Posted on 01/29/2023 at 09:24 PM
| Filed Under Blogs
I never played the NES or GB games much. I loved Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, though. It was my favorite N64 game that wasn't made by Nintendo of Japan (yes, I liked it better than Rare's games.) It was basically 3-D Zelda before Ocarina of Time. It even had a hookshot, although much more limited in ability than the hookshot in the Zelda games.
I will admit that part of it was because the N64 was absolutely starved for RPGs and action-adventure/exploration games, and of the few RPGs that even got announced for it, most of them were never released. Meanwhile, the system was getting buried in racing games. Quest 64 was a poor attempt to fill that yawning void. Anything that was even remotely RPG-adjacent was welcome. In time, I gave up and got a PlayStation. However, Mystical Ninja is a great game in its own right. I hope it does come to Nintendo Switch Online or a collection.
Given all the PS2 games that were legitimately crappy and still got released in the US, I wonder if Goemon PS2 getting denied had more to due with personal issues between Sony management and Victor Ireland. He was already openly critical of them because they wouldn't let WD release Growlanser 1 and 2 separately on PS2.
Goemon is the Protagonist's starting Persona in Persona 5. He looks more like his traditional Japanese representation than he does like Konami's rendition.