Review #681: 64 Memories - Goemon's Great Adventure

 Goemon's final adventure... overseas.

 Part I: The Flashback
 The final entry in 'unfulfilled dreams' is Goemon's Great Adventure. As much as I loved Mystical Ninja back in the day, I'm quite sure that I didn't feel like I needed this game as much as the previous three. Although that's not giving it enough credit, as soon as I discovered that emulating the Nintendo 64 was a possibility, this was the very first N64 rom I downloaded. I think that finding out it was a 2-D sidescroller kinda tainted my perception of the game. While I'd learn to love 2-D games again, I grew up with a NES after all, a few years later, by this time I was enjoying 3-D adventures a whole lot more.

 Part II: The Review
 While this game is quite different from Mystical Ninja, if you had known anything about the series back then, you'd have known that this game went back to Goemon's 2-D roots. Heck, there're are a lot of returning characters in the game, sadly, only a handful could be recognized by western folk, considering this only the fourth Goemon game that made it outside Japan. And the final one. In a nutshell, this is a 2-D platforming/adventure game in which you play as Goemon and his friends as they try to stop the evil Bismaru and his evil ghost cohorts. The game is divided into five chapters, each one having a different map overworld, although you can return to previous maps, with a bunch of different stages as well as a town that you can visit and revisit at any time once unlocked. And you'll have to return to previously cleared stages since a few of them offer alternate paths that may open up other stages.

 A jumps and B attacks, while any of the C-buttons can be used for your yen-consuming proyectile attacks, for instance, Goemon can shoot Zenny while Sasuke shoots bomb. Z is used to crouch, and R varies depending on the character, Yae can use it to turn into a mermaid while underwater, while Goemon can use his hookshot-pipe. Each character has a few unique attributes, and you do a bit of research since there are a lot of different moves the game won't tell you about. Holding Z+A performs a stealthy run, B can be held to dash while in towns, Ebisumaru can perform a butt-stomp to jump higher while Goemon can double jump. Heck, you'd best learn how to correctly swing on poles too(Start rolling, and then hold the analog stick TOWARDS the place you want to jump to). Sometimes a specific character will be required to continue or go through an alternate path, in most cases you'll find a character-change platform nearby so that you can swap characters. The game can be played in multiplayer, and you gain access to even more moves, like piggybacking another character or being able to ride tanks.

 The game is quite fun, although sometimes I felt like the game was built around Goemon. Maybe I just got comfortable with Goemon's double jumps, but a few jumps felt a bit too tight when I had to use other characters. It's also kinda tough. Characters can only take up to three hits before going down, although you can go into town and purchase a reviving item or armor(Up to 3 more hitpoints). Killing enemies will reward you with Yen, Health or weapon upgrades. The latter increase the damage and range of your basic attack, up to three levels of power(Bronze, Silver, Gold), but getting hit not only takes up a health point, but your weapon also goes down one level! Money is fairly important since it will increase your chance of survival, as well as being required for a few sidequests. so most of the time I avoided using anything besides the basic attack, as its the only means of defeating an enemy that makes them drop anything.

 As you play through the game you'll learn to love towns. Not only can you purchase much needed supplies, but it's also one of the only two places where you can save your game, the other one being after defeating a boss. A few times throughout the adventure you'll find yourself talking with NPCs in order to unlock new skills for your characters or to engage in simple sidequests to earn Entry Passes. You need Entry Passes to unlock the gates that guard the final stage of each chapter. I don't think you have to do much sidequesting, while I was a bit of a completionist, seeking every NPC worth an Entry Pass I could, every single time I went to a gate I was able to open it up with a ton of passes to spare. That said, there are 44 Entry passes in all, and if you collect all of them you'll be able to wear alternate costumes with each character as well as unlock a 4 player mode. Pretty spiffy if you ask me. Plus, most Entry Passes are simply earned by clearing a stage, stages with multiple routes have one for each exit, so you don't have to stray far off the beaten path in order to get the bare minimum.

 Just like Mystical Ninja, the giant robot Impact returns, alongside his girlfriend, Ms. Impact. After every Castle stage you'll fight a boss, and after defeating the boss you'll have to fight a giant boss. They have been made simpler than in Mystical Ninja, the hook is gone, now you can throw a baton to Ms. Impact to switch to her(or vice versa). While you have a few different punches and kicks, you'll want to input the C-button combination for the rapid punch every time you can, and once the gauge fills, the C-button combination for the Beam super. Simple and repetitive, yes, but they are a nice way of capping each chapter. Impact's song, however, is gone.

 The game is a bit tough to be sure, three hits and you're out is kinda harsh, and the game is rather stingy with checkpoints, plus, it runs on a life system. However, it's pretty fun, and once you get the swing of things you'll be able to clear stages without getting hit too much. A few stages might take a few tries before you get used to its obstacles, but I never needed to 'take a break' or what have ya, since the game has snappy, quick gameplay and is quite entertaining,

 While I was reading how many people considered this game better than Mystical Ninja, at first, I was insulted. You couldn't top my childhood memories of the game, you simply couldn't. But after finishing the game? I sorta agree. I don't think it's THAT much better, I really enjoyed the open-worldish adventure aspect of the previous game, and the OST was brilliant, oozing a ton of personality and charm. This game has no theme song, and while the humor is still here, I didn't find it AS funny as the first game. But the gameplay aspect feels a bit better, it's reminiscent of an Arcade action-platform game, with fast-paced gameplay and various one-time gimmicks and obstacles that are fun to tackle. It's pretty good, but it's also got a different flavor from the previous game, but anyone up for an old-school 2-D platform game would do well to give it a look.
 7.5 out of 10