Ghosts 'n Goblins

I'm going to copy my post that I wrote up recently on the NES board for this game. This is for anyone wondering if there's any incentive to play the Arcade/Original version of Ghosts 'N Goblins even you've beaten the NES version OR are wondering which to choose.

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After beating GnG on my NES last week, I picked up the Arcade version for my MAME emulator. I use old-school SNES style joypad.

I figured the arcade game wouldn't be much more than a sweet graphical upgrade, and that I'd beat it just the same. Well, for the past week, it's been sweeping the floor with me. I finally beat it tonight.

The arcade game is the true Ghosts 'N Goblins challenge... I love my NES but the game doesn't hold a candle to the original in terms of difficulty. I wanted to make this list of all the things that make the arcade version the beastlier of the two.

Arcade Challenges (Exclusive)
LEVEL 1
-When Magicians are triggered, they fire a magic spell in the exact moment they appear. Even with a super-early shot for 2000pts, you're getting magic blasted at you. I had to find cool tricks with ladders and nearby tombstones to get the points without getting turned to a frog, since you can't possibly jump the magic spell on flatground.
(In NES, you have a relatively huge window to take out the magician before he fires magic.)
-Forest Ghosts show more erratic behavior. You can't predict exactly when they'll turn, and they sometimes seem totally random. In NES, you can read them like a book after awhile.

LEVEL 2
-No extra armor in the Big House (not that it was too useful, but still).
-Big Man can walk right through solid walls.
-The lower right Big Man (last one before leaving) will NOT allow you to kill him early. He'll never walk left for your free kill. This means you have a tricky ladder negotiation waiting at the end of the house, every time.

LEVEL 3
-The tower enemy fires instant shots when it awakes!!! No looking at which face appears, like on NES. He fires instantly meaning you better stand back and pay attention; there is absolutely no cue.
-First Red Arremer isn't still, but flying and ready to swoop. No free shots at the beginning as usual.

LEVEL 4
-Those moving platforms knock you off! They are really, really weird in the arcade game. You have to learn their strangeness of they'll be throwing you into pits.
-The entire bridge is lined with flames, every few steps!!! Even the Red Arremer battle takes places with flames on the ground that you must be really careful of. In NES the flames were sparse and kind of a joke to maneuver around.

LEVEL 5
-That Red Arremer is triggered when you climb the ladder, you can't avoid this like on NES.
-Not only do you have to deal with randomly spawning Forest Ghosts as you contend with Big Men. There are Blue Demons spawning in the arcade game all the way up there too.
-The Big Man just before the moving platform ride makes a point of not leaving the ladder, making this an insanely difficult section with Forest Ghosts, Blue Demons, and the Big Man. In NES, this is a non-section in terms of difficulty lol.
-No extra armor.
-Satan is just in another world of tough in the arcade version! Holy crap. In NES, as long as he's not too low you can ALWAYS safely duck under his swoop after getting shots in. You can thus easily 'tame' the beast and beat him comfortably. In the arcade, that swoop will smash you and you can't duck! You have to try to fake him for the whole fight, jumping to change your position, to survive. He can even swoop on an upwards diagonal if you try funny stuff. Oh and the swoop is faster, too.
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- The WarioWare Wizard and Keeper of the Kong -
http://cyberscore.me.uk/user/1416/stats

Weapon Differences (Arcade vs NES)!

[b]Axe[/b]
Doesn't go through floors in the arcade version! By ducking, you can shoot axes in rapidfire, as fast as any weapon.
In the NES version, you have to wait out the axe falling through the whole screen before it's 'gone'. Terrible gimping effect on the weapon.

ADVANTAGE: Arcade

[b]Flame[/b]
In the Arcade version, even if you throw a Flame and then walk until it's out of sight, you STILL have to wait for it to finish burning out of the screen before you can throw new ones.
In NES, if you leave the screen with the Flame it's considered gone immediately. You can take many more shots in Red Arremer battles, and in general. It can be really badass in this version, IMO.

ADVANTAGE: NES

Considering these are more 'side weapons', and that most stick with the dagger and cross when required, it doesn't change the difficulty IMO of either version but it is a different experience while playing, for sure.
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- The WarioWare Wizard and Keeper of the Kong -
http://cyberscore.me.uk/user/1416/stats

A bit more about significant Level 1 differences...

-In the Arcade version, plants (Green Monsters) can go into rapid-fire mode. On NES they'll shoot once per second max, but in the arcade, they can belt out 3 in a second. They also shoot right when they open their mouths, whereas in NES, they show you their open mouth for at least a full second or more before shooting, a dead giveaway.

-In the Arcade version, the moving platform between 1-1 and 1-2 is half the size as in NES, and behaves more erratically. Sometimes it stops before reaching shore and turns back unexpectedly!

-Forest Ghosts, besides having a super simple, readable pattern on NES as I mention in my first post, can only take one shot at you per pass. In the Arcade, they'll fire multiple times if you give them the chance on a single pass, in addition to unpredictable flying. They can even shoot backwards!! That is, a Forest Ghost can be flying away from you out of the screen, but you're still not safe in the Arcade. He can literally instantly turn right, fire multiple shots, and then instantly turn back left and THEN leave the screen.

-The last green monster of the level, in the Arcade, requires ducking... his position is not the usual spot. This is strange, but will catch you if you're not sharp with his rapid-fire shots.

-Item 'paralysis' - In the arcade game, only one enemy drop (from a jar) can be on the screen at once. In the NES version, as a test, I filled up a single screen with 1 Dagger, 1 Javelin, and 4 Stone Statue power-ups. Indeed, you can 'farm' rather easily for your perfect weapon in the NES game. In the arcade, if you're farming, you have to constantly pick up the item drops or the enemies will just stop carrying jars. If one lands behind a tombstone, unreachable, you can no longer get any items in that location and have to move to a new screen if looking for drops.

HERE'S THE BOTTOM LINE.

All the patterns you may have used to read enemies in the NES version were programming simplifications, and not in the true spirit of how the game was created. You're in for a world of hurt if you thought you had this game down from NES playthroughs, because the patterns you used to get by are simply not there in the Arcade. Good luck stepping up your game ;)
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- The WarioWare Wizard and Keeper of the Kong -
http://cyberscore.me.uk/user/1416/stats