Goemon's Great Adventure

"Goemon returns in a game which has fewer dimensions, but rather more depth."

Mystical Ninja Two: Starring Goemon, to give it its proper, British title - well, actually it is set in and was developed in Japan, but that's not very important to me - is the sequel to (surprisingly enough) Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon, on the same platform. Why mention this at the start of a review? It's one of the most interesting things about this game that although its predecessor was a very competent three-dimensional platform game in the mould of Super Mario 64, with aspects of Zelda games spliced in, the second title seemingly takes something of a step backwards for the series, being as it is a two-dimensional platformer. I hear the series had a few such titles on the Super NES, but I haven't played any of them. So, then, the series has gone back to its roots. The question that needs to be answered in this review is whether it has done it well. Do 2D platformers work on the N64?

Before continuing, I'll provide a more detailed explanation as to the mechanics of the game. There are five worlds, each composed of three or four regular stages (the aforementioned 2D platforming areas), a town (which is viewed side on but can be moved around in all three dimensions), a castle and penultimately a checkpoint (where your achievements to date are, yes, checked to see whether you should be allowed through to the castle). The castle is also a longer 2D platforming area, with a boss at the end. Following each castle's boss is another boss, of the giant robot variety. Ahah, yes! Fans of the original game should be delighted at Impact's reprising of the role he played in the first N64 game; the uninitiated will be advised presently. The game awards an ''entry pass'' for each stage completed - and many have two exits, allowing more than one to be obtained - and additional quests and tasks are undertaken in the towns to get more. The checkpoints may be passed upon collection of a certain number of entry passes, and the game is forgiving - you don't have to collect each one. Tasks are sometimes along the lines of having to go to a level and kill a certain type of enemy within a time limit, collecting items for a person, et cetera; they're usually good fun.

The bulk of the game, though, is the platforming aspect of it. What makes it sufficiently well-done to gain a ninety percent score? That would be due to two things that I can think of: firstly, the presentation; and secondly, the dynamical nature of the way the game is played. While the game is two-dimensional - make no mistake of it - it is animated in three dimensions. This allows a large amount of bold modelling and scripting to be implemented, with the on-rails camera staying a certain distance back from the action and following you along by moving sideways. There are a lot of startlingly impressive moments created using the system in this game, not to spoil the surprise - early examples, though, include waterwheels and suspended water channels with flowing liquid inside, and an ''enemy'' of sorts who attacks from both the foreground and background, as you see his giant form stomping around outside the play area.

Later, objects appear that move across from the foreground to the background, or have mechanics acting deep in the background to add realism and (frequently gorgeous) detail. Obviously, backgrounds comprising such 3D objects are used all the time - trees, buildings, stone walls... To increase the apparent graphical prowess of this set-up, your route is not a straightforward left-to-right job (though this is often the general direction you take across the various scenes you encounter). Although action takes place in a forced two-dimensional plane, this plane is angled across the three dimensional world so that you move around corners, take the correct platform at the correct time, and even run up and down spiral structures as you storm onwards. It naturally makes splitting of routes and alternative sections of the levels a commonplace event, to add spice. Add to this the day/night cycle, which takes about ten minutes (I think) to run from dawn one day to dawn the next, and you have a graphically very impressive game. (In case you were wondering, night does have an effect on the gameplay; there are more, tougher, and more vicious enemies, but you will gain twice the amount of money for killing them.)

It would be hard to explain the gameplay style without first explaining the characters who you control, and in turn, it would be hard to explain them without explaining the game's setting and atmosphere. Goemon games are set in a comedy cartoon version of feudal Japan that mixes Japanese culture with modern attitudes, modern technology and crazy happenings with a kind of disinterested flair. That is to say, it makes sense only on a vague level, but due to the skill with which the games are designed, you are just enjoying it too much to really care, and regard what happens with mild amusement as it goes on. Hence the storyline of this game: your man Goemon (with the big blue spiky hair and great big pipe with which to smack enemies around) and his chum Ebisumaru (short, tubby and with a squeaky voice and comedy attacks) are visiting the Wise Man (also a regular of the series) to see a new invention. It goes wrong and it all results in a big mess: to wit, variously shaped ghosts and pottery soldiers are roaming Goemon's homeland of Edo, causing trouble. Goemon and Ebisumaru, eventually along with their friends Yae (a woman with green hair, wielding swords) and Sasuke (a short robot in a green skirt) must put the situation right.

You can play on your own or co-operatively with a friend, and each player controls any of the four people. You'll pick either Goemon or Ebisumaru most of the time, though, as disappointingly the other two aren't up to much platforming, not being able to jump nearly as high or far. So we have the essential set-up: your character runs and bounces through a graphically distinctive themed environment that twists and turns around the place, avoiding hazards and giving the enemies what-for. What makes it specially attractive - to me, at least - is the speed of it. As I remember it, all other 2D platformers that I've played have been comparatively staid. I strolled around and knocked heads with baddies in sparsely populated levels that I never really questioned because I didn't know of anything else. I honestly can't imagine going back to those games now that I have played this. You can run through many of the levels at top speed, if you like, and if you're sufficiently skilled, and it will provide a great buzz, particularly if you can collect all the coins dropped by enemies along the way. The levels are packed with imaginative foes and, yes, obstacles; it requires timing (but not anally precise timing, notably), instinctive ability to know what to do when, and for you to keep moving much of the time.

As such it's a special thing: a game that makes you work but allows you to have fun all the time you're doing it. Even if you get stuck you will probably still keep giving it another crack as it's quite compulsive. Speaking of being stuck, though, I should mention the considerable difficulty of the game from about the third castle onwards. The game frequently throws a lot at you all at once; platforms, moving hazards and enemies. You will not get anywhere near the end unless you are reasonably quick-witted and skilled at this kind of game, and computer gaming novices with little of the requisite type of hand-to-eye co-ordination should not apply. Likewise, if you want to take advantage of the two-player mode, your friends had better be up to it, as it certainly doesn't get any easier just because you've got company. None of my friends are any good at it, and so I've no-one to enjoy this side of the game with unless I lend it them for a considerable amount of time so they can practise, I fear. But that's not the end of the world; it's a perfectly good single-player experience as well, and come the end you'll wish there was more of it if you're anything like me (which is not to say that it's short). To answer the rhetorical question I posed way back in the first paragraph, with a resounding yes: 2D can work on N64 and systems like it.

Now, I mentioned giant robots. What? How do these work? Well, your own robot Impact and his new girlfriend are called upon at the end of each castle to answer a challenge from some scoundrel who plans to beat you up. The fights (there are five of them, an improvement on the three in the machine's first title) are viewed first-person from the cockpit of your robot; as the enemy tries on various attacks, you respond with your own moves and generally try to out-manouevre him and beat him up instead. Fights are much more fluid than the first game's were, and you really can get into them; in much the same way as the main platforming sections are compulsive, those of you who get to be good at these parts of the game will enjoy some fights all the more due to your ability to outsmart the computer and generally cane him in a fast-paced battle. Your attacks are punches, blasts of coins from Impact's nose (!), and a laser beam that deals heavy damage but must be charged up before use. A few high-damage combos such as swift punch volleys and kicks are also available, and these are satisfying to pull off.

Two-player is integrated into the robot battle engine as well, in a tag team style; if there are two players, then switching from Impact to his Mrs. and back again will switch the player who's in control. In order to keep the share of play fair, the enemy robot sometimes initiates a sudden death attack that must be avoided by passing the baton to your friend. The best and most hilarious part of two-player robot battling, though, is when you are able to start a short volley going: your friend, who has limited control over his own robot even when not in his own cockpit view, attacks from behind and knocks the enemy toward you, and you then punch him away. Sometimes this will even work twice... This does happen when you play on your own with the computer controlling the other robot, but not very often. Finally, I must mention that a pause function has been added for the giant robot battle mode - a feature that was sorely missed in the first game.

Aesthetics have been mentioned above, and as I said, the graphical style is fairly cartoony while at the same time lush and attractive, with a wide variety of visual themes to accompany the levels. The music is outstanding throughout; each level has its own theme, and most are pleasant, some being more catchy than others. (My favourite music is that of Wonder Valley, in world four; a haunting but fast-paced melody.) During night time, the music is altered; most of the time the night music is just one theme for every stage in that area, though. The music switches between styles very smoothly, segueing into a slow-paced version in the evenings and back to normal again at dawn. This very satisfying technique of gradually altering the music is also present in the castle stages (unaffected by the day/night cycle), wherein each one's musical theme remains recognisably the same but grows heavier and more dramatic as you approach the end, and the design of the environment grows more taxing. This is most readily apparent in castle three, so watch out for it.

I've been describing this game in glowing terms throughout my review, so what's wrong? Why only nine out of ten? Well, it's primarily the amount of skill required, and the general difficulty of the whole thing. It can't be recommended to absolutely everybody because not absolutely everybody can cope, and you should be aware of that before buying it; also that unless your friends are much better at platforming than mine, you're effectively restricted to single player. But in reality, if you've been playing video games for a fair while, you should rise to the challenge anyway, buy this game and enjoy it. With marvellous music, stupendous set-pieces, a humorous story and frantic gameplay, it would be a shame if you ignored this game, because whatever purists might say about the role of modern systems like the N64, this is what consoles are for: fast, hectic fun.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/23/02, Updated 10/06/02