstone


Cross-topped headstone