Welcome to the eighth episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years, the show where we put old school video game endings into proper context. In this episode we look at the non-endings found in Ghosts 'N Goblins, Ghouls 'N Ghosts and Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts. It this famous fake-out clever or a cruel trick to get you to spend more money? Find out now when you watch this brand new episode of 23 Endings: The Early Years!


If you only know Sir Arthur from his appearances in the Marvel vs. Capcom series, then you have no idea how brave this guy used to be. Forget for a moment that this ill equipped hero fought the forces of evil in four separate side-scrolling action games, because Arthur is so brave that he had the confidence to take the love of his life on a romantic date ... to a GRAVEYARD! Who has the balls to do that? Sir Arthur, that's who.

Of course, as we all know, the romantic night out ends when Princess Prin Prin is abducted by a flying monster. This sends Arthur on an epic adventure that sees him investigate a recently abandoned city, dive into the haunted caves, climb the tower and eventually fight Satan himself. This is normally where I would run the ending and gear up for my review, but Satan has a trick up his wing. See for yourself.

That's right, it was all an evil, poorly spelled trick! In what may be the single meanest fake-out in video game history, Sir Arthur is forced to go back to the very beginning and play the entire game all over again. That means going through the graveyard, city, caves, tower and whatever this is a second time. You even have to fight that stupid winged monster that kidnapped Prin Prin again. It all leads to an even tougher battle against Satan, which leaves us with this terrible ending.

"This story is happy ending." "Being the wise and courageous knight that you are, you feel strongth welling in your body." Strongth? Yeah, I feel something, but I don't think it's strongth. For better or worse, this game is a lot more memorable for having a cruel fake-out than a satisfying ending. But at least Sir Arthur learned his lesson and this wouldn't be a repeating trend throughout the entire trilogy, right?

So Ghouls 'N Ghosts picks up a few years after the events of the first game and has probably the most violent intro of the entire series. We see the whole kingdom, including Princess Prin Prin, killed by Lucifer. That's not good, and Sir Arthur will stop at nothing to get his revenge. But it's more than that, because he's also searching for a way to revive his friends, family and lovers. This sends him scurrying through the graveyard, burning city, scary mountains and diamond caves. After all this work, he'll make it to Lucifer's door and you'll never guess what happens next.

Okay, so maybe you saw that coming. It's yet another twist, and Sir Arthur is sent all the way back to the very beginning to find the magic power from the Goddess of Battle. Why didn't this vision come to Arthur sooner so that he didn't have to do so much backtracking? I guess we'll never know. What this means is that we're stuck replaying the graveyard, burning city, spooky mountains and diamond caves in order to unlock the giant door and fight Lucifer (or Loki, if you're playing the Genesis port). And you want to know how to beat the final boss without even breaking a sweat? Well, here's what I said on the subject 27 years ago on GamePro TV.

If you take my advice, you'll end up with this ending.

Lucifer unleashes all of the souls, Prin Prin is dropped off by a bird and everybody is alive and well again. It's a happy ending followed by a properly translated wall of text. Okay, maybe it's missing a comma, but you know what, I'm not going to sweat it. At least they spelled the words correctly.

That brings us to Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts, the final game in the original old school trilogy and the first to bypass the arcade. It sees Sir Arthur once again forced to rescue Princess Prin Prin, this time from the Emperor Sardius. This Super NES exclusive sent Arthur through yet another graveyard, onto a ghost ship, through the fire caves, down the spiral staircase and up the snowy mountains. It all leads to an oddly familiar fight and this completely predictable reveal. Try to act surprised.

Once again, we're sent back to the very beginning to find an item you need if you want to defeat Emperor Sardius. This information would have been useful ten levels ago, back when Arthur hadn't risked his life to save Prin Prin for the third time. But he has no choice, and back to the graveyard, ghost ship, fire cave, spiral staircase and snowy mountains he goes. The conclusion sees Arthur finally go head-to-head with Sardius, who just kind of stands there waiting to get clobbered. Here's what happens next.

For as much as I love the Ghosts 'N Goblins series, I genuinely hate their endings. They are never worth the work that goes into playing through the levels twice. It also feels like a cheap ploy to get you to spend more money to see the true ending. But look on the bright side, at least we defeated the demons and they'll never arise to menace the peace-loving kingdom ever again. That is, until Ultimate Ghosts 'N Goblins on PSP. I give up.