Last year, Capcom released an entry from its classic franchise Ghosts ‘n Goblins to the iPhone, titled Ghosts ‘n Goblins Gold Knights, which we reviewed on release. If you were a fan of the original series a couple of things really stuck out about the game. First and foremost was the change from 2D sprites and pixel art to 3D character models and backgrounds. It looked blocky and lacked detail, and just didn’t have that charming, colorful look of the originals. Still, I could look past the graphical change as long as the game still played the same. The problem was… it didn’t. Gameplay was sluggish, and the poor virtual controls made playing through the game an exercise in frustration. To top it all off, for one of the most notoriously difficult game series of all time, Ghosts ‘n Goblins Gold Knights was a total cakewalk.
Now, nine months after the first release, Arthur is back in Ghosts ‘n Goblins Gold Knights II. Did Capcom learn from their mistakes and improve upon the fairly disappointing first game? Well, sort of. Visually, everything is practically identical to the first game, and running side by side they are almost indistinguishable. Game mechanics are also similar in regards to health, powerups, level progression, and so forth. In addition to Arthur, you do get a new character to play as in place of Lancelot from the first game. Perceval is also a sword wielding hero but plays much differently than Lancelot in that he cannot shoot at characters and has a much bigger focus on magical attacks. Also, he can dash attack through certain walls, which can affect what route you take through the game and is a cool addition.
Where Ghosts ‘n Goblins Gold Knights II really improves over its predecessor is in performance and controls. The game now runs a great deal faster, and feels much closer to the originals when jumping from platforms and fighting with enemies. Best of all is the addition of an analog stick for movement rather than a finicky d-pad. Moving your character is much, much easier now, and you can even place the virtual controls wherever you want on the screen in the options. These changes improve the game drastically over the first, and I’m actually having a lot of fun playing through it this time around.
Game length appears to be about the same as the first, based on the scrolling map view you get before starting a level. The difficulty is still on the easy side, and hopefully this gets improved with an update like the first game received that added a Hard mode. There’s also the same type of cheats that can be purchased for 99¢ each as IAP that the first game had, if you find the game isn’t easy enough for you to begin with. It’s still not the prettiest game around, but it’s not the ugliest either, and overall Ghosts ‘n Goblins Gold Knights II is a huge improvement over the first thanks to the overhauled performance and controls.
This is a awesome upgrade from the first. Absolutely love it.
Ya not bad. a little more challenging then the first...those 43 mile per hour winds are killer :) Like it though...
People seem to be complaining about it. And Ethan never responds via Twitter. I cannot even access him by email. (He's pretty much non-existance).
The itunes reviews are coming in pretty harsh. 3.5 stars so far. EEK!
I hope to possible pick up a copy soon. And hopefully Ethan will listen to reviewers.
Bought as soon as I heard it was the sequel to one of my first idevice apps.
I appreciate the nostalgia, but it would have been nice to do away with the hokey explosion and projectile sound effects, I exchange for new more realistic sounds, to go with the new gameplay.
nice, but there's a ton of these things in the store, will pick it up when it hits a buck.
The first one was awful, how people enjoyed it, i'll never know.
This on the ipad, however is pretts damn fun :)
Human, I liked in the first one how you could design your own weapons. I made things like gattling gun, roller claymore & supernuke. All good fun espec played over wireless against the wife.
You can make your own weapons. All you have to do is make a new ruleset.
If you're buying this for the ipad, wait for the lite version, auto zoom is an abomination, the controls are placed in such a way that requires constant hand movement, when they could just be placed at the edges... Avoid.
Online play is the only thing that would make me want to buy this. So, sorry.
This game totally rocks :D brings back good times, except for the mind blowing effects that make it enjoyable even today. Oh, and I've never seen such a crazy intro, thats sick!
Should I get this or Worms?
Worms without a doubt.
Did anyone notice the error in the tittle. They forgot in the app store, unless this game is selling the app store.
"Shelling the App Store," not "Selling the App Store." It's supposed to be a joke.
The only things I dislike are having to constantly re-pinch the screen back to how I want it and the fact that I can't set the angle by touching the screen (as in the original iteration). Otherwise its a great game and the bluetooth is awesome!
I’m getting the phone on the 24th May 2010, next Monday. Those who are interested please name your price immediately!
How annoying is that zoom feature?
Call me again when there's an update to turn this off.
Zoom feature - game-killer. Awful. Launch a projectile, follow its path in the sky, but fail to see it land, or if you see it land, target may be nowhere in sight. VERY MUCH ruins the experience. Pinch to contract the screen works ONLY when you set up the shot. When you do shoot, forget it! Wish I could get a dialogue with designer. The free game is actually better than the paid game for the above reason alone. I guess I could consider my money going toward v1 and be satisfied.
Don't waste you money on this game. Tank can't move when in a small crater. Stars? Come on, were not kids and how about making it levels of play. The first one is better.
One of my top 5 all time iPhone games, started with iShoot2, finished it many times then went and found the original iShoot which was an absolute dog, suprised it got any traction. Almost feels like a new group were behind this latest version. All I need now is upgrades, more stages, weapons, higher difficulty, more, gimmmme more....