Goemon

North American appearances:

The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (SNES)
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (Gameboy)
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (N64)
Goemon’s Great Adventure (N64)

Goemon, he is an icon in Japan, but here in the United States he is little more than an obscure ninja. I venture to ask, why is this so? Is it his spiky blue hair, his badly translated jokes or is it the fact that his weapon of choice is a traditional Japanese smoking pipe known as a kiseru? Perhaps it is a combination of all three, regardless, Goemon is worthy of the praise our Japanese friends give him.

Goemon has been called many things in his day: a noble thief, a mystical ninja and for some odd reason he was called Kid Yang in the North American release of the Legend of the Mystical Ninja for the Super Nintendo. But Goemon, a man of Edo, has always been fueled by a strong sense of honor and justice, traits that inspire courage amongst his closest friends and allies; such as the chubby ninja Ebisumaru, Goemon’s best friend, Sasuke, the battery powered robot ninja or the katana wielding, green haired ninja vixen Yae, just to name a few.

The universe of Goemon is a cartoonish take on feudal Japan, but it is steeped in actual Japanese folklore and legend. There has always been a comedic flavor to the Goemon games, but some of the jokes soar over the heads of many North American gamers unfamiliar with Japanese folklore. I remember playing the Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon for the Nintendo 64 and being utterly confused. Thankfully there was a laugh track included in the game so I knew when to laugh at the jokes I didn’t understand, thus avoiding looking foolish in front of my friends.

Goemon has been featured in over 20 games and is Konami’s best selling video game franchise, but only four of these games have made it to North America. Will these games ever see the light of day in North America, probably not, but we can hope that the next installment of Goemon will!