Fun but frustrating.
Written: May 13 '05 (Updated May 17 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellant graphics. Humor still as good as ever.
Cons: Gameplay gets kinda repetitive. Jumps are a pain in the -
The Bottom Line: Fans of side-scrollers and Goemon will proably love this.
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| hhgbh's Full Review: Goemon's Great Adventure for Nintendo 64 |
'Goemon's Great Adventure' is the second game on the N64
to feature Goemon and his band of spunky ninjas. It's very
different to it's predecessor in the sense that:
1. It plays as a side-scroller, rather than a first-person
RPG.
2. It now has a two player option, meaning you can bash
badguys with a buddy.
3. The game has a much more linear setup than the first.
Instead of exploring the country and towns for your next
mission, you are given set levels and missions which
mostly involve doing various mini-quests to earn entry
passes.
The story goes as such, Goemon and Ebisumaru are
journeying to Wiseman's house to see a new invention he's
made. If you're familiar with the older Goemon games on
the SNES, you'll know that Wiseman's inventions usually
end up causing trouble, so it's understandable why they're
talking about how they should have bought Yae and Sasuke
along. Anyway, when they get there, Wiseman shows them his
latest creation - a machine that can bring people back
from the dead! Goemon's excited at the prospect of meeting
his ancestors, but Ebisu and Wiseman are more interested
in bringing back James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. (Although
since this game is set in Ancient Japan, those people
haven't even been born yet!)
Suddenly Wiseman's house is attacked by Bismaru, Ebisu's
evil French-Catholic descendant. (It's a long story!) And
the machine is stolen! Naturally, Goemon and Ebisu set off
to get the machine back. At the very first town you come
to, you are joined by Sasuke (That was quick!) and later
on you meet up with Yae. You also discover that Bismaru is
planning to use Wiseman's invention to resurrect an evil
demon lord that she apparently has the hots for! So that's
the story in a nutshell. Now on to the gameplay.
I've already mentioned that the game is a side-scroller
(Just like the old Goemon games.) and you have set levels
and missions to complete. Unfortunately, this is the part
where I found myself missing the style of the previous
game. There is no element of exploration in the game.
Rather than traveling across some beautifully crafted
Japanese landscape, you pretty much just make your way
across the screen beating up baddies on the way. And as
for the fighting. I loved the freedom of
movement 'Mystical Ninja' gives the player. You can turn
in any direction and this made the fighting enemies a lot
of fun. My favorite tactic was to wait until a big group
got together, then jump in the middle and spin around
swinging my pipe/hammer/sword/knife and flattening them!
You can't do that in this game.
Also the 2-D setting of
the 'traveling' levels means you can only avoid bad guy's
attacks by jumping over them. (Ducking does you no good
what-so-ever.) This can get very frustrating when I'm
trying to bash a monster and several others are shooting
what look like pokeballs at me. But the thing I hate most
is the jumping. Unless you're playing as Goemon, who can
double-jump, you have to take a huge run-up and leap off
the very tip of the ledge to make it to the other side.
Also your character can't grab ledges like they could
before, which means you can't even get a near-perfect jump.
Alright, enough of the bad points. Let's find some good
ones. Most of the problems mentioned just now can be
solved with the addition of a second player. It makes
beating the bad guys easier, and there's even the fun
option of giving your partner a piggyback, where one of
you controls the running and jumping and the other
controls the attacking.
The game isn't all running and fighting. There are a wide
range of mini-missions which you must complete in order to
earn entry passes and proceed to the next level. (Sure,
you're on a mission to save Japan, but try telling that to
the gate guards!) Also, Impact makes a return, bringing
with him the, always fun 'Giant Robot Battle'. Like
before, you control Impact from his cockpit, but this
time, he has some help. Mrs. Impact! Wiseman built her to
be Impact's girlfriend. (But, if they were made by the
same guy, doesn't that make them brother and sister? What
the hell, they're robots!) Mrs. Impact has all the same
abilities as Impact and is controlled by player two. At
first she has a hard time hitting the bad guy 'cos the
view is still from Impact's cockpit, but you can throw her
a baton and give player two a chance at the action.
Now it's time for one of the best features of the game,
the graphics. The background design is better than ever,
with vivid colours and excellant detail. as usual the
characters are well-designed and move with a fluidity that
makes them spring to life.
The music is still in Japanese style. Though it doesn't
have tunes as memorable as in the previous game, it still
sets the theme well, depending on where you are.
Overall, I give this game a 3/5. It still has the funny
storyline and great characters, plus awesome graphics. But
the linear gameplay just didn't provide the same thrills
that 'Mystical Ninja' did. Also, the gameplay can get
kinda repetitive. You go through a wood/field whatever,
enter a town, complete some missions, enter a castle, beat
a small boss then beat a big boss with Impact. Yes, yes, I
know. That was pretty much how it went in the previous
game, but this one makes no attempt to hide it.
If you're a fan of side-scroller games, you'll probably
enjoy this a lot more than I did. Not that I didn't enjoy
it, but I much prefer games with an RPG element.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hhgbh
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 0 members
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