Legend of the Mystical Ninja/Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuushutsu Emaki - SNES (1991)

Super Nintendo Cover

Super Famicom Cover

Legend of the Mystical Ninja

The first 16-bit Goemon title was also the first to be released in America. Each stage is divided into two parts: the first half plays out like the Famicom Goemon games, where you run around towns, gathering money and buying items. However, the second half is a straight-up side scrolling platformer. Other than one level late in the game, you never need to worry about finding passes or fumbling around for hidden stuff. Many of the extra elements from the Famicom Goemon 2 are back - there are tons of stuff to do in the towns, like playing carnival games, betting on race horses, scavenging through first-person view dungeons or playing trivia games. Even cooler, one of the mini-games is the first level of the original Gradius - which, on the SNES, looks and sounds much better than both the NES and arcade versions. As the game begins, ghosts are invading Edo. But that's only a small part of the problem: the princess Yuki has been kidnapped, and you have to ally with a band of ninja cats to help save the day. There are passwords to keep track of your progress, but they're very long and overly complicated. Which leads to a rather bizarre quirk. You see, passwords keep track of all of your items. But if you lose all of your lives, you restart the stage completely bare, meaning you'll have to spend a bunch of time in town powering up again - unless you bothered to write down the password, in which case you can pick up exactly where you left off. The game is also a little over reliant on having enough items to beat a stage. The platforming levels can be devilishly hard if you don't have enough armor or healing items. Plus, getting hits will degrade your speed as well, so getting whacked several times will slow down your character tremendously. Otherwise, it's an excellent game, with plain yet decent graphics, and an oddly infectious score filled with traditional Japanese instruments. Considering the cultural barriers present in the game, it's surprising that most of this game made in intact when it came to America. Goemon and Ebisumaru were named Kid Yang and Dr. Ying, probably due to the fact that their names are somewhat unpronounceable to English speakers. However, they forget to take into account that they gave Chinese games to Japanese characters. One scene involving a fart joke was also removed, most likely at the behest of Nintendo. MP3s Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 9 Action

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Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shogun Magginesu - Super Famicom (1993)

Super Famicom Cover

Ganbare Goemon 2

Ganbare Goemon 2

"Kiterestu Shougun Magginesu", or "The Mysterious General Magginesu", takes Goemon straight into platformer territory. You move around levels via a world map stage select (similar to Super Mario World), with some occasional towns to shop in. The character sprites have been enlarged, and while they look fantastic, it makes the game feel a little bit awkward (similar to Mega Man 7.) This is where the series developed the unique art style that's been used in almost every game afterwards. There are three playable characters - Goemon and Ebisumaru are back, with Sasuke the clockwork ninja making his first appearance. Each character has their own unique attacks, although you can't switch between them ingame - you'll have to reset the console. Goemon 2 also serves as the introduction to the legendary Goemon Impact. You begin each Impact battle by running through the country-side, smashing into buildings and jumping over plateaus in order to gain energy. When you finally reach the boss, you're given a cockpit view of the action. You can't move in these segments - all you do is guard against enemy attacks and attack when they drop their defenses. They can get very hard until you get the hang of them, but they play sort of like Super Punch-Out, except with lots of nifty Mode 7 effects. In a not-so-subtle allusion to Matthew Perry's visit to Japan in the 19th century, Ganbare Goemon 2 feature a general from the West known has Magginesu, who has invaded the country with his army of bunny men. He wants to shape Japan with his own foreign ways, and it's up to Goemon and gang to stop him. Sasuke is introduced for the first time here, as well as several goofy vehicles - including mouse cars, sumo mechs and robotic fish. There are the usual assortment of mini-games, the coolest being a level from the arcade shooter Xexex. Considering the game was never ported to a console, it's a real treat to be able to play some of it, even if the slowdown is horrendous. Although the game is a little bit on the easy side compared to the other Goemon games, it has some great moments, especially the kitchen and ski resort levels.

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Ganbare Goemon 2

Ganbare Goemon 2

Ganbare Goemon 2

Kessakusen! Ganbare Goemon 1 + 2 - Gameboy Advance (2005)

GBA Cover

Ganbare Goemon

Ganbare Goemon 2

Kessakusen! is, as the title suggests, simply a port of Ganbare Goemon 1 and 2 to the Gameboy Advance. The screens resolutions and status bars were changed to suit the GBA's screen, although graphically they're identical. Like most SNES->GBA ports, the sound suffers a bit, moreso the first game than the second game. Other than the addition of a save game function for the original game, the only real difference is that you can change characters on the fly in Ganbare Goemon 2. There are also a whole ton of new minigames (accessible in the main menu, along with the Gradius and XEXEX games), including a 3D stage reminsicent of the bonus levels in Sonic CD, and various Memory-style matching games. In other words, nothing too spectacular. It's much better than Konami's Contra 3 port, and it's nice that they stuck two games together (considering most ports only have one.) As usual, it only saw release in Japan, most likely a prelude to Goemon's DS adventures.

Ganbare Goemon Mini-game

Ganbare Goemon 3: Shishijyuurokubei no Karakuri Manji Katame - Super Famicom (1994)

Super Famicom Cover

Ganbare Goemon 3

Ganbare Goemon 3

The third SFC game's title is translated roughly to "The Lucky Mechanism of the Lion Benefit Army". This time, the Wise Ol' Man has created a time traveling device and sent himself into the future. While he initially uses this to chases some skirts, the device is hijacked by Bisumaru, Ebisumaru's French-Catholic descent, who also happens to be a nun. Under the orders of the sinister Juurokubei, she wreaks havoc on Japan, and it's up to you to travel to the futuristic Neo Edo to stop her (him?) It's amusing to see a futuristic version of ancient Japan, filled with with lasers and mechs that look suspiciously like the Magitek Armor from Final Fantasy 6. It also introduces a thoroughly ridiculous laugh track. Goemon 3 ditches the map screen in favor of a large, united overworld. It's smaller than, say, Zelda: Link to the Past, but the influences are obvious - even the map screen looks similar. There are a total of four playable characters now, with Yae joining on the bandwagon. Each character has their own skills - Goemon can use his chain pipe to swing on certain blocks, or go Super Saiyan (gold spiky hair and all) on his enemies. Ebisumaru can use his hula hoop to latch onto hooks, Sasuke has bombs to open passages, and Yae can turn into a mermaid to get past the waterlogged areas. The levels are much more intricate them before, sometimes requiring a little bit of puzzle solving. You'll also be on the lookout for hidden lucky cat statues, which extend your life bar. While the game isn't too hard, the levels do tend to be a little on the long side, and losing all of your lives means started straight at the beginning. The only major problem is the language barrier - unless you have a FAQ or understand Japanese, you'll spend a lot of time wandering around aimlessly, hoping your stumble upon that certain item you need to proceed. Particularly cryptic is the laugh track - at random intervals during dialogue, there are little tinny outbursts of laughter. Other than the language problems, though, it's a pretty decent game.

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Ganbare Goemon 3

Ganbare Goemon 3

Ganbare Goemon 3

Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Douchuu: Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Wake - Super Famicom (1994)

Super Famicom Cover

Ganbare Goemon 4

Ganbare Goemon 4

The fourth Super Famicom Goemon game - "The Glittering Journey: The Reason I Became a Dancer" - is my personal favorite of all of the Mystical Ninja games. The Goemon Impact shows on the doorstep and learns of a planet filled with people that look just like him. Mistakening him for their leader, they begin to worship him, but the planet is soon attacked by the devious Harakiri Seppukumaru ("harakiri" and "seppuku" are both methods of ritual suicide.) Unable to let his followers down, Impact flies his friend into outer space to save the day. This game ditches the wide-open overworld of Goemon and reintroduces the stage select screen from Goemon 2. Each character is marooned on their own planet, and each must be conquered separately before your team can reunite. You'll still need to gather special powers for your characters, retaining some of the adventure game feel. Although the levels are fairly short by comparison to its predecessor, they're primarily focused on action and platforming. There are some town segments with minor puzzles to solve, which are annoying if you don't known Japanese, but are a relatively minor impediment. While the character sprites are the same as Goemon 3, the backgrounds are some of the most gorgeous on the Super Famicom. Konami also added some voice clips for the gang, as well as some insanely catchy music with extraordinarily high sound quality. This is a 24 meg game, which is huge for a non-RPG title, which is probably the reason for the outstanding aesthetics. Each boss has their own mini-game. Some are lame, like the quiz game and the Track & Field ripoff. One of the better games lets you play Taisen Puzzle-dama, Konami's answer to Puyo Puyo. By far the coolest (and hardest) is the bungee jump game - Impact is stationed on the ground, and an enemy mech bungee jumps from lower orbit. You have to catch his sword as he falls before he slices you in half. The final boss battle has Seppukumaru tossing mini-Death Stars towards Earth, and you have to catch them and throw them back. All of these can be played with four players as well. And if you unlock all of the secrets in the game, you can play Time Pilot '95, a rejuvenation of Konami's old arcade classic. It's not quite as cool as the levels from Gradius or Xexex, but it's a nice throwback. The rest of the game exudes even more the wackiness we've come to love from the series - one boss is so obsessed with sports that you fight against baseball playing soldiers in a soccer stadium. One level has your character stalked by a firearm that looks suspiciously like the handgun from Doom. Another has you fighting robots of Ryu and Guile from Street Fighter. Another crazy (and saddeningly short) has you riding on a car as it plummets through the sky. It's this kind of wackiness that elevates "Dancer" not only above your typical side scrollers, but beyond the rest of the entire Goemon series. All in all, "The Reason I Became a Dancer" has all of the sparkle expected from Konami's best games, and ranks up next to Super Castlevania IV and Contra 3 as one of their most brilliant titles for the Super Famicom. MP3s The Desert Planet - Goemon's Theme The Forest Planet - Ebisumaru's Theme The Water Planet - Yae's Theme

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Ganbare Goemon 4

The ending has Impact in a fro doing a disco dance - for some reason. The demon from the old Famicom games is back at the Game Over screen, this time with a hula hoop and totally ridiculous theme music. The text says "Hey brother! Ya give up?" The options are "Not yet!" and "See ya!"

Ganbare Goemon 4

Cameo Games

These are playable mini-games based on actual Konami shooters.

Gradius (Legend of the Mystical Ninja)

XEXEX (Ganbare Goemon 2 SFC)

Time Pilot (Ganbare Goemon 4 SFC)