Kataban Blog
Ganbare Goemon: The Series the West Only Got Six Of
Konami's Ganbare Goemon ran from 1986 to the late 2000s across roughly thirty games, and barely half a dozen of them ever left Japan. If you know the series in English at all, you know it as The Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the SNES, or as one of two Nintendo 64 games — and then the trail goes cold, because the three Super Famicom sequels that Japanese players consider the heart of the series were never translated.
- Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Dochu (がんばれゴエモン! からくり道中) · Famicom · 1986 · product code
RC815· Japan only - The Legend of the Mystical Ninja (がんばれゴエモン ゆき姫救出絵巻) · Super Famicom · 1991 · product code
SHVC-GG· released in North America in 1992, the only Super Famicom entry that was - Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shogun Magginesu (がんばれゴエモン2 奇天烈将軍マッギネス) · Super Famicom · 1993 · product code
SHVC-KL· Japan only - Ganbare Goemon 3 (がんばれゴエモン3 獅子重禄兵衛のからくり卍固め) · Super Famicom · 1994 · product code
SHVC-2U· Japan only - Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Dochu (がんばれゴエモン きらきら道中) · Super Famicom · 1995 · product code
SHVC-A4GJ-JPN· Japan only - Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (がんばれゴエモン ネオ桃山幕府のおどり) · Nintendo 64 · 1997 · product code
NUS-NG5J-JPN· released in North America in 1998 - Ganbare Goemon: Uchu Kaizoku Akogingu (がんばれゴエモン 宇宙海賊アコギング) · PlayStation · 1997 · product code
SLPM 86030· Japan only
Unlike the Game Boy Advance, none of this hardware is region-free. Famicom, Super Famicom, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation are all region-locked in one way or another — a Japanese Super Famicom cartridge will not run on an American SNES without a converter, the Famicom's 60-pin cartridge does not physically fit an NES, the N64's slot is keyed differently, and PS1 discs are locked to their region. Buying these means buying Japanese hardware too, or accepting a workaround.
What Is Ganbare Goemon and Why Do Overseas Fans Care?
Before Konami's action platformer, the name "Goemon" already meant something in Japan. Ishikawa Goemon was a legendary Robin Hood–style outlaw of the Momoyama period, said to have been boiled alive in an iron cauldron on the orders of warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1594 — an execution so infamous that 五右衛門風呂 ("goemon-buro", Goemon bath) became the Japanese word for a cast-iron bathtub. Ask a Japanese gamer today what "Goemon" brings to mind, and you'll usually get one of two answers: Konami's thief-hero, or Ishikawa Goemon XIII, the stoic swordsman from Lupin III. Fittingly, one of Lupin III's most beloved episodes — "Wings of Death: Albatross" (1980) — was written and directed by a young animator credited under the pen name Teruki Tsutomu. That animator was Hayao Miyazaki, years before Studio Ghibli existed, and the episode's flying-boat dogfight still gets cited by fans as proof he was already operating on a different level — the kind of episode that felt strange in the best way even to kids who had no idea who was behind it.
That double meaning is part of why the games are hard to sell abroad and easy to love at home. A Japanese player opening Ganbare Goemon already knows the register: a cheerful, anachronistic Edo Japan full of puns, festival stalls, kabuki jokes and sudden giant robots. Konami's localizers had to carry all of that into English with none of the shared reference points, which is a large part of why so few of these games made the trip.
Which Goemon Games Did the West Actually Get?
Six, out of roughly thirty. On the Super Famicom, only the 1991 original crossed over, arriving in North America in June 1992 as The Legend of the Mystical Ninja and in Europe in 1994. Every Super Famicom game after it stayed in Japanese.
The Nintendo 64 is where Western players got a second look. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon (ネオ桃山幕府のおどり) came out in Japan in 1997 and North America in 1998, and Goemon's Great Adventure (でろでろ道中 オバケてんこ盛り) followed in 1999. Europe also got two Game Boy releases of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, one standalone and one inside Konami GB Collection Vol. 3. After that, nothing.
So the Western picture of Goemon has a hole in the middle of it: the original, then a jump forward six years to the N64, with the three Super Famicom games that the series is actually built on missing entirely.
Why Are the Super Famicom Sequels the Ones Importers Want?
Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shogun Magginesu (1993) is the one most often named as the best in the series. It is bigger and faster than the 1991 game, it adds Sasuke to the playable cast, and it is where the giant-robot sections — Goemon Impact, piloted in first person — become a real part of the game rather than a gag.
Ganbare Goemon 3 (1994) pushes further into role-playing structure, and Kirakira Dochu (1995) is the odd one out: a late Super Famicom release, produced after the Nintendo 64 was already announced, and consequently one of the harder Goemon cartridges to find in good condition.
None of the three has an official English release, and that is exactly why they are the ones people import. The 1991 game and both N64 games you can simply play in English; these you cannot.
Where Can You Buy the Goemon Games?
Two things to know before you search, both of which we checked against live shop results rather than assuming.
The product code does not always work. Most of these cartridges can be found by typing the code straight into a Japanese shop — SHVC-KL returns the correct game and nothing else. But SHVC-GG, the code for Yuki Hime Kyushutsu Emaki, returns zero results on Suruga-ya, with or without a -JPN suffix. For that one the link below searches its barcode instead, which does return the cartridge. Similarly, the PlayStation code SLPM 86030 only reaches the later budget re-release marked [PlayStation the Best for Family], so that link searches the Japanese title, which returns both the original and the reprint.
Read the condition notes. 箱説なし means no box and no manual — the cartridge alone, usually the cheapest option. But 外箱のみ means the box only, with no cartridge in it, and 説明書のみ means the manual only. Both of those turn up in the results these links return, and neither is a game. 状態：箱・説明書・カセット状態難 is the middle case: everything is there, everything is scuffed.
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja · がんばれゴエモン ゆき姫救出絵巻 · Super Famicom · 1991 · Konami · product code SHVC-GG (link searches barcode — the code returns nothing)
Where to buy:
Suruga-ya.jp (by barcode) ·
Buyee ·
eBay
Search for this on Kataban →
Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shogun Magginesu · がんばれゴエモン2 奇天烈将軍マッギネス · Super Famicom · 1993 · Konami · product code SHVC-KL
Where to buy:
Suruga-ya.jp (by product code) ·
Buyee ·
eBay
Search for this on Kataban →
Ganbare Goemon 3 · がんばれゴエモン3 獅子重禄兵衛のからくり卍固め · Super Famicom · 1994 · Konami · product code SHVC-2U
Where to buy:
Suruga-ya.jp (by product code) ·
Buyee ·
eBay
Search for this on Kataban →
Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Dochu · がんばれゴエモン きらきら道中 · Super Famicom · 1995 · Konami · product code SHVC-A4GJ-JPN
Where to buy:
Suruga-ya.jp (by product code) ·
Buyee ·
eBay
Search for this on Kataban →
Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Dochu · がんばれゴエモン! からくり道中 · Famicom · 1986 · Konami · product code RC815
Where to buy:
Suruga-ya.jp (by product code) ·
Buyee ·
eBay
Search for this on Kataban →
Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon · がんばれゴエモン ネオ桃山幕府のおどり · Nintendo 64 · 1997 · Konami · product code NUS-NG5J-JPN
Where to buy:
Suruga-ya.jp (by product code) ·
Buyee ·
eBay
Search for this on Kataban →
Ganbare Goemon: Uchu Kaizoku Akogingu · がんばれゴエモン 宇宙海賊アコギング · PlayStation · 1997 · Konami · product code SLPM 86030 (link searches the Japanese title — the code reaches only the budget reprint)
Where to buy:
Suruga-ya.jp (by Japanese title) ·
Buyee ·
eBay
Search for this on Kataban →