Ghoulboy is a 2D Action Platformer that finds us in a devastated world, ruled by a ghoul king. Your father, a brave warrior, was prophesied to be the one to finally slay all evil in this world and return peace to the lands. This does not happen. Upon starting up the game, he gets captured, and as his son, it falls to us to rescue him. We start off with nothing but a small dagger to our name. It may seem an unimpressive weapon to take on the army of undead, yet Ghoulboy could quickly take down almost any foe thanks to its fast attack rate.
One of the first things you’ll discover as you trek throughout the first level is that secondary weapons will play a significant role. None more so than the humble spear. It does not cause much damage when flung at an enemy, though when tossed at a solid object, it will stick to it. This essentially lets you create your own platforms as long as you have a supply of spears in order to get past tricky obstacles, find secrets, or save yourself from a last-minute fall into a death pit. It is a ton of fun using the spears to find your own way through the levels and sometimes break their intended design. Some areas may even require you to do so, meaning you should always keep a few on hand.
This is not an entirely linear title. You will need to hit switches and gather keys to progress. It is more similar in design to DOS platformers than something like the early Castlevania titles. There are checkpoints scattered throughout a level, yet once you run out of your three lives, it is back to the start of it. Death has no real penalty aside from starting a stage over. You get to keep all of the treasure you have gained by defeating enemies or having found loot. All of your hard-earned cash can be used to permanently upgrade your character’s health, item limit, and buy a new weapon. This allows anybody to get through the game with enough patience, yet at the same time, it is more than possible to beat the entire thing in one go if the player is skilled enough.
Also scattered throughout the levels will be a merchant. They offer you immediate benefits in exchange for your cash, such as refilling your health or selling you more sub-weapons. It occasionally becomes an interesting choice as you gauge whether to refill your health in the hopes of beating that stage or just saving up for a permanent character boost. There are 26 levels to conquer in total, including the four boss fights. This isn’t a particularly difficult title, though the bosses are more than likely going to give you a run for your money the first few times you face them. An interesting aspect of the boss designs is that they appear far more threatening and detailed in comparison to the rest of the cartoon looking regular enemies and environments.
As useful as the starting knife is, you do eventually want to make your way to the third and final weapon, the mace. It may be slower to swing, yet its fantastic range will really help you out against later foes that punch like a truck. The only other secondary weapon aside from spears are knives. These are boomerang-like projectiles that can cause serious damage to nearby foes when thrown in mass. It is a far better option to slay enemies than a spear, but their short-range makes them a situational weapon. Melee will remain your main form of combat, and your ranged options will ensure you have some tricks up your sleeve.
The title is far from story-based. What information you get in the intro will be most all of what there is on offer, with only rare bits of dialogue peppered throughout. The environments you find yourself in will change every couple of levels. You will fight your way through forests, spooky towns, and Gothic castles, just to name some. New enemies will continuously be introduced throughout, so you can never be certain as to what lays ahead or how you should deal with it. Every enemy seems to have their own way of attempting to take you down, be it firing projectiles or summoning lesser foes until you manage to destroy it. Once you defeat them, they stay dead unless you die and are sent back to a checkpoint. The plus side to that is that the hidden loot also respawns, allowing players to grind out money at any time.
In total, Ghoulboy took me nearly three hours to complete. It is a budget title that will cost eight dollars, so that game length is much less of an issue. It packs a good amount of variety to keep it interesting all the way through, and it does scale up its difficulty nicely. The only technical issue I’ve experienced is when you Alt+Tab out of the game. Upon returning, you will find that it is now capped at 25fps, well below its intended 60, and is nearly unplayable due to running at less than half speed. A simple reboot will fix it, though it is still an unfortunate issue. That being said, Ghoulboy is definitely a charming little Indie game to keep an eye out for and is excellent for some Halloween time fun, or whenever you happen to want to play a decent Action Platformer.
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