Konami developed a lot of classic 1990s games, but the Ganbare Goemon (がんばれゴエモン—Go for it, Goemon!) series was distinctly Japanese. It featured a central character based on Nippon’s folklore hero Ishikawa Goemon (a thief along the lines of Nottingham’s Robin Hood).

The arrival of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon in 1997 followed hot on the heels of 3D platformers such as Nintendo’s iconic Super Mario 64 (1996). Konami’s title was very different.

Packed with bizarre anachronistic references and surrealism, it didn’t half stand out amongst the very busy N64 platformer market. It was so odd it’s stuck with us over the years, to the point we want to pay tribute to it right here. Ganbare? Go!

 Revelling in the Surreal World of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon

During the 1990s it was unusual for Japanese RPGs to even make it out for release in the West. Gradually, though, a few had been seeping through to North America and Europe.

We’d become used to the likes of Squasoft RPG Secret of Mana (1994), the particularly insane video games (JRPGs, as they are known) were considered too mental for the likes of the UK.

Thusly, looking back with hindsight it’s odd indeed this got a release in Europe during 1998. We’re glad it did though, as the lasting impression it’s left on us has been… lasting. Quite.

Okay, so the title. Elsewhere it’s known as Ganbare Goemon: Neo Momoyama Bakufu no Odori (がんばれゴエモン～ネオ桃山幕府のおどり～—Go for it, Goemon: Dance of the Neo Peach Mountain Shogunate), which gets the oddness machine rolling quite merrily.

In the west we had the more mundane Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. Stuff “ninja” into a title and that often gets some level of gamer excitement going. Fire this game up, though, and this is what we all got treated to.

After that unusual introduction, the game begins with Goemon’s sidekick Ebisumaru running naked through a Japanese street after some sort of trouser department malfunction.

Shortly after this aliens invade the planet, and Goemon and his peers team up to save Japan.

The bad guys, who’ve arrived in a peach shaped spaceship, want to turn the country into a stage and its population a bunch of enslaved, mindless dancers.

It’s an odd plot. Menacing… but kind of not really, too, in a kawaii culture sort of way. Almost like there’s a nod to the dancing mania of Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries (a real even potentially caused by an unknown biological issue).

You launch into the game and embrace the excellent score. Really, it’s great music that gets you into an upbeat spirit for your adventure.

Whilst ambling along and experiencing the various towns you encounters, there’s a vaguely disturbing laughter soundtrack to accompany the game’s terrible jokes. Some of them, anyway, as other times the canned laughter doesn’t play.

Complementing this you get:

• Slightly unnerving songs to accompany various elements of the game.
• Giant robot battles that spring out of nowhere.
• An overtly sexual antagonist called Baron.
• Dashes of sexual innuendo (quite unusual for a 1990s era Nintendo title).
• The game’s camera going ballistic.

All good fun and stuff that’s marked the game out on the Nintendo 64. But we must turn our attention to the camera, as it’s a classic example of this era of gaming getting the shift to 3D a bit wrong.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon’s Crazy Camera

During the N64 era, the success of landmark platformer Super Mario 64 urged many other developers to have a go at the old 3D lark. That met with mixed results for many companies as it was an awkward new era few could initially perfect.

To its credit, Konami’s Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon was a strong effort.

The story is entertaining, the RPG elements are welcome, it’s amusing, engaging, there’s a great soundtrack, and it’s challenging.

On the downside, there’s a lot of plodding around across enormous fields with nothing to do. There’s also the aforementioned camera system.

We last played this game about 10 years ago (sadly, it’s currently unavailable to download on modern consoles), but the lasting impression of this game, other than its surreal sensibilities, remains with how awful the camera is.

The thing has a mind of its own.

It gets lodged behind you, refuses to budge when necessary, and generally behaves as it’s a slightly drunk and petulant teenager. Compare this to the excellence of Super Mario 64’s camera system and you have to wonder what Konami were playing at.

The camera system was criticised by contemporary media sources and became something of a running joke in the UK’s N64 Magazine. They even called the camera “schizophrenic” such was the dislike of it all.

Reminder, whilst it is annoying it doesn’t ruin the experience. But it can frustrate.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon’s Legacy

Reflecting on the game now, it’s fair to say it’s not considered a classic. Japan has loads of weird games like this, so it’s two a penny for that glorious nation. Just look at titles such as Muscle March and Cho Aniki: Bakuretsu Ranto-hen.

Since 1997, Ganbare Goemon as a series appears to have drifted off into oblivion.

Yet from what we can tell from our online surfing, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon has a cult following for those who love cobwebs and strange. Back in the day, it shifted 200,000 copies worldwide.

It stands as a curious oddity from far-flung Nippon and a shining example of how to do weird wonderfully. Again, maybe nothing new in the land of Nippon, but for people like us it was one of the most bizarre games we’d ever played.

With this strange, interesting world revealed to us… we wanted more!

Thankfully, these days Japan’s more unusual games tend to make their way more rapidly to the west. Mystical Ninja was one of the most commercial examples leading the charge.

But one of its fun lasting legacies to the N64 remains with unsuspecting customers.

Those like us who were intrigued enough to buy or rent it, yet left in a state of bewilderment as its baffling world of Japanese surrealism unfolded. It’s quite amusing Konami released it over here expecting everyone to get the Japanese references and the like. All of which has added to its charm.

Oh yes, and all of it playing to the tune of one of the worst cameras in 3D platforming history. It seems fitting the camera was so awful. It adds to this game’s legend.

As despite its flaws, we do rather cherish its existence.