Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Release: 12/22/95 Genre: Action
I love the Goemon series. This is despite the fact that Konami has made it very hard for non-Japanese fans to appreciate the series. The four Super Famicom titles that never left Japan have been some of the system’s best kept secrets and now thanks to the fan translation community we can see what the fuss was about. Ganbare Goemon 4 – Kirakira Douchuu: Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Wake was the last one released for the Super Famicom and a great game. Konami took everything that makes the series great and dialed it to 11 to create one of the wackiest and varied platformers I have come across.
The out there story of Ganbare Goemon 4 sees our heroes enjoying a nice day when Goemon Impact suddenly moves on its own. It turns out he is not a robot but an alien pretending to be a mecha. Impact learns that his home world is under attack from Harakiri Seppukumaru. This sports obsessed freak has mastered every sport in the galaxy and now wants to master seppuku. Unfortunately he has a bomb in his chest and if he is successful it will explode and destroy the Planet Impact. The gang flies into space to hopefully prevent a galactic disaster.
For the most part Ganbare Goemon 4 returns to the map based system of the second game. Each character has their own individual planet to conquer with challenges suited to their abilities. The game still manages to bring in some ideas from Ganbare Goemon 3 as there are secondary abilities and items to learn from the townsfolk of each planet. Most of these are optional and will only become available once the entire team is able to travel to all planets freely late in the game. It gives plenty of reason to revisit past stages and replay value. The adventure elements slow it down a bit and can be tedious. This is probably the area that blocked progress for importers as there are specific directions that need to be followed and questions answered. Thankfully that is not an issue now.
The best way to explain Ganbare Goemon 4 is pure insanity. The series has always had a weird sense of humor but this installment really goes for it. One minute you are surfing on an ocean moon then you are dodging mechanical geisha in a lush forest. Almost all of the bosses have an obsession with sports and it manifests in different ways. Sasuke has to deal with a boxing boss gauntlet while Yae deals with giant golf balls. The game even pokes fun at other franchises. There are numerous sequences where you are targeted by a first person gun that looks straight out of Doom. Robots that fling sonic booms, hadokens, and power geysers are also present. My favorite sequence sees you falling to Earth on a car as enemies attack from all sides. The levels may be brief but they are so, so memorable.
Rather than straightforward boss battles Goemon 4 turns each encounter in to fun and challenging mini-games. These range from the simple to the complex. One such battle is a high stakes game of columns. In a nod to their arcade roots you face Samurainer in a Track and Field style 100 meter dash. And just like that game it will destroy your fingers. The game’s finale takes the wackiness to its nadir in a planet tossing contest and no, I am not joking. My favorite is the blade catching contest although it does highlight one of the game’s flaws. The difficulty is extremely high with little to no margin for error.
The challenge is higher than the previous games and not always in a good way. The game is full of blind leaps of faith and suspect enemy placement. I feel many of the deaths are unavoidable the first few times as the game is not always intuitive with its mechanics. Many of its mini-games and such also feature instant death mechanics. Goemon’s chain swinging is not as polished as it should be and the game calls on it a lot. Once the party comes together both he and Ebisumaru become dead weight as they are limited compared to their counterparts. While it sounds damning it is manageable. It just is not as polished as the stellar second game and suffers slightly for it.
The challenge may frustrate you but the production values will keep you coming back. Ganbare Goemon 4 is one of the system’s best looking titles both artistically and technically. The main character sprites carry over from the third game but the rest are brand new and look amazing. The various moons look brilliant with two to three layers of parallax scrolling regularly. You can pick out minute details everywhere and the attention to detail is insane. There is some slowdown but it is rare. Along with the great soundtrack and you can easily tell this is a late generation title.
In Closing
Ganbare Goemon 4 – Kirakira Douchuu: Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Wake is a fantastic game but that is par for the course with this series. Endlessly creative, funny, and fun Ganbare Goemon 4 is another example of why Konami are one of the best developers in the industry. This is one of my top ten favorite action games for the system and maybe of that generation. It rarely gets better than this.
