Goblins have been credited as the products "that shot" Capcom to "8-bit silicon stardom" in the mid-1980s. Critical reception The arcade game received a positive review from Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games magazine in 1985. Computer Gaming World called the NES version of Ghosts 'n Goblins "an excellent example of what the [NES] can do ... while hardly groundbreaking, [it] represents the kind of game that made Nintendo famous". Ghosts 'n Goblins was runner-up in the category of Arcade Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards. In the 1986 Famitsu Best Hit Game Awards, the Famicom version received the "Best Port" award. The NES version of Ghosts 'n Goblins was rated the 129th best game made on a Nintendo system in Nintendo Power Top 200 Games list. Writing in 2007, Marcel van Duyn of Nintendo Life gave the game 7 out of 10 stars, declaring that it provided "appeal and enjoyment" to fans of the series, while criticising its platforming and finding that it was "less fun than its contemporaries". The game is often cited as an example of one of the most difficult games of all time, due to its extremely hard level design and the fact that the player dies within two hits while the enemies can spawn unexpectedly all over the map. Moreover, the player must play through all of the levels again at a higher difficulty setting unlocked after completing the levels regularly in order to beat the game, without any way to save. Gamerant named it the 5th hardest video game of all time. In a 2011 review, Lucas Thomas of IGN opined that the game was so hard it would be a "waste of time" for most players, as they would not be able to justify the eight-dollar price tag the game had at the time. Legacy Sequels Ghosts 'n Goblins was followed by a series of sequels and spin-offs eventually becoming Capcom's 8th best-selling game franchise, selling over 4.4 million units. Its sequels include Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins in addition to producing the Gargoyle's Quest and Maximo spin-off series. Though originating as an arcade title, the franchise has been featured on a variety of PC and video game consoles with a later entry in the series, Ghosts 'n Goblins: Gold Knights, being released on the iOS. Additionally, the franchise frequently makes