Ghoul Academy Demo

As movies and campfire stories have taught us, night is the realm of evil creatures, ranging from vampires, to werewolves, ghouls, and the classic serial killers with hooks for hands. However, almost all of these stories feature a hero as well, someone who can handle the situation and banish the evil back from whence it came from.

Ghoul Academy is a 2D platformer with a humorous take on evil and unpleasant creatures in general. As such, you play the role of a priest who’s teaching a class about dealing with ghouls and vampires to a group of children. In between the lessons, you get to go out in the field and perform a little bit of practice, by obliterating the undead with a variety of weapons.

The mechanics are as simple as they can get, given the fact that all you have to do is jump around, shoot your gun, and avoid being killed by the abominations. A variety of power-ups and upgrades are dropped by the enemies you manage to kill, ranging from additional health, to different ammunition types and certain items that provide you with a hefty amount of points.

As previously mentioned, the game is quite simple and straightforward from a mechanical point of view, but that doesn’t mean it is easy. The enemies can strike back and they can move around as well, which means that you have to constantly be on alert. You can only take so much damage before you die, so each hit brings you closer to the game over screen.

Visually, the hand drawn graphics are nothing special and they fail to hold up to a closer inspection. The characters models are crude and unimpressive, while the environments get a tad repetitive after a while. Fortunately, the constant action gives you little time to admire the landscapes, while the bright colors definitely help with the overall atmosphere.

In the end, Ghoul Academy is not to be taken seriously, since it makes things quite clear from the beginning. If you want a challenge and you do not mind the rather basic graphics, then the game at hand can be a good choice, not to mention the fact that it can put a smile on your face as well.