The long awaited retro collection of a charming franchise.
I have been a Goemon fan since the N64 days and played a couple of the older titles via emulation. Of course the announcement of a collection, even if it was Japan exclusive really perked me up.
Unfortunately, my recent trip to Tokyo and the game's launch date did not agree, but Playasia certainly had my back for the import through every step of the way.
Ganbare Goemon Dai Shuugo! is a collection featuring 13 titles across NES, SNES, GB and GBC. While the majority of titles are foireigner-friendly action titles, about 3 of them are RPGs which require a better understanding of the Japanese language, or a companion walkthrough on Gamefaqs. Additionally, all the games feature a handy 10 save state system on each game which helps you save and pick up from any part of the games, a handy rewind feature to help through the tough portions, remappable controls for select games with turbo controls, a fast forward toggle to speed your games up and skip long dialog and an achievement board to accomplish different feats across all 13 games. (Bathing in the Ladies bath in GG2 SNES with Ebisumaru gave me one).
Other features include every instruction booklet and Soundtrack for all the 13 games, and inputting the Konami code in the collection's credits unlocks a 14th game, Konami's Crisis Force, a fan favorite vertical shooter.
Unfortunately, there is no Art gallery with game packaging, character art and design documents like in Konami's other TMNT collection, but at least the value in a Ganbare Goemon collection, a franchise that has been formant for years outside of the Pachislot titles is greatly appreciated.
Ganbare Goemon Dai Shuugo! is a must have for fans of the series and the language barrier is not that high. Time to bring Goemon back and encourage a second collection.