Guest editorial by Billy Ruin.
Buried within February’s otherwise mid Nintendo Direct was a nice surprise.
For Japanese gamers, at least.
An entire collection of classic Ganbare Goemon games spanning the NES, SNES, and Game Boy eras. Alas, this announcement was limited to the Japanese Direct, which means there likely aren’t any plans as of right now to release this collection stateside.
For context, it should be noted that although there are more than 30 Goemon games in existence, only 4 have ever been officially translated and released in English. Out of this collection’s 13 games (including several RPGs), only 2 have ever received official translations. Whoever decides to bring this collection over has their work cut out for them, that’s for sure.
Thankfully, even if Konami decides not to localize these games themselves, there are several companies – Ratalaika, XSEED, Aksys, among others – who specialize in bringing niche Japanese fare to Western audiences and would likely chomp at the bit to bring this collection over. And there’s no shortage of demand for this collection in the West either. All it takes is a cursory glance at Konami’s official announcement video for this collection on Youtube to see how much Western audiences want these games.
So, you might be wondering, why are there so many Ganbare Goemon games that never got released in the West?
To put it simply, the Goemon games are VERY Japanese and there wasn’t much of a market for these games outside of Japan when they first released. It also didn’t help that several entries in this series contained “risque” content (e.g. transphobic jokes, chain blocks emblazoned with symbols closely resembling swastikas, as well as entire storylines parodying Western culture) that would not have gone over well with Westerners at the time.
To wit, only the first SNES Goemon game saw a release in the West, and he would not make an appearance on these shores again until the N64 era. By that point, the American gaming climate had become somewhat hostile to colorful, wacky, and unabashedly Eastern games like this. Although Europe did receive a 1991 Game Boy entry as part of the Konami GB Collection Vol. 3 in 2000.
That era has long since passed, however. Whereas uber-Japanese fare like Animal Crossing (to name one example) once struggled on these shores, it is now one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises – selling tens of millions in the West alone. Now seems like an optimal time to re-introduce Western audiences to Goemon, and letting them know what they’ve been missing out on.
Please do not leave this collection in Japan.
