Day 18! Sorry for the delay on this one, folks; it's been a busy week. But the semester's almost over! And once that happens, you'll be getting a big announcement!

For those of you just joining us, this is Day 18 of a 30 Day Video Game Music Challenge; if you missed the first seventeen days, they're all grouped together in the same category, at the top of the article. Each day consists of a different category of music, and I respond with a song that I feel fits it well, in terms of being one of my favorites of that category. Hard mode: I can't repeat games. Challenge mode: I can't repeat franchises either. (Repeat characters appearing in other franchises are fine.) In each entry, I've also been providing an honorable mention, a song that fits the bill quite well; in order to avoid removing other franchises from the running, I've been keeping these honorable mentions within the same franchise as the original item. Got it? Good!

Day 18's theme is "Music in a game released the year you were born"; alas, even including franchises I've already discussed, there simply weren't very many games released that year! But, there's certainly one absolute classic: Ghosts 'n Goblins. And it doesn't get much more iconic than the first level theme, a song that was remixed for I believe EVERY subsequent entry in the series. In that regard, it's right up there with Castlevania's iconic "Vampire Killer".

For an honorable mention, since this was the only game in the series released that year, I've got to go with another song from the same title. And, since so few ever got past the first level, much less even got to the first BOSS, that's gonna be where I go. The first boss theme is similarly iconic—even borrowing the leitmotif from the level's main theme. If you didn't know the song when you started, you certainly would by the time you gave up in frustration.