Announced a few months ago and recently released on Switch and PS5, Ganbare Goemon Daishuugo is a collection of 13 Goemon games, plus one bonus game. It is also the first Ganbare Goemon release in over 20 years.
It is hard to believe it’s been 21 years since the last real Goemon release (not counting Pachislot machines), Ganbare Goemon: Tokai Dochu Oedo Tengu ri Kaeshi no Maki on the Nintendo DS in 2005.
Daishuugo is technically the second Ganbare Goemon collection, the last one was also 21 years ago, 2005’s Kessakusen! Ganbare Goemon 1 & 2 on Game Boy Advance, which was a compilation of the first two Super Famicom games.
And here is a slightly awkward photo of my whole Goemon collection. I am missing the MSX2 version of the original Famicom game, and the GBA version of Goemon: New Age Shutsudo, which is too expensive to obtain these days.
All games are complete in box except for Seikushi Dynamites Arawaru!!, another rare title that is difficult (or expensive) to obtain complete.
You can also add the other games where Goemon is a playable character, Konami Wai Wai World, Wai Wai World 2, Gokujo Parodius and Konami Wai Wai Racing.
An oddity I have included in an otherwise Japanese set is the PAL release of Konami GB Collection Vol. 3, which includes a unique colourised version of the first Game Boy Game, Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru. The Japanese version of this collection (which was released as Volume 2 there) had Super Game Boy support, but the later PAL releases were remade in full colour.
Ganbare Goemon Daishuugo is a collection of these fourteen games: thirteen Goemon games, and the completely unrelated Famicom Shoot-em-up Crisis Force as a hidden bonus, unlocked by entering the Konami code on the options screen. This is presumably a meta-joke about how several games in the series had (sometimes hidden) versions of other Konami Shoot-em-ups included to play.
There’s an interview about the development of the collection with the producer Ryosaku Ueno here (or here is a Google translated link).
Conspicuously absent is the Game Boy Color title Ganbare Goemon: Mononoke Dochuu Tobidase Nabebugyou! and the interview above explains why.
“It has a feature that links with the Nintendo 64 game “Goemon Mononoke Sugoroku,” so if you can’t enjoy that, then it shouldn’t be included. On the other hand, porting Nintendo 64 titles would be difficult from a scheduling perspective, so we decided that we had to draw a line somewhere, and reluctantly decided not to include it this time.”
It’s a shame the excellent N64 games could not be included, and a couple of the PS1 games are great too, but it’s a pretty solid collection. The real question is: will we have to wait another 21 years (the year 2047!) for the next Goemon release? Hopefully not!
Nintendo Sega Japan! 