Mystical Ninja starring Goemon

"I wonder if Ancient Japan was really this much fun?"

Mystical Ninja starring Goemon details the exploits of Goemon and his buddies on their second game to be released in the U.S. The first was The Legend of the Mystic Ninja on the SNES, which oddly enough had all references to Goemon removed. I guess they were trying to shield our sensitive American minds from the insanity that is Goemon. Well, no more. Konami’s taking the kid gloves off in this odd ball title. It’s cram packed with all the wholesome Japanese craziness that we deserve. But enough rambling, on to the review!

Story
Since this is really the most important part of this game, I’ll start here. The game starts wiht our heros being thrown out of one of the local stores. It seems Ebismaru's Dance of Seduction that he was doing to get a discount was unsuccessful. But things rapidly go from bad to worse. UFOs have been spotted over ancient Japan. The local lord's castle has been sacked. Oh no! It’s the evil Peach Mountain Gang! They’re here to take over Japan, turning it into their own personal stage. It’s up to Goemon and his friends to battle these deviants in order to rescue Japan from the horror of being force to watch the Peach Mountain Gang’s stage performance every day FOREVER!!!!!!!! I told you it was crazy, but it’s crazy in a good way.
10 out of 10 for fans of all things Japanese (2 out of 10 otherwise)

Gameplay
Real Goemon fans will probably hang me for this, but if you think Zelda:OoT, you’re in familiar territory. The game plays out for the most part with you traveling to a new town and then entering a dungeon. The dungeons are typically multi-floored castles or temples and filled to the gills with enemies and devious traps (but not that devious). You find keys to open looked doors including a special key that opens the door to the boss Your health is handled by hearts (sound familiar?) which you get by collecting Fortune Dolls. Four Silver Fortune doll nets you 1/4th of a heart while a Gold Fortune Doll automatically gives you a whole heart.

Another thing I should mention is that you eventually have up to four characters in your party. However, only one can be used at a time. Each character has his (or her) own abilities that are necessary at certain times. Luckily, the game allows you to easily switch back and forth between the four at any time.
A solid 7 out of 10

Graphics
Here’s where things start to go downhill. While I can forgive a 1st generation game for looking 1st generation, this looks worst than 1st generation. I know I shouldn’t compare this to Mario 64, but I have to, and Mystical Ninja has been measured and found lacking. It does grow on you after a while, though.

Also, I have to mention the horrible, horrible camera. You thought Mario 64 was bad? Ha, think again. In Mystical Ninja, you have no control over the camera. No control at all. Although the camera tries to stay behind you at all times, it does a pretty poor job of that. Sometimes you have to wait a few seconds just to get the camera to swing around far enough to see how to make a Life-or-Death jump. Not pretty.
A generous 4.5 out of 10

Sound
For the graphics being so poor, I was really surprise to hear how well the voices were done. It’s not quite CD quality, but it’s pretty darn good. BTW, the songs and voices are all in the original Japanese with English subtitles, which earns Konami a place on my “Cool List”.

One interesting thing, Mystical Ninja has a Laugh Track, which I think is probably a first for a videogame. Normally I’d give something like that a plus, but it doesn’t work here because most of the jokes translate poorly and rarely make any sense. You might find it a little humorous, but as far as sound goes it doesn’t earn itself any Brownie Points.

The music is somewhat repetitive, but it sets the mood nicely (you might even catch yourself humming along!). I don’t really know how to describe it other than to says it’s very Japanese.
8 out of 10

Replayability
Here’s another section where this game takes a serious hit. It’s really short. You shouldn’t have a problem wrapping it up in 10-15 hours during your first time through it. Once you’ve finished there’s no reason to play it again, other than to try and collect all the Fortune Doll cats or maybe to see all the quirky stuff you may have missed the first time.
3 out of 10

Challenge Level
Considering that the game almost hands you the answer to any problem that could possibly stump you, I can’t rate it too high in this category. As if the fortune teller doesn’t spell it out plainly enough, it seems all the village people are extremely knowledgeable as well. Even the dogs can give you clues. It does redeem itself somewhat in the action part of the game, but not enough to give you a proper challenge. If you beat Zelda:OoT, you’ll shrug this game off in no time.
Moderately Easy

Bottom Line: Buy vs. Rent
It depends from person to person. If you’re a fan of quirky Japanese games, you’ll no doubt love this game. However, if you’re not a fan, it’s not worth it to play this game just for gameplay alone. My personal suggestion? Buy!

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/09/01, Updated 07/09/01