Description
Three years have passed since Arthur defeated the Demon King Astaroth and rescued his beloved Princess Prin-Prin (see Ghosts 'N Goblins). A new villain, the Great Demon King Lucifer (Loki in some versions) has become the new leader of Ghoul Realm. While returning from a journey, Arthur sees the Princess' castle and her village under attack by Lucifer's forces. While rushing towards her beloved knight, the Princess is struck by one of Lucifer's laser beams.

Now, Arthur must venture back to the Lucifer's palace and destroy the demon in order to rescue the Princess' soul and bring her back to life! And it won't matter whether he fights in his shining armor or in his underwear alone...the bravest Knight in the land isn't going to be stopped by some monsters! Although the game starts with graveyard and marsh territory familiar from the first game, later levels are set in a tower, a mass of skeletons, and a castle.

Players progress from left to right (from bottom to top in level 3), and have to hack down the aforementioned monsters with a sword. The journey includes ledges, ladders, lava pits and slippery slopes. Different weapons can be collected, by finding suits of armor inside chests. Each of the five stages has its own setting and a final boss.

Home versions
Ports of Ghouls 'n Ghosts were released in Europe in 1989 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. These ports were all handled by Software Creations and all omit a great deal of detail from the arcade version even on very capable 32-Bit machines like the Amiga.

A Sega Mega Drive/Genesis port of Ghouls 'n Ghosts (programmed by Yuji Naka) was also released by Sega in 1989 in Japan and North America; and in 1990 in Europe. MegaTech magazine noted that although it was a good game, they felt the price of £45 was too high, This version was re-released as a handheld TV game with Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition in 2005 and as a downloadable Virtual Console game for the Wii in 2007. This version was also included on the Sega Genesis Mini in 2019. 

Sega also released a Master System port in 1990. This 8-bit version made changes to the game by introducing a power-up system that allows the player to enter secret shops and upgrade parts of their armor. This includes helmets, which give the player access to new weapons and magic spells; chest armor, which allows the player to sustain more damage; and boots, which increases the player's speed. 

The SuperGrafx port of Daimakaimura released by NEC Avenue in 1990 was one of the five games released for the short-lived system. 

A pixel perfect version of Daimakaimura was released by Capcom in 1994 for the Sharp X68000. 

In 1998, Capcom released Capcom Generation 2 for the PlayStation and Saturn in Japan, a compilation which included Ghouls 'n Ghosts along with Ghosts 'n Goblins and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. The PlayStation version of this compilation was released as a bundle in Europe with three other volumes titled Capcom Generations (in plural) under the title of Capcom Generations: Chronicles of Arthur. 

Capcom later released in North America Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005 and Capcom Classics Collection: Reloaded for the PlayStation Portable in 2006, which includes all the Capcom Generations titles. The emulation on a number of these compilations is slightly off, in that the screen display is too dark.

The arcade version of Ghouls 'n Ghosts was re-released as one of the included games on the Capcom Home Arcade console in 2019.

Alternate Titles
"大魔界村" -- Japanese spelling "Ghouls 'N' Ghosts" -- European Commodore 64 / Amiga title "Daimakaimura" -- Japanese title

amstrad - c64 - spectrum master system - amiga - megadrive supergrafx - x68000 - arcade

spectrum