The Legend of the Mystical Ninja — released in Japan as Ganbare Goemon: Yuki-hime Kyūshutsu EmakiTranslation — is the third game in Konami's Ganbare Goemon series. It was released for the Super Famicom on July 19, 1991, and was the first game in the series to be released overseas, with the English dub released in North America on February 1992 and a PAL release in 1994. The game acts as a cross between a top-down adventure while exploring towns, with one specific area from that leading to a more traditional platforming area.
The overall plot involves Goemon and Ebisumaru (referred to in-game as Kid Ying and Dr. Yang) starting an adventure checking out a local disturbance involving a ghost inhabiting a nearby temple. While figuring out what happened there, they learn of a bigger plot involving Princess Yuki being kidnapped by a mysterious army, and the group follows every lead they can to determine who's responsible and rescue her.
This game contains examples of...
- 1-Up: These can be purchased from the fourth level onwards, and can be found as one of the prizes in a maze mini-game.
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: The further into the game you get, the more expensive the stores are. Even when purchasing the same things.
- Anachronism Stew: While clearly set during feudal Japan, it's mixed with more modern elements. The third zone, Amusement Park, is probably the best example, with stalls mimicking a modern game show, a horse racing track, an arcade, and an American fast food restaurant.
- Bag of Spilling: A single-game variation. None of the life extensions or special jutsu you learn carry over to the next zone.
- Betting Mini-Game: Most towns have at least one of these. There's a dice game, a lottery, and a horse racing track, alongside some that are more skill-based, including a Memory Match Mini-Game, a whack-a-mole game, and a painting game resembling the Light Cycles game from TRON.
- Boss Rush: A downplayed example since it only contains 2 bosses of a previous 7. The final segment of the game consists of a repeat of the bosses from Zones 2 and 4 before getting into the true final boss.
- Bowdlerise: The geisha striptease shows were too risque for Nintendo of America's content policy at the time, and were thus removed from the English version.
- Buy or Get Lost: If you go to a store or restaurant, you'll be asked if you want to buy anything. If you say "no" to this, the shopkeeper/restauranteur's facial expression becomes angry and he'll ask you to leave.
- Cap: Most items allow you to have only three copies of at a time. Straw sandals are an exception - only the first three are actually effective in increasing your speed, but you can carry up to 10 of them.
- Cash Gate: Two levels requires the player to buy a pass and a phrasebook at different points throughout the game, both of which are very expensive ($980 in a game where coins are typically dropped $10 at a time). If you don't have the money on hand already (which can easily happen if you Game Over in a new town before you reach it, and don't feel like starting the previous level over again), you either better be good at minigames or be ready to grind for money for a while.
- Cast from Money: Goemon can switch to throwing money as a weapon. They deal as much damage as his regular weapon and have a longer range, but deduct $4 from his cash on hand. Ebisumaru uses shurikens as his alternate weapon, but they work the same way.
- Cat Ninja: Koban and Kurobei are part of a clan of ninja cats, though sadly we never see either of them in action.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: After you destroy all the rings forming his first body, the head of Daruma Daruma comes back with a new body...that dies in a few hits and has only one easily avoidable attack.
- Company Cross-References: One of the games playable at the arcade is an recreation of the first level of Gradius.
- Cultural Translation: The rice balls that act as an Emergency Energy Tank became pizzas outside of Japan (in spite of this being in a world where pizza would be out of place). Despite this, hamburgers and the many Japanese food items in restaurants remain the same in each region.
- Damsel in Distress: Rescuing Princess Yuki becomes the group's primary goal, but Yae ends up being a secondary case of this - turns out the Otafu army had a different captive than they were expecting.
- Didn't Need Those Anyway!: The ninth boss, Daruma Daruma, is a stack of rings with a head in his first form. Destroy his head, and the ring below it turns into another head. Rinse and repeat until his head flies away.
- Distressed Dude: Koban, the cat ninja, takes this role before any of the above is known.
- Disc-One Final Dungeon: Ryukyu Castle in Legend of the Mystical Ninja is long and hard as hell, and ends with Goemon and Ebisumaru finally rescuing Princess Yuki... only to find out that you fell into a trap set by the villains and get thrown in jail, and have to break out to traverse the real final dungeon and rescue her a second time.
- Dub Name Change: Goemon becomes Kid Ying, and Ebisumaru becomes Dr. Yang.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: This game is markedly different from the rest of the Super Famicom titles. Its chief differences are a Random Events Plot, Sasuke and Yae in minor NPC roles (in fact, the former is only encountered as a boss), no Quirky Miniboss Squad for the villains, and no Goemon Impact sequences.
- Emergency Energy Tank: Any food items you can keep in your inventory act as this, restoring health at the moment you would otherwise die.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: The town segments don't contain any friendly characters outside of their homes.
- Goroawase Number: Konami typically uses 573 as its number, which shows up as a joke answer in the game show.
- Human Cannonball: After defeating the Wise Man's robots, he helps send you to the next area by way of cannon travel.
- Improbable Weapon User: Goemon uses a smoking pipe as a weapon, which can be upgraded to a Killer Yo-Yo when collecting enough lucky cat statues. Ebisumaru uses a flute, which can be upgraded to a party whistle. Functionally identical, yet somehow more ridiculously improbable.
- Instantly Defeathered Bird: When attacked, the purple bird enemies lose all their feathers before exploding.
- Konami Code: One NPC in Legend of the Mystical Ninja explicitly tells you that nothing will happen if you input it. He's correct.
- Magic Mirror: Referenced in Zone 5 and finally seen in Zone 7. It's an all-knowing mirror and reveals where Princess Yuki actually is.
- Maneki Neko: Two of them act as power-ups. One, dropped after every eight enemies are killed, is white and upgrades your basic weapon until you next get hit. Another, a gold one, acts as a Heart Container, albeit one that only lasts until the level is completed.
- Noodle Incident: It's not at all explained why the old perverted man and kitsune joined forces to menace Japan. Continuing to harass the princess forces the mystical fox spirit to call off their deal, rendering the old man completely harmless.
- Ominous Floating Castle: A scene near the end of the game reveals the bad guys intend to turn Ryukyu Castle into this, and it's implied the last few boss fights are taking place in one of these.
- The Pawns Go First: Before you fight Sasuke, his ninjas attack you in pairs.
- Piggyback Cute: When playing in two-player mode, characters can piggyback onto each other, moving as one character, which makes any platforming or vertical segment a lot easier.
- Prison Level: Zone 9, the final level. Which, despite being a prison, still has a small number of stores running within it. The side-scrolling section requires a Prison Break to access.
- Tennis Boss: The mystical ghost at the end of Zone 1 is defeated by deflecting its attacks back at it, and the final boss's first phase requires knocking its arrows back to it.
- Threatening Shark: If you opt for the cheapest travel package to get to Shikoku Island, the end-of-level cutscene reveals Goemon is forced to paddle to the island while being chased by a shark.
- Unique Enemy: The red octopi and their Mini-Boss variant only appear in Zone 3.
- Unnaturally Looping Location: Zone 7's overworld loops continuously around a single area, as if to give the impression you're circling around a lake.
- Warm-Up Boss: The Ghost Woman, the first boss, only has one easily avoidable and deflectable attack.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Used constantly through the game. Zone 2 ends with rescuing Koban, only to learn he was abducted trying to figure out the location of a different captive, Yuki. Zone 4 is built on rescuing her, but it turns out they had an entirely different captive. Zone 8 does end with Yuki being rescued, only to learn she was turned back over to imposters, forcing one last mission out of the adventure.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Hakuryu takes no effort to beat if you stand directly under his head and throw coins upward.
