In 1991, Konami published the first Super Famicom entry in its popular Ganbare Goemon
series, named Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuushutsu Emaki, or the Picture Scroll of Princess Yuki's
Rescue. It's a humorous action platformer that mixed older gameplay elements of the
series with all new, 2D sidescrolling stages and boss fights. The game follows the exploits
of the titular Goemon, along with his goofy, portly partner Ebisumaru, as they travel across
Japan in order to save the kidnapped Princess of Oedo, much like the title of the game suggests.
In my opinion, it's really this Super Famicom title that established Ganbare Goemon as one
of the greatest game series' of all time.
This game also marked the first of only a handful of games in the series to be released
outside of Japan. Rebranded "The Legend of the Mystical Ninja," it was brought over to
North America in 1992 and Europe in 1994. The renaming of Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuushutsu
Emaki, try saying that five times fast, is quite understandable from a marketing perspective.
But the changes made to the main characters' names is a different story, and a real reflection
of the time period. I see why names like "Goemon" and "Ebisumaru" would be difficult for a Western
audience to relate to, much less pronounce properly, but changing them to the Chinese-sounding
"Kid Ying" and "Dr. Yang" was hilariously misguided. You could argue that yeah, Japan
was and still is influenced by many traditional Chinese schools of thought, but I highly doubt
that was the rationale of the localization team...it was probably something just like...
Um, yeah, this is a really Asian game...what are some Asian names people know? Hmm...Ching
and Chong...no. Ding, Dong...nooooo. Ying, Yang? Perfect! Let's make this one Kid Ying,
'cause he has 'tude like all the kids these days, uh, and this guy is DOCTOR Yang, because...um...he's
fat."
Other than that, though, the game remained mostly intact with its wackiness and Japanese
charm...despite a few other weird name changes. "Ginsu Granny" and "Ramona Kamona?" Pshh..."Tanaka-U-Out?"
Lame. "The Carp Meister!" GTFO. And this guy, who was simply named "a drunk" in the original
Japanese release, is now "Warlock Holmes." I...I, I just can't, I don't. No.
Anyway, the rest of the world had to wait until 1998 to get another proper release in
the series, which was Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the N64. But in between then, several
major Goemon titles popped up on a variety of consoles, and today I want to take a look
back at the 1993 direct sequel to The Legend of the Mystical Ninja that the world outside
of Japan never got--Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shougun Magginesu, or Ganbare Goemon 2: The
Very Strange General McGuiness.
Things start off with our heroes Goemon and Ebisumaru taking a long overdue vacation at
the Ryuukyuu Resort, or in other words, Okinawa. Their time of soaking up the sun and relaxation
comes to a sudden halt when they are approached by Sasuke, whom fans of The Legend of the
Mystical Ninja may remember as the nameless boss of the Wiseman of Iga's Ninja Robots.
He comes in peace this time around, but carries with him a grave warning--one of a terrible
plot hatched by a foreign general named McGuinness Cas Tella. With the support of his loyal bunny
man lieutenants and massive army of bunny toy soldiers--apparently the man loves his
bunnies--he's taken Princess Yuki and the Lord of Edo hostage, along with their entire
castle and the town surrounding it. Even worse, Goemon's hometown idol and kind of, sort of
girlfriend Omitsu has also been kidnapped, and has caught the eye of a certain foreign
barbarian. Oh, hell no.
Ganbare Goemon 2 retains a lot of the same design elements of its predecessor, but with
a few key changes. The first thing you'll notice is that the character sprites are much
larger now--compare Goemon's home of Hagure Town in this game with the previous one. A
large majority of the game is now made up of 2D action stages, and are no longer accessed
through town overworlds. Rather, a world map similar to the one in Super Mario World links
everything together. There are three playable characters this time around, comprised of
series mainstays Goemon and Ebisumaru, as well as the aforementioned mechanical ninja,
Sasuke. Each character has different play styles that set them apart from one another,
but there are a few universal things that they all have in common. There are the basic
things like jumping, ducking down, and moving while ducking down, and the standard attack,
which can be leveled up twice by finding a lucky cat item dropped by fallen enemies.
You can also switch to a projectile attack, but unfortunately, using it has two major
downsides. One is that the player's pool of money decreases each time a projectile is
thrown, so you could go broke pretty quickly by using this attack too often. And the other
is that enemies defeated by projectiles drop no money or items, and trust me--you're going
to want as much money and lucky cats as you can find.
Goemon is the well-rounded character of the bunch, with average stats and adequate jumping
ability. He attacks using his family's legendary pipe. The only real advantage he has over
his companions is his projectile attack, which has the furthest range. It's no surprise that
Ebisumaru is slow and his jumps are pretty pathetic, but he packs a lot of power in his
attacks. He uses a paper fan to smack enemies off screen into the vast distance and throws
ninja stars that travel at medium range. If some object happens to be background when
Ebisumaru attacks, then the enemy will be squashed against whatever that object is,
which is a nice little graphical touch. As the newcomer to the series, the petite Sasuke
brings speed and agility to the table. However, his quick movement and excellent jumping skills
come at the price of reduced attack power. His weapon of choice is a pair of kunai that
slice and dice, and when upgraded, become projectiles. He throws a bomb for his alternate
projectile attack...which kind of sucks.
In my opinion, picking Goemon is the way to go here, and can be used to complete any of
the stages with relative ease thanks to his well-balanced character design. I say with
"relative ease," but that's a bit misleading, since Ganbare Goemon 2 can be quite tough.
The action stages have a lot of challenge and variety to them, without ever feeling
too repetitive. The platforming in this game is anything but standard fare, and a lot of
thought and creativity went into each and every level, making for a lot of memorable
experiences. Take this one stage for example, where you must advance up a snowy mountain
using ski lifts that continuously move, rock, and eventually fall apart on you. It's then
followed by a downhill dash with the player being chased by a snowman's head that gradually
increases in size as it gathers more snow. Reaching the base of the mountain leads to
a part where you must ride on the same snowman's head as it floats along a freezing lake, being
careful to avoid enemies and keep your footing on an ever-shrinking piece of snow. Pretty
clever and exciting stuff.
Most stages have at least one checkpoint which you can return to if you die--which will happen
often, primarily from falling deaths, rather than taking too much damage. If you lose all
of your lives, you can still use these checkpoints, and the only big penalty from using a continue
is a small monetary deduction. Bosses are designed just as well as the action stages
and are a lot of fun, if not a bit on the easy side, especially compared to some of
the crazy jumps and platforming you'll be doing preceding them. One interesting fight
involves a character who attacks using shadow animals created from his hands and the light
from a candle. Rather than battling this boss directly, you must survive his barrage of
attacks until the candle's flame dies out, turning this fight into a test of endurance.
And a recurring villain of the series, Kabuki, shows up in Goemon 2 as Cyber Kabuki, vowing
to someday meet you in hell after he's defeated. Heh, yeah right.
In between the action stages are towns, which function very much like the overworlds from
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. You can restore health with food purchased at shops,
by spending the night at an inn, or by relaxing at the public bath. Jjust make sure you don't
wander into the female bath, or else. At general stores, you can buy items to make the action
stages much more manageable, such as armor to absorb damage, and riceballs to revive
you when HP is reduced to 0. But the most important thing you can do in town is to save
your progress at the inn, a much appreciated improvement over the previous game's clunky
password system.
There's not much danger in any of the town areas, aside from some thieves and pick-pockets,
which you can avoid or whack away at your leisure. Attacking the townsfolk in most cases
will piss off the local law enforcement something like a flock of angry chickens from the Legend
of Zelda games. But apparently, there is no real justice in Oedo, as vice turns a blind
eye to animal abuse, wandering vagrant abuse, masterless samurai abuse, and pimping and
prostitution. Pimping and prostitution, you say? Why yes, like the previous game, meeting
up with the opposite sex will land you money, and once you receive your stack of gold coins,
these ladies will run off in a mad dash. I mean, how else would you explain these women
running up and giving Goemon and company wads of cash? A pimp's love is very different from
that of a square. Team Goemon even has groupies this time around, as physical contact with
certain women will restore health for free. Geez, these guys--they don't leave numbers
or take names--they get their loving on the run. Maybe that's the reason why Goemon usually
has that sketchy grin on his face. Pimpery pays!
One of the biggest contributions to the Ganbare Goemon series from this game is the introduction
of the giant robot, Impact, who you can take control of once in a while and wreak havoc
and destruction on your enemies--as well a surprisingly large portion of the innocent
Japanese populace. Impact sections are broken up into two parts, the first of which is a
sidescrolling rampage in order to collect extra health, money, and bombs for an upcoming
boss fight. Played from the perspective of Impact's head, which is the cockpit, these
fights add an even extra layer of depth and variety to a game that is already busting
from the seams with originality. In these battles, you can use Impact's arms to block
and punch, shoot money from his nose, and launch a bomb to obliterate your opponent.
Hit points are indicated by oil levels, which decrease from enemy attacks, but are also
drained constantly at a slow rate. These portions aren't TOO difficult, though there is a fair
amount of strategy and pattern memorization required, and you're most likely to fail on
your first attempt at any battle. Impact is awesome and has been a huge part of every
Ganbare Goemon title since his debut here. I absolutely love his appearance in the first
N64 game. Dat flashy intro sequence!
There are a few extras in the game that are worth mentioning, one being the large amount
of cameos made by popular Konami characters of the era. To only name a few, there's Sparkster
from Rocket Knight Adventures, Simon Belmont from Super Castlevania IV, and Winbee from
the Twinbee series, who advertises Twinbee Rainbow Bell Adventure, which was released
the year after Goemon 2. These cameos don't have any sort of bearing on the story or gameplay,
but are a nice extra thrown in for Konami fans.
Additionally, there's a somewhat hidden amusement park called Karakuri World that is reminiscent
of stage three from The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. This area is all about the mini games
you'll find scattered about in towns, but with difficulty bumped up quite a bit. The
previous game allowed access to a stage from Gradius, but here you'll find a level from
the arcade shooter Xexex. Returning to Karakuri World upon completion of the main storyline
opens up a new attraction--the special bonus final level, Virtual Hell. However, you must
acquire four stamps before you're allowed access to this stage, which can be achieved
by playing the various mini games in town. Virtual Hell is a fantastic, albeit straightforward
level, and is home to yet another Konami character cameo--Castlevania's very own prince of darkness,
Count Dracula, who shows up as the stage boss and behaves very much as you'd expect him
to, teleporting around, shooting fireballs, and only taking damage with headshots. When
the battle is over, there's one final surprise--the return of Cyber Kabuki, who makes good on
his earlier promise of meeting you in hell. Really, who saw that coming?!
Overall, Ganbare Goemon 2 for the Super Famicom is a slightly bigger game than its predecessor,
and can be completed in around four hours. Normal action stages can be replayed as many
times as desired, but unfortunately, this doesn't apply for boss or Impact levels. Two
player cooperative play can be a lot of fun, but can be more difficult and frustrating
than single player. The screen is always scrolling with the player who is in the lead, which
results in a lot of unnecessary deaths. And because the character sprites are so large,
the screen tends to scroll sooner than expected. I'd recommend going solo for your first playthrough
if you just want to beat the game. Much like other titles I cover in this series, it really
is a shame that this was never released to a larger audience internationally. The Legend
of the Mystical Ninja was a pretty popular game, so it made all the more sense to bring
its sequel overseas. Perhaps it was ignored because of what can be seen as the slightly
xenophobic themes in the game...but I doubt it. Aside from the original Super Famicom
release, this game saw a Gameboy Advance port combining it with the first game. Sadly, this
too was Japan-only, and is rather expensive and hard to find. You could find all of the
Super Famicom Goemon games sooner and for less money than you would this one tiny little
cartridge.
Anyway, a goal of mine for this series is to cover all of the Japanese Ganbare Goemon
games--but that's a long ways off, so in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this episode
of Import Gaming FTW! As always, thank you for watching, and I hope you'll stick around
for future episodes in this series. And please check out my channel for more videos like
this one. Take care.