1991-07-19
Legend of the Mystical Ninja is a two-player brawler from Konami based on the Japanese myth of Goemon, who's similar to Robin Hood. Like River City Ransom, you travel around towns, beating up thugs for money to buy upgrades and talking to NPCs to figure out what to do next. It also has action platformer sections as well as a handful of minigames.
Most of the enemies and bosses in this game are references to Japanese myths and pop culture that most Westerners wouldn't get. This is the first localized Ganbare Goemon game. It started out in the arcades and moved to the Famicom and MSX before this.
I'm surprised Goemon ever made it over to the states, because it's Japanese to the bone. It's an excellent successor to the (unrelated) River City Ransom games, although the RPG element basically boils down to buying items. The action platformer stages are definitely the hardest part of the game, and the bosses are fun and varied.
