A playthrough of Konami's 1992 action-adventure game for the Super Nintendo, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja.
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja was Konami's third US release for the 16-bit SNES, and though it didn't sell nearly as well as Gradius III and Super Castlevania IV, it was arguably just as good a game. It was also the first English-language release in the Ganbare Goemon series, a line of games revolving around Ishikawa Goemon, a Japanese Robin Hood-like figure from the late sixteenth century.
In this adventure, Goemon (Kid Ying in the English version) travels across Japan, helping out people in need as he searches for the kidnapped Princess Yuki. There are nine "warlock zones" to battle through, each split into two parts - in the town segments, Goemon visits the locals, gathering clues and supplies for his mission, and the "dangerous territory" sections are side-scrolling platformer stages that are each capped off with major boss battle. The game can be played alone or in 2P simultaneous co-op mode, with player two controlling the cross dressing goof-off Dr. Yang (Ebisumaru).
The game carries all the typical qualities of a top-notch Konami production. The characters and backdrops are beautifully illustrated; the soundtrack, loaded with traditional Japanese instruments, is catchy and memorable; and the controls and pitch-perfect difficulty level make it a real joy to play, as does its strange sense of humor. And if you step into the video arcade (anachronisms be damned!), you even get to play a 16-bit remake of the first stage from Gradius!
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja was one of my favorite games for the Super Nintendo, and it's one that I still find my way back to often. No matter how many times I play through it, it's so damned fun that I never get tired of it. It's right up there in terms of quality with Konami's biggest hits, so if you loved stuff like Contra III and Turtles in Time but never gave this one a chance, you might want to reconsider. It's fantastic.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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9 сен 2024
