Goemon's Great Adventure

About Goemon's Great Adventure

Goemon's Great Adventure (1998), known in Europe as Mystical Ninja 2 Starring Goemon, is Konami's 2.5D side-scrolling return for the series, with two-player co-op across a surreal Edo-period Japan.

Goemon's Great Adventure in Depth

The evil Bismaru has stolen Wise Man's resurrection machine and used it to revive Dochuki, prince of the underworld, and Goemon and his friends must cross five worlds to defeat him and destroy the device. Set in a fantastical Edo-period Japan of forests, mountains, towns and underworlds with touches of science fiction, it continues the series' offbeat, surreal humour. Abandoning the free roaming of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, it returns to the style of the Super Famicom games: movement is restricted to a 2D plane, but stages are rendered in 3D and wind along the z axis, giving it a 2.5D look like Yoshi's Story and Klonoa.

A world map links stages, with a town and a dungeon in each world. Entry passes, earned by clearing stages and doing tasks for townspeople, open the dungeons, and completing one opens the next world, with some non-linear touches such as a secret village and multiple routes. Players run, jump, attack and use special abilities as Goemon, Ebisumaru, Sasuke or Yae, swapped in towns or via portals to an interdimensional teahouse. Two players can play together, though both must stay on screen. Characters have three health bars, defeated monsters drop dumplings and lucky cats, and progress is saved to a Controller Pak. Critics praised its 16-bit-style side-scrolling, Castlevania overtones and varied levels, and GamePro said the 2.5D made it "more exciting than any old 2D scrollers".

Making Goemon's Great Adventure

Konami developed and released it for the Nintendo 64 in 1998, promoting the Ganbare Goemon series heavily that Christmas alongside a PlayStation game and a Game Boy Color game. An English version was revealed in September 1998 and shown at E3 1999. It received favourable reviews: IGN gave it eight out of ten, praising non-linear puzzle elements and quests that took more than a day to finish, 1UP.com gave it an A, and critics welcomed the co-op mode as a huge improvement that recalled "classic Nintendo and Konami sidescrollers". The switch to side-scrolling also solved the camera issues of its predecessor, and its graphics and music earned high marks.