REVIEW | Ganbare Goemon Karakuri Douchuu (1986/1987) | Goemon's Roots on MSX2, Famicom & Arcade 

UPDATES & AMENDMENTS: -8:36 That should be "MegaBIT," not "MegaBYTE," a significantly smaller amount of memory to store a game on!

[Try4ce] There's something kind of surreal about seeing an American copy of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon in a traditional Japanese setting. I wonder how many copies of that version are actually in Japan? Do you have any experience with the 360 version of Mr. Goemon? I feel like the credit insert function on the PS4 version is buggy, and there are some scaling issues. Loved hearing more about Ebisumaru's origins! All the attention usually goes to the historical/legendary Goemon.

Your videos have inspired me to play many of the import Goemon games that we didn't get in the US. I have played through the second and fourth entries on the Super Famicom and the side scroller on GBC. I'm working on the third game on the SFC and the DS game. Keep the great videos coming, particularly on the Ganbare Goemon series!

Yeaahhh man, u sure are keeping up the promise u made on more content, and with such quality no less

The msx had a speed slider?? Why does that sounds like the coolest idea ever?

This was such a great, informative, and fun video. Thank you so much. You’re one of my very favorite you tubers Jimmy.

I have been playing this version since I was a kid - I made it to the palace and found the final screen - I thought that was the whole game. I also didn't know about the chiefs letter as I stayed away from that scary looking dude since he killed me :D Oh the joys of not reading Japanese and figuring out stuff while playing. MSXTranslations made a great translation so it should be less of a hassle. (Also the cheat game cart is mostly called Game Master) thanks for teaching me stuff I didn't know about this game.

Heh, I just played the first SNES Goemon in co-op on a state-hopping vacay, and now I'm wondering where the hell it's been all these 30 years. So original arcade Goemon is like Bo Jackson in Tecmo Super Bowl. Shakes everyone off.

I only watch a few videos from you a year. Everytime I decide to watch one it's like an event

Great stuff as always Jimmy. Never played the older Goemon games. Was introduced to them with the N64 ones, which i think were the first ones released in the UK. One day I'll do a hunt for the earlier entries.

I really love the Ganbare Goemon videos. Makes me want to play them. I recently got a boxed copy of Super Metroid for the Super Famicom for a decent price. Slowly going to make my own import collection.

Excellent! Loved the episode. Hope we get more Ganbare Goemon!

Yess! I’m always happy to see another Import Gaming FTW!

Just to nitpick: Cartridge size was usually measured in megaBITS, not megabytes. So, 2 megabits is actually just 0.25 megabytes (256 kilobytes). This was still quite large for a Famicom game, as early carts did not exceed 0.5 megabits (64 kilobytes), if I remember correctly Super Mario Bros was a 0.5 megabit cartridge...

I am so ready for this!

Amazing Job Jimmy!!!

I didn't know about all this! Only started playing the SFC version like many other gamers in the west I guess

Love me some Gooey man

This series weirdly reminds me of the KiKi KaiKai/Pocky & Rocky series. I think its the art work!

What the changed the the the name for the US version? I’ve always knew the name as Goemon not kid ying

What's the point of having a built in slider that slows down your games? It's a weird feature to have.

Sick

What a is a ganbare it's food Is it good? How it is? Fooh

I know in the past you've covered Goemon's NES games before. It's a shame they stopped making games considering he has such a fan base in Japan. Western regions should get the existing games translated as well.

Your a legend! Just did a video on Goemon myself, literally a month ago! Great minds think alike. Been playing all the old games in the series, its great seeing all the fan translations that are appearing. Needs so much more coverage than it gets. Awesome job mate.

Holly heck Jimmy, that was awesome! This video was beautifully done! The pacing, editing, and history lesson were top notch.I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed it.

When you see a new Goemon video from Jimmy Hapa, you click that 'like' button before you even hit play :) I never looked into this series' history that much, to be honest - every time I do, I usually get sidetracked when I discover _Cowboy Kid_ and get frustrated when I can find no proof that it's actually a super localized/westernized version of Goemon for the Famicom :P I really love that first iteration of Ebisumaru too! Gives me real _Krillin-from-original Dragon Ball_ vibes :D I gotta get more Goemon games, man. It's been too long since I even played _Great Adventure_ . Maybe I'll pick up that Arcade Archives release of the original one (you made it look pretty fun, like a _Psycho Soldier_ or _Ninja Jajamarukun_ ), or sign into my Japanese PSN account on my PS3 and get one of the PSX ones on there. Frankly though, I'm still holding out for some SNES reproductions of the sidescrollers from that era. I'm straight up baffled that there's no fan translation for any of the SFC Goemon games yet though. I mean, what the _what_ , fan translators?

Two "thieves" in one game series??? I need more info on these two and you made me want to do the research... Also made me want to go back and play the N64 game again. good stuff, jimbo. I really like the way you used the SFC logo and placed a different game into each color. Very smart editing and always inspiring :D

Loving the historical origins bits! Awesome episode as usual :)

First off... great episode as always. I really only knew that the first game came out on Arcade, but the lore behind the character being the Japanese Robin Hood was superrrrrr interesting! Tight editing in this one...every transition was seamless, and I loved what you did with the SFC logo and the transparent colors representing each game. Bravo, well done sir. Also, the MSX2 had a cartridge slot?! I had no idea! I've been wanting to track down Akumajou Dracula for MSX2 just to have it (since I collect everything non-Lords of Shadow Castlevania related) but it's always been kinda pricey. You can tell that with the Famicom and MSX2 games is where they ended up going with the series, so it was neat to see the roots of it. I'm interested in those GBA games you showed in the future. And what was that clip towards the end when you're talking about the future of the series? What game was that from?

Once again, Another great episode. ^_^ I was wondering for a while... I thought Ebisumaru's first appearance was Ganbare Goemon 2 (FC)... But, it turns out he was in Karakuri Douchuu... only as Mr. Kozou. (close enough, right?) owo

10:09 WOW! The manual book, I have never seen this before!

Goemon looks like he slept on a bad hotel pillow in this one.

Great video! I'm listening to the Complete Box OST right now so I wanted to check some of the earlier games.

I was lucky to get Goemon’s Great Adventure in third grade. It quickly became my favorite and sparked an interest in japanese culture early on. I got the first Famicom title too at a time when I had infinite patience for Famicom classics. Most westerners discredit that one, I think it’s a genius melding of Mario and Zelda.. Also you said you couldn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said about the first fc title, but pretty much no one on the english speaking web talks about it positively, so if you were to repeat what you’ve heard, it’d be new to pretty much everyone! Also nice work with that shot you made with the vintage tv, b&w photo and asahi can.

I imported the FC version of Karakuri Douchuu last year but have yet to get around to actually playing it. This video is definitely helping to push me towards giving it a good go. Great stuff, Jimmy, keep 'em coming!

Always wanted try more Goemon games the PS2 one and 3DS ones were ones really wanted to try but also nice to see the roots I'll have see if I can find copy of the gba game Shame Mr. Goemon never got hard copy tho

Nice to see the MSX Goemon getting some love, but I'm surprised you didn't mention one of the biggest and most glaring flaws of it: the weird "diagonal" jumps. You even briefly showed one of the screens where a "diagonal" jump is required! I'm sort of wondering if you knew what was happening there, or if you may have found some other way to get past those screens? Because the first one you come across is in the second prefecture -- I think stage 2-2 or 2-3 -- and you absolutely HAVE to master the diagonal jump to get through the stage, as far as I can tell. Basically, even if you have three sets of straw sandals, the maximum number of blocks you can jump over is three -- yet there are some underground passages that require you to jump four or five blocks. You can achieve this, however, by positioning yourself in such a spot that if you WERE able to jump diagonally like in the Famicom version, you could jump diagonally over 2-3 stones and land on solid ground. If you then press the appropriate key/button combination to make such a diagonal jump, despite the fact that Goemon/Nezumikozou cannot move diagonally, he will successfully jump anyway... horizontally, onto solid stone. Allowing you to then jump again and clear the gap. I assumed this was a glitch (and possibly a holdover from an earlier build in which diagonal movement WAS possible?), except that -- again -- as far as I was able to tell, you actually HAVE to do this in order to complete the game. So if you were able to complete the game without exploiting this oddity, I'd love to know what method you used to complete the very first waterfront stage in the second prefecture -- there's an underground passage connecting two islands which requires the usage of this "diagonal" jump, and as far as I can tell, you simply cannot get over to the far island without doing it.

Mystical Ninja on the N64 was the first Game in the Series I played and since then, I love the Ganbare Goemon Games. I knew there are many Games but I did not know that the very first Game was an Arcade one. Very nice Episode!

Cool! Thank you so much! That was more than i could ask for. I really love the Adventures of Goemon

A new episode! What a great sunday surprise. So awesome! :) Man, I always wanted to get into the Goemon series. Especially in the japanese only super famicon games. Indeed no one translated these games so far. The most recent installment is probably the NDS game which looks great. Played the opening and got stuck. Argh ;)

To Goemon fans, let's push for Goemon to be in Smash. If any gaming character deservs it, it's definitely Goemon. Also, great as always Jimmy, thanks.

I want to hit the pipe with goemon. Not get hit by goemon with the pipe.

Hey, I didn't know that MSX computers had hardware speed control! I thought that was an emulator thing only.

Not every MSX has such a speed controller. For the rest I think this is not their best MSX2 game. Later MSX2 games of them where better (not slow)

This type of video is my shit. I've only lightly touched Goemon in the past, but it's still an incredibly interesting series. Good vidya, my boy.

Great job as always use to. A pleasure to watch a video about Goemon with too love inside! Regards! Dani.

Really nice video! hope you will make another video about goemon series, I love this franchise

Thanks Jimbo kun

Love anything to do with Ganbare Goemon.....nice one.

I will admit that when I think of Goemon and SNES, Legend if pretty low on my list. it's such a difficult and unforgiving game for a lot of irritating reasons. Now Ganbare Goemon 2 on the other hand I think is one of the best games on the console and the series. (Ryukyu makes me really mad)

Wow really well made video! Just bought the Famicom version, so stumbled upon your channel - you got a new sub! 😊✌🏼

Wow really well made video! Just bought the Famicom version, so stumbled upon your channel - you got a new sub! 😊✌🏼

Cool. The graphics look a level higher to 8-bit consoles and PCs. God bless, Proverbs 31

Legend of the Mystical Ninja was my 1st SNES game

Slightly ot but is anyone else seeing resemblances between Toru Yano in New Japan Puro Wrestling and Goemon/Ebisumaru?

Goemon looked very different in the first game of the series.

Yay, a new Goemon video! I actually had no idea that the MSX version was so different from the Famicom one. I knew about Nezumi Kozou and that the game is much slower, but that's it. I do have the cart for the game, but I don't have anything to play it with, so... :D I did really like the Famicom version, though, but nothing can make me play through it 8 times in one sitting. :D The soundtrack is absolutely lovely as well. I've had a few chances to try Mr. Goemon out, but I think the farthest I got was stage 3. They should really release it for the Switch, as I sadly don't have either an X360 or a PS4. Not yet anyway. Great video as always, looking forward to the next one!

Great video! And I'm not much into figures, but I do want that Maria Renard statuette! I'll have to find that!

I loved this game too, I had a mega drive but I secretly loved my mates copy of mystical ninja and Pocki and Rocky yet he used Street fighter 2 turbo as the title he used to say I picked the wrong console during the 90's Sega Nintendo wars, I wasn't impressed by fighting games.

Great work! These retrospectives are comfort food!

Goemon Represent!

Where can I get that magazine guide at? That artwork is nice.

Glad to see another upload! I wish I were more popular to give you a meaningful shoutout. My friend loves the n64 game so I’ll definitely share this one to them. Do you have any interesting danmaku games you’d like to talk about in the future?

All your b roll makes me think of this DVD that my local favorite Japanese restaurant plays on repeat. Except it's all footage of traditional Japanese inns and shiba inus. I should convince them to play all your videos on repeat instead.

I sense that you're a Symphony of the Night fan. Dunno why I suddenly thought about that....

This is awesome. RU-vid is dumb your production quality is phenomenal and you deserve more subs. Thanks for the videos

I came at a good time. :)

Goemon's origin name is Jumpman and Mr video.

This video is so awesome. I have been waiting for someone to cover Ganbare Goemon properly. Good work dude! :)

Great video Jimmy! Your love of Goemon is equalled only by Wrestling's love of CDI!

これすき ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_KQi5GX1zbE.html

I ate so much natto while watching this.

ファミコンなら持っている

I can't remember you talking about the Gameboy version of legend of the mystical ninja. Would you suggest this title to a dirty round eye?

Fantastic video

What was that game at the end of the video? Haven't seen it before!

Ah Goemon. One of my fave games. LOVE the music. Always spent time at that one carnival stage,