Mastodawn

This last week has been an interesting week.

I can honestly say that the Ganbare Goemon series on the SNES, in its entirety, is absolutely worth playing.

Each game plays differently, but with a sense of familiarity.

Kiteretsu Shogun Magginesu and Kirakira Douchuu have the most similar game flows, but it only in that they are predominantly stage based 2D platformers.

The games get progressively more zany, in the best possible way and escalate in the silliest ways. I'll be doing a bumper presents on the other 3 games I haven't covered because each game deserves so much spotlight on them, and that isn't because I have spent the better part of nearly 48 hours playing these games!

#SNES #GanbareGoemon #RetroAchievements

Ishambard 1d ago

So, when I say that the Ganbare Goemon games are weird, in a good way.

I need you to understand, this is a screenshot from Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Douchuu (the 4th SNES game)

I remember walking into this area, and saying to myself this ISN'T happening...

#GanbareGoemon #SNES #RetroGames

Ishambard 4d ago

The Long Play of The Legend of the Mystical Ninja is now live on my channel.

https://youtu.be/ek9VSvjrMcY

A relatively streamlined run, with only a couple of moments of grinding and frustration. It's funny, there are some moments of genuine skill and great gameplay, and then some nonsense where I fail thing i really shouldn't have failed... But that's just how life goes sometimes.

#IshambardPlays #RetroGames #SNES #YouTube #GanbareGoemon

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja SNES - Anachronistic Feudal Japan is best Japan

YouTube

Ishambard Mar 16

#IshambardPresents The Legend of the Mystical Ninja - SNES

Don't be surprised, you knew this was coming.

I wish I played this game as a kid, I would have eaten this up. One part beat-em-up and one part 2D platformer, layer with a co-op mode, coat with minigames and sprinkle with a couple of brutal boss fights and you have The Legend of Mystical Ninja.

Silly anachronistic Japan is probably my favourite Japan, and the series only gets sillier from here.

The game can be downright unfair, punishing sloppy gameplay by downgrading your weapon when you take damage and requiring you to save up nearly 2,000 coins over the course of the adventure.

Graciously, the password system is robust, tracking progress like a save file, and the game retains the last password when reset. A battery save would be better, but I can live with this.

There is way too much to enjoy here that you might forget that it has beaten you up and stolen all your pocket change.

#SNES #GanbareGoemon #RetroGames

Ishambard Mar 15

I am so glad I am putting in the time to play the SNES Ganbare Goemon games.

I will be pop back to do the NES ones in time, but I still have two more SNES ones to complete.

What I will say, the games have this fantastic sense of world to them. Cameos, throwbacks, references, whilst all games being fantastically unique (Sure, I am only on Ganbare Goemon 3 right now, I should withhold that statement until I have played Kirakira Douchuu)

I was worried that if I did this series back to back if I would hit burn-out, a bit like what happened with Choro Q. But, delightfully, all three games i have played so far have mixed up the genres a little bit.

Anyway, something I found super endearing was when I went to Horo shrine in Goemon 3 (Stage 1 in Goemon 1), I met a familiar character complete with the sprite essentially being the same despite the games having very different styles.

#GanbareGoemon #SNES #RetroGames

Ishambard Mar 14

Holy crud. Not going to lie, still shaking.
I was getting ready to give up on this and use save states (i had dropped two at the hardest moments of this run).

This probably took in excess of 12 attempts, and it wasn't even, with each attempt I got further. No. My 2nd attempt got me to stage 8 out of 9 and I fluffed a jump, it took about 5 more attempts before I was able to get back to stage 8. On that run, I fluffed a reasonably easy jump...

Eventually I made it to the stage 8 boss, who, is the biggest challenge as he can kill you in a single hit.

But it is done now, and I can finish off the mastery with some significantly less intense and stressful challenges.

#RetroAchievements #GanbareGoemon #SNES

Ishambard Mar 13

So, I was curious and this has been part of my on-going spleunking.

They're releasing a Ganbare Goemon collection, which includes the Famicon, Super Famicon and GameBoy games. That’s pretty cool.

Shame the collection doesn't include the N64 titles!

The likelihood is that this won't get a translation and released outside of Japan, just because of the number of games that would need to go through the translation process.

Still, it is great to see Konami still acknowledge the series!

#GanbareGoemon #VideoGames

Ishambard Feb 25

Due to numerous factors, I had dropped the ball on #VGMWednesday last week.
My attention has been divided all over the place admittedly.

So, whilst I was casually listening to stuff at work, something came up, and it was like a gorgeous gut punch. A, charming, full bodied impact into my soul.

Is everything I said above a lie, and just an opportunity to reference something lyrics? Yes. But, it is true that 『I am Impact』from Mystical Ninja starring Goemon for the N64 just snuck into my recommendations and I was smacked with some funky nostalgia.

https://youtu.be/GvfFIfbEHHI?si=2m8AN_tYJELMEcz9

When this song plays in-game, you are transported into a giant mecha to engage in mecha on mecha boss fights. It is awesome and absurd in equal measure. Ichirō Mizuki's performance here is fantastic, and unashamedly silly in the best possible way.

Do I need to play Goemon again? Yes. It is on the list. I'm getting to it, I promise.

#N64 #GanbareGoemon