As a child, one of the video games I adored was Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on the Nintendo 64. Looking back, it might account for quite a bit. It was an unusual game with a unique blend of traditional Japanese motifs, exaggerated anime actions, and catchy pop tunes. The controls were a bit awkward and challenging, but I found myself so captivated by its quirky atmosphere that I persisted until the end. Since then, there haven’t been many games like it, partly because Konami abandoned the Ganbare Goemon-slash-Mystical Ninja series some time ago, and stopped localizing the franchise even earlier than that. Konami has occasionally brought Goemon out of obscurity for appearances in Bomberman or Smash Bros., or for Nintendo’s Virtual Console… but that’s mostly it.