Collection essentials #64: Ganbare Goemon 2 (NES)

There’s been a lot of Japanese games in a row now…this is the last one for a while, I promise!!

The core gameplay of Ganbare Goemon 2 is very much like the first one, so you can refer to yesterday’s post to find out what it’s like. The biggest addition to gameplay is that you can now have 2 players tackle the game as a team! I think this game works better solo, but having the option is cool. This game also adds boss fights, but they aren’t too remarkable so that’s not such a big addition. One change that seems a bit weird is that, when you beat the game, you can no longer start over on a higher difficulty like you could in the first game. But the game’s length is decent so it’s not like you’re likely to be left wanting more so quickly.

There are a couple ways that Goemon 2 edges towards what the series will become. Since this game now has multiplayer, they introduced a new character to team up with Goemon, and his name is Ebisumaru, and he’s characterized by a very distinct, silly expression that he almost always wears on his face. You’ll also notice right from the opening cutscene (something that the first game also didn’t have) that they got more cartoony with this game, both with the way the characters are depicted and with humorous dialogue with different characters you meet in the game. The humor is one of the best parts of the series going forward, so I love to see the developers starting to go in that direction. Once again, why didn’t we get this game in America?? Well, we did get the next main installment on Nintendo’s next system, at least.