3

4 /5

Goku Makaimura Kai is an update of Goku Makaimura and it was released a year later only in Japan at a budget price, to respond to fans feedback who were expecting a more linear game, just like the prequels.

If you are expecting new content, or even just a new boss, you might as well pass this one up, because there is nothing of this sort here. What you will find instead is a series a gameplay tweaks and variations which are aimed at bringing Goku Makaimura closer to its forebears Ghosts’n Goblins and Ghouls’n Ghosts, with the kind of brutal difficulty that crushed your inner spirit so many times before, back in the day. Old school, hardcore to the core and unforgiving to the extreme, but also, inexplicably as fun and addictive as ever! And if you think Kai is unearthly hard, mind you that at least you can save your progress (you can use only 3 save slots for that though) whereas in the past, you had to beat the games on one go...so my point is, you should feel lucky and thankful to Capcom for inluding a save feature.

Now, onto the main differences with Goku Makai-Mura:

-You can take a maximum of two hits before losing a life. One hit destroys your armor and leaves you in your underwear and the second hit kills you

-When losing a life, you don’t respawn where you died but you are sent back to a checkpoint (typically there is only a mid-level checkpoint).

-You can only collect one magic spell, and you can use it as many times as you want since it is not limited by the magic meter anymore. You just have to “load up” your spell by pressing a button.

-You start off the first level with the double jump available right away

-Collecting rings is not required to see the true ending. Collecting 3 rings just gives you an extra continue since there are no more infinite continues.

-There are no teleport staffs, so you have to play levels in order.

-Even if you collect more than 30 lives, you won’t unlock infinite lives.

-To finish the game, just go through it twice and the second time equip the adouken to open the door leading to the final confrontation with Hades.