Format: Original
Genre: Action platformer
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Gargoyle's Quest bridges together side-scrolling action platformer segments with RPG-style overworld map areas. The map areas look cool, with their little non-Euclidean towns, trees, grass, and swamp tiles. The NPC sprites are super expressive given how few pixels they are, with the neatest ones being Majorita and the funny looking dancing zombies in the towns. The game doesn't really push Game Boy technical boundaries, but what's present is well drawn and presented.

There are so many good songs in this game it's difficult to come up with a top list! Certainly "Village" and "Field Battle" are real highlights, with their neoclassical influences-- but what about the opening hooks in "Bridge" and "Big Monster Tower", or the amazing Bach-like "Dark Road"? Harumi Fujita and Yoko Shimomura tag-teamed all of the music, and the cooperation really bore fruit. The game's sound effects are pretty minimal, though the high-pitched talking noise is quite comical.

As a spin-off from "Ghosts 'n Goblins", in this title the player is the annoying gargoyle enemy, and as such can do what those do-- namely jump, then hover and move horizontally for a limited distance. The player can also spit out fireballs and other projectiles, which get upgraded along with jump height and hover time, as the game progresses. The level design is quite challenging, but modern-day save states help alleviate the final level's most irksome sections.

For those who have played Sega's later-released "Ax Battler" on the Game Gear, that title is essentially a copy of Gargoye's Quest, complete with an overworld map, password-based saves, random side-scrolling encounters, and action platformer-style levels. But Gargoyle's Quest has the advantage of a superlative, macabre-meets-classical soundtrack and excellent level design plus core mechanics. As a very early Game Boy release especially, this title is well worth a playthrough.