Ganbare Goemon series

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Ganbare Goemon (known as Legend of the Mystical Ninja in North America and Europe), is a prolific video game series produced by Konami.

These games revolve around the main character Goemon, and his exploits. As the name suggests, his character was loosely based on Ishikawa Goemon, the noble thief of Japanese folklore. While the early games of this title emphasized Goemon as a noble thief, he eventually becomes more of a standard video game hero character. His appearance trademarks would be his blue bushy hair and weapon of choice, the Kiseru. The universe of these games is of a cartoony, mystical Feudal Japan, where every bit of folklore and legend about Japan are true. Although the series has its roots in action adventure, the Ganbare Goemon series features games from a diverse set of genres including RPG, puzzle game, and board game. Ganbare Goemon has proven to be widely popular in Japan, as along with its long video game series (which continue to this day), a wide series of merchandise, and several anime and manga series have been created based on it.

While the series has been popular in Japan, overseas it is a much unknown franchise, with only four games released (three of them released for the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 consoles, and a Game Boy release).

Contents

[edit] Principal characters

  • Goemon (ゴエモン?): The main protagonist and titular character of the series, he is a hot-blooded man of Edo. With a strong sense of justice and will, he will right whatever wrong there is in front of him, although he has a short temper. (Renamed "Kid Ying" in the North American release of "Legend Of The Mystical Ninja" for the SNES. In the North American releases of Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon and Goemon's Great Adventure, his name is correctly translated to Goemon.) He primarily uses a variety of smoking pipes as his weapon of choice. Also in the future his son is referred to the same name.
  • Ebisumaru (エビス丸?): Goemon's longest standing partner and best friend: a surprisingly pudgy ninja, with an equally puzzling eccentric personality. According to the Mystical Website of Goemon, this character is derived from Nezumi Kozō. (Renamed "Dr. Yang" in the North American release of "Legend Of The Mystical Ninja" for the SNES. In the North American releases of Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon and Goemon's Great Adventure, his name is correctly translated to Ebisumaru). He normally uses either fans or mallets as weapons. Ebisumaru also has a daughter named Mao, according to the Mystical Website of Goemon.
  • Omitsu (おみつ?): The local belle of Edo. She is basically Goemon's girlfriend, although he lacks the courage to approach her. She is also a likely target of foes.
  • Yae (ヤエ?): A kunoichi that works for the Secret Investigational Ninja, a secret organization of peace keepers. She often joins Goemon and Ebisumaru on their adventures under the same goal. In battle, Yae usually wields a katana, as well as her personal bazooka, and the ability to transform into a mermaid.
  • Monoshirii Ojisan (物知りお爺さん? lit. "The Wise Old Man"): A brilliant genius of clockwork machines who lives deep in Iga. Although a good fellow, he is also a big pervert.
  • Sasuke (サスケ?): A clockwork robot ninja. He was created by Monoshiri and often joins Goemon and Ebisumaru on their quest. A very naive and honest character. However, he also seems to have a switch that can make him from good to evil and vice-versa. Sasuke fights using all manner of weapons, including twin kunai, miniature explosives, and even his spiked topknot. He is based on the fictional ninja Sarutobi Sasuke.
  • Ebisu (?): She's the best friend to the Goemon in the future. She wields the same weapons as Ebisumaru and possible is his daughter.
  • The Feudal Lord of Edo and Princess Yuki: The Rulers of Edo. Despite this, they do little that inspires leadership. More often than not, they too are preyed on by evil doers, as described in the manual for Mystical Ninja starring Goemon 2: They are born to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.
  • Goemon Impact (ゴエモンインパクト?): A giant clockwork robot made by Monoshirii. With a frightful motif modeled after Goemon himself, it was built to help Goemon take on Giant foes, but more often than not, he acts as a famous movie star in various parts of the world, and even has a planet named after himself. He shares Goemon's strong sense of justice, and enjoys fighting for the team.
  • Miss Impact (ミスインパクト?): A female counterpart to Goemon Impact. Was created by the Wise Man as a counterpart to Goemon Impact, and is modeled after Omitsu. Omitsu refuses to notice the similarities...

[edit] Anime television series

[edit] List of games by platform

[edit] Arcade

[edit] NES

[edit] MSX

[edit] SNES

[edit] PlayStation

[edit] Game Boy

[edit] Game Boy Color

[edit] Game Boy Advance

  • 2001: Goemon: New Age Shutsudou! (a futuristic spin-off of the series)
  • 2005: Ganbare Goemon 1+2: Yuki-hime to Magginisu (port of the first two Super NES games with extra mini-games)
This game is a port of the first two Super Famicom games, Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuuhutsu Emaki and Ganbare Goemon: Kiteretsu Shogun Magginessu.
Differences in Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuuhutsu Emaki include:
  • You can play with Ebismaru alternating with Goemon.
  • This is a single player game (the cooperative 2-player mode from the original version was removed in this version).
  • You can now save your game instead of using the long passwords from the original version (in the Japanese version of this game, you can save your game using hiragana characters, and in the English version, using various non-letter and non-number symbols found on the keyboard).

[edit] Nintendo 64

[edit] PlayStation 2

[edit] Nintendo DS

[edit] Other appearances

  • Goemon appears as a playable character in the Konami crossovers Wai Wai World and Wai Wai World 2 for the Famicom, in the original MSX Parodius, in the Super Famicom version of Gokujō Parodius! ～Kako no Eikō o Motomete～ and in Konami Krazy Racers for the Game Boy Advance, the latter being the latest game released in America in which a Ganbare Goemon character makes an appearance.
  • Ebisumaru is the second player in the Super Famicom version of Gokujō Parodius! ～Kako no Eikō o Motomete～ and is a secret character in Konami Krazy Racers.
  • Impact makes an appearance as one of the bosses of Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius.
  • Goemon, Yae, and Sasuke appear as cards in Yu-Gi-Oh. Other robots made by Wise Old Man also appear as cards, all are named Sasuke Samurai and are numbered.
  • Seppukumaru and his Egg-like Henchmen Tsujigiri from Ganbare Goemon 4 for the super Famicom make appearances as the main villains in the Ganbare Goemon Anime series.
  • Goemon and Ebisumaru made short cameo appearances in the Twinbee OVA, Twinbee Paradise, as judges in a female beauty contest when Pastel (Twinbee) accidentally eats some shrinking cookies.
  • In the Sega CD title "Snatcher" the bartender is dressed up as Goemon.
  • In the Nintendo DS game, Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2008, a character that remarkably looks like Goemon appears under a different alias "Goe Goe The Gallant Ninja".

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Ganbare Goemon series
Arcade, NES, MSX
Mr. Goemon · Ganbare Goemon! · Ganbare Goemon 2 · Gaiden · Gaiden 2
SNES
PS
N64
PS2
GB, GBC
GBA
New Age Shutsudou · Ganbare Goemon 1+2
DS
Other media