Some games fall into a category I call “mystical”. These games inspire the imagination and there seems to be more to the world than what you can see at face value. One of exemplary game series are that of the character Rayman. Just look at Rayman himself, he has no arms or legs, so his body parts just float! When I first played the demo for the Dreamcast version of Rayman 2 at nine years old, I knew it was something special. Though strangely, I didn’t really play Rayman 2 until this year. Perhaps it’s because when I rented Rayman 1 many years ago, I was put off by the crushing difficulty. Thankfully that’s not the case with the second one.
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Let me take you back to the 90’s. Technology was fast advancing, you couldn’t buy a computer without it being obsolete immediately, and everyone in the gaming arena was trying to one-up eachother, be it by graphics, sound, or technology. Enter a company by the name of Rareware, known around this time for their graphical powerhouses Killer Instinct and Donkey Kong Country (which utilized pre-rendered graphics). They made games on the NES, sure, but they weren’t that well known here in the states. (I actually played Snake Rattle ‘N’ Roll as a kid. Anyone else? No?) However, during the SNES is where they really caught their stride. And then when the N64 came in, their hot streak continued. Lest we all forget all those excellent matches in 007 GoldenEye at our friends houses, not possible if it weren’t for Rare. Rare was amazing at taking a genre they hadn’t done before and conquering it. They did it with GoldenEye, they did it with Killer Instinct, they did it with Banjo Kazooie. But you’ve heard all this before; I hardly need to sing Rare’s praises (especially on a retro video gaming site), so let’s talk about my favorite Rareware title. Maybe not as groundbreaking as their other works, this game is Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
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On a platform dominated by Mario, Zelda, and a ton of great Rare platformers, Mystical Ninja was not a game that got a lot of press, but it was a great parody of Japanese action stories. A action-adventure game set in ancient Japan, Mystical Ninja starts off with a UFO crashing in the town of Edo. You start off the game playing as Goemon: a blue-haired ninja that wields a pipe. At any time you can switch to his best friend Ebisumaru, who is also a ninja, albeit a little on the overweight side. The self-titled Ninja of Justice wields hammers that are very useful for dispatching the game's various enemies. They begin their adventure exploring the crash site at [Oedo] Castle, only to find it full of monsters and villains. There, they meet a character called the "Baron", who planned to turn the castle into a "beautiful stage". From there, the game takes you all over Japan in an effort to stop "The Gang of Four". On the way, you meet Goemon's friends Sasuke and Yae, both ninjas with their own awesome moves and abilities.
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