The NES was an amazing system, but many games released for its Japanese counterpart, the Famicom, never saw a release in the west. One of these games was The Mysterious Murasame Castle, a game that saw players take on the role of the Samurai named Takamaru, who has been tasked with defeating a demonic invasion of Murasame Castle. You may be familiar with Takamaru though, from Cameos in other games like Super Smash Bros.
The Mysterious Murasame Castle plays a lot like another Famicom Disk System game, the original Legend of Zelda, albeit much more action-oriented. Takamaru has his sword to attack enemies, but there are also projectiles he can use against his foes. The enemies consist of not only monsters but also human enemies like Ninjas as well. There is a certain skill in how you attack, based on how close you can get to the enemy, and you can even deflect shuriken if you time your attacks right.
There are secrets to find as well, like various Tanuki who will give you new weapons, as well as other foes to beat. You can even gain powerups and new upgraded weapons such as an explosive lighting shuriken if you put in the effort to get them. This is a challenging game though, and death will see your hard earned upgrades go away and you will need to start over.
The game has an interesting legacy both in and out of Japan, as the game was only released recently in the west, a few years ago on the 3DS eshop, but a remake of sorts was released earlier. This remake came in the form of a recreation of the game in Samurai Warriors III as a Wii exclusive mode. In addition, Takamaru appeared in Captain Rainbow, Nintendo Land, and as mentioned, has shown up in Smash as an assist trophy
Thie Mysterious Murasame Castle is a game Nintendo should consider remaking for modern audiences. Get a dev like Team Ninja or PlatinumGames on it and you will have a surefire hit. It could also be revived as a smaller title as well, to build interest. The indie game Kamiko, which was an early hit on Nintendo Switch, plays somewhat similarly and the developers of that game could do a great job with this IP. This could also help fill a niche Nintendo is lagging in, with less action adventure games from the company recently.
The game is currently available on the 3DS eshop for those interested, and I suggest checking it out. This is one game Nintendo should not leave in the past.
………………..
In addition, for access to an extensive variety of active retro gaming groups on Facebook, visit Retro Gamers Hub.