With Capcom frequently bringing back older franchises from their back catalogue, a reader hopes to see the return of Ghosts ‘N Goblins spin-off Maximo.
With all the doom and gloom around gaming lately it’s been so good to see everyone cheering on Capcom for the achievement of… releasing a load of really good games. They’ve been on a roll for years now but this year they’ve already had Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata and they’ve got a new Onimusha on the way too.
They’ve always been one of my favourite publishers, probably my favourite that isn’t Nintendo, but ever since Resident Evil 7 they’ve barely put a step wrong. That’s great and a thing we should congratulate them on, in my opinion.
One of the best things is that unlike almost any other publisher Capcom actually reinvests the money they make into taking risks with new IP, like Pragmata, and bringing back old franchises that aren’t a guaranteed hit, like Onimusha.
I think they deserve a ton of recognition for this in particular and I’m so glad that Pragmata has been a hit and they’ve been rewarded for taking a risk. I bought it and I think it’s great and I’m very happy to have supported them.
The longer their hot streak lasts the more obscure the games are that they bring back, at least potentially, and while most people seem to want to revive Dino Crisis, I have a different request: Maximo.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’d love a Dino Crisis remake or new game but I don’t feel Maximo ever gets talked about. For those that don’t know, Maximo: Ghosts To Glory is a PlayStation 2 game from 2001 that is a spin-off from Ghosts ‘N Goblins. It has the same music, and some of the same enemies, but you’re a Roman soldier, for some reason, instead of King Arthur.
It’s a 3D platformer with quite a bit of combat, that I feel worked really well but seemed to get very quickly forgotten at the time. But it had good action, nice cartoony graphics, and for a PlayStation 2 game the camera worked really well.
Unfortunately though, there was only ever one sequel, also only on PlayStation 2. And then that was it, the series never made it off the PlayStation 2 or into the next generation and I’ve literally never heard anyone speak about it since.
I assume that, despite the sequel, that means it didn’t sell that well and it seems obvious to me why: it was stupidly hard. Now I love the game, or I wouldn’t be typing this now, but it is unnecessarily difficult and I don’t know why.
Or at least I didn’t at the time, in later years I looked into the whole Ghosts ‘N Goblins angle, which was a bit before my time, and it seems they were super hard as well and so are the modern games, right up to Ghosts ‘N Goblins Resurrection.
I really don’t know why this is, as all games were super difficult back in the day and it’s not like something like Mario didn’t adapt with the times and try and keep everyone on board.
The difficulty was always the worst thing about Maximo, as far as I’m concerned, so why they think that’s the most important thing to keep in all these games I don’t know. Is anyone really going to complain that it’s too easy? Couldn’t they just have a hard mode instead? I’m not sure why a cartoon platformer game about a guy in his boxer shorts is making Dark Souls look like a kid’s game.
So that’s my hope of what Capcom do next. I don’t think it’s very likely, but I don’t think it’s impossible either, because they do occasionally try to bring Ghosts ‘N Goblins back, just not the version of it I like best.
By reader Terry Gold
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