The plot involves the dynamic duo of Goemon and Ebisumaru learning from Sasuke that their vacation on a beach has been a set up for a foreign general called McGuinness to storm Japan with his army of rabbit-men and achieve his plans of westernizing the country.
It was followed by Ganbare Goemon 3 Shishijurokube No Karakuri Manji Gatame in 1994 and, although it never left Japan, the game finally received a Fan Translation in 2020.
Go for it, tropers:
- 1-Up: There is a single shop in the game that sells 1-ups that aren't found elsewhere. They're pretty expensive.
- Actually a Doombot: The McGuinness who appears on a flying saucer is really a robot double. While the heroes were busy fighting it, the real McGuinness kidnaps Omitsu and hijacks the Goemon Impact.
- Antepiece: Throughout the game you might notice the heroes can deflect some projectiles, and a miniboss on the final chapter can only be defeated by knocking its own bombs at it. In the end, this is also the method for defeating Goemon Impact.
- Auto-Scrolling Level:
- All the Goemon Impact stages start with such a section, where Impact must avoid pits and walls while trampling over things to gain health.
- Area 3 starts with one where the heroes must ride on an eastern dragon that's rising and diving out of the sea.
- One stage takes place on a snow lift. If the player purchases a ticket beforehand, the lift will be active from the beginning and turn the stage into this trope. Even though this trivializes the first quarter of the level, it will be tougher to deal with the enemies with orbiting shields later on.
- Background Boss: As the final boss, Goemon Impact stands on the background firing snot bullets and punches at the heroes.
- Brutal Bonus Level: The Castlevania parody stage is a Bonus Level of Hell. It can only be accessed after clearing the game and beating the hard versions of the four minigames in the secret Mechanical World area.
- Cast from Money: The secondary weapons cost money, as does the snot gatling gun on the Goemon Impact. Goemon in particular actually uses coins as projectiles.
- Cast Speciation: You can chose to play as Goemon, Ebisumaru and Sasuke.
- Goemon has balanced traits and his pipe can turn into a whip.
- Ebisumaru can fire shuriken with a boomerang trajectory and starts with more money.
- Sasuke can jump higher and his standard weapon can become an infinite projectile. The problem is that enemies won't drop money while Sasuke is powered up.
- There's also a running gag for the hot springs. Goemon can't enter the ladies' side because he's bothered when he just finds crossdressers inside (this only happens with him) and Ebisumaru can't enter the men's side because then he'll slip on soap and crash through the wall (likely a reference to the dropped plot point of him being a female cursed into the form of a fat man). Sasuke can enter either side without issue.
- Charged Attack: Each character's secondary weapon can be charged.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: On the Concentration minigame, the CPU knows exactly where each pair of cards is and performs perfect play. It is impossible to win the match, as it takes equally perfect play and forcing the CPU to miss once to even score a draw.
- Continuing is Painful: Getting a game over halves your money, but you'll still resume the current stage from a checkpoint. If it is an Impact battle, you can skip the chase section, but you'll be at a disavantage with only 300 HP and no bombs.
- Eagleland: General McGuinness represents foreign interference over Japan's culture as a whole rather than just from Americans, but to rub it in, his minions all wear rabbit fursuits as a pun — the word "rabbit" in Japanese is "usagi".
- Emergency Energy Tank: There are equippable food items that refill the life gauge once it reaches zero.
- Evolving Weapon: After killing a certain amount of enemies, one will drop a lucky cat powerup that changes the hero's weapon to a longer and more powerful one up to two times. However, taking damage will reduce the weapon's level again.
- Foreshadowing:
- When Kabuki dies, his last words are "See You in Hell". He later reappears in the secret Hell stage.
- At the Mechanical World, Simon Belmont explains he's been looking for Dracula in Japan. This hints at the secret stage having Dracula as a boss fight.
- Game-Over Man: In the game over screen, McGuinness stands in front of a wall of flames and asks the player if they're giving up. The option to continue is a defiant "Screw that!"
- Heart Container: Rare golden lucky cat powerups raise maximum HP up to 5 bars, but dying will reset the gauge to normal.
- Hit Points: The life meter is represented by 3 to 5 bars. Most damage sources subtract half a bar, so you can take up to 10 hits without protective items.
- Humongous Mecha: This game introduces the Goemon Impact, a mech equipped with powerful fists, a snot machinegun from its nose and bombs it fires from a smoking pipe.
- Indy Escape: One stage involves the heroes running downhill from a massive angry snowball.
- Level Goal: Every stage ends on a tanuki statue that releases coins once broken. If you're riding some vehicle, you can stand over the statue and collect every coin.
- Living Shadow: The Puppeteer boss fights by means of shadowgraphy. He's positioned between a canvas and a candle and makes shadow dogs, cats, and birds, which spring from the canvas and attack Goemon. Goemon has to survive until the candle burns out, only after which the Puppeteer himself can be hit.
- Megaton Punch: Goemon Impact's right arm must be used to smash enemies away when they attempt body blows.
- Motive Rant: After being defeated, McGuinness claims all he wanted is to preserve Japan's culture. Goemon just tells him to quit meddling with the country's affairs."I love Japan more than anyone! My love is PURE!"
- Mythology Gag:
- The Goemon Impact is based on a real ridiculous-looking mascot suit used on tv commercials for the first entries in the series.
- In the original Castlevania game, the final boss is not supposed to be Dracula, but rather
an incarnation of mankind's evil that bursts out of his body to curse Simon. In this game, Kabuki shows out of nowhere to fight Goemon after Dracula is killed to convey how he'll always come back to haunt him.
- Necessary Drawback: Sasuke's weapon can power up into an infinite ranged projectile, so guess what? Enemies will stop dropping money while it is active.
- Notice This: The game puts small instructions over objects that must be interacted with in special ways.
- One-Winged Angel: Subverted by the bonus Dracula fight. Instead of transforming into a monster, Dracula is followed by Kabuki, a previous boss whose attack pattern somewhat resembles the "Curse of Man" monster from Castlevania I.
- Paper Fan of Doom: Ebisumaru's basic weapon in this game. It evolves into a towel and then a golden towel.
- Pose of Supplication: After being defeated and told to stop interfering with Japan, McGuinness overdramatically says he's been training to prostrate himself before a righteous native warrior. However, Omitsu interrupts the whole scene because she's still stuck on the Goemon Impact.
- Product Placement: Upon meeting Pastel from Twinbee (she was just called "Winbee" at this point), she makes some advertising for the then new Twinbee: Rainbow Bell Adventures.
- Promoted to Playable: Sasuke started as a stage boss in previous game and is now one of the playable protagonists.
- Real Men Wear Pink: McGuinness has a tough appearance but is obssessed with rabbits and makes everyone around him wear rabbit fursuits.
- Sequential Boss:
- Some Impact bosses are fought after a normal stage boss.
- The last Impact boss has two phases.
- The final battle involves fighting a fake McGuinness and then the real one who's hijacked the Goemon Impact.
- Shout-Out:
- Several Konami characters make cameos in the village areas, and the bonus stage is based on Castlevania.
- One of the bosses can perform Rider Kicks and fire Laser Z Beams.
- McGuinness on his flying saucer evokes Dr. Eggman and Bowser, and upon being defeated he's reduced to begging like he's Dr. Wily.
- Smart Bomb: You can earn pipe bombs for Goemon Impact during the chase levels. They'll suck the enemy mech in and deal 50 damage, so use them specifically to interrupt enemy attacks you have trouble dodging.
- Stealth Pun: The game criticizes foreign interference and its villains have a rabbit motif. The japanese word for "rabbit" is USAgi.
- Tactical Suicide Boss:
- The fake McGuinness spends most of the battle flying out of reach, but his pattern involves diving at the heroes and tossing umbrellas that can be used as platforms and protection from his laser beam.
- Goemon Impact is only defeated because a rabbit soldier keeps tossing bombs at the player that can be deflected into it.
- Take That!: Kabuki is a Recurring Boss throughout the Goemon series, to the point his persistence is mocked in certain games. In this game, he shows up after Dracula from Castlevania is defeated, effectively poking fun at how almost every Castlevania features Dracula as the final boss with the same first teleport-and-fireball phase every time.
- Title Drop: The final chapter is titled "The Tale of the Strange General McGuinness".
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The game introduces the Goemon Impact mecha battles, which are first-person rail shooters often compared to the Punch-Out!! series in gameplay.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: There are hotsprings in certain towns for recovering health. If Goemon enters the females' side of the bath house, he is shocked to tears when all the women surrounding him drop their towels and reveal bearded faces. No health is recovered after this.
