Game:

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (1991)

Duration: 2:23:47

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1

Originally recorded: February 4, 2024
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The fun thing about sticking to platformers for my main line-up of streams this year is that it's one of the best genres for cramming multiple games into a single "stream". Case in point, I'm actually going to be tackling *three* games in this next set of streams: three of the Goemon games for the Super Nintendo that never left Japan and were given fan translation patches fairly recently.

You might recall that The Legend of Mystical Ninja -- the first Goemon game to actually make it to North America -- was the game that capped off my bonus streams back in 2021. While I could understand why it was such a beloved cult classic back in the day, it didn't resonate with me quite as much as it could've. Ganbare Goemon 2 is that game's direct sequel... and for whatever reason, it's definitely grabbing my attention more than its predecessor. My guess is that the game's greater emphasis on platforming over the adventure elements may have something to do with it. KI recently played through the whole set and has alerted me that the best is yet to come.

The continue system in this game feels a bit more forgiving than the original. I'm not sure why. Did checkpoints remain intact in Mystical Ninja? I feel like they didn't. The shift from passwords to battery saves is also nice -- though admittedly, I had my tricks to get around the former back when I played this one. I do have to wonder if checkpoints will also hold between saves. I kind of doubt that though, but it'd be nice.

The use of 1920s slang in the translation is... a bit much at times. Don't get me wrong, I've seen enough dry translations to know that I prefer something with a bit of flavor. But letting it seep into the in-game hints to the point of making them completely illegible feels like a bit of a dick move. I did at least manage to get almost two-thirds into the game this time. Hopefully, that means I'll be done with the first game in this little trilogy by the end of the week. Who knows? Maybe I'll even get a head start on Ganbare Goemon 3 if I can finish early enough.

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