I used to have some trouble differentiating this and Ghouls n' Ghosts because last year I played them about two months apart, so this time around I decided on playing them back to back.

What I took away from it this time is that Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a lot harder, and a lot slower. Not just due to SNES slowdown, the levels are generally just a lot slower paced, especially with the autoscrollers. It's easily noticeable even without playing the two games; if you look around for speedruns you'll notice Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is twice as long. I personally think the shorter, snappier levels of GnG fit the playstyle of the series a lot better.

Weapons also aren't too great this time around. GnG has a more well-rounded selection that will occasionally have better weapons for better situations, but in Super it's best to just stick to the knife whenever you can. Even with the upgraded armor and the upgraded weapons that come with it, the knife is far more useful than the others. A lot like Goblins in that regard except this game doesn't suck ass lmao.

The fucking princess' three sizes are listed during the curtain call before the credits for some reason. I don't know what that was all about but me and the friends I was calling were joking around about it when we eventually discovered it's the same measurements that Chun Li has. Wacky stuff.

Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts are both very solid, but I think the former sets a bar that Super doesn't quite reach when you compare the two. I'd probably recommend both, but if you wanted just one I'd probably never tell you to play Super first.

Insane leap in quality over Ghosts 'n Goblins. It's slightly easier, a lot more fair, and most of all actually fun. Not to say it isn't still ruthless though, notoriously so, but you have unlimited continues, difficulty settings, powerups, can set how many lives you have, etc etc. Point is, it's a lot more manageable than it looks at a glance.

There are a couple gripes too, namely having to do it over again, which is a bit of a staple in the series I'm guessing. You do actually have to do it twice to complete it this time, the loops are different bc only the second one lets you reach the final boss. Was not too thrilled about that, but I wasn't particularly upset either because I was mostly enjoying myself. Still, I find it unnecessary. Another more minor thing is the jumping, as funny as it looks, is really awkward sometimes, and there are points with pretty precise jumps you have to make.

Would not recommend Ghosts 'n Goblins probably ever unless jokingly, but if it really does interest you, I'd at least play this instead first. You'll have a notably better time.