There’s not really much of a story to speak of. You play as the historic thief of Japanese folklore, Ishikawa Goemon (he’s a Robin Hood of sorts) as you traverse feudal Japan battling foes, collecting passes, eating food, and jumping. Yes, jumping. You’ll be doing a lot of random hopping around in this game, but I’ll get to that aspect later. Ganbare Goemon is a beat ’em up of sorts, but it’s a free roaming one with stores, randomly spawning enemies, hidden items and secret passages. Your goal is to obtain three passes at which point the door forward to the next stage opens up. Goemon is limited by his health bar and timer both located at the top of the screen, and when either runs out he loses. While the game is a bit weird it’s a far cry from the sequels that are completely over the top.
Ganbare Goemon: Karakuri Douchuu is a little unfocused in my opinion. You aren’t pushed in any one direction, and spend most of the duration of the game wandering around almost aimlessly. Enemies spawn into each stage from off-screen endlessly, and they don’t have set patterns so it can be difficult to predict where they’re going to go. As Goemon you can only jump and strike with your weapon so gameplay is a little basic, but it works and the game is consistently keeps you on your toes so I can’t complain too much. The biggest issue with Ganbare Goemon is progression. The passes are hidden in some very boneheaded places. Each stage has two of these passes in secret passages which are revealed by jumping. This means you’re going to be hopping all over the place which is a little annoying to be honest. The third can be either purchased from the store or found within a neat little three dimensional maze navigated ala the original Phantasy Star. On one hand it’s nice that you’re given multiple options for getting the last pass, but at the same time it’s so random.
What saves the game is all of the things you can do in it. Wandering the levels is fine but it’s bogged down by the incessant need to continually hop through each environment. What I’m talking about are the stores and various businesses scattered throughout each town area. The basic shop sells food which recovers Goemon’s health. Others offer armor, incense, sandals and more. All of these offer you bonuses such as giving you protection or allowing you to jump farther and run faster. There’s even a home where you can spend money gambling, but I never have much success here. In addition to the aforementioned power-ups you’ll also find cat statues which allow you to use projectile attacks in place of Goemon’s trademark pipe weapon, purses with money, scrolls that increase your life, and more. One of the high points of this game is all of the items you can find, and all of the stores and shops to buy things in because it makes the world feel more alive and interesting. Not to mention the fact that it adds a little much needed variety to the package.
The Goemon we all know has blue hair and lives in a wacky world with little robot ninjas, men who wear women’s clothing, and a giant roller blading mecha robot. The franchise is well known to be one of the wackiest series to come out of Japan, and that’s kind of its claim to fame. The original Ganbare Goemon doesn’t have that same benefit. As I already mentioned, this is before Konami went all out with the goofy aesthetic, and while it looks cartoony and over-the-top it’s nowhere near what you would expect from an installment in this franchise. The enemies are kind of comical with such foes as running man in kimono, ninja with throwing stars, killer crabs, and much more. There’s even a damsel in distress character that runs around the stages, and you’re penalized if you harm her. Unfortunately it’s tough to tell that the sprite is supposed to represent this because the design could be any random enemy to be honest. They definitely weren’t designed by someone who wanted to make a serious video game, but are still a far cry from what we would later see in the franchise. It’s interesting to note that in this first release Goemon doesn’t even have his trademark blue hair; it’s black/brown instead.
To be blunt, this is not a very good looking Famicom game. The environments lack detail and feature just singular colors, and it can be difficult to figure out what the items are. They just look like messes of pixels to me. Also, why does it look like the sprite for the character Goemon is constantly leaning forward? The highlight here is the elaborate backdrops for each stage. These are drawn with heavy detail and help differentiate the stages from one another. These almost make up for the rest of the lackluster presentation. The music fares a little better, but for the most part it’s the same track repeating over and over again. There’s no discernable loop and the audio has a distinct Asian flare to it that really manages to capture the atmosphere perfectly. The soundtrack is largely forgettable, but it’s decent overall.
Ganbare Goemon Karakuri Douchuu is pretty decent by Famicom standards, but I’m surprised it spawned such a storied franchise to be honest. The game has a fun world to explore, and with all the secrets it makes doing so worthwhile. I really have enjoyed the time I spent with this title, but it has some pretty serious issues. Whoever thought the method by which you uncover the hidden passageways (jumping completely at random) clearly didn’t think things through. Wasting your time wandering aimlessly until you find a stairwell just isn’t as fun as the rest of the game, and I found that jumping around led me to get hit by the enemies far too often. Also, each area of every town looks too similar and with multiple tiers it can make navigation confusing. The basic gameplay is fun, but it wasn’t until a few more sequels that Konami finally perfected the formula. This one still has a lot of historic value as the start of what once was a huge franchise and beloved hero in the video game industry. It’s such a shame that Konami has since retired Goemon, but at least we still have all of the old installments that were never released in English to play for the first time.
