Timeline | 1986: Ghosts N' Goblins

Capcom continued to make a name for itself early in the NES lifecycle.

Capcom continued the success of 1942 (and a few other games like Commando) with Ghosts 'N Goblins. This game is widely regarded as one of the most difficult games, not only on the NES but of any medium. The game is a side-scrolling platformer (which you will see was VERY popular for the timeperiod) much like later games like Castlevania, Metroid, Mega Man, etc. The game allows the character, Sir Arthur, to fight against ghosts and goblins and other spawn of the main villain - Satan as he tries to save the princess! (See, it wasn't just Nintendo doing the whole 'save the princess' thing). What makes the game difficult (besides the tight controls and multitude of enemies) is that the player gets only 1 'free' hit before the next hit takes a life (the first hit removes Arthur's armor, he then is in his underwear until he gets hit again and dies or finds some more armor). Also each 'life' has a 3 minute time limit before you simply loose it automatically. Additionally, after fighting all the way through the game's size levels you will come upon the main villain and be (likely) informed that you didn't get the right weapon to fight him (unless you had played before and knew to find the right weapon in the 5th level) - you are then transported back to the 5th level to play it and the 6th level again. Then (assuming you picked the cross weapon this time) you face Satan. If you are able to beat him (it's not easy let me tell you) you are then sent back to the VERY BEGINNING OF THE GAME, the difficulty is turned up and you have to beat the ENTIRE GAME AGAIN to get the 'real' ending!

Sir Arthur has lost his armor here, not the best time!

Many of these technique's of artificially elongating a game (by having to replay levels, changing difficulty, etc.) would quickly become the norm in NES era (and even later - hell all the way to today even) - but rarely was it done so mercilessly as in Ghosts 'N Goblins.

Capcom had themselves another successful game with Ghosts 'N Goblins. The Arcade version would spawn several home PC and console ports including the NES version (actually ported by a company called Micronics, they did a lot of the Capcom NES ports but rarely got credit). Later a sequel, Ghouls 'N Ghosts would be released for the Sega Genesis (1989) and Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts would come out on the SNES (1991). Eventually Capcom would relaunch the series with Ultimate Ghosts 'N Goblins on the PSP (2006) and Ghosts 'N Goblins: Gold Knights (1 and 2) on iOS (2009/2010)

Further Reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosts_'n_Goblins
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghosts_%27n_Goblins_(series)