When Capcom’s Hironobu Takeshita, producer of the company’s PSP title Ultimate Ghosts ‘N Goblins (UGNG), was asked why the staff chose a portable system to put an all-new installment of Ghosts ‘N Goblins, Takeshita pointed to the game’s lineage. “As they were arcade games, the originals were made to pack in as much entertainment as possible in a short amount of time.”
Therefore, with portable systems being just the kind of platform to keep that nature, it seemed like an obvious decision. We followed up by asking if there was any interest in bringing the series to the Nintendo DS, but Takeshita gave it a slim possibility due to the vertical orientation of the system’s screens.
As for the game itself, would it be as balls-to-the-wall hardcore as the series has been made famous for? Takeshita reassured us. “[Ghosts ‘N Goblins] was designed in an era where games were always difficult, where you just got a little bit farther each time, so this kind of challenge is definitely being revived.” But to appease softer players, or dedicated ones who just couldn’t beat any of the past games, UGNG will have several difficulty levels, such as Normal, Novice and so on.
“These are not so much ‘easy-normal-difficult’ like other games, as each mode still has their own unique challenges,” Takeshita said, though not going into much detail. And to make the game more playable in general, extra actions have been added to the hero Arthur’s skills, including a double jump and the ability to grab onto ledges.