Tuesday, December 04, 2012

FYI: The box art created for Ganbare Goemon Gaiden (and its follow-up) is freaking amazing

Don't believe me? Check out the following scan, which I recently grabbed from the similarly awesome markinjapan tumblog.

The first game is called Ganbare Goemon Gaiden: Kieta Ougon Kiseru, with the subtitle translating to something like "The Disappearance of the Golden Pipe," according to hardcoregaming101.net, while the second game's title is Ganbare Goemon Gaiden 2: Tenka no Zaihou (translated subtitle: "Treasures of the World"). Both are RPGs and were released for the Famicom in 1990 and 1992, respectively.



Although I've shied away from buying and playing untranslated Japanese-language RPGs since I attempted to work my way through the epic PC Engine-based adventure known as Tengai Makyō II: Manjimaru a few years ago, I may have to buck up and give these a go at some point, as the write-ups at hardcoregaming101.net make both of them sound (and look) pretty interesting.

See also: Other posts about box art

18 comments:

Lizzi said...

Woah! I love them! Such great box-arts! Too sad that not all game-boxes look as fantastic as those. I've played a Mystrical Ninja Starring Goemon title which was released for SNES (I believe) on emulator and I loved it!

Justin Difazzio said...

If only my wishes could be granted by some sort of NOA genie. We'd get these for download on the 3DS! Bah! Never gonna happen, but...I'm sad at the umplumbed depths of the Goemon world here in America.

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, yes, the Goemon game that was released for the SNES in North America was great, Lizzi. Was it released in Europe, too?


I've read that the other SNES/Super Famicom Goemon games are great, too, although I've never played them. Haven't played any of the Famicom games yet either...

Simon Lethbridge said...

Haha, oh yeah, I remember that guy :) Good to see he's still about, I'll have to get around to playing his games properly :P Great covers too, as you say!

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, that would be nice, wouldn't it, Justin? Of course, you know this one wouldn't be released in the States no matter what given that it's a Japanese RPG. Really, I'd just love to play fan-translated versions of these games via emulation, but I doubt they'll ever attract much interest from that crowd.

thegaygamer.com said...

You and me both, Simon! I say that in response to your comment about playing his games properly. Like I just told Lizzi, I've only played the SNES game that was released in the US, so there are a lot of Goemon games still to play :) Have you played any Goemon games yet, by the way?

michaelstearns said...

I like these, that cut-paper art style is really cool. I've got Nintendo Power in mind lately (with their last issue coming and all) so I'm immediately reminded of the occasional paper-art covers they did, Startropics in particular but I think there were others? Great stuff anyway.

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, yeah, I remember NP's Startropics cover, Michael. Great stuff. Also love the mag's covers featuring clay models -- like the first one. Sigh.

Steve Pixel said...

Yeah I love this, and I keep meaning to give the games a try, I actually reblogged this post from him (among MANY others) on my obscurevideogames tumblr a few months ago. It's a shame he stopped doing tumblr. I wanted to send him a note, but he has the "asks" turned off.

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, glad to hear that you're interested in these, too, Steve. I didn't realize he'd stopped, er, tumbling, though--that's too bad :(

Steve Pixel said...

Well actually I think I may have found some interest in that crowd for you, Bryan. I know most of these projects never work out, but somebody actually is working on a translation of Ganbare Goemon 4 as of November this year! They got far enough to post 2 videos of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr9C7FuEHh0 and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mquC9Exrcg

thegaygamer.com said...

Thanks, Steve! That said, what I'm really hoping for is a fan translation of the two Goemon RPGs mentioned in this post. Still, I'll obviously give this one a try if it's ever completed :)

Steve Pixel said...

Well now you have me curious! hg101 says "The fourth Super Famicom Goemon game...is the best of all of the Mystical Ninja games". So why are you more interested in the first 2?

thegaygamer.com said...

Well, technically, Steve, I'm interested in the third and fourth of the Famicom-based Goemon games. The one you linked to is actually the fourth Super Famicom-based Goeman game. Does that make sense?


Also, I'm interested in the third and fourth Famicom ones because they're full-on RPGs. The first two Famicom Goemon games, and all of the Super Famicom ones, are different beasts altogether. I guess you could say they're like River City Ransom but with more depth?


Anyway, I'm a sucker for RPGs and I really like how these Goemon RPGs look, so that's why I'm most interested in them.

Steve Pixel said...

Oh yes I was aware that Ganbare Goemon 4 was Super Famicom and not the Famicom, but I didn't realize the Famicom Gaidens were turn-based. Personally I LOVE the old-school 2D lite action RPGs (like Monster World 4), as well as the wacky world of Goemon so needless to say I'm a bit giddy about a fan translation for this. Now if only somebody would get started on that PS2 game that Working Designs abandoned...

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, yeah, sorry about that--the first two Famicom Goemons were 'traditional' Goemon games, while the second two were turn-based RPGs. Should have described them that way the first time.


I like the traditional Goemons, too, by the way, but I can't help but be especially intrigued by these turn-based ones at the moment.


BTW, Working Designs started work on localizing one of the Goemon games? Am I reading that correctly??

Steve Pixel said...

Oh you never heard about that? Victor Ireland loves to talk about how Goemon was the game that killed Working Designs. Basically what happened was they spent way too much money and time on it before going to Sony for approval. Sony was all like "2D? Fuck no!" And that was it -- no more Working Designs. The only way they got Growlanser II & III out was there was a loophole for compilations - so that's why they were released together. But WD didn't plan for that either, so they ended up losing money on Growlanser. Such a sad story.!

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, that *is* sad. I really know next to nothing about the PSX Goemons. Really should fix that sooner rather than later.