The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (1992)

Preliminary: Ok so since changes were made for the NA release, I will be playing the fan translation that instead is translated as Rescue of Princess Yuki. I've enjoyed the other Goemonn games, tho they sure are odd and often quite innocuous. This seems to be quite different from the earlier ones tho.

I'm liking this so far, it's definitely a lot like the earlier ones just with more advanced music and Look (some groovy music for real). I'm not liking that it feels very brawler esque right now, but I'll give it an earnest shot.

There used to be, like, hidden passageway dungeons by jumping over certain spots, not noticing that so far. But I did find the usual town dungeon that you have to explore. Also the upgrades possible are quite familiar. For some reason no one will let me buy anything or go in anywhere! I guess I will need a guide or at least a map argh. Oh nevermind I figured it out :-p It's cool that it seems you can do 2 player too!

Day 1

Oh wow so there are like side scrolling platformer segments too, in addition to the usual dungeon and brawler town exploration/shopping segments. Interesting. I really liked this first side scrolling segment too! Smooth SNES controls, quickly learned mechanics, and for some reason the music and level design and Look all culminated to give a heavy Tomba feel. Neat! This Goemon series just keeps surprising me!

Really neat mechanics to this first boss, which I figured out intuitively. Always like a "smack the projectile back at em" mechanic. This whole first side scrolling segment felt so modern and advanced like what the early Amiga and Turbografx side scrollers wanted to do but felt so clunky. The music in this was as good and modern feeling as those early Amiga/TGFX games as well as even like PS1 era games.

Cute little segment between islands. I really wanna play my OSRS Ironman tonight, and tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but this is seemingly very excellent. This backlog is getting way slower cuz games are getting better, ah!

Day 2

Cute idea with the minigames in Arcades. The fact they have a whole shmup game within this, impressive. Not sure why but a lot of this keeps reminding me of Tomba

I can't believe I just spent 100 on a dancing trio that eventually farted making me pass out. As silly as that is, and as much as the earlier Ganbare Goemon games tried to include such diversions, these were done in such a modern way. I feel like this game is really bringing the SNES capabilities to life compared to many of its contemporary SNES games.

It's nice that I'm on the 3rd area and still haven't had to abuse savestates at all (or really use them at all except just when normally save at the Diary places. how about this I haven't had to load state at all I should say lol). And the music continues to feel fresh and not repetitive (yet). I love love love the rescue/relax music that you get when you save the Kobun cat

The ending of areas' screens having text reminds me a lot of Super Mario World, but not in a derivative way. Wasn't a big fan of the vertical scrolling segment but cute screen :-p Hi, you in the background

I love the graphic of you lying down for ducking during the side scrolling parts :-p And neat idea of the doors letting you go "behind" --good way of using depth wtihout being convoluted like so many of its contemporaries did

Argh okay first annoying, can't just pick up and play type segment. It seems Area 4's side scrolling part is some sort of puzzle? Meh. I will return to it later tonight probly. (Oh turns out not a puzzle just a one-leads-you-back and the-other-leads-you-onwards I went right back and did it, so that's a good sign for the game overall)

Oh wow, not until Area 6 did they have the standard get-a-Pass-to-move-on mechanic like the earlier Goemon games. Too bad it was where you just buy it instead of a dungeon set up. And hey! Also a secret route to maneuver between areas, like the old games!

Lol can't believe it took 6 bosses for me to realize you can scoot on the ground when duck-lying-down. Up to this point I hadn't had to use savestates much but the difficulty is definitely rising.

I'm never a big fan of infinitely respawning enemies, but this doesn't exploit it too much, thankfully. I'd have to say my favorite parts of this game are the straightforward platforming segments of the side scrolling areas. Just good ol fashion fun. And often with some neat mechanics that I can figure out on my own. The circular things in the water of Area 7 were neat :-p Good gravity mechanics and I dunno physics mechanics? Also, really cool that there are 2 completely different playable characters. Neat stuff.

Day 3

I love the different Judo/power-up/special move thingies. They're all so unique and great. I especially love the hair whipping one lol. Dang this is getting really really hard tho. Tho it is near endgame.

The music continues to be exciting and fresh even as I get to the Final Area. Truly an excellent game. I'm nervous, cuz I've added so many Favorites from 91, and what if I start doing that every year now that I'm entering my years of living heh. My Favorites list is gonna be crowded! It also could just be the excitement of the next gen really taking off.

I'm nearing the end of the game and still loving it. Impressive! I like the cloud platforming segment near the end there :-p The final boss was quite difficult but I still liked the mechanics. The ending itself was meh, but the credits tune is soooo good. Mother-esque

Look: 9/10 Not that it was spectacular per se, but it's really bringing out the SNES colors and vibe that I love. And as someone who's played the earlier games, it's cute seeing the universe I know now brought to a moder modern Look.

Sound: 9.5/10 Great stuff. Never felt compelled to mute it. Some memorable/sentimental songs too.

Play: 9/10 My kind of game. Mix of side scrolling platformer, adventure (tho at a brawler perspective, so I'm surprised I enjoyed it... maybe because the earlier Gabare Goemon games were that way), and I dunno, it had a variety of gameplays. Plus, super cute to have arcade games as minigames within it. Tight controls tho I noticed some clunkiness at times. It's the type of clunkiness you want to get used to and learn and make the most of the game.

Feel: 9.5/10 This series is oddly becoming very important and nostalgic to me, despite never having played it as a kid. Now, when I replay the older ones, I wonder if I will enjoy them more.

Attachment: 9/10 I definitely will be returning to this. This is emblematic for the start of the SNES imo. And I am excited for the rest of this series, namely the N64 game I heard so much about as a youngun.

Overall: 9.2/10

Completion: Main Story

Playtime: ~3 hours

(This was retro game club game #15 on the Grouvee forum.)

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja was a SNES game localized from an entry in the Goemon series, which seems to have been something of a hit in Japan and something of a miss overseas (but seems to have reached a bit of a cult classic status, particularly among the N64 crowd). This entry is worth checking out for fans of 16-bit era beat-em-ups and platformers though, as this combines the two genres in a colorful and tongue-in-cheek manner.

You play as a silly guy who goes around town beating up random enemies with a pipe (can be upgraded to a yo-yo), and with enough earned money you can buy upgrades to make playing through the platforming stages a bit more manageable. The game moves along at a steady clip, never feeling too repetitive thanks in part to mini-games you can participate in (mainly for the sake of earning more money a bit more quickly).

The end result though is something of a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none sort of game -- the beat-em-up segments are fine, the platforming segments are okay, and the mini-games are mediocre. But it's still an amusing little romp, enough so that I might check out some of the sequel entries some time. (Fan translations exist for the other main Super Famicom entries, at least.)

Gameplay, Story and Value:

Legend of the Mystical Ninja puts you in control of Goem- I mean, Kid Ying, as you traverse Japan on quests to stop mean-spirited spirits, save ninja cat mob bosses from giant lantern men, and even rescue a princess or two!

The gameplay varies between traditional platforming, sections that play like a sidescrolling beat 'em up, and top-down areas. Everything handles nicely across all parts of the game, though as you'd expect from an early Konami title the platforming sections are definitely the highlight. Controls are simple and responsive, and fairly easy to understand. You can jump, attack, duck, change weapons, etc. and it's all very fast and fun.

Like its distant Castlevania cousin, Legend of the Mystical ninja allows you to upgrade your weapon up to two times through collecting item drops. Taking damage will reduce your weapon level by one in addition to reducing your health. My complaint with the game's weapon system is that the level one weapon almost feels too weak, making parts of the game incredibly frustrating. Meanwhile, the highest weapon level is obnoxiously slow and unwieldy. As a result, I found myself in the awkward situation of constantly trying to maintain a second level weapon, both fast and powerful while avoiding power-ups and trying not to get knocked back to my level one weapon.

Town areas offer shops where you can buy things like sandals and pizza... Items are fairly nondescript meaning you'll either have to experiment or reference a guide in order to know what it is the items actually do. The sandals allow you to move fast and jump farther in non-platforming sections, the pizza will automatically restore some of your health when you would otherwise die, armor reduces damage taken, and you can also buy weapons and extra lives.

All items in the game stack and whenever you take damage you'll lose one of each piece of armor (including sandals) you're carrying.

The story is fun and light, and really only serves as a means to carry you from place to place. There's a lot of humor here, but some of the localization choices come off as odd. The game retains many of its very Japanese references but then gives us things like changing Goemon to "Kid Ying". While this doesn't detract from the quality of the game at all, and I'm sure people in 1992 didn't even think twice about it, it stands out to people like me nowadays.

The game spans nine stages, each with a boss encounter at the end. While there's not much in the way of replay value here, the steeply escalating difficulty is a pretty good reason to keep coming back. While it never feels unfair per se, the overall difficulty is often magnified by the aforementioned weapon mechanics; being reset to your level one weapon in the middle of an especially difficult platforming section can be very frustrating.

Presentation, Music and Sound:

The visuals in Mystical Ninja are bright and colorful and go a long way to create the game's funny, anime style. Sprites are all well animated and expressive, and fun to look at. The environments are great as well, though the variety does tend to be lacking on occasion.

Sound effects all fit well into the game providing some satisfying thwaks and whaps and other audible indicators. Music is very game and fun to listen to, though during actual gameplay I find the tracks tend to blend together somewhat. It makes for a coherent musical experience but nothing really sands out as a result.

Afterthoughts:

All in all I had a pretty good time with the game. Legend of the Mystical Ninja was actually one of my favorite games on the N64 that none of my friends ever played, so I'm glad to have finally played the original. I don't really think this is one of the greatest games ever, the weapon system was less than ideal, item mechanics were illusive and the difficulty spiked pretty sharply around the halfway point, but I do think it's a good game that was well worth my time. It also serves as proof that once upon a time, Konami was awesome.

Review:

3-Minute Breakdown: