Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
07 Aug 1997
All releases
01 Oct 1998 - Nintendo 64
18 Apr 1998 - Nintendo 64
16 Apr 1998 - Nintendo 64
07 Aug 1997 - Nintendo 64
Tags
The story follows Goemon's struggles to prevent the Peach Mountain Shoguns gang from turning Japan into a Westernized fine arts theater. The plot calls for three cinematic musical features and battles between giant robots; like other Ganbare Goemon games, it is peppered with surrealist humor and anachronisms. The protagonist of Mystical Ninja is Goemon, a hot-blooded, kiseru-wielding ninja with blue, bushy hair based loosely on the legendary thief Ishikawa Goemon. The lord of Oedo asks him to find those who maimed Oedo Castle. Goemon lives in Oedo Town and is friends with Ebisumaru, a strange, gluttonous fat man who wears a blue bandana. Ebisumaru is defined as lazy and perverted. Their kunai-throwing friend Sasuke is a mechanical ninja (made by the Wise Man of Iga) who enjoys hot baths and Japanese tea. Rounding out the heroes is Yae, a fierce sword-wielding kunoichi, who happens upon Goemon's band in Zazen Town. The villains of the game hail from the organization Peach Mountain Shoguns and include a gang of four "weirdos" led by Spring Breeze Dancin' (Danshin Harukaze) and Kitty Lily (Margaret Ranko). They intend to transform Japan into a stage for their talents.
| Audio | Subtitles | Interface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| English | ✓ | ✓ |
Updated versions
I have occasionally heard people call this a hidden gem on the N64, and those people are right on the money. If its appeal wasn't as niche as it is, this game would definitely be talked about more.
It's got outstanding music, that almost rivals Nintendos efforts on the platform.
In the gameplay departement its platforming is nowhere near as gratifying as Mario 64, neither are its 'dungeons' or adventure aspects as engrossing as Zeldas offerings, but the fact that its game design kind of places it between these two makes it interesting to play on its own.
Like most games, the best way to play this is going in blind. If you do though, do look up the controls for 'Impact' once you get to that part (you'll know what that means once you get there), as they aren't as intuitive as the rest of the controls.
