Save Japan from Westernization! Let's Play Ganbare Goemon 2!

We haven't seen Goemon in action yet, so I vote you go with him next time.

Taiko Drum. Though I was having trouble finding one with what appears to be the usual painting on the heads.

Yeah, I knew it was a drum. But one of the things I'm trying to do with the intentionally inaccurate enemy profiles is handle them as if they were done by early localization standards, which frequently got things just plain wrong.

"It's not easy being a stuffed toy. Kids hit and kick me."

Just trying to be helpful/informative.

Her name is Irene La Tias, from the planet E-Square.

Y'know, I had intended on returning to the Xexex mini-game later on and elaborating on it a bit more in a supplementary post after the final battle, but now that I re-read the last udpate I see I completely forgot to mention that.

So, yeah, Kishi's right and Xexex is a bit more than a mini-game made up entirely for Ganbare Goemon 2. I'll be returning to Karakuri World in the LP.

Hi gang! Let's get back to playing Ganbare Goemon 2. I'll be kicking off Area 3 with the guy whose name is in the title (bout time he showed up): Goemon!

First stage in Area 3 is, according to the walkthrough, Dragon Lake. Which, well, I THINK is a passable translation of the stage name.



Music: Dragon Lake

First off: It's an autoscrolling stage. Fortunately, it moves a bit swifter than the first stage of Area 2 did.

Also it has an Awesome Dragon, and Awesome Dragons make everything better.


Name: Awesome Dragon
Function: While it won't grant you any wishes, no matter how many star-decorated balls you bring together, it WILL give you a ride across the stormy lake. It likes to dive in and out of the water, though, so stay on your toes!



There's a brief moment when the dragon dives that neither its head nor the last segment of its body (save the tail, but you can't stand on that) are on screen, fortunately it's short enough that the window of opportunity where you can jump and land is large enough not to be frustrating.

Too frustrating, anyway.



A new enemy rears its ugly head. Well, new-ish, it will look familiar to anyone who played the first Goemon game on the SNES, as it was one of the enemies in the very first stage.


Name: Hit O'Dama
Function: Enemy
Disposition: Floats around eerily, occasionally swoops in to attack.
Durability: Sent to the netherworld in one smack.
Profile: Originally known as Hitodama, the employees at McGuiness's Minion Application Center misread the form it submitted, and registered it as Hit O'Dama. Grudgingly, it goes along with it for the sake of not causing a scene. Hit O'Dama's attack pattern hasn't changed much since the previous game, though there's a lot fewer of them around so they tend not to gang up on Goemon. As much.



Beyond the first few Hit O'Damas, we see a Money Box suspended in the air just above the water's surface. Ryo is fairly easy to come across in the game, so I don't bother taking a chance to grab it.

A few Crunch Munchers decide to get in Goemon's way, but Goemon is able to clear them with a jump. He can't do it quite as smoothly as Sasuke can, but his jumps are still sufficient.



Also, that's not lightning striking the Awesome Dragon. If it wasn't obvious before, the background flashes with lightning periodically in this stage. You don't need the lightning flashes to navigate the stage, like some other game about a completely different ninja, they're just there to make the stage look stormy.



The Checkpoint is reached without too much fuss. I just live the little OoO faces the Hit O'Damas make when they're hit. It's kind of cute. It makes me want to murder more.



So I do! What fun!

The Awesome Dragon dives under the water for a brief period during this section, but it's not gone for long.



And suddenly the stage got a bit more dangerous. I don't risk going for the first Money Box, but the second was easy enough to grab.



It gets even trickier when the Awesome Dragon starts diving through holes in stone pillars, forcing the player to jump over them, and still be quick enough to get back on the dragon's back.



But it gets even worse! That hole in the previous screenshot was already there. Further ahead, though, the Awesome Dragon just decides to eat its way through a bunch more stone pillars like some kind of Tasmanian Devil. The pillars collapse (and improbably remain balanced instead of sliding off, because video games!), allowing Goemon the footholds he needs to proceed.

The individual screenshots can make the dragon's 'nom nom nom'ing through pillars look kind of janky, it looks better in motion.

The final screenshot gives a hint of one of the trickier traps in this stage. The dragon is capable of passing through stone blocks, however...



Landing on the dragon's head below the platform as it rises will cause it to crush the player, leading to an instant loss of one of their Mans.



There's a similar trap immediately ahead. If you don't get on the ground and run under the spiked ceiling fast enough, it'll fall and crush you before you can make it through.



Ignore the dragon and get on the ground ASAP in this section so you have time to make it across.



Fortunately that was the last challenge for this stage. Tanuki ahoy!



On to the next town! Which the walkthrough calls 'Lake Town', so I'll go with that!



Music: Town

The town gives us another new NPC. Hitting the jolly water-pail carrying dude won't summon the guards on you, but the fish he was carrying will jump out and attack.

Goemon's damage-taking pose is pretty hilarious, I must admit.



Inside the first house in Lake Town we find... uh... these.. guys.

Ok, I'll be honest. I'm drawing a blank here. I couldn't find any info on these characters, and I don't recognize them from any Konami games. The guy mentions something about a 'Phantom World' and 'Goemon's World', and that's about all. My first guess was Fuuma, from Getsu Fuuma Densetsu, but I don't think that's quite right, especially as the smiling priest and the girl don't seem to fit.

So, Tyrants, any ideas?



Outside of the town's Inn I come across another new town NPC, the stray dog. It'll bite back if you hit it, but otherwise the guards won't give a damn. I guess animal abuse laws haven't been invented yet.



Passing the restaurant, we see a bunch of steps, which lead to a single house on a hill. This is just another shot at the Memory mini-game from Karakuri World. It's still pretty easy to beat.



So I decide to grab some free Ryo from it.



Going back down the steps, the town's path suddenly skews diagonally, like another familiar Konami game. Why do I get the feeling I'm about to be attacked by the Foot Clan?



Random NPC guy says random NPC things in the next house. I ignore the path leading south, for now, and move on.

This leads me to a temple-looking place where a Fortune Teller wants 100 Ryo. It's pricier than the Fortune Teller from Karakuri World, but I hand it over. Instead of giving me a shot at meeting some possibly generous possibly murderous old ladies, though, I get something a little different.



A tunnel! With enough Money Boxes inside to give me back the 100 Ryo I spent getting here and more! The exit takes me back to the world map.



And opens the way to the next stage. This counts as a 'secret' stage, though it's not all that secret. In fact, I bet a lot of players come across this stage first due to the natural inclination to head right in a platforming video game.

Anyway, the next stage is 'Samurai Woods' according to the walkthrough. Though a quick translation for 'hagakure' is 'hiding in the leaves', which is followed up with the word for Mountain.

Starting the get the idea the dude who wrote the walkthrough was flying by the seat of his pants for most of it.



Music: Samurai Woods

And right off the bat in the stage we see what 'hiding in the leaves' meant.


Name: Sir Sam R. I. Woods
Function: Enemy
Disposition: Hides in the leaves, throws shurikens at the player
Durability: Knock him out of his perch with one hit
Profile: Sam Woods, or Sir Sam R. I. Woods as he prefers to be called, is under the delusion the mountain he inhabits belongs to him. He even has gone to great lengths to post his name on signs all around it, which has led a lot of people to believe 'Samurai Woods' is the name of the mountain. Despite the fact that it is a mountain and not a forest. Frustrated at all the people who continue to trespass, he hides out of sight and flings shurikens from a safe distance at anyone who walks by.



The first part of the stage slopes downward rapidly, and along the way Goemon comes across a few Mr. P'Tooies.

We also see the return of the Ryukyu Resort background, though this time with a pleasant pink sky.



Goemon casually leaps over a Mr. P'Tooie, but didn't get a good enough look at the ground of head, and falls off a sharp drop off the mountainside. Fortunately, a little cave was situated right above the bottomless pit.



Inside is some pots with Ryo and Money Boxes, as well as a shady looking fellow.


Name: Ban Ditz
Profile: Poor Mr. Ban Ditz just wants to get away from his hideout when a crazy mystical ninja barges in, but doesn't fight back no matter how many times he's smacked around with a pipe. He drops a few Ryo in the process, but eventually gets away.



Returning to the opening of the cave Goemon takes to the suspended bamboo platforms. He quickly chucks a ryo at an upside down Mr. P'Tooie.

I mentioned before the Prickly Daruma has a flashing animation, it's especially apparent in the final screenshot there.



The Checkpoint is super early in this stage. Actually, it's really that this stage is fairly short.

Also, I should note that in a Jar about a screen before the Checkpoint, which I didn't get a screenshot of, was a Golden Fortune Doll.

I didn't get said doll because I totally didn't notice it until I took a second look at the stage after taking screenshots Goemon is a boss and doesn't need it.



Further ahead, even the Mr. P'Tooie start hiding in the leaves. This stage sure does love to use its one defining concept, eh?



Eventually we come across some moving stone platforms, along with a bunch of Mr. P'Tooies and Sir Sam R. I. Woods' trying to block our way. Their positioning at the top of the screen can make them troublesome when jumping, so it's important to be careful in this section.

Fortunately the enemies don't play smart, and are easy targets. So feel free to laugh at poor old Sir Sam R. I. Woods as he hilariously falls to his doom.

A final Mr. P'Tooie takes a few pot shots at Goemon, but the projectile is too slow to catch up to him.



Bam. Tanuki. I said it was a short stage.



The way opens to the Fortress, but we're not going there yet. I was only half done with Lake Town, after all, let's head back there!



Music: Town

First thing I do is hit the Inn up to recover some energy. The cheapest room will do, and I haven't shown that off yet, so here it is!

Also, why not, here's some quick profiles for the new 'enemies' in Lake Town.


Name: The Littlest Fuuraibou
Profile: A poor stray that wanders the streets of feudal Japan, ferociously defending itself from any attackers, and also starring in once-a-week adventures with increasingly contrived circumstances. Maybe tomorrow he'll want to settle down....


Name: The Incredible Mr. Knotts
Profile: *flop*



Anyway, back to that path to the south part of town I passed earlier.



To the left, in a dead end, is a store, which sells Iron Helmets and a More Better Rice Ball! I buy one of each.



Further to the right is the town's Travel Center, and... I spy a new NPC!


Name: Obisumaru
Profile Kind of the Wario to Ebisumaru's Mario, Obisumaru doesn't do much of anything in this game, though he does become a character in his own right later on in the series. For now, though, a zillion clones of him run around this part of Lake Town and don't do a thing. They don't attack you, don't rob you, don't help you, they're just there to stand out.



Another slanting path leads to a pair of houses.



The first house has this lady, who says something that probably isn't important.

Y'know, I wonder how much longer I can milk the 'Derp! I can't understand what's being said, lolololol!' thing?



The second house is a bit more interesting as inside is Koryuta, which folks who played the first N64 game would remember as Goemon's Airship dragon pal. The dialogue here seems to suggest he already knew Goemon, though I don't recall him showing up in the first SNES game. Though it's been awhile since I played it so it's possible i just forgot! Otherwise, maybe he was in the NES Games?



That marks the end of Lake Town, and the proper exit takes us to a new Area 3 stage!

But we'll pick it up there next time. This update was a little shorter than the others, but I really couldn't fit all of Area 3 in one update.

See ya'll next time!

This game's soundtrack has been pretty whimsical and silly so far, which is awesome on its own, but it's pretty great how how once you get to:
it just starts rocking the hell out. I love when games do that!

"Ry�jin" refers to a very specific dragon.



Compare.

I figured there was some significance behind that particular dragon, especially considering it gets its own unique level graphic on the world map instead of a red dot like normal stages.

It was just easier to make a Dragon Ball reference though.

Ryujin also shows up in the first game, of course.

Of course!

I've been replaying the first game on VC to refresh my memory, since it seems I've forgotten a lot about it. Didn't get to that stage in time to recognize the dragon though.

One thing that's interesting is that it seems Goemon and friends are traveling backwards from the end of their journey in the first game back to the start throughout the second. Having started in Ryukyu and now just passed the Ryujin's lake (guess it didn't want to fight this time!).

I'm not 100% positive this theory holds up, though, I guess we'll find out!

That's Noah, Ken, and Miki from God Medicine.

Wow, mystery solved!

Geez, no wonder I couldn't find it, I was looking at the list of Konami games on Wikipedia, trying to see if any of the ones published before Goemon 2 would've been a fit for these characters, and God Medicine isn't even on the list!

Have I mentioned yet that your NPC descriptions are awesome? Because your NPC descriptions are awesome.

Thanks, I wanted to try and make my first LP as entertaining as possible, and that's just my way to try and help make up for the language barrier.

Though I'm a little bummed no one seems to have picked up on one of the references in the NPC descriptions in the last update. (And it's probably not the one you think)

Well, I had to do some research, but...wow.

Ding ding!

Huh, did they never play The Littlest Hobo where you live?

Wikipedia says it was a Canuck yuk (if the maple leaf icon on the top-left hadn't tipped me off).

Oh hey, it sure is LP time! Sorry for being a tad late with this one, I was pretty occupied this week. But you didn't come here for excuses, you came here for LP! I assume. I mean, if you didn't you're probably in the wrong place. AA's down the hall.



Music: World Map (Hey I forgot I recorded the World Map BGM but never uploaded it! So here it is in all its short glory)

So where did we leave off? Oh right. The other stage on the way to Area 3's Fortress. The walkthrough calls this stage 'Revenge of the Red Chef Blobs'.

I got nothing.

I can't find a decent translation for the first word of the stage's name, though (second is good ol' reliable 'kaidou' again), so I guess that's the title we're going with!



Music: Revenge of the Red Chef Blobs

Ok so starting off we... um...

Huh, Red Chef Blobs. What do ya know?

Ok ok, so those probably aren't chefs hats, but I guess I can see how someone with little knowledge of Japan can jump to that conclusion. Mr. Walkthrough-Writer was grasping, sure, but it was all he had to go on! Anyway, new enemy!


Name: Red Chef Blob
Profile: The cooks of McGuiness's army are out in full force! No one knows where they come from, but rumor has it they're the result of toxic waste being dumped too closely to a Silly Putty factory, that also just happened to be adjacent to a restaurant. Regardless of their origins, the Red Chef Blobs are out for non-specific revenge, and will leap and somersault around to get it! Shame they go down in just one smack.

I decided to trim the enemy descriptions a bit, since the other fields were getting a little redundant.



I jump up a bit and go back towards the left, to find a pot full of Ryo above the start of the stage.



I stick to the top path on my way to the right, and come across some familiar faces! The Mini-Roly and Super-Roly enemies from Log Lake are back! Except this time they're not just sitting around passively, they've acquired some new super power that lets them float in the air in a formation with the Minis orbiting the Super! Occasionally the Minis will shoot out towards the player, and they can be surprisingly tricky to hit!



Jumping down, we come across a group of Hoppers, doing what they do best: Running around and being totally ineffectual. Goemon decides to hit one from above, and he winds up knocking it on its back instead of destroying it.

Hoppers that have been knocked down can ALSO be kicked around like common Koopa Troopas. Neat!



Moving on, Goemon ducks another volley of Mini-Rolies, and succeeds in knocking another Hopper down. Turns out you have to hit them while on a higher platform with a ducking attack. I'm pretty sure this only works for Goemon (as his weapon is the only one that moves with a downward swing), so I guess it turns out his weapon does have a unique effect after all!



Goemon heartlessly hurls the hapless Hopper hurtling into the hole. And then he gets the Checkpoint. Hah.



Attempts to knock these Hoppers down fail, though. I guess the game is picky about what attacks it will register as 'clobber you in yo head' over 'splode you up real good'.



Another Roly-swarm blocks the way, but Goemon picks off the orbiting Minis before thwacking the Super once it starts approaching.



A few short jumps later there is a small maze. Well, it's not quite a maze, since no matter what you'll get to proceed onward. Rather, it's a bunch of platforms you can jump up through, but not back down through. There are Money Boxes scattered around, you cannot get them all, but you can get most of them if you follow the right path.

Naturally, the first one you see is a Red Herring. If you go for that you'll lose out on pretty much all the others.



Instead you want to jump up through the second opening, which looks empty at first, but it'll allow you to grab these four Money Boxes.



Keep going forward there to get another one, then turn back around. Go for the left box you see in the screenshots above.



That will also allow you to get the box in the first image here, and finally you can exit the 'maze' and get the last one sitting out in the open.

Alas, you cannot knock these Hoppers over either, the platforms are too high. Which is a shame, the zig-zagging path is perfect for Koopa Troopa-esque antics.



Moving on, we see a bunch of Prickly Darumas moving around some platforms leading up. We climb them carefully.



And Huzzah! Stage End! However, what if we didn't climb that Prickly Daruma-infested structure?



Then we would've found this fake exit under the real one!

Oh, and one other thing this stage can help illustrate...



If you jump off the real exit's platform before breaking it, the stage will keep scrolling as normal. However if you try to jump off AFTER breaking it, the stage's scrolling has been frozen, and it treats the fall as a bottomless pit, costing you one of your Mans. Be careful!



Music: World Map

Before moving on I run back to Konami Town. While Lake Down sold the Metal Helmet, it didn't have the Armor, so I purchase one back in Area 2.



Area 3 was pretty short, all things considered. But here we go, the Fortress of Area 3.

It can't get a clear translation of its name, but I think 'Ku' can mean to eat, or is a much shorter way of saying it anyway, so it's possible the name has something to do with eating. I guess this because...



Music: Fortress

It's a food-themed Fortress. Consider it the Proto-Gourmet Submarine or something. Anyway, Goemon quickly dispatches the Hoppers and General McGees guarding the entrance and moves on.



The stage has a number of food-related platforms and lifts, and here are some how. These Cork/Stopper platforms blast you up into the air when you land on them, and the veggie pail lids pop up a little bit while you're on them as well. They don't have as much force as the bottle stoppers though.



I check back over to the left, and find a platform above the entrance. Sadly, there's only a few Ryo inside the Jar here, I guess it's a bit too early for a Golden Fortune Doll. But there IS a new foe!


Name: Bowl Bat
Profile: Bowl Bats are careful to stay out of reach of McGuiness's hungry troops, as they're often mistaken for the evening's meal. They've gotten into the habit of swooping at the soldiers in order to drive them off, and now can't help but do so to anyone they see. They're not even guards, they just happened to be living in the area when McGuiness set up shop! But now they're doomed to be treated like any other common baddie.



Goemon leaps back down, dodging another Bowl Bat and taking out some Hoppers. It's around here I noticed the background, as there seems to be some sort of pattern moving around on the furthest layer. I do some emulator trickery and...



...Huh. Well that's weird. There's no place in the level where you'd ever see more than you do above of this background layer, strange.



Getting back on track, I re-enable the layers and head upward again. Unfortunately, it's just another Ryo jar that awaits me, still no Golden Fortune Doll.

Leaping back down below, I discover I can crawl under these platforms in this part of the stage. There isn't much of an advantage to it, though, besides to grab the two or three Money Boxes scattered around.



Finally I reach the end of the first area and jump on a Bottle Stopper that fires me upwards into a screen transition!



The next part of the Fortress is a giant Takoyaki stand! Goemon is attacked straight away by the possibly delicious new baddies.


Name: Yakko and Tacky
Profile McGuiness has been conducting some bizarre genetic experiments with Takoyaki batter, and has created this sticky monstrosity. The blob-like Yakko monsters protectively cover the smaller, weaker Tacky monsters in a grotesque parody of delicious Takoyaki. Smacking the Yakko once will destroy it, leaving the Tacky defenseless and easy prey to be finished off and/or eaten.



The stage steadily climbs upward, with Bottle Stoppers helping to provide extra lift between Takoyaki stands.



However, when a Stopper sends you higher than normal, that's your signal to jump back to the right and land on the upper part of the Takoyaki stand you were on before. The first time you do that you should run all the way back to the right across the top.



Because at the end of the road you'll find a Golden Fortune Doll. Huzzah!



Returning to my previous position before I took a detour, I quickly come across another high-flying Bottle Stopper, and grab some extra Ryo from the Money Boxes on top of THIS stand.



Ok, back on track, so now--- wait, is that what I think it is?


Name: It's just a Hoppers McGee with a Sheet.
Profile: No seriously, that's all. Weakest enemy in the game hiding behind a sheet.



For the most part the Hoppers shed their 'brilliant' disguise as you approach, though two near the end wait for you to walk between them before they do so. This would be troublesome if they were threatening enemies, but they're not, so on to the next area!



Strangely, the sea of scalding oil is already there when the Stopper blasts you up from the previous floor, but you take no damage. But yeah, that's the theme to THIS part of the level: a deep fryer.

And there's the Checkpoint.

And there's a new hazard as well! These things deserve a bit of explanation. They're a sort of shredder/slicer that the cubes of fat/tofu/whatever enter as they fall from the ceiling. They get sliced up and enter the oil below. Problem is if you try to stand on these shredders directly you'll just get sucked into them, sliced up, and instantly lose one of your Mans.



The trick to this section is to jump on the cubes of whatever before they're sucked entirely into the shredders. You have to be quick, because if you lose your footing for an instant you're toast.

It's hard to show them in screenshots, since the cubes flicker. Goemon is landing on one in that first screenshot, it's just invisible.

A new foe leaps up from the sea of oil!


Name: Sizzles Shrimper
Profile: Sizzles always wanted to be a boss in the Mega Man X series, but unfortunately Capcom decided to use his big brother, Scissors, instead. Desperate, he took a job with McGuiness instead, and was forced to be a simple stage enemy instead of a professional stage boss. He intends on climbing the minion ladder, but that's tough when he can just leap up repeatedly like a mindless Podobo, and yet can still be destroyed in one hit.

Fried Shrimp platforms help Goemon make his way across the treacherous frying oil. There's no fear of them sinking, though they do bob up and down when you land on them.

A split presents itself, Goemon can either jump between the falling cubes, or take the low road with the shrimp.



The low road rewards a Golden Fortune Doll, though, so we do that.

We also come across another, rather large, enemy.


Name: That Samurai Robot
Profile: That Samurai Robot moves slow, but has two deadly weapons at its disposal: A rather nasty sword, and its conical hat. It'll slash at any enemy that gets close, and fling its hat at foes from a distance. The Red colored models are a bit defective, as their hats are prone to being destroyed, while leaving the body intact and able to be commandeered by smaller opponents.



Goemon knocks the block off of the robots and climbs inside. His buddies rush forward to attack, but are no match for the robot's sword. Sadly, unlike the first Area Fortress, you can't take this armor onward and have to abandon it before continuing.



And we come across the boss of the Fortress. This mysterious robot welcomes Goemon, and tells him to closely watch the shadows created by his Hell Candle. Or something like that.



Music: Boss Battle

The room brightens as the robot lights the candle, and suddenly he starts doing shadow puppets. Aww, how cute! Though, his hand is nowhere near the proper position to project a shadow on that screen in the background considering the position of the candle, but whatever!

Though it quickly becomes clear that the shadows aren't harmless, as the shadow puppet eagles fly around the screen and swoop in to attack.

Much like the cubes from earlier in the stage, the shadow puppet enemies flicker, and thus are hard to get in screenshots. But the eagles here spiraled outward from the screen to dive at Goemon.



His next attack is a bunch of cats, who leap off the screen to run across the floor. Despite the direction they're facing when they appear on the screen, they leap off to the right.



He goes back to the eagles, which this time fly up to the top of the screen before diving. I take a little too long before finishing them off, though, and the robot doesn't wait for me before summoning the next set of shadow puppets.



Which are dogs. Or, disembodied Dog Heads.

And that's pretty much all there is to the fight. It goes Eagle -> Cat -> Eagle -> Dog, and repeats. The shadow puppet robot doesn't wait for you to destroy all the current shadows before moving on, which can let things get pretty hectic, but neither can he be goaded into moving even faster. There's no way to speed this fight up at all, you have to wait it out, which gets pretty tedious.



I make a stupid mistake here and there, but otherwise the fight goes on like that, until...



Once the Stage Timer hits 66 or so, the candle burns out. I tested the fight a few times, and even looked at the TAS for the game, and the candle always burns out around 66 or 65. There's no way to make the candle burn down faster, you just have to survive the gauntlet.



With the candle burned out the robot has no way to attack, and admits he's lost.



He invites Goemon to smack him once to properly end the fight, which Goemon obliges. The robot thanks him.

Nodding his head, he EXPLODS, prompting a disgruntled Bunny Man general to comically hop in from the left.



The Bunny Man quickly takes off, much like the first one, though.



The Fortress starts to shake apart, so there's only one thing to do in this situation! It's time for the return of Goemon Impact!



Music: Goemon Impact!

Ahhhhh INPAKUTO! Dash Dash Dash!



Seeing that Goemon is following the General takes off, a bit more confident than the last guy who saw Impact catching up behind him.



And here we have another Impact Destruction Sequence. Same rules apply: Destroy stuff to build up Energy and Ryo, and extra Bombs if you're lucky. Avoid falling or being tripped up, else you'll get quite a hit to your energy total before facing the boss.



Small waterfalls are the main hazard here, especially since they can be easy to miss if you're not paying close attention to the stage. The small rise in the water blends in fairly easily with how fast the stage moves.



The rocky obstacles can also be dangerous. There's no harm in touching them, but if they pin Impact against the left screen boundary as they're scrolling then it's the same as tripping or falling, and you want to avoid that at all costs.

Unfortunately, I only manage to get a single Bomb in this Destruction Sequence too. But then again, that makes boss fights more interesting.



Goemon's opponent talktalktalks a bit, asking if Goemon had fun with the shadow master, and now he'll have a real good time fighting his giant robot, or something along those lines.



This boss's first attack is almost always to fire its spinning disc at you. A strong punch will send it back. You need to destroy the disc before you can start damaging the boss, and it takes a few good hits to do that, so until then you need to play defensively and punch the disc whenever you get the chance.



This robot has its own multi-colored projectiles, which can be punched away for extra Ryo, instead of shot down or blocked.



A few more hits later the disc is destroyed, and we can start properly fighting this boss.



The General says he's about to GET SERIOUS. Is this the fabled GO TIME?



Well, yes, it is. The robot starts hopping around, before phasing into two and leaping at the player. You'll have to take my word that it's phasing into two, since when it does that the two images are flickering, so whenever you get a screenshot it only ever shows one. The real one is attacking from the right, though.