Mr. Goemon is a side-scrolling-platform game developed by Konami in 1986. Enemies charge and grab the character, ending his life unless the player jostles the control stick to break free. Later enemies also have projectile weapons that the player must dodge. They are defeated by throwing a found object at them or hitting them with an always-equipped pipe. Jumping on the enemies' heads will push them down a level or off the screen entirely. Levels feature either boss battles or a pile of gold bars at the end, worth various points depending on the level.
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first impressions: it is a very crusty game. there's not even a jump button you just jump by pressing up lmfao. for the first goemon game, it seems alright idk i haven't played any other goemon game. i will adjust cabinet settings and continue later.
Bog standard side scrolling platformer with dull gameplay.
I'm playing every Goemon game in the series, even though Konami still has not decided to release a full collection on modern consoles.
Let's just say that this first installment is not very good nor fun to play. Extra points for the big sprites for the time, and the cool traditional-ish music. But that's pretty much it.
Let's just say that this first installment is not very good nor fun to play. Extra points for the big sprites for the time, and the cool traditional-ish music. But that's pretty much it.
Digging up yet another one of Konami’s classic franchises that they love to pretend no one cares about, we have here the Goemon series, loosely based on Ishikawa Goemon, an outlaw of Japanese folklore who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. So basically, he is just Japanese Robin Hood, except unlike Robin Hood, he ended up dying from being boiled alive in public, but thankfully they kept that out of this game series (at least from what I know). Anyway, for the first game in the series, Mr. Goemon, it was a simple arcade game showing off what Goemon was best at doing, while also being pummeled by every single person in sight, and not gonna lie, I actually kinda enjoyed my time with it. Yes, it is extremely bare bones, and it lasts almost as long as it takes to make you a sandwich, but I had a somewhat pleasant time with it.
The story is… well, it’s Goemon, you just read what his story was, the graphics and sprites are very well done, the music is pretty fucking sweet, which I wasn’t expecting at all for an obscure arcade game like this (although sometimes, it can cause your ears to bleed at parts), the control is pretty simple, but it can be a little awkward using up and down to jump up and down respectively, and the gameplay is what you would expect from a platformer of this era, but with the way it is set up, it can be enjoyable and, dare I say, even relaxing at parts.
The game is your typical 2D side-scrolling platformer, where you move from left to right as Goemon, defeat many different enemies of different variety using your pipe, grabbing various objects found throughout levels to throw at enemies, and fighting/not fighting several bosses along the way. It is all your basic stuff, with jumping, stomping on enemies, you get an item can turn you invincible for a brief period of time, we all know how it goes. There isn’t too much that is unique with the game compared to others at the time, aside from the setting being in Japan, but I guarantee there were probably other games made at the time that take place in Japan.
With all that being said though, I found myself still having some fun with the game, even if it doesn’t do too much new from others at the time. In fact, I would say that some parts of the game feel… kind of zen, to be honest. I dunno, something about how you can go long periods of time with running to the right, jumping up and down to avoid and defeat enemies, and making it to the end… kind of relaxing. That, or I am just cooling down from how much suffering I felt when I reviewed The Rescue of Princess Blobette last time, so a much more functional game was what I needed, even if it was difficult.
And speaking of difficult, guess what this game has much like a lot of other arcade games? That’s right, it has Arcade Syndrome! Yeah, throughout all the levels (especially towards the end), you will have enemies constantly swarming you from all sides, and you need to move and react FAST in order to avoid/defeat them, because not only can they kill you pretty quickly if you aren’t careful, but they can also grab you and… somehow, that ends up killing you if you don’t squirm out of their grasp. I don’t know, don’t question the logic of it, maybe that was the last thing Goemon remembered before being boiled alive in front of a live audience.
In addition, the boss fights aren’t that good at all. All of them consist of a large enemy that will constantly be in front of you, throwing stuff at you, and you can’t easily throw stuff back at them to hit them, because whenever you do, they spawn a shield in front of them to immediately block the attack. Sure, it doesn’t sound that bad, but like I said earlier, you can die really quickly in this game, and the gap in which the bosses are vulnerable to damage is VERY SMALL, so if you aren’t lucky enough to land a shot for the first couple of attempts at damaging him, you can pretty much kiss one of your lives goodbye. Thankfully though, they aren’t too hard, and besides, the game is pretty short, so you won’t have to deal with them for a long time. Unless, you know, you are bad, like me.
Overall, it may be a pretty standard, generic arcade platformer, but I still ended up having a good time with it, and it was a blessing to play after the abomination that was the previous game (yes, I will keep bringing it up). It just goes to show you that generic games are always better than bad games… or at least in my opinion they are. Now I can’t wait for the next game in this series to basically be this game again but worse to prove me wrong.
Game #237
The story is… well, it’s Goemon, you just read what his story was, the graphics and sprites are very well done, the music is pretty fucking sweet, which I wasn’t expecting at all for an obscure arcade game like this (although sometimes, it can cause your ears to bleed at parts), the control is pretty simple, but it can be a little awkward using up and down to jump up and down respectively, and the gameplay is what you would expect from a platformer of this era, but with the way it is set up, it can be enjoyable and, dare I say, even relaxing at parts.
The game is your typical 2D side-scrolling platformer, where you move from left to right as Goemon, defeat many different enemies of different variety using your pipe, grabbing various objects found throughout levels to throw at enemies, and fighting/not fighting several bosses along the way. It is all your basic stuff, with jumping, stomping on enemies, you get an item can turn you invincible for a brief period of time, we all know how it goes. There isn’t too much that is unique with the game compared to others at the time, aside from the setting being in Japan, but I guarantee there were probably other games made at the time that take place in Japan.
With all that being said though, I found myself still having some fun with the game, even if it doesn’t do too much new from others at the time. In fact, I would say that some parts of the game feel… kind of zen, to be honest. I dunno, something about how you can go long periods of time with running to the right, jumping up and down to avoid and defeat enemies, and making it to the end… kind of relaxing. That, or I am just cooling down from how much suffering I felt when I reviewed The Rescue of Princess Blobette last time, so a much more functional game was what I needed, even if it was difficult.
And speaking of difficult, guess what this game has much like a lot of other arcade games? That’s right, it has Arcade Syndrome! Yeah, throughout all the levels (especially towards the end), you will have enemies constantly swarming you from all sides, and you need to move and react FAST in order to avoid/defeat them, because not only can they kill you pretty quickly if you aren’t careful, but they can also grab you and… somehow, that ends up killing you if you don’t squirm out of their grasp. I don’t know, don’t question the logic of it, maybe that was the last thing Goemon remembered before being boiled alive in front of a live audience.
In addition, the boss fights aren’t that good at all. All of them consist of a large enemy that will constantly be in front of you, throwing stuff at you, and you can’t easily throw stuff back at them to hit them, because whenever you do, they spawn a shield in front of them to immediately block the attack. Sure, it doesn’t sound that bad, but like I said earlier, you can die really quickly in this game, and the gap in which the bosses are vulnerable to damage is VERY SMALL, so if you aren’t lucky enough to land a shot for the first couple of attempts at damaging him, you can pretty much kiss one of your lives goodbye. Thankfully though, they aren’t too hard, and besides, the game is pretty short, so you won’t have to deal with them for a long time. Unless, you know, you are bad, like me.
Overall, it may be a pretty standard, generic arcade platformer, but I still ended up having a good time with it, and it was a blessing to play after the abomination that was the previous game (yes, I will keep bringing it up). It just goes to show you that generic games are always better than bad games… or at least in my opinion they are. Now I can’t wait for the next game in this series to basically be this game again but worse to prove me wrong.
Game #237