Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru!/Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (GB/GBC, 1990/2000)
Graphics-8 Sound-7.5 Control-7 Challenge-7.5 Story-6
Level Design-6 Frustration-8 Fun-6.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Throwing projectiles doesn't deplete your money supply
Fast paced
Speed and force field upgrades (highest speed and force field are temporary)
Decent dialogue with some humour
Password save after each cleared area (short but doesn't save your money or upgrades)
Portraits during some dialogue scenes
Great art direction, you can block most enemy projectiles by shooting them, alternate extended ending (find hidden jewels in levels 2-8 - no visual or NPC hints), good visual variation, play as a different character at one point (Miko when she has to save Goemon from the poison - unexpected gender swap though she plays exactly the same as him), upgradeable armour, speed up sentences during dialogue
+/-
Linear structure
Very easy to rack up money (makes mini-games pointless to try more than once)
Slow rate of fire (only one projectile on screen at once)
Jumping sideways aligns your shots as if you had moved upward on the screen (so you hit enemies moving to the N of Goemon) - oddly enough it doesn't work this way when trying to grab the bouncing power ups
Sometimes forgiving hit detection (touching enemies to the N or S of Goemon)
No health drops from enemies (need to rest at inns or buy food (can't be kept for later))
No safe spots outdoors - enemies keep spawning even if you stand still, can't shoot diagonally (you can walk and jump diagonally), some adult themes like torture and walking into a women's bath house section, can't farm for power ups to get for example the longest jump by opening the same pot/item container over and over (odd that they refill off screen and it can be annoying since it would help in some segments), can't find armour outdoors
-
Can't pause while indoors/during indoors boss fights
Repetitive and simplistic compared to the 16-bit games
No maps + several maze parts
Primitive control in some ways (limited jump control - can't move sideways or change direction in mid-air (only stop moving)
No jump height adjustment
No strafing or moving backwards, no dodge move)
Some translation errors (guard in Nagato acts as if you already did the sidequest even if you didn't (but doesn't let you pass))
Can't ask the general store owner about the first quest even though Goemon refers to him making it seem like the next place to go (you're supposed to search the town, then go back to the girl, then go to the store to the north of the girl - hard to tell which store they meant since they aren't marked well (untranslated shop signs))
Some trial & error (finding the pearls, in the sea of flames segment it looks like the flame tiles temporarily die down in one of their animation frames when they don't, water kills instantly, hidden staircases are found by jumping around near them, finding certain hidden passages (clues are too vague)), odd how the store in the second area blows up and there's no sense of urgency when escaping it, some NPC hints are useless, many different looking enemies act exactly the same, no difficulty options, can't keep a force field for later use, some backtracking (most tedious example is in the Michinoku/second to last level), some difficulty spikes (final boss, at Yamasiro castle which is a fairly big maze without any pots in it, Miko's segment), pretty simple bosses overall, sloppy hit detection on the final boss (store owner), unskippable intro
Notes:
9 areas/levels
Level Design-6 Frustration-8 Fun-6.5 Originality-5
Overall Score-6.5
+
Throwing projectiles doesn't deplete your money supply
Fast paced
Speed and force field upgrades (highest speed and force field are temporary)
Decent dialogue with some humour
Password save after each cleared area (short but doesn't save your money or upgrades)
Portraits during some dialogue scenes
Great art direction, you can block most enemy projectiles by shooting them, alternate extended ending (find hidden jewels in levels 2-8 - no visual or NPC hints), good visual variation, play as a different character at one point (Miko when she has to save Goemon from the poison - unexpected gender swap though she plays exactly the same as him), upgradeable armour, speed up sentences during dialogue
+/-
Linear structure
Very easy to rack up money (makes mini-games pointless to try more than once)
Slow rate of fire (only one projectile on screen at once)
Jumping sideways aligns your shots as if you had moved upward on the screen (so you hit enemies moving to the N of Goemon) - oddly enough it doesn't work this way when trying to grab the bouncing power ups
Sometimes forgiving hit detection (touching enemies to the N or S of Goemon)
No health drops from enemies (need to rest at inns or buy food (can't be kept for later))
No safe spots outdoors - enemies keep spawning even if you stand still, can't shoot diagonally (you can walk and jump diagonally), some adult themes like torture and walking into a women's bath house section, can't farm for power ups to get for example the longest jump by opening the same pot/item container over and over (odd that they refill off screen and it can be annoying since it would help in some segments), can't find armour outdoors
-
Can't pause while indoors/during indoors boss fights
Repetitive and simplistic compared to the 16-bit games
No maps + several maze parts
Primitive control in some ways (limited jump control - can't move sideways or change direction in mid-air (only stop moving)
No jump height adjustment
No strafing or moving backwards, no dodge move)
Some translation errors (guard in Nagato acts as if you already did the sidequest even if you didn't (but doesn't let you pass))
Can't ask the general store owner about the first quest even though Goemon refers to him making it seem like the next place to go (you're supposed to search the town, then go back to the girl, then go to the store to the north of the girl - hard to tell which store they meant since they aren't marked well (untranslated shop signs))
Some trial & error (finding the pearls, in the sea of flames segment it looks like the flame tiles temporarily die down in one of their animation frames when they don't, water kills instantly, hidden staircases are found by jumping around near them, finding certain hidden passages (clues are too vague)), odd how the store in the second area blows up and there's no sense of urgency when escaping it, some NPC hints are useless, many different looking enemies act exactly the same, no difficulty options, can't keep a force field for later use, some backtracking (most tedious example is in the Michinoku/second to last level), some difficulty spikes (final boss, at Yamasiro castle which is a fairly big maze without any pots in it, Miko's segment), pretty simple bosses overall, sloppy hit detection on the final boss (store owner), unskippable intro
Notes:
9 areas/levels