Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku

Most people aren't aware that there was a third goemon game for the N64 but there was. This game is a step away from the traditional style goemon games and is now a board game instead.

From what I can make out the story is pure Goemon craziness. The story goes something like this, Jii San receives a mysterious love letter one day from a woman called Pon requesting a meeting. So off he dashes off to the meeting spot secretly followed by Goemon Sasuke & Ebisumaru. The group overhear the conversation as the beautiful Pon declares her love for Jii San, But just then a gust of wind blows past and Lifts up Pon's skirt.

At that moment Goemon, Sasuke & Ebisumaru burst out in hysterics because It turns out Pon is really a MAN much to Jii San's horror. Meanwhile Pon, furious at been humiliated she/he attacks the group with a monster summoned from a deck of cards. So now Goemon & the gang have to do battle with her/him.

The game is played in stages, each stage has a unique board which is randomly dotted with monsters. Now the idea of the game is simple. You basically have to reduce your enemys energy down to zero when there is only 1 player left they are the winner. Each player plays the game with a deck of cards which consist of 3 different types (weapon, effect & monster). As the player moves around the board they get to place the monster cards down on the board. When another player lands on your monster they have to battle it using a monster card in their deck of cards.

When you battle, your monster card has 3 stats (health, attack & speed) the idea is you have to do more damage to the other players monster card than they can do to you. This is where the effect & weapons cards come into play. Before you attack you can choose 1 weapon or effect card from your deck. Weapons cards usually increase the speed & attack stats while the effect cards usually provide other effects like half damage or health restore.

The idea is you have to increase your monsters attack stat so its higher than their health. For example if I have a monster card attack with an attack stat of 500 and the players monster card only has a health stat of 100 then the monster absorbs 100 of the damage then dies leaving the other 400 to go to the player. This is how you get the players energy down, the players energy bar starts out at 2000.

The graphics themselves are pretty good, the stages & characters look like they have been rendered which gives them a slightly fuzzy look but its not too bad. The stages are imaginatively designed and the cards themselves have very cool illustrations on them. Now I have to mention the music, I personally think its excellent. Its the traditional mixture of really nice goemon Japanese style tunes and the characters have speech as well.

The only down side to this game it's quite Japanese text intensive and there are a lot of options & menus but with a bit of patience most options can be worked out by yourself. Luckily there is a faq for this game on gamefaqs.com that explains the game & options in detail. If the Japanese text doesn't put you off then I can fully recommend this game as a nice alternative to the other N64 board games like the Mario party series.

Reviewed by importaku


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