Goemon has had it rough over the years. Despite being a long-running and popular series in Japan, only three of the games in the Ganbare Goemon series were released in North America. Thankfully, Konami decided to put out the Super NES release, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, on the Wii U Virtual Console. Despite some annoyances, there’s no mystery as to why this ninja is so legendary.

The game part beat-’em-up and part platformer with a few upgrade mechanics thrown in for good measure. By defeating neverending barrages of enemies in the overworld, you can accumulate scrolls for special powers and upgrades to your weapon. Most of the time you’ll be collecting coins, which can be exchanged in various houses within the stage for better gear, food which restores your health, and mini-games that give you the chance to earn even more money. Getting these upgrades will help in the side-scrolling platformer stages, as you won’t be able to return to the overworld until you run out of lives.

While the game’s controls are fine, and beating people with clubs and yo-yos is incredibly satisfying, the game’s reliance on grinding for money, and the fact that each hit removes an upgrade level (what is this, a shoot-'em-up?), can be a hindrance. Thankfully with the Wii U’s Restore Point feature, and not having to rely on complex passwords anymore to continue my game, it makes the game much more enjoyable, and was able to progress to levels I never would have seen otherwise.

Overall, I would definitely recommend giving this game a download, as it’s one of the Super NES’ lesser-known gems. Maybe someday we’ll get the other Goemon games as well…