The Mid-Eighties were good for Konami. They started off with Gradius in '85, and '87 saw the triplet successes of Castlevania, Metal Gear, and Contra. However, in '86, they decided to make a platformer based on Feudal Japan with a hero very much in the vein of Kid Goku of the then extremely popular Dragon Ball series. This was Ganbare Goemon, better known as the Legend of the Mystical Ninja series here in the states.
Of the twenty-eight games in the series, only four have made it to the U.S. Amongst these is one of my favorite games, Mystical Ninja starring Goemon for the N64. The other three are the SNES classic The Legend of The Mysical Ninja, Mystical Ninja starring Goemon for the GBC, and the direct sequel to this game, Goemon's Great Adventure, also for the N64.
This series shows it's root most in it's story. Anime influences are everywhere, from the perverted monk (Ebisumaru), the robotic ninja (Sasuke, which does make the Naruto somewhat cooler because he shares a name with him), the mystically trained warrior in a red gi whose hair goes gold when he powers up (Goemon, himself), the mecha warrior (Impact), the kuinoichi/mermaid (Yae), the Mystical Ninja Intro and Impact J-Pop themes, and the crazy alien villains (Peach Mountain Shoguns). But that's just the characters. The running all around Feudal Japan, the interactions with the narrarator, saving the princess, the love interest, and the robotic ninja's father from the aliens, and giant mecha fights. If your an anime fan of anywhere near Otaku level. This game's for you.
The Intro Theme
Impact's Theme
For an early N64 game, the images in this game were epic. Rather than going for a realistic look, they took the cartoony look. In my opinion this game is comprable with all or Rare's platformers and Nintendo's titles on the system, which is saying a lot in that generation. The cutscenes (like the one's above) have no prerendering whatsoever, and when it came out, I'd say it would be safe to say that it was the prettiest game on the market. It hasn't held up, mind you, but that doesn't make it any less amazing at the time of it's release.
Gameplay is top notch platforming mixed with dungeon crawling. Think what Castlevania should have been like on the system, and you're getting closer. Sadly, Kobe studios was in charge of that series jump to 3D rather than the Osaka series. Some have compared this to a hybrid of Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda, and I'm inclined to agree. The game uses a lot of the same ideas as the Zelda series in combat, dungeon exploration, epic boss fights, puzzle solving, and NPC filled towns, but it also adds platforming and power up abilities similar to that of Mario.
For example, one of Goemon's weapons is called the chain-pipe, very similar to the chain/hook/long/claw shot from Zelda, though you don't go into first person view to shoot it. This allows you to jump off of something and shoot over to a target to get across to a gap you couldn't reach either by jumping or shooting over too alone. And that's just in the first dungeon. So, yeah, this game plays great too.
For some reason though, when they decided to make a sequel, they decided to return the a 2.5 platforming set up that they'd helped originate. I can understand that in part, however, it still annoys me that that game was horrible while this one was outstanding.
So let me know what you think...if you've played the game, tell me if you liked it or if you didn't. If you haven't...tell me if you're interested.
-Sara
BUT WAIT...there's more! As a special treat, I give you something so amazingly insane it deserved not to be mentioned when I mentioned the Impact and Intro themes...the Villain's song. So, without further ado, enjoy.
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