Goemon (series)

Ganbare Goemon (がんばれゴエモン, lit. "Go for it, Goemon!"), known as Goemon or Mystical Ninja in North America and the PAL region, is a long-running video game series produced by Konami. Ebisu Etsunobu is the joint producer of this franchise.

These games revolve around the main character, Goemon, and his exploits. As the name suggests, his character is 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 trademarks are his blue bushy hair and weapon of choice, the kiseru. The games are set in a cartoon-like, mystical Feudal Japan. Within this world, every bit of folklore and legend about Japan is true. Although the series has its roots in action adventure, the Ganbare Goemon series has features from genres including RPG, puzzle games, and board games. Ganbare Goemon has proven to be widely popular in Japan with its many video games, with its success spawning a wide series of merchandise and an anime and manga series.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, known as Ganbare Goemon: Neo Momoyama Bakufu no Odori (がんばれゴエモン～ネオ桃山幕府のおどり～, lit. "Go for it, Goemon: Dance of the Neo Peach Mountain Shogunate") in Japan, is a platform/action-adventure video game released by Konami for the Nintendo 64 on August 7, 1997 in Japan and April 16, 1998 in North America as the fifth entry in the Ganbare Goemon series. The second Goemon game released in North America, it follows The Legend of the Mystical Ninja and features hybrid elements of platform games like Super Mario 64 and action-adventure games like The Legend of Zelda series.

The story follows Goemon's struggles to prevent the Peach Mountain Shoguns gang from turning Japan into a Westernized fine arts theater. The plot calls for three cinematic musical features and battles between giant robots; like other Ganbare Goemon games, it's peppered with surrealist humor and anachronisms.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon sold nearly 200,000 copies worldwide. Reviewers praised its graphics, gameplay, and humorous plot. Critics found the soundtrack and tunes memorable and moving, but criticized the localization, unintuitive camera control, and dull stretches of travel through Japan. Goemon's Great Adventure followed in 1999 and Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku in 2000.

Goemon

Goemon may refer to:

Ninja

A ninja (忍者) or shinobi (忍び) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of the ninja included: espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and guerrilla warfare. Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed "dishonorable" and "beneath" the samurai-caste, who observed strict rules about honor and combat. The shinobi proper, a specially trained group of spies and mercenaries, appeared in the Sengoku or "warring states" period, in the 15th century, but antecedents may have existed in the 14th century, and possibly in the 12th century (Heian or early Kamakura era).

In the unrest of the Sengoku period (15th–17th centuries), mercenaries and spies for hire became active in the Iga Province and the adjacent area around the village of Kōga, and it is from the area's clans that much of our knowledge of the ninja is drawn. Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate (17th century), the ninja faded into obscurity. A number of shinobi manuals, often based on Chinese military philosophy, were written in the 17th and 18th centuries, most notably the Bansenshukai (1676).

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 (Japanese: ニンテンドー64, Hepburn: Nintendō Rokujūyon), stylized as NINTENDO⁶⁴ and often referred to as N64, is Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit central processing unit, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil. It is the industry's last major home console to use the cartridge as its primary storage format, although current handheld systems (such as the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS) also use cartridges. While the Nintendo 64 was succeeded by Nintendo's MiniDVD-based GameCube in November 2001, the consoles remained available until the system was retired in late 2003.

Code named Project Reality, the console's design was mostly finalized by mid-1995, though Nintendo 64's launch was delayed until 1996. As part of the fifth generation of gaming, the system competed primarily with the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The Nintendo 64 was launched with three games: Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64, released worldwide; and Saikyō Habu Shōgi, released only in Japan. The Nintendo 64's suggested retail price at launch was US$199.99 and it was later marketed with the slogan "Get N, or get Out!". With 32.93 million units worldwide, the console was ultimately released in a range of different colors and designs, and an assortment of limited-edition controllers were sold or used as contest prizes during the system's lifespan. IGN named it the 9th greatest video game console of all time; and in 1996, Time Magazine named it Machine of the Year.