Collection essentials #178: Demon’s Crest (SNES)

Ever play a game like Mario and wonder whether anybody’s made a game featuring those bad guys that you’re defeating? Well that’s sort of what Capcom did with an enemy from their Ghosts ‘n Goblins series. I haven’t listed any games from that series, but basically they’re arcade platformers where you play a short knight who (by default) wields an endless supply of lances that he can throw as you try to make it through gruelingly-difficult stages. An infamous enemy from those games is this red gargoyle fiend named Firebrand, who is very difficult to hit. Capcom decided to give Firebrand his own games, starting with Gargoyle’s Quest 1 and 2 (which are good but not games I chose to tag as exclusives), and now Demon’s Crest on the Super Nintendo.

Firebrand is still not a good guy, but much like in Wario’s games, the antagonists in this game aren’t nice either, so I guess that helps make the player feel a little bad since they’re playing evil versus evil rather than evil versus good. The game’s story involves a series of elemental crests that grant immense power when they’re all possessed together. Firebrand wants them, but so does this nasty demon monster dude named Phalanx who thwarts Firebrand at the start of the game just as it appears that he’s about to achieve his goal. And so, Firebrand sets out on a quest to defeat Phalanx and obtain true power.

The game is a side-scrolling platformer. Firebrand has wings, but by default he can’t fly, only over, and he can spit fireballs, so this stuff helps the game stand out a little right away. THe game is also a little different from the typical Mario clone. There are only a few levels when you start out, but the idea is not simply to get through them to the end. The levels are littered with secrets, and you need to keep exploring until you (at the very least) find new enhancements for Firebrand, which will give him new abilities he needs to access more of the levels and find everything there is. There are a few different endings depending on how much of the game’s goodies you manage to find. Capcom had already started doing this sort of thing with the Mega Man games on this console that I’ll get to at some point. The excitement of unlocking new moves and figuring out what you can do with them makes for a rewarding gameplay experience. The game also does a good job of creating a haunting vibe with its graphics and soundtrack, the type of thing you’d want to play around Halloween.

Demon’s Crest is available to play for free on the Nintendo Switch if you subscribe to Nintendo Online. I highly recommend giving it a spin if it sounds like your thing. Another excellent Capcom title for the essentials vault.