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Back when the Game Boy was still new and the first waves of games by third party developers like Capcom and Konami arrived.

Gargoyle’s Quest, known as Makaimura Gaiden in Japan is one of these early GB titles and it has become one of the best of all-times games for the first big handheld.

First of all, Gargoyle’s Quest is more or less a spinoff game of the Ghost’n Goblins action platformer series where King Arthur has to save the princess and of course the whole world too.

The Red Arremer, is a boss character in G&G but in Gargoyle’s Quest he is actually the protagonist and has to save the Ghoul Realm and become the “Red Blaze” a very strong legendary hero of the past.

Like in many other later games, the player gets stronger weapons during the game as well as new and stronger abilities which change the gameplay significantly.

A big feature of Gargoyle’s Quest is also that it is an action adventure which is partially played similar to a Final Fantasy game with towns, many NPC-haracters and an overworld which is displayed in the usual bird-view where the Red Arremer has to talk, fulfill quests and solve puzzles sometimes, while the action sequences are displayed in typical 2D scrolling levels.

A highlight for the early Game Boy era were the big enemies and impressive looking bosses there.

Gargoyle’s Quest had partially really difficult stages and boss fights which could be a real challenge for the gamers of today who are used to unlimited lifes and savepoints everywhere 🙂

Gargoyle’s Quest spawned two sequels, with Gargoyle’s Quest II on the NES in 1992 which was very similar to the first game, and a quite different third game for the SNES in 1994 with Demon’s Crest which had a bigger focus on the 2D action and platforming gameplay.

This Fan Art by Darkdux from france shows you basically all main characters from Gargoyle’s Quest as well as some of the typical enemies in the game.

Thanks a lot for creating and sharing an illustration like that for this old Gem!

The Ghost’n Goblins Series started back in 1985 already, the last official part of the series was released in 1994 with Demon’s Crest. There was also a Japan only Puzzle game called Arthur to Astaroth no Nazomakaimura: Incredible Toons released in 1996 and years later there were the spiritual successors Maximo: Ghost to Glory (2001) and Maximo vs. The Army of Zin (2003)

There is a Online Ghost ‘N Goblins game in development since 2007 by a very small Korean Team and a Trailer was released lately but it is unknown if this game will ever be released it seems.

Both Arthur and the Red Arremer were featured in multiple other Capcom games, their latest appearances were in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and its Ultimate version were both are playable characters.