Will forever be known to me as a game i played ONLY during every single one of my Jewish Studies lectures. Im not even Jewish so i cant begin to tell you how i ended up in that class but this was the only thing i looked forward doing at 10:55 - 11:30am tuesdays and thursdays every week. Today was my last day of class so it was either I beat the game today or i take another class about the Jewish religion. There was no better option.

Fun game though if not a little confusing at times which is why it took me so long to beat it, though the game does have hints which i used religiously because between learning about pangrea or whatever my professor was talking about and me not knowing the geography of Japan i couldnt hope to keep up... Then i would have had to take a second Jewish culture class. The zones are pretty open at times and normally i would find this to be boring but the music was very good so i didnt really care much... either that or i was just so bored that anything was entertaining. The tight corridor areas were extremely fucking annoying due to the god awful camera

This game also does that Final Fantasy V shit with the humor where they do an attempt at comedy and nobody laughs but instead of playing this it just plays a laugh track (<-- thats a laugh track in case any of you didnt know) and unfortunately im a sucker for shitty jokes so this appealed to me. I think beating this game was more of an accomplishment to me than completing the course

Queridinho demais, eu sou totalmente fangirl de Goemon desde que joguei um dos jogos de PS1 muitos e muitos anos atras, a ponto que a primeira musica que eu queria pra procurar no falecido Kazaa era a musica do robô Impact. Infelizmente eu não tinha o memory card N64 e apesar de meu primo ter o jogo, a gente so decidia sair da primeira cidade e parar. Até porque não sabíamos inglês direito.

Mas!!! Com acesso a um memory card agora, finalmente consegui jogar esse jogo secreto, o lado bloqueado da minha infância, venci Cerberus.

Acho curioso que a Konami não tenha continuado nesse estilo no próximo jogo de N64 porque um jogo que é um Zeldinha de plataforma, com dungeon e tudo, é extremamente bem vindo. Acho que por medo de alienar os fãs dos jogos 2D, ele é bem generoso com vida e num geral é fácil, mas não deixa de ser muito interessante e divertido. Ele também é um pouco menos doidinho que os outros, provavelmente pelo fato de cenários 3D serem mais complexos de se fazer na época, mas ainda consegue carregar o espirito engraçado da série. Porque assim, é um jogo que tem a própria trilha de risada nas cutscenes e no mínimo 3 musicas cantadas, da pra sentir carinho no jogo inteiro. A trilha sonora também é incrível, mas isso é o esperado.

Eu adoro todos os personagens, mas desde pequeninha eu já era fissurada na Yae então eu joguei grande parte do jogo com ela e só do jogo me permitir isso já merece todos os prêmios do mundo.

Incredible game with exceptional writing, interesting given we never got most of these games in the US.

The laugh track seems like it would have been a huge misstep, but actually works really well. The gameplay is great, with the exception of the camera (a general issue with games around this time) which likes to get stuck on the geometry of some of the levels.

When you learn that Impact has super secret special moves (like a head laser, or Hokuto No Ken style machine gun punches) the game really just hits full steam.

Could not recommend enough.

The very first friend I ever had was named Greg. Greg's dad was a doctor and he lived in a really big three-story house on the edge of town, in a secluded forested area where the rest of the rich people stayed. Greg was always very nice to me in private, but publicly he was my first bully, so we shared this strange relationship where we got along great when no one was looking and as soon as someone was, he'd call me names as loudly as possible. Greg was an asshole, but Greg also had Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, so I endured his torment. That's what I Am Impact! does to a motherfucker, I guess.

Goemon's gameplay is most easily described as a mash-up between Zelda and a 3D platformer, which is to say you spend a lot of your time running around a world map using various items and abilities to solve puzzles, and you jump around a whole bunch too. You can't jump in Zelda, so I think that means Goemon is the superior game. Sorry, Zelda-heads.

Thing is, this fusion works out really well. Platforming feels solid, though it is occasionally encumbered by a poor camera system, as was typical of the time. Puzzles and other roadblocks you encounter on your journey are all fairly simplistic in nature and don't take a whole lot of brain power to solve, which is appropriate considering Mystical Ninja never takes itself too seriously. At times it feels like the gameplay is in service of Goemon's humor, yet it never feels bad or compromised because of it. Even the gigantic robot battles you engage in play well enough and are primarily there simply for the spectacle and ridiculousness of it. I mean, you get extra points for careening through houses, there's a lot of stuff like that where it serves a gameplay purpose but is clearly meant to be humorous first and foremost.

Graphically, Mystical Ninja has aged like wine. That's the case for a decent amount of Nintendo 64 games with simplistic character designs, which fared better as low-poly models compared to other titles that strained for realism. That said, even compared to other cartoony and vibrant N64 games, Goemon's strong aesthetic style has it coming out looking better than most. The plot is great too. Goemon has to stop the Peach Mountain Gang from turning Japan into a gigantic dance stage and its inhabitants into brainwashed dancers. You end up fighting a bunch of weird freaks with names like Spring Breeze Dancin' (who has a habit of calling Goemon "Fernandez"), and some of the more off-beat jokes are punctuated with canned laughter, which as far as I can tell is just a single clip that repeats multiple times throughout the game.

My only real complaints are the aforementioned camera problems, and occasional abrupt jumps in difficulty. It's been a while, but I also recall the final boss taking forever to beat, and dying during the last phase can be incredibly irritating. But really, Mystical Ninja is just so goofy and fun that it comes as a hard recommend from me. Easily one of the better games on the Nintendo 64 and one deserving of your attention. Just be aware that it doesn't run particularly great in emulation, and loose used copies on Ebay are now trending upwards of 100$ (I'm pretty sure I paid around 30$ for it, so clearly Goemon fever has consumed the market.) Not available for Nintendo Switch Online, this game! Bad times.

Well thank you for reading my review. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to summon Impact and run over Greg's house. You know, for bonus points.

Ironically enough, this is technically the first 3d Zelda-like game as it predates Ocarina of Time by a few months. Ocarina of Time is a far better title, but that doesn't mean this isn't good. It's got a solid soundtrack ,good graphics for its time, cool areas to explore, and MECH FIGHTS! The plot is wacky and the game is genuinely funny. Only criticisms are the jumping in this game can be weird at times, the dungeons are a bit too simple, and the game isn't very long. Even with all of these in mind, is still an underrated N64 classic definitely worth playing.

First GOTM finished for January 2023. Just a super fun game oozing with charm! Game looks great for its time, has some fun areas to explore (though some are arguably too big with too little in them), and good boss fights. Each of the four characters feels different to play and control, with their own unique items and weapons. The plot is wackadoo, and the writing is at many times quite funny. The camera can be a pain at times, and with any time spent idle will automatically rotate behind the character. This can make some of the jumping in the game unnecessarily tricky, which isn't great for a platformer, but that's pretty typical of an early 3D platforming-adventure game. Even with that in mind, this was still a great experience. Also, you get to pilot a giant mech several times in the game. Who doesn't love that!?

The world is colorful and vibrant, chock full of personality. This carries through to the story and dialogue, which strike this perfect balance of being cheesy without being annoying; there's literally a laugh track during cutscenes and it somehow works perfectly. Oh, and of course, nearly every song is a banger.

In terms of gameplay, it controls pretty well, though fairly slow. I thought the castles (aka dungeons) were well structured, though the open outdoor areas were too large and sparsely populated, resulting in exploring a lot of empty space. The use of four characters that each have their own abilities and powers was also done nicely, as the later portions of the game continued to utilize everything at your disposal as opposed to forgetting those options exist.

This game is severely overlooked, as it really was one of the better examples of a 3D platformer / adventure game upon its release.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is a great game that fired on all cylinders with it's scope, humor, presentation, and variety. it's an awesome translation of Goemon's action oriented gameplay in a 3D environment.

The world is pretty vast and fun to explore and it made me easily see why so many folks hold this game in high regard. The humor was very silly (some of it dated) but when the jokes land, I'm chuckling.

The presentation is astounding. Not only is it one of the best looking games on the N64, it's one of the best sounding games too. I was seriously blown away hearing how rich the music was, it genuinely felt like the N64 hardware didn't compromise it's quality.

The gameplay variety was fun to experience too. The mech battles were a blast (loved grappling and punching them alot), and I loved that they brought back the method of swapping between characters on the fly like Ganbare Goemon 3. No character feels underutilized throughout the entire playthrough; Goemon, Ebisumaru, Sasuke, and Yae all get equal usage and they're all really fun to use too. Mystical Ninja truly feels like what Konami wanted to achieve with Ganbare Goemon 3, something that blended the action platforming with exploration/action rpg-esque mechanics.

My only gripe is the game being a bit cryptic with progression, even if you talk to the NPCs often. You'll eventually find your way around things one way or another but its still a thing I noticed.

Overall, this game was really fun! I can definitely see why its so fondly looked upon by so many folks all these years later. Definitely one of the N64's greatest hits.