Introduction: Welcome back to the SNES Era of Gaming. Here, I’ll be talking about a hidden gem that not many people actually know about. This title is known as The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja or (Ganbare Goemon) in Japan. Whilst only one Mystical Ninja title came over to the United States, there has been a whole slew of these titles in Japan, whereas there was only this version, and GBA title and 2 N64 games released in the US.
The Story: The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja stars the adventures of Kid Ying (Goemon) and Dr. Yang (Ebisamaru) respectively. Their adventure starts with investigating the haunted Horo Shrine and it leads all the way across Japan in an effort to save Princess Yuki from The Forces of Evil. From what starts off as a small Journey, turns into being a rather massive epic adventure. Going from places such as towns to amusement parks, through actual bamboo forests literally leading to a final battle within a Japanese castle itself. Now for a SNES game, it is rather impressive just what this particular game is quite capable of. Regardless without giving too much away, you should definitely give this title a chance!
Why you should not sleep on it?: There is a lot of different things you can do within this game alone. From going through hidden mazes, hitting the sauna, playing a Whack A Mole-style game, getting your fortune told, gambling, actually playing the lottery, actually being on a quiz show, actually betting on horses and playing Gradius. The Legend of the Mystical Ninja has enough to satisfy even the most finicky gamer. With a hefty campaign and side areas, you can visit and that is excluding the games hidden areas, Legend Of The Mystical Ninja is a game that has enough for just about anyone. Literally, this alone justifies why you should not sleep on it.
Fun Factor: Honestly, the single player campaign of The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja” is a large enough endeavor in its own right. Even having beaten the actual game? I’d say that the entire game itself is fun due to the sheer amount of areas that you can explore. Almost every area has one town and one dungeon area. Most stages have a boss at the end of each level. I think the sole exception to this rule is the third level in which it only has a gigantic Octopus mini boss given that it’s a Konami themed amusement park. The developers more than likely threw this in as a way to break up the gameplay and keep it fresh.
Personal Likes:
The Sheer Amount Of Diversity This Game Has
Seriously this game offers a lot and the diverse gameplay element keep thing light and fun. Legend Of The Mystical Ninja still impresses me for the hardware they were using SNES.
The amount of Mini games it has.
Now to show you why you should not sleep on this game. I have played about 99.9% of the minigames that this game has. Each one of them brings more replay value to the game that already robust in gameplay options. It shows why this game is the total package.
It’s amazing Cast Of Characters
Literally, every character is memorable in its own way. From Kid Ying who is actually based after the actual Goemon Ishikawa. Even to the Fabled Doctor Yang who serves as this games. As player 2 there are also supporting characters who do appear. They include a ninja named Sasuke, to a girl named Yae, who is a part of the Iga Ninja clans so the game itself is filled to the brim with Japanese references overall.
The setting for the entire game overall.
I usually don’t like all areas of most games, but this game is different. The lore of the game is what I personally enjoy the most. You start in Edo and you wind up in Kyushu, how awesome is that? Extremely awesome if I do say so myself.
Personal Dislikes:
The Length Of The Game
Personally, even though the game is satisfying, I wanted more. I personally feel that it should have been much longer. But then again, I like my games to be long and drawn out but at the same time have a lot to offer. For me, Stage 3 even though it is an amusement park, could have been bigger. For the gamer who is speed running the game, you can literally pass four screens and be done with the entire thing and that to me is saying something.
Some of The Boss Dungeons can get tedious
Namely Stage 4 and 5’s boss castles. Generally, The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja’s levels is easy going and smooth. Those castles turn the game into a platformer where the screen has you doing everything from jumping onto 3D platforms to turning the entire screen around in a puzzle-like environment in order to advance. So yeah, it does take some skill to get further ahead.
Some stages require you to buy a key item to advance.
Only two levels do this, but still, it is quite annoying. The first being a pass within the bamboo forest level and the second is in the form of a royal textbook that is needed to translate the language of the monarch so you can advance. That can honestly put a cramp in the gaming style of some players. This is mostly a slight oversight but still one that can get in the way if you are pressed for time. Let’s face it, if you’re the gamer on the go, (the game is also on New Nintendo 3DS) You’re more than likely going to be pressed for time.
The inability to go back to previous stages
So once you advance. that is it until you replay the game. Unless you save your progress at the diary stage, but this game also has the password system that most SNES titles used at the time, so this is kinda more of a drawback.
Closing Statement: For this being a SNES era video game, The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja was one of Konami’s greatest titles on the SNES. The game for me is pretty much a godsend. This is because in an era of traditional American style titles. The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja broke the Japanese based game mold for me. Now granted, this was before the big Asian-based boom came in where every title was inspired by some form of Asian archetype. Basically, The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja” also introduced me to a whole new genre of gaming and personally, I’d like to pay it forward and tell the whole world about how amazing this title is. So if you fancy playing a hidden gem within the SNES library look no further than,”The Legend Of The Mystical Ninja” for Super Nintendo because it is a game most people definitely slept on. With that being said it’s time to wake up and smell the Coffee.
This is actually one of my favorite games. I learned about it through the Japanese show Game Center CX and since fell in love with it. I’ve never beaten it though. I should try this weekend.