The gameplay loop of Gargoyle's Quest is radically different from the mainline Makaimura series. Rather than present the player with a linear stage progression, Firebrand must travel to various towns in the Ghoul Realm to help each king deal with a curse put upon them by the Destroyer. This always involves hunting down a particular item which will cure the king from their ailment. Each of the story focused items are hidden deep within the dungeons of each realm, guarded by a boss. The dungeons act as traditional 2D action-platformer stages…with a twist.

Where the Makaimura series sees Sir Arthur travel from left to right in just about every level, stages in Gargoyle’s Quest have a verticality to them to fit Firebrand’s ability to hang on and jump off of smooth-surface walls (kind of like in Mega Man X, but Firebrand can stick to a wall indefinitely), and hover for a short while to reach platforms that would normally be out of reach. This unique stage design sees spike traps lining not just various floor tiles but also wall surfaces and ceilings. As Firebrand’s abilities grow throughout his adventure, he is kitted out with stronger wings which allow him to float longer and jump higher, new magic weapons he can use to not only cause more damage but also allow him greater traversal options, and gather armor and health upgrades to permanently increase his stats. Each one of the six main stages is lovingly crafted to cater to Firebrand’s innovative move set, and while they are difficult, learning how to navigate through them is an absolute joy.

As Firebrand travels from town to town in the Ghoul Realm on the overworld map, he will run into random battles like in the aforementioned RPGs. These battles work more like the open-world battles in Zelda 2 where the action reverts back to a 2D platformer and there is a small challenge to overcome with platforms and enemies. These are relatively easy and are over in seconds. When you beat a random battle, you are rewarded with vials (explained below). There are also enemies that block the critical path forward in the overworld you must defeat before moving on, but these battles are just the normal random battle fare rather than a unique encounter – which is a bit of a missed opportunity.

Vials are the currency Firebrand collects throughout his adventure. Vials are only good toward the purchase of a spell called the Power of the Cyclone. It’s what the game calls extra lives. Extra lives are the only items you can purchase in the game, as all other essential items are gained through beating bosses and freeing the town kings. Life restoration is a weak point in the game as there is no way to replenish your life bar except to collect single hearts that are sparingly hidden throughout most stages. When you collect a heart it only refills one point of your life gauge. That brings me to the overall difficulty of the game.

Despite having three points of life to start, with a maximum of six, most hits sustained by enemies in the game knock off two points of life. So, essentially, having three life-points or four isn’t any different – you will still perish if you are hit twice. By the end of the game, you can sustain three hits before it’s game over. Thankfully, most spike traps only hurt you, but larger spikes and fire can outright snuff out Firebrand’s flame. When it’s game over, Firebrand is warped to the last Password house you’ve last visited.

Bosses are a push-over, unfortunately, and most can be beat within one or two tries. Their patterns, even the last couple bosses, are disappointingly easy to figure out. The overall level design is fantastic, but there are a few spots toward the end of the game where it is almost impossible to avoid getting hit no matter your skill level. These are small gripes in an overall stellar game, but worth pointing out none the less.

Sorry folks, there is no save feature here. Instead, Firebrand will stumble on a home in each of the towns that has an NPC you can speak to that will provide you with a password so you can continue your journey where you left off. The password system retains the items you’ve collected, events you’ve cleared, and where you generally are in the game, but your lives always reset to two and vials to zero. It’s not overly cumbersome like the password system in the US release of Metroid, but a save function would have been welcome. That said, the game is tragically short, and you can beat it in 45 minutes to an hour. Basically, a single session playthrough is not out of the question. Actually, the short length of this game is probably its greatest downfall because by the time the credits roll you don’t want it to be over. There is just so much untapped potential in level designs, it’s a shame the adventure is over so soon. Unfortunately, the concept of the New Game+ wasn’t a reality in 1990 so once you beat the game you really have seen all there is to see. There isn’t even a hard mode.

I’ve always had a love for the way the Game Boy displays its pixel art and Capcom masterfully crafted Gargoyle’s Quest to take advantage of the small screen and tiny resolution. Every sprite is quite detailed for the time, and the stage sprite work is also on point with environmental art having an other-worldly vibe to their designs and patterns. It really is a looker of a Game Boy game, especially so early in the console’s life. Aurally, the game is fine with tunes that get stuck in your head – although, not so much because of their amazing composition but because you hear these 30 second loops over and over again throughout various parts of the game. What’s there is passible, though, but don’t be expecting an aural treat like Castlevania: Belmont’s Revenge coming out of your Game Boy.

Despite a few small shortcomings, Gargoyle’s Quest is an outstanding Game Boy game with fantastically unique level design, interesting character actions, smooth difficulty curve, and a decent soundtrack. I’d go as far to say that Gargoyle’s Quest should be in every serious retro-gamer’s library (digital or physical). Thankfully it isn’t too expensive to pick up a US cartridge these days (~$40 USD or so). Unfortunately, the next two games on our list aren’t quite so cheap in the modern era so having the entire trilogy on their original platforms is mostly unobtainable if you didn’t already have copies before prices got out of hand. You can still get it on the 3DS Virtual Console, but other than that you’ll need to find a way to emulate it or shell out for a device that plays Game Boy games and a copy of the game.

Bottom line for Gargoyle’s Quest on Game Boy – it is 100% worth your time.