sorry to spoil *your* party RCduck
but the 1994 X68000
Ghouls 'n Ghosts is actually closer to the 1988 CPS1 arcade original, than either of the 1998 Capcom Generation 2 versions on Playstation or Saturn.
why? how so?
well, to keep it fairly short:
1.) resolution: X68000 resolution is the same as the arcade, or at least closer to it than either PS1 or Saturn. on Saturn, this results in "fat" graphics where everything is stretched and therefore it cuts off a little bit of both sides of the screen. on PS1, you get the full picture, however the whole game is slightly pixelated because of the lower resolution.
2.) color & brightness. Saturn version's color / hue is slightly off from the arcade, even though the same amount of color from arcade is there (unlike megadrive or supergrafx versions) . the PS1 version suffers from a problem with its distant parallax backgrounds being washed out or too dark, and therefore hard to see
3.) music and sound test. both PS1 and Saturn are missing the ending music from their sound tests, and when you do get to hear the ending music, although it is the same tune, it sounds alot different from the arcade. the X68000 ending music perfect, and you can listen to it in the sound test.
4.) a frame or two of animation is missing from both the PS1 and Saturn versions in the 'power-up' sequence when you get the golden armor. Also, you cannot see aurthors feet 'walk behind the grass' on both segments of the first level. to be fair, the X68000 version is missing this also.
5.) slowdown. the Saturn and PS1 both suffer from slowdown in different ways. the Saturn version slows down dramatically on the 2nd half of the first level with all the tornados on screen, and the plant tenticles and flowers throwing skulls. the PS1 version pauses when the music changes to boss music, and sometimes the audio is out-of-sync with the action
overall, PS1 and Saturn versions are 98% exact to the arcade, whereas the X68000 is 99% exact. this might seem like a lot of differences in the Saturn and PS1 - although the Megadrive and SuperGrafx versions do indeed fall WAY short of the Saturn and PS1 Cap Gen 2 versions, but I wanted to point out that these supposedly arcade-perfect ports are not QUITE perfect.
if you are a Ghouls n Ghosts fan, there is a reason to own every version of the game. but especially the X68000, Arcade (or MAME) and even the slightly flawed Capcom Generation 2 on PS1 and Saturn, mainly for the art gallery and convienience of playing near-perfect versions.
a review of the X68000 GnG
http://www.illusionware.it/x68000/gng-x68.htm
Review
The x68000 version of Ghouls'n'Ghosts is supposed to be so good as to literally eclipse the Mega Drive and the SuperGrafx versions. Everything apparently looks and feels arcade perfect from the color palette to the graphical definition of the sprites and the backgrounds. The only annoying thing about this version is that it runs on disks although it should be possible to install the game on Hard Drive.
What really sets this version aside from the others is the deluxe packaging that is by itself, worth of the purchase!
It is interesting to notice that the red text to the left appears on the upper left side of the box (look up at the scan, it is hard to see but there are some writings in red). The text refers to Arthur bringing peace to the land 3 years before (it was 1985 when Ghosts'n'Goblins came out, and Ghouls'n'Ghosts showed up in the arcades in 1988).
Well to be honest, I don't know many people who played Ghosts'n'Goblins and who were actually able to finish it because of the near to impossible difficulty of the last stages. So I guess it's no wonder Evil returned shortly after 
Topic: Ghouls 'n Ghosts comparasion page (Read 1039 times)
