Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon

Imagine an action adventure where one moment you're running around feudal Japan with blue hair and a kimono, and the next you hop into a giant robot and, in a first-person view, deliver a punch to a mecha-boss so hard the whole continent hears it. Welcome to Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, one of the maddest games Konami ever released on the Nintendo 64.

Goemon, a folk thief with a good heart, has a long career behind him in the Japanese series Ganbare Goemon, but in the West he was practically unknown. This very game from 1998 was, for most players outside Japan, the first-ever encounter with this crazy brand, and that in itself is a small miracle. The localization preserved the wacky humor, pop-culture references and overall unpredictability that earned the series its cult status.

At the core of the game is a 3D action adventure: you explore towns and dungeons, solve puzzles, collect coins and upgrades and switch between four playable characters, each with their own abilities. But then come those famous battles with the giant robot Impact, which switch the game into an entirely different genre in mecha anime style, complete with an opening theme song and a cockpit view. This genre schizophrenia, where you never know whether a platformer, an RPG-like adventure or a clash of titans awaits you, is exactly what makes the game unforgettable.

Visually and musically it is a little explosion of colors, pop melodies and a Japanese aesthetic that didn't take itself seriously at all. Where other N64 titles pursued realism, Goemon offered a fireworks display of nonsense, aliens with a disco aesthetic and dialogue that still entertains fans of parody and sincere one-liners alike. For many players it was a gateway into a specific brand of Japanese humor that at the time almost no one in the West was betting on.

Thanks to all that originality and the courage to go against the grain, the game earned the status of a cult N64 gem that collectors still hunt for today. It isn't a perfect game — the controls and camera bear the mark of their time — but few titles have such personality.

Why play it: If you want to experience the maddest, most colorful face of the Nintendo 64 and taste a piece of Japanese gaming culture that barely showed up in the West, Goemon is an unforgettable ride.