After over a year of hibernation, I welcome you back to the Mystical Website of Goemon. A lot of things have changed since this site has been on the Net, but we will remain vigilant here to provide the public with their Goemon "fix."

I am sad to report that Working Designs, the North American localization shop behind the English versions of Alundra, Lunar, Dragon Force and many others, have closed their doors, unable to continue operations. They had recently released Growlanser Generations for PS2, and were working on Mystical Ninja: Goemon, although the former was not profitable enough to sustain operation and the latter's release was barred by Sony. This would be the final nail in the coffin of MN:G's North American release.

On a personal note, it's hard to imagine a video game world without Working Designs. While they were never a huge player, their name stood for the sort of high-quality work you have trouble finding in the smashmouth world the gaming industry has turned into. As I look over the shelf that holds my 32-bit era games, it now takes the image of a graveyard, fondly-remembered names poking from the ground over their now-buried creator. Popful Mail, a riotous bash of a game. Dragon Force, Albert Oddessy. These games were bright bursts of light in the rather dreary library of the Sega Saturn. Colorful FMV, careful attention to detail, well-written scripts. Down further, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete. Classics remade in the image of what we then thought was the cutting edge of the RPG world, lovingly molded and updated to show a whole new group of gamers what the glory days were all about.

But no more. Perhaps it's just the nature of the industry. People don't want to play games where they pose as hyperactive feudal bounty hunters, they want to be gang leaders and mob bosses. That's fine with me; to each his own. But will it all go down this path? Is there no room for lightheared comedy, for getting a gigantic punching puppet with your game, with a company that can poke fun at itself with the tagline "Where budding romance between adopted siblings isn't frowned upon. In fact, it's kinda cute?" Sure, they only released twenty-odd games. Sure, they never set the world on fire, or became a household name. But nonetheless Working Designs stood for something more. Not any sort of "innocence" or "simpler times" people without a clue complain about missing; they stood for fun. They wanted every single second you spent playing their game, no matter how full of text or bizzarely-unfolded to be the single most fun moment of your life.

Was it simpler? Sure. Was it innocent? If you've ever seen their dialogue, "innocent" is highly debatable. But that's why I decided to write this for our own Goemon site. These games Working Designs put out and the Konami creations we've all come to love are kindred spirits. They all give rise to joy simply playing the game, in the laughter and the absurdity and the sorrow and in the final triumph. It is very hard to find games of their kind.

This is a black day for gamers everywhere.

Time seems to move entirely too fast, Hopefully we will have an actual update to show to you in the near future. Work and school waits for no man it seems,..

In the meanwhile, courtesy of Video Game Ads, check out this video for Ganbare Goemon: Toukai Douchuu Daiedo Tenguri (or better known to English speaking audiences as simply Goemon DS). Also hosted on this site is this video for Ganbare Goemon; Karakuri Douchu. Check out the promotional costume that would become the inspiration of Goemon Impact! =D

I see your monthly update with a yearly update, Fnor!

Yes, I appologize for the complete and total lack of updates. This site didn't even report when Goemon DS came out earlier this year, But in the spirit of redemption, I have went out and fixed the museum copy of the MWSG site. Anyone who have been paying attention would of noticed that the museum copy of the MWSG has been down for the past 2 months due to the unexpected crash of the Rockman Vortex server. In the upcomming weeks, we hope to have more work done on the site and new material for your viewing pleasure.

And here I am again with the monthy update....

A member of the incomparable Mystical Ninja Club has brought to my attention a Goemon DS video at IGN. While there is nothing really new in this clip, embossed in the upper right-hand corner are the words "Ganbare Goemon (Working Title) Expected Release Date April 2005." While we can't be sure exactly where the video came from, it's most likely either Konami or Nintendo, so we can probably trust the date. Or at least, let's hope we can.

Not much new to report with this, just some media. There is said to be a few things added, like some new graphical whizbangs in GG1, and the addition of sasuke to GG2.

What's that? Sasuke's already in GG2, you say? Silly gamer, you've been duped! The robot ninja in GG2 was actually TASUKE, Sasuke's evil twin brother who has a bunny fetish. He bound Sasuke up and shoved him in a closet and assumed his identity.

Fortunately, Wise Man ran into him while cleaning out his "car magazine" collection, and set things straight. So, for this one, we apparently get the real Sasuke, who is much more normal, despite having, you know, gender ambiguities and an evil/good toggle switch.

Here we are, some nice media for the DS Goemon. Sorry about the late notice, folks, but I do what I can.

Here we have a nice movie courtesy of our good friends, Nintendo of Japan.

And some screens over at The Magic Box.

What are you waiting for? Get going!

Some new information for all you Goemon fans! First of all, no, we're not dead! We're just rather slow. Please bear with us.

Oh, you probably want to know about the Goemon games. Right. At TGS, Konami Unveiled a new Goemon game, "Ganbare Goemon Kessaku-sen! Yuki-hime to Magginesu," or "I Need to See the Kanji in the Title Because that Looks like Jibberish." This is a compilation of the first two SNES games, and perhaps gearing up for the game mentioned below.

Additionally, I did some more digging around regarding the upcoming Nintendo DS Goemon, and found that, according to Nintendo, the working title is "Ganbare Goemon." While I suppose it is possible for it to be part of the new age or a continuation of Mystical Ninja: Goemon, or perhaps even an entirely new series, there is a chance that we have a Ganbare Goemon V, perhaps, in the works for a brand-new system.

If so, this could be a big boost for Goemon and a show of esteem on Konami's part. At the moment they're opening up the new system with Boktai and Castlevania, with perhaps Goemon right behind, and perhaps a game in the venerable SNES series to boot. This is a good sign, and one can only hope both games make it to the US.

I am pleased to announce that our dearth of Goemon will soon be broken (in a few years) by Konami's new efforts on a Goemon game for Nintendo's new handheld system, the DS.

There have been no details released about the game, as it was announced en masse with 71 other titles confirmed in development, along with Konami's own sequels to the Castlevania and Boktai series. While this may not be big news (few have reported on Goemon in particular), it displays two things; that Konami is still committed in some part to Goemon, and that Konami + Goemon + Touchscreen and stylus = one very frightened F'nor.

Update 8/10/04 (F'nor): Today Nintendo released the list of DS titles currently in development for a western release. You guessed it, Goemon apparently didn't make the cut (though Atlus' touchscreen stylus surgery game did, but that's another story entirely). So, then, where does that leave us, you ask? Much better off if you're proficient in Japanese, and about where you were before if not. I suppose the best westerners can hope for is that it does a bang-up job in Japan to justify Konami taking a risk in translating it.

I apologize for the VERY old news, but it's good to have the information at everyone's fingertips, don't you agree? We all promise to lower the news lag as the site finds its legs. More precisely, as Copy Editor I promise that, if nothing newsworthy happens, I will at least make up entertaining fake news. As of right now, Working Designs once again has Goemon on its release schedule, in the spot immediately proceeding Growlanser, The Game That Will Never Be Done (TM).

This is heartening to see, however, as Sony has repeatedly tried to can the game. One could assume that Working Designs, a company that releases at most two games a year, has been fighting tooth and nail to work on the already-licensed Goemon. I may not agree with everything Victor Ireland has done at WD, but I do know that he is one tenacious guy and will stick to his guns. Let's hope WD bears that out in the fight for Goemon.

Ah yes, opening day. I will point out this site is still far from completion. You can consider it a "beta" of the MWG to come. Please pardon any possible broken links to the site. Don't despair though, as even in incompletion, this site has plenty of new Goemon "vittles" for your enjoyment.

With the opening of the site finally complete, I, the webmaster, will be taking a bit of a break from work on the MWG. With plenty of personal matters to take care of, I will be absent from any site work for at least a month, maybe more. Hopefully you will not notice my absence, as the staff will continue site maintainance and expansion while I am gone.