By Logan Hosoda
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja is a game for the Super Nintendo, that was originally released in Japan in 1991, and later released to the US in 1992. It was the first game in the series to get a western release. In it, you play as Goemon, and Ebisumaru (aka Kid Ying, and Dr. Yang in the American version), while you progress along a fairly typical “damsel in distress” storyline. The entire game is played either singleplayer, or co-op (which I refer to as “hard mode”), and is the most difficult game I have ever laid hands on. Trust me, I’ve played a lot, and Dark Souls doesn’t even hold a candle to this classic title.
Admittedly, my brother Zach and I have a serious love-hate relationship with this game. It plays so well, has some really fun and interesting mechanics to discover, such as minigames, and plenty of varied gameplay to keep you interested the whole time. It’s an open world, action game with some RPG elements sprinkled throughout, which all works together to create a really fun and unique experience. What really ruins the whole entire experience though, is when you reach a certain point in the game, it just instantly becomes infuriatingly, hair ripping, throw the TV out the window hard!
Before I talk about that though, let’s jump into the gameplay. Each level is called a Warlock Zone, and they’re all separated into two major areas that you play the game in. First, you play in a typical town, where every villager that you pass by is a serious threat, and every single one of them can be the death of you. You get to explore and have more freedom with the vertical and horizontal movement in these areas, and they’re not quite as dangerous. This is where you can find different shops, kill people for money, or play minigames to earn money and various goods. There are a lot of fun things to do, but the major downside is that almost every area holds basically the same shops and games, with the exception of potential secrets to be found. So once you’ve explored the first area, there’s no real reason to keep on exploring beyond the various martial arts that you can learn, unless you’re into that kind of thing.
While you’re in town, it’s always a good idea to stock up on cash, so that you can purchase armor, food, learn new martial arts, find Judo techniques, etc. In the game, you start out with your basic attack (each player has identical move sets), and a thrown weapon that costs money to use, and can acquire bombs via minigames, or purchasing them. When you kill enemies, they’ll drop items that upgrade your weapon, which will increase their range per upgrade, allowing you to attack from a safe distance. Just be careful, because every time you take damage, your weapon gets weaker. It’s always a good idea to get your weapon up to the second strongest level (pro tip: the highest level sucks, always stay one below it) before attempting the next areas!
Now, the basic town can be deceivingly difficult, but the true difficulty shines once you reach the second part of the zone (which each zone has I believe). Here, you approach a statue, which gives you the opportunity to venture into the dangerous area alone or with your friend (yes, it gives you the option to play it solo, and with VERY GOOD REASON!). The game then transforms into a side scrolling platformer, where you have to progress along, until you reach the boss at the end, and ultimately complete the Warlock Zone. This is where the game becomes super difficult, and where you’ll be wishing you spent enough time in town to get strong enough to handle the obstacles ahead. If you play co-op, there’s a cool mechanic that you can perform, where one of you crouches down, and the other one hops on his back. This will allow you to give a piggy back ride to the other player, which can be super helpful when you need to navigate intense platforming areas. Beware though, whoever is riding on top now has a higher hit box, so whoever is at the wheel needs to make sure that they’re not jumping the other player, and hitting dangerous things above them, otherwise the second player will die.
Once you’ve progressed far enough into the game, you’ll reach a zone that will seriously have you begging for mercy. So much platforming, so many enemies, so many boss fights, and so little health. The funny part is that playing the game co-op actually increases the difficulty 10 fold, because both players have to be completely in sync in order to complete the levels. Zach and I spent so much time playing this game that we were actually on the verge of dropping it for good... it was that bad! If one player jumps up onto high up platforms a little too fast, the other can fall off screen and die instantly. If you get hit while jumping over a hole of death, you’ll fall and die. If you’re not completely focused, and performing each input at the precise moment, you can die. The game is incredibly brutal, and punishes you for every tiny mistake you make. The punishment for losing all of your lives is having to restart from where you last saved, which will be all the way back in the village (hopefully). With all of the precision involved, it literally takes a mindset similar to that of a speedrunner to just simply complete the game.
Overall, if you’re looking for an incredible challenge to take on with a buddy, then definitely try out The Legend of the Mystical Ninja. The difficulty might seem a little brutal at the start, but trust me, it gets harder. Despite how much I really hated myself by the end of this game, it truly is a great game, and an incredible first appearance for the western audience. If Dark Souls just wasn’t hard enough for you, or at least left you with a few hairs left that are just waiting to be yanked out, then pick up this game, play it on the co-op (aka hard mode), and say goodbye to the remainder. Don’t worry, you will definitely regret it!
