Duration: 2:27:09

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Originally recorded: February 18, 2024
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Well, I guess this game was a lot more front-loaded than I was expecting. Or maybe I just skipped some optional pick-ups. Either way, I managed to make it through Goemon 3 in three sessions, just like I was originally hoping. Of course, I think that I owe a lot of that to the fact that the game's continues are actually quite generous -- just like the previous game.

There was only one major level left in the game -- the hot springs bathhouse in Snow Child Town. Aside from that, there were a couple of mini-stages as well. I do have to wonder why the one that eventually led to the bath house had one of those elephant statues in it. It was pretty straight-forward. The boss fights themselves also got a bit more inventive. In some cases, maybe a little *too* inventive for their own good. Seriously, that last fight where you had to knock objects into the background at juuuuuuust the right angle was terrible. The fight where you had to reflect laser beams at the two oni heads was pretty cool though.

That final string of Impact battles were probably the highlight of this final session though. Seriously, the people at Team Goemon should be congratulated for turning the most aggravating part of the second game into something so spectacular this time around. The lottery mechanic in the fight with the Omikujis was particularly cool, as was being able to reflect Dark Impact's own pipebombs back at it. Cool stuff.

But as we approach the final game of this set, KI has been warning me that the fourth Super Famicom Goemon game is going to be a rude awakening for me. The problem is, every time I ask about quality of life features, they give me exactly the answer I want to hear. I'm not trying to downplay those warnings, but it's going to take some radically terrible level design to overcome the fact that this game didn't inherit the weapon down-grade mechanic from the first two games. I guess we'll just have to see how things turn out next time.