XP Arcade: Mr. Goemon

The Goemon franchise got its start in the arcade before becoming a (Japanese) console staple.

This column is “XP Arcade,” in which I’ll focus on a game from the arcades, or one that is clearly inspired by arcade titles, and so on. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.

General North American knowledge of the Ganbare Goemon series is pretty limited, which is what happens when just four of the series’ 30 games made it out of Japan for decades. You’re potentially aware of a few of them, though: The Legend of the Mystical Ninja released for the SNES and has had some Virtual Console re-releases, while the Nintendo 64 featured both Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon and Goemon’s Great Adventure. Konami hasn’t done much of anything to bring additional Goemon games out of seas by way of revival — most of the reason there are more Goemon games available in English than there used to be is due to the work of unofficial translators — but there’s one exception.

Mr. Goemon was an arcade game released in 1986, and also the first entry in the Goemon series. Because of its origins and Konami opting in to a program that has allowed for some of their more overlooked classic titles to get a re-release, it was released worldwide as part of the Arcade Archives series on Playstation 4 in 2015 and Switch in 2019. So, while the Famicom games, most of the Super Famicom titles, the Playstation and Nintendo DS and so on Goemon entries all remain in Japan alone, we’ve at least got Mr. Goemon now, the first new-to-North America Goemon release since the 90s. It’s been awhile.

Mr. Goemon plays very differently from the rest of the series it launched, but you can also very much see that it’s a clear origin point. Goemon has his kabuki makeup on, and his primary attack is performed with a pipe. The game is a platformer, albeit with a very different style than what was to come for Goemon games: you’re racing against the clock here, picking up points as you go, but mostly trying to just stay alive and reach the end as quickly as you can in order to grab the biggest bonus you can from that. It’s a straight-up sidescroller, all 2D, without the kind of changes to the formula that would come as the series opened up its possibilities on the SNES and beyond.

Goemon here is a little less cartoonish and goofy — the Extremely Weird [Complimentary] character and his friends wouldn’t come along for a bit, you’re not going to see any mechs here — and is instead based more on the historical figure of Goemon Ishikawa, a 16th-century bandit. The main difference between Goemon Ishikawa and Robin Hood is that we know Goemon actually for sure existed, but both were subject to a series of stories and adaptations over the centuries, with Konami’s take being one of them for the former.

Goemon the bandit and Goemon the Konami character are both presented as a Robin Hood-style bandit who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Here, Goemon runs through four stages comprised of two parts each, fresh off of robbing someone with more money than they’ll need so he can bring it to the people who do. He’ll have to attack and evade various law enforcement officials and soldiers and ninja to make it to the end of each level, and the second part of each stage also features a boss fight, after which an animation plays where Goemon throws coins outside the houses he’s running by, with lights turning on in each one as he passes.

This short bit of gameplay gives you an idea of what it is you’ll be doing in Mr. Goemon’s four stages. You occasionally pick up an item, which you can throw at enemies, and being hit by foes doesn’t harm you, but it does impede your progress until you can shake loose. What does harm you is being hit by one of their projectiles, including but not limited to things like knives: that’ll cost you a life. Goemon can jump on the heads of law enforcement, knocking them either one level below him, or, if they’re already on the lowest level of the stage, bumping them right out of the level, albeit for no points scored. Defeating an enemy with your pipe is worth 200 points, always, while defeating them with a projectile can multiply the points a bit. The first foe defeated with a projectile is worth 200 points, but the next is 400, then 800, and so on. Though, good luck lining those shots up, as enemies move a lot in a way that makes it feel like they’re trying to avoid this very fate.

If you do lose a life, the enemies stop to laugh at you, but stay that way briefly while you’re revived, as well. Meaning you can pipe a few in the face and knock them out while they’re laughing at your non-demise, then carry on with what you were doing.

There’s also a power star-esque power-up that lets you automatically defeat any enemy you touch, and at 800 points each. These are a great way to rack up points in a hurry, as is a big yellow ball you can roll onto enemies, that’ll stick with you as long as it doesn’t roll off screen without you, and which scores you more point with each subsequent enemy rolled over with it. You can see said ball and the hammer power-up at work in the below video.

The reason you have to race against the clock here is that the moon is moving across the sky. The moon is nature’s timer, basically, its progress letting you know how close to morning it is, and how much bonus you’ll be able to receive at the end of the level. Each tick of the moon’s progress across the sky still remaining when Goemon reaches the goal is worth an additional 50 points, which can add up. Combine that with the point bonus he gets for a successful jump over some treasure chests at the end of 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4 — the further Goemon manages to jump over this little chest pyramid, the more points you’ll receive — and there are plenty of points to be scored via bonus when you reach the end of a level. Which is good, because enemies aren’t worth a ton of points without hitting those multipliers through projectiles, or from special attacks like the ball and hammer power-up. And you need points (20,000 for your first extend, 60,000 for subsequent ones) to get extra lives.

There’s one other thing to be mindful of while playing, which you basically learn by doing: there are hidden items worth significant point bonuses in the levels, which need to be hit with your pipe to reveal. While you’re running for your life and attacking the hordes of foes coming at you, take the occasional swing at empty space, because something worthwhile might pop up: then sear that location into your memory for future playthroughs.

Everything looks pretty standard — like out of a ukiyo-e painting, yes, but standard — until you get to the bosses, which can be some fantastical, mythical creatures, like an oni or tengu. You can defeat the bosses uses projectiles, which respawn endlessly because of that, but you can also, with the exception of the Shiva statues, just keep running forward until you exit the boss arena. Which is easier said than done, since bosses can be larger sprites you have to take even more care to avoid, and are not interested in letting you escape, either. Sure, you’re only stunned if the oni touches you, but if he then fires off a lightning bolt at you after the stun, well, you’re still dead. So take care there.

When you finish the second part of stage four, you won’t visit a town to throw gold coins at, but instead you’ll reach your goal: the (10,000 point) Golden Lamp, housed on the top of Edo Castle. In typical arcade game style of the day, Mr. Goemon will then loop back to the first stage, only more difficult this time. Which is saying something: Mr. Goemon isn’t impossible by any means, but it is fairly demanding given the size of the mobs it throws at you even in its early stages. More of that, and harder, too, is nothing to sneeze at.

Mr. Goemon has multiplayer, if you’re looking to compete against a friend, but it’s not cooperative like, say, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja would be. It’s the kind of system where the two of you take turns, instead, which is fine, really. It might be a little too chaotic with two Goemons on screen at once, but then again, I could go for a co-op version of the original that introduces Ebisumaru earlier than the series actually did, but retains the classic look and feel while still managing to update the whole deal, like was done with Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle. Of course, asking Konami to do just about anything I think would be neat is asking for disappointment, but hey. At least we’ve got Mr. Goemon in any form these days.

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