Soreyuke Ebisumaru! Karakuri Meiro - Kieta Goemon no Nazo!! - Super Famicom (1996)

Soreyuke Ebisumaru

Soreyuke Ebisumaru

Soreyuke Ebisumaru

"Soreyuke Ebisumaru" - translated as "Go Forth Ebisumaru! The Trick Labyrinth - The Mystery of Goemon's Disappearance!!", is a pretty lousy puzzle game starring the titular fat ninja. Viewed from an overhead angled perspective, you are given a small level and must guide Ebisumaru to the end. He's not too smary and will follow the path laid out for him, except for the arrow tiles. Your job is to flip the arrow tiles so he gets to the end before time runs out. The clock isn't your only enemy, as you'll have to guide Ebisumaru away from bad guys, and also make sure you don't accidentally guide him off the edge. There are random items strewn about the board that gives bonus points, although they aren't too important. This came out when computer rendering was all the rage and the cutscene graphics are all CGI generated. They look like a terrible precursor to the N64 games, although the music is pretty decent. Since it utilizies a skewed 3/4 pespective, simply moving the cursor is difficult, and overall the game just isn't much fun.

Soreyuke Ebisumaru

Ganbare Goemon: Mononoke Sugoroku - Nintendo 64 (1999)

Nintendo 64 Cover

Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku

Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku

Mononoke Sugoroku is actually a pretty similar, if not exactly the same, as the cult hit Culcept. Which is itself a combination of the card game Magic: The Gathering and the board game Monopoly. The title doesn't translate too well - "Mononoke" means is a type of monster and Sugoroku is a type of dice game. You can play as eight characters - in additional to the usual Goemon foursome, there's Kurobei the cat, a goofy thing named Darumaoidon, and cutesified versions of the wind and thunder gods, Fuujinsusume and Raijinsusume. It's a little weird that this title appeared in the Nintendo 64, as it's almost entirely in 2D. It may have been due to the four controller ports, since this is meant to be a party game. There is a single player mode, but it's very slow paced. And really, it's no fun to play a board game by yourself. When you start the game, you have a deck of Ofuda cards, which you can set up on squares around the board. If one of your opponents lands on that square, then battle ensues. This may sound exciting, but it really just means they pick one of their cards to fight your card. Other than picking additional cards to boost various statistics, you don't actually interfere with the battle - if your card is more powerful, you win, and do damage to your opponent. If your card sucks, then you lose and get hurt. If someone runs out of HP, they're out of the game, so it's a simple contest of being the last man standing. Using the Transfer Pak, you can transfer monsters you've collected from the Mononoke Gameboy Color game and turn them into cards to use here. There are 240 total cards. All of the monsters are based off of Japanese mythology, and the boards are usually pretty wacky - one takes place on top of a gigantic soup boul. It's an interesting concept, but you're really better off getting Culdcept for the PS2, seeing as how it's in English.

Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku

Cameos

Being one of Konami's more notable characters, Goemon made appearances in several other games. He's a starring character in both Wai Wai World games, a series of games on the Famicom that was essentially huge fan service to Konami fans everywhere. There were also levels that took place in Goemon world - the stages in Wai Wai World 2 look particularly reminiscent of the original arcade game. Goemon also showed up as a playable characters in the MSX Parodius, as well as the Super Famicom Gokujyou Parodius. There is also a whole stage based off the Goemon titles in Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius, including a boss based off of Goemon Impact. Finally, Goemon stars in the Gameboy Advance title Konami Krazy Racers (known as Wai Wai Racing in Japan) - one of his stages is also based off the Goemon games, with theme music from the N64 game.

Wai Wai World	Wai Wai World	Wai Wai World 2
Wai Wai World 2	Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius	Konami Krazy Racers

Mystical Ninja Anime

Produced in 1996, the Mystical Ninja anime is, like most video game anime, completely and utterly terrible. While the games have never been extraordinarily sophisticated, the staff behind the anime seemed to think that the primary audience were little kids and made a by-the-numbers children's show. Instead of taking place in ancient Japan, the setting is modern day Tokyo. The evil Seppukumaru (the bad guy from Goemon 4 SFC) escapes from the Game World and begins to wreak havoc across the city. A little kid named Tsukasa is playing his favorite N64 game, Goemon X, when Goemon and pals hope out of the video game to stop Seppukumaru's shenanigans. Eventually, Goemon and friends take up residence in their house, with occasional cameos from Omitsu and the Wise Old Man. There's also a completely irrelevant subplot involving Tsukasa and his crush on his lady friend Asuka, who seems more interested in the snobbish rich kid. Naturally, Goemon is there to help Tsukasa win the girl. The artwork and animation is absolutely atrocious, and the picture quality on the DVDs is pretty bad as well. Goemon Impact makes an appearance each episode to fight bad guys in the requisite showdown, but even he can't save the show. For that matter, where are the goofy intro songs? All of the music is generic, laid back pop trash, which is absolutely nothing what it should sound like. Where is the whole sense of humor, for that matter? The anime retains none of the wackiness that made the video games so brilliant. An example of some of the lame jokes? The running gag is that Tsukasa's mother doesn't think that it's strange for game characters to be running around the house - she just muses about how short they are. For some reason, ADV licensed the Mystical Ninja anime and began releasing it in 2003, but you have to wonder what they were thinking on this one. Why would they localize a shitty anime based on a video game series very few people have ever heard of? The dubbing is, of course, pretty bad, and they tend pronounce Goemon's name as "Goymon". The DVDs are readily available in case you want to expose yourself to this atrocity, but I can't see anyone outside of a five year old kid actually finding much entertainment with this.

Anime Cover Volume 1

The Goemon series has been around almost as long as Konami themselves. For the most part, the series really hit its peak with the Super Famicom games, with the series having gone somewhat downhill in the recent years. However, Goemon is planned for the Nintendo DS, which should hopefully bring a glorious resurrection to our favorite wacky ninja. Thanks to Dais and Bloodreign for their info on the GBA Goemon ports. Links: Mystical Web Site of Goemon Resurrection of the best Goemon site on the web. Old Mystical Web Site Kinda in shambles, but lots of good stuff within. Videoland - Goemon Timeline Good summary of the SNES/N64 games and their plots. NTSC UK - Goemon PS2 Review of the saddeningly bad PS2 game.