I enjoyed the first X-men on genesis. It's a fun game, but its pretty brutal difficulty wise. I've never beaten it, but I never beat this one either. I do love it though. The second is such an improvement that I would say its a must own genesis game. A must, must own.



X-Men 2 Clone Wars starts off without you picking your character, without an intro, without anything. You start off as one of the heroes in antartic base full of Ninjas, Hand Ninjas, but that doesn't matter to someone not into comic books. Just a quick intro level to stomp through. But after it, the SEGA logo and introduction all play out. I can think of a handful of games that try something like this and its interesting that they do this. It kind of was a mind blower to just start the game. I don't know why.





It almost forces you to play as the lesser characters like Psyloke for that one level. Nothing against her, its just, I'd rather be Wolverine. I know a guy who only wants to be Gambit. Another friend of mine has Cyclops as his favorite. Why would any of us want to play as Pyslocke? How did she even get into the game in the first place? She was never in the cartoons or movies and most of these types of characters are featured in later games that have full databases full of characters to look through. Yet she's not only in this, but also in the Super Nintendo X-Men game Mutant Apocalyspe. I'm not saying she's a bad character or unusable in the game, its just, most of the time I want to play as Wolverine. I've yet to figure out why this was included, but feel it is interesting. I don't recall her being a big deal really. The guy who wrote X-men for many years always liked her I guess. That's the best I can come up with.



Now as I said you've several characters to choose from after your intro level with a random one. You've the All New All Diferent characters we think of when we think X-Men, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Gambit, and Psylocke as well as Beast and Cyclops. If you can beat the third level, Astroid M, you'll unlock Magneto as a playable character. Yes, Magneto. What I really like is that you're not limited to using your powers. Say you want to shoot out the "optic blasts" of Cylops, you can fire at will. You can also charage up those attacks to. Gambit blasts out more cards for example. Wolverine and Nightcrawler can climb up walls. Beast almost can, but he just sort of hangs on. It's really nice how varied everyone is and really sets a standard for how an X-Men game should be. Everyone with their own abilities and reasons to play as other characters. Including Psylocke. For example, her knife can hit through walls but can't hurt robots. It's a physic attack after all. How can something like that hurt a robot?



Storyline wise, its your standard Magneto's trying to destroy everything plot, until the Phanalnx show up. At that point I'll refer you to an episode of the cartoon in which Beast and Mr. Sinister have to team up to stop these creatures. They showed up more recently as an enemy in an Annihilation story arc as well as in one from the Exiles. If I could tell you to go read a full of volume of comics, it would be that first set of exiles. It's so freaking good. Has almost nothing to do with X-men clone wars 2, but niether does the advertisment. It's at the ten minute mark, some of these other commercials are outragous too.



Classic sega yelling name commercial. Again, ten minute mark you'll find the X-men 2. While I enjoy the first game, its confusing nature and brutality make it a little less playable. This time you've plenty of lives and abilities to get things done. It's just a matter of setting out to do something.I've played the crap out of this game over the last fifteen years.



Someday soon I'll try to finish this one and the first one. The first one I couldn't finish because of that strange reset glitch, but this one I always just run out of lives. It's great for two players though and the first couple levels are really fun. Back in the day I only rented it and now I've not got my own physical copy, yet. A quick ebay search yields 10-15 dollar copies floating around. I might have to pick one up. It's worth replaying and one of my favorites that feature the X-Men. No nonsensical talking like in the recent Legends games or combos to learn like the fighting ones, just a great beat em up.

America:


Europe:


First X-Men genesis game.

One thing I'm always reading in response to my articles is about Nostalgia. The idea that I only like these games because I played them twenty years ago. Wrong. Some of my readers seem to act like that too. I've a game I'm playing for the first time today that I've heard a little about, but put off until today. Sweet Home.



I love horror. I like Resident Evil. These are my types of things. So surpsingly, Resident Evil did not invent Video game horror. Yeah, I know. Before even Alone in the Dark there was a japanese nes (famicom) game called Sweet Home. From Capcom of all people. Yes, I know capcom isn't a person but it might as well be. What's really strange is how similar this is to Resident Evil. what's even more strange is that its actually creepy. And in 8-bit. All my research into this thing came up with bizzare results. The wikipedia page for example links to one of our very own community bloggers post. It's a really good post about how much Resident evil and Sweet Home share in common. Another site I found on RPG classics has a strange character biography in which he did an almost sprite comic interview style with them. I don't understand it either. It's like when strategy FAQs are made to be humorous. I can't not comment on that. Otherwise his site has plenty of information and helped me out, but the characters thing I don't understand at all.



I've heard about it years ago as "that one game that's like resident evil but never released here." While that is a little true, it's not quite that. Sweet Home is an RPG. And it has some elements of Survival Horror. You manage your items like in one anyway and solve puzzles much like in those. As far as combat however, its all RPG battles. Level ups, weapons, all that great stuff. I've found this game to be enjoyable.

Sound wise this is classic capcom. It's got a creepier mood to it. Not as upbeat creepy as Ducktales spooky levels, but close to it. I always asked for more RPGs from them and I have another one. Hooray! Breath of Fire's great, but I know they can do more. At least they should. And here they did twenty years ago.



One particular section just scared the crap out of me. You know everyone can die and stay dead. Having JUST figured out how to use items and being less than thirty minutes in, someone almost died. In an early section I have to use wood to make planks to cross gaps and on a trip back things broke! One person was falling. I didn't know what to do. I hit team and that worked, I tried talking first though. I was so afraid I would lose someone two minutes in. I'm seriously about five screens in too. What the heck!



In another battle I tried the call commnd. What this does is really cool. In any battle you can call your other team. I'm assuming you're actually calling out loud, since cell phones would have been a bit much. So here you are, yelling at the other characters. What happens? They instantly show up? No. That's wrong. You switch to them and are forced to march over where the others are. I'm assuming this can be used in more difficult battles to gang up on opponents, a tactic I will use.

The party system is so uniuqe. I've had swtichable characters before and squad based gameplay, but never as well presented as this. What it is, you have five characters. Each has a uniuqe item. A camera, a lighter, a key, a medical kit, and a vacuum. It makes sense to me. A vacuum for ghost battling makes perfect sense. If you've played Survival Horror games at all you know you have to burn things. One girl happens to have a key, I don't get that, maybe she's a master of unlocking. If I was translating, maybe I would have done that instead. The other two are real interesting. One is a nurse with a medical kit. It seems to heal everyones wounds, poisons and "frozen." The other has a camera. I will point out that Japanese people take a lot of pictures. It's something I've noticed in films and life, they seem to snap pictures like crazy. Now in some cultures, that's a way to capture someones soul. And have you ever heard of Fatal Frame? Your camera is the weapon. Now it all makes sense. And this is translated from japanese by some fans. I've had games that made this type of gameplay so excruciating to do. Project Eden on PS2 I'm looking at you. There was a Star Wars game that I had trouble managing too.

It's worked well for me thus far and I really, really enjoy this when it works. It makes you think about who to team with who. Where to go. How far apart to keep everyone, I'm keeping everyone baby steps apart, that's just me though. Everyone can die and stay dead. But in a strange twist, you can keep playing. You'll be missing out on their items and party member, but you can still finish the game. Otherwise you'll restart the whole thing all over. I hate doing that. So I'm keeping everyone within the same screen and fighting battles together.



What's really crazy about all this is that this is a movie game. Yes. It is licsened from a movie! I can't believe that. So I had to see the film. IMDB's forum had a post about it being on you tube, I go to you tube. And as I'm about to watch a VHS copy what do I notice on the sidebar? A girl getting a clit piercing. I know! What does that have to do with anything. Anyway the movie. I'm about to watch now.



One thing has really bothered me while playing. The translation has the word "MOVE" instead of pick up or something that would make sense. You hit that to pick up items. MOVE? Really? I would have accepted ITEM or USE, but MOVE? It took me a bit to figure out, but I think I've gotten the hang of it. That's one small gripe for a capcom horror RPG on the nintendo. Regular nintendo at that. I'm blown away by how this thing builds tension. You know you can die at any time, and you have to keep everyone together. But you need to explore so scooby doo rules are in effect. "Gee, it sure would be nice to split up. Okay I'll take Daphne, you, scooby and shaggy go to the attic!" Japanaese horror seems less about gore and jump scares and more about building a sense of dread. Foreboding even. Knowing that things aren't going to end well and that you're against stuff way out of your league. I mean for gods sake, one character has a vacuum. Sucking up ghosts doesn't seem to work here.

I strongly reccomend sweet home. It's a classic capcom nintendo game that everyone missed out on. I couldn't stick with the movie. The copy I found is a VHS one and there was no way I could stick with it for very long. Some other time I'll try and watch it. But the game? As soon as I have a weekend free I'll be playing through Sweet Home.

What a crazy cover:



OLD SCHOOL COMMENTARY:
I love you guys. Sorry I'm not around or posting as much or posting jokey things. I'll be posting more series old school games like the Goemon or Shin Megami ones. I can't post as much because I don't have the time. Two nights off a week usually means those are my sleeping nights. I'll try to hang out with everyone online more often. Especially a certain Shinigami.

I had a great and angry rant all wrote up. I noticed something strange about review scores and a paragraph in realized I don't care.

So now photos of strange costumed people, objects, and other stuff vaugely related to gaming.Something sure to get me more comments than writing about Sweet Home.

























I had halloween a few weeks ago at my girlfriend's parents church. Yeah, I know. I was invited to go to a country western square dancing thing. Hooting and hollering optional. I was dressed as Clint Eastwood. Yes. Black hat, poncho, bandoleer that broke on the way, and more. Apparently it wasn't country as it was western. So yeah. I was a little embarrassed, but it was a good time. There was food. And I brought my gameboy along, because I can't function without it.

[u]Goodnight everybody![/u]

Legend of Dragoon, a game that I miss playing. I enjoyed it so much when I first got it and little over a year ago had to retry it again and play it more. Something about this game. Its style and gameplay, that's what I really enjoy about it. Did you ever play Dragoon? On a system full of RPGs, this one is easily in the top right behind Final Fantasy's and Suikoden. Some argue higher than that.



My friend had a demo disc he bought somewhere that had several amazing games on it. Spider-man, the Tony Hawk Spider-man, on playstation was on there. Such a fun game to play. I mean before Spider-man 2 on the PS2/GC/XBOX consoles, that was about as good as a Spider-man could get. There was Tony Hawk 2 itself on there, about as good as the skateboarding could get. There was Syphon Filter a game which I enjoyed. And there was this RPG on there called Legend of Dragoon that gave you an amazing demo of the adventure. About a good two hours or so. Well, after sometime I finally managed to pick up the game.

Legend of Dragoon plays pretty much like any RPG. You pick attacks, you have magic spells, a large party, and three persons in it at a time. Storyline going on with the burned down village, hidden powers, you know all that. What really made this a cool game for me was the battles. You have to press a button with attacks to sync up squares or whatevers to do damage. Sometimes as many as twenty times later in the game. It really keeps things moving and has you actually be in the battles. Other than that, each character (spoiler?) has a special dragon power that lets you do magic and had four levels. The fourth one being this crazy dragon attack. Worth playing or seeing just for those.



There's just something cool about dragons. When you start off the game your hero is being chased by one that seemed way to large to fight off. Especially then. That wasn't even in my demo disc, but I was still blown away. A great opening to a fun RPG. My only major criticism I recall, is a battle somewhere on the second or third disc against Mr. White Haired villain. I didn't think I could beat him, I knew I could, and so I tried and tried. Finally I found out that I was supposed to lose that particular fight in a circus tent. I was so pissed. Lose on purpose? That's not my style. And that's less a criticism of Legend, but more so of the genre. Those types of fights are bullshit fights.



Another big deal at that time was the CGI. Computer generated imagery, you know those fancy cut scenes? The movies. Some were pretty fancy. They even had talking, something Final Fantasy VII's ending really could have used. Remember that final scene with the subtitles? Took me right out of the ending. But over here there's talking. Not a lot of it, but it actually had some talking and looked really well. Another thing was that like other RPGs at the time, this thing came on FOUR discs. Which seemed to indicate a lot of video game to me. So it was well worth picking up.

My great shame is that I've never actually beaten this. I made it to disc 3 on my own, then decided to use the gameshark to breeze the rest of the game. Getting stuck in the fourth discs puzzles and quitting for four years. When I picked it back up I had no clue where I was and my party was too powerful to do anything. So I started over. And then quit again once something shiny came over. I'm anxious to replay this sometime. I want to finish it and give it a proper send off. Even without that I really would like a sequel. The adventures of this hero and his world, I could use more of.



Something about the characters too. They're all really interesting, so its hard to choose just three to play with. There's a certain element of Super Sentai to all this with the dragoon transforming and color coded heroes. Maybe I'm just thinking of that stuff when I play though. You've your red hero, a purple dark bitch, this orange Juggernaut character, a green "nice" hero, a purple kung fu man, and a few others. It's really great mix. And there are two major things that happen with them that I can't mention. I'd hate to tell you what happens. Play for yourself and find out. It's worth playing to see what happens to who and how things play out on just the first disc. Find out all about the legendary "BLACK MONSTER" and what it really is. I figured it out pretty quick, did you guys that played it? I wonder how far from beating it I got now.



Will a sequel ever come out? I sure hope. I've liked this game ever since I first tried that demo. I always liked Resident Evil style gameplay. Fancy picture backgrounds and 3D characters. That's the way to do it. Especially on this console. I'm sure someone will tell me this looks old, but I enjoy the look. It hasn't aged as bad as some playstation games have and I highly recommend you pick it up. If you're into role playing games like me. Otherwise, maybe pass if you'd rather play shooting games or games where you jump around as a rabbit.

Video -


Japanese -


American -


European -


P.S. In watching video of the game, I totally recalled the sound effects. Some really fun ones in the menus.

Before you read this, I suggest you google yourself a copy of the game. Play at night, in the dark, all alone. I want you to try it out and see what you can find and do. If you hate it, that's okay. I understand how someone can hate this, but if you like it, I'll feel great for sharing this with you. To talk about horror or review it, I've always felt is to spoil it in some ways. So if you've not played it I strongly suggest playing it.



I love horror. Something about being scared really does it for me. As much as I like being powerful in a game and fighting back, its just not that scary. I know you know that too. Think about it, you've got rocket launchers whats so scary about all the minions from hell? What if you were just a little girl and a creepy character chased you around, mysterious circumstances, and stuff right out of giallo italian horror at every turn? Well that's actually scary. It's the type of horror where something totally unexpected can happen at any turn. The trailer for Suspiria for example is all over the place. Ever see that fake trailer from the Sean of the Dead guys? I don't know why, but seeing that reminded me of that. Anyway Clock Tower, let's talk about it!



Now in order to play this I played the translation on super nintendo. Not necessarily the best way to play, but it does work. It is playable. And I enjoy this game. Something about the sheer terror it can put into you. A panic. Will I be caught and murdered? Can I hide here? What's this thing, oh no I instantly died for checking under a bed! That is Clock Tower. And I really enjoy it.

So gameplay is really easy to understand but I've yet to fully "get it." And I've played this off and on over the course of a few years. Every once in awhile I'll pick it up and want to try it again. So you point and click where you want the girl to move. It works the same for investigating items in the world too. Say you want to investigate a clock. Place the target on it and there you go. Not terribly difficult, unless you're being chased by the most sinister thing, yes thing, I've encountered yet. Scissor Man.



He's a man with a large pair of scissors and I wasn't expecting it at all. I had no idea what was in this game. I only knew the basics. It's horror, it's supposed to be tough to play, and people liked it. So I had to try it myself. In playing I encountered him and was swiftly murdered. Countless times. There is no way to fight back. No guns, no nothing. All you can do is shove him back occasionally. It's scary.

The storyline is pretty wild too. If you can get a little ways into the game you'll encounter some stuff that makes me smile. The type of torture and abuse and sinister plots that make up most hororr are all here. The game has many endings and I've managed to only scratch the surface. I can easily escape, but that's not really playing the game. Maybe I'm not doing it right. I'll explore around and search and look around and try to piece it all together. It's a very interesting world this game. I'll try to summarize it a little.



You're a little girl in an orphanage, you and a few other girls are adopted, and come to this giant mansion with a clock tower, and sure enough, its full of evil and the scissor man. Its up to you to uncovered whats going on, save the girls and yourself, and escape. It's not terribly difficult, as I've played it quite a bit and gamefaqs is right over there to help. I can very highly recommend this game. It's free, fun, and entertaining. That and its really spooky and sticks with me. Certain scenes that play out that I won't spoil really stand out. Like certain deaths and murders. Keep in mind I've seen a lot of horror movies in my day.



Sequel wise, Clock Tower has three direct sequels and one spiritual one. The game I'm talking about in this article was never released in the united states commercially. Strangely however, the second game was released here as "Clock Tower" on the playstation. Followed by another game called Clock Tower 2 that was a spin off on playstation. And finally Clock Tower 3 on Playstation 2. A game I had a copy of, that didn't work. Broke my heart to return it to the store. It was in the original box and was five dollars. Other than those three games there's also a fourth game called "Haunting Ground." It's very much Clock Tower in that you're a girl chased by villainous characters and can't fight back.

Awesome cover! I seriously like this.



So then, have you ever played Clock Tower? It's also known as Clock Tower First Fear, and just to clarify a second time the one on playstation called Clock Tower is not the same as this one.

My cousin that used to live with us had a super nintendo, and in addition to having Contra 3, Rock N Roll Racing, he had Legend of the Mystical Ninja. This Mystical Ninja is one of those games that I could never find the name of. I hunted high and low trying to find it. Eventually I saw advertisements for the Playstation version or Great Adventure on the 64. It's unfortunate that I went so many years hunting for this. And I had to have those. And when I found out there were several unreleased Japanese ones, I had to have those.

I'm still missing a few, and by few I mean about fifteen to twenty. I've yet to find a way to play import PS2 games or DS games, until I do I can't play those. And for some reason I've not played the gameboy or playstation games yet either. And the famicom (nes) games. That Arcade game? No, but I seriously want to. Look and listen.


Then I'll show off this video. Its got many of the games in the series.


Characters:


Goemon

The hero of the games is based on a japanese man named Goemon who was pretty much robin hood. No really, everything I've read basicly says that. They don't say it as bluntly, but they're not me. Our video game Goemon tends to stay very angry at everything he meets. I don't know why. His main weapon is also an opium pipe throughout the series.

Ebimasuru

Goemon's faithful sidekick who is usually the butt of jokes in the series. Everything about this character confuses me and I love him more for it. For example, on the Nintendo 64 he can do a butt bounce attack that makes him jump higher than any other character. Despite the fact that he's much heavier than the other three. He also switches his weapons throughout the games using ribbons, fans, canes, and

Sasuke

A robot ninja. He attacks with his swords, hair, and bombs. Yeah, I know. He cuts enemies in two when he attacks and I love that.

Yae

A ninja who packs a bazooka. Also cuts her enemies when she fights them. She turns into a mermaid. I wish I had more to say, but I can't follow that up with anything else. Storyline wise she tends to stay more grounded than the other characters, but she's a ninja with a bazooka who turns into a mermaid.

Legend of Mystical Ninja - Super Nintendo - Engl



While not the first in the series, this is the first in english. The first I played. And probably the one everyone recalls. It's a five star, best-game-ever, "that's my favorite," and brings me back to a happier time. When my dad and me used to play nintendo together. Yeah, that's right. My dad played this with me. He was Doctor Yang to my Kid Ying and we nearly finished the game together. Many, many, years later I finished the game and told him about it. After our time spent playing Turtles and Legend of Kage was way passed. Finishing the first Goemon game felt like I had accomplished something. And its still a fun game to return to. Every level is luminous. Yes, that is a big way of saying radiant. Or I could say it's just well, but that isn't writing is it?



Storyline wise this game has you Goemon (whose name here is Kid Ying) and his friend Ebimasru (Doctor Yang) hanging out. Suddenly bad guys attack and its up to you to wander Japan. With none of the subtlety or sophistication of the storyline, I've broken it down to its barest elements. I didn't mention any of the really bizarre elements such as the kitten people or



So gameplay. You'll wander around town for a bit gathering cash killing bad guys and buying items, then make your way up to a side scrolling level. It's really fantastic how you upgrade yor weapon too. Every so many enemies a kitty cat drops and you pick him up and your weapon upgrades. You have three upgrades here, which is a fansatic place to mention Goemon's crack pipe. Yes, his main weapon is a opium pipe. Think I'm joking? I'm not and will defend that claim all over the place. So you have a basic pipe to start then a silver one, then you get a yo-yo weapon. I know right, its only logical that you get a yo yo after starting with brown and then silver. You can also throw money at enemies (?) as well as bombs. It's actually quite strange, but tha'ts goemon for you.



This pretty much describes the majority of the series and I got it out rather quickly actually. The sidescrolling levels are always hilarious and filled with monsters that don't make sense. As are towns filled with many japanese people. Some of which I don't understand at all. Like the guy with a basket face or the samurai who gets angry when you hit him. And every level seems to add more. You travel to a new town, wander around, then find the side scrolling level and have at it. Big boss shows up, and there you go. That's Mystical Ninja. The final level is very impressive and has you re-fight all the bosses and one final boss. All the boss designs are brilliant. You'll fight a japanese ghost, sumo wrestlers who get bigger faces when you hit them eventually becoming one face, a latern fella, giant octopus, kite ninja, tengu, kitty dragon, and samurai.



One last cool thing about Goemon is that the third level is a carnival where you can play lots of mini games. Including Gradius. Yes, the first level of Gradius is in Goemon. It's really cool for some reason, I don't know why. All the mini games are pretty fun to play, but Gradius is the best. It's presented in such a way that it makes it fun to play. Its a gigantic TV set with Goemon and Ebimasru sitting down in front with a lady telling them about it.



What makes this game wonderful is how all these elements come together. You're in part of a town walking around getting money, so its sort of an RPG. Then you're on a sidescrolling level platform jumping and fighting enemies. It's great. Two of my favorite types of games together with some very humorous style. It only gets wierder in the sequels.

BOSS VIDEO






Ganbare Goemon 2 - Super Nintendo



Working as a bagger in a grocery store I met a girl who was/is very into Japanese culture. Not so much video games, but their history and assuming anime. I of course had to ask her to translate a word for me, or at the very least tell me how to say this. I honestly don't know if I'm saying Goemon right either, but what really bothers me is the Ganabare part. What the hell does it mean? She says to say it "Gone-a-bree" but couldn't tell me an explination. So to google. I found this extrmely helpful website. Hang in There Goemon 2. It makes sense now. As much as Goemon games can.



By the way, if I was asked to pick a best of the series, it is definitely part two. Even without english it is fully playable. And I mean that too. It's a little confusing in towns where to go or what to buy, but put effort into it. I managed to not only play Ganbare Goemon 2 a game I can barely spell or say let alone pronounce, but I beat it. And it was amazing. The only way you're going to get to play it or its three Super Nintendo Cousins is to search google for something I can't tell you to look for. I think if you looks you'll figure it out. If you really need help finding it



This pretty much improves everything the first game did ten fold. It also includes a third playable character, Sasuke! It's great that you can use any of the three characters now. The levels this time around are pretty much the most amazing I've ever played. No, I mean that. One level in particular really stands out in my mind. It's a gigantic dragon that you ride on throughout the level. It's brutal. Not the way the level in Animaniacs was, but in a good way. And that's the first level of the second world. There are many, MANY, amazing levels in this game. It's just so beautiful. You also can ride around on vehicles on levels attacking enemies. Oh gosh, I love this so much.



Storyline wise I have no idea what the hell is going on. There is this bunny rabbit guy who keeps showing up and he's mean I guess and you fight him in a sumo suit. Then you fight him in the giant robots. Yes, you have a giant robot. And this is only their introduction to the series the giant impact robots show up in the other games too. It's like Power Rangers or Voltron or any sort of giant robot show. Its presented first person and you attack with your ball arms and various other weapons. Yes, you have chain gun money to throw out now. And the robot looks like Goemon. And is alive maybe?

If I had to recommend you to go find one and play it right now. I mean right now, go get part two. I had no trouble playing it, at least from an actually being able to play it stand point, and I loved it. It's great.



Ganbare Goemon 3 - Super Nintendo



Heartbreakingly, unplayable. This one is more like a true adventure game than the others. And that means it needs words. In order to do anything you have to figure it out and I just can't deal with it. I really tried and I'm hoping someone puts out a translation soon. The interenet saved the day before, so maybe?







Gabare Goemon 4 - Super Nintendo


If part two was one of the most beautiful games on super nintendo, the fourth one is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen. Sprite wise, everything is just fantastic. Killing enemies never felt so good. Unfortunately, its also somewhat broken by the language barriar. I need certain items to progress and I can't figure out which to use.



However, I was able to follow what's going on. The giant robot asked you to go after a bad guy in space, so of course your four heroes take off after him. Somehow they're on seperate planets and each has abilties to cross barriers the others can't. Like going underwater. Figuring out what to do from there I can't. Or at least haven't yet. Someday soon.



Oh and the name of the subtitle in english is "The reason I became a dancer." I'm not joking about that. That's the real english translation. I don't understand either.





Mystical Ninja 64 - English release



I hate that when I played this it was ten years too late. The graphics and glitches were just too much. I jumped off a bridge and got stuck in water for way too long. I just kept swimming around town lost. I didn't know what to do and gave up.

From what I've read this is more like an adventure game, so its more like part three. It's probably amazing and I'm just missing out because I had one awful time playing it. But my time was just too terrible to fully write about. Nintendo 64 games are, I hate to say anything mean, but you know. They're not known for being beautiful and amazing. I wish they were. Oh right, the sequel is both of those.

Goemon's Great Adventure 64 - English release





So this game is both beautiful and amazing. I got it new for thirty dollars. When I saw it sitting there in Wal Mart, I knew I had to have it. At that point I was buying Super Nintendo games twenty dollars apiece. Yeah, I know. So when I saw an N64 game worth playing that wasn't expensive, I needed it. Unfortunately two things set this game back for me. Use of a controller pack to save progress and I loaned it out to someone. The controller pack has never worked for me. Across two N64s, niether were able to keep a controller packs save games. Across several controller packs, they just don't work. I don't know what happens. They always erase.





And now the more personal reason. At some point I loaned this out to a friend and, I'm getting tears in my eyes, he lost it. He claimed it was stolen and I believe him. I mean who wouldn't want to steal a Nintendo 64 game? And he gave my dad twenty dollars for the game. "But I paid thirty." I know. And now go look on ebay. How much is this game? As I look today twenty dollars. I've seen it much higher in the past and I really need to buy a copy for myself. This game is so good. It's one of the best on the system and a must own.



For starters everything is in 3D and at the time, it looked really great. Now its dated a little, but I still think it holds up. Especially considering the 64. Everything feels more like Ganabare Goemon 2, just in english. You have all four characters playable now, including Sasuke and Yae who I had never seen before this. You can go around a level map. You've got cities to explore. And levels. I recall really loving the burning castle you go through I forget where or which world that was in. But I really liked it. This was over ten years ago, don't look at this article with that face.



The other big thing is the robots. Not only are they in this, but you can do two player robot battles. Side by side. How crazy is that? Well for a Goemon game nothing is crazy, but for me that is just wild. Seeing two screens with ball armed robots fighting another robot is fun. I mean it is the definition of fun. This is why I play video games. Beyond that you also can do piggy back moves and special moves with your characters. Each one doing something different like Yae's mermaid ability.









In closing, I think the only other slice of Japan like this could be Pocky & Rocky and even then, that doesn't come as close to Goemon. I mean this is pure Japan. I don't understand anything. And I love it. It's humorous. Octopi show up all the time. Those giant nutted squirrels show up. It's wacky and all over the place. I don't know what to say really. I know, I want the DS one in english. There's a water color looking Goemon out that I really would love to try out. It's more RPG and adventurey and I want it in english. That's what I'll end with. That and a mention of the playstation and other games I passed over.