place over a forest and village. Konami released many renders of Goemon posing and making faces for magazine previews. A 60–70% complete build of the game was featured at E3 in June 1997, suffering from graphical clipping and camera issues. Konami later presented a mostly finished build at the Tokyo Game Show in September 1997. Developers aimed to make the game "very visual" with new content, and the game's marketers echoed this by using large, colorful advertisements. Konami targeted children, among whom the series is popular in Japan, by scheduling appearances of a Goemon mascot at some elementary school gymnastics sessions. The game's later success prompted the production of an animated television show. The series followed Goemon as he struggled against evil after being transported to modern society, where he befriended an elementary school student. Its release in the United States was planned for winter 1997, then February 1998, but was ultimately delayed to two more months. Mystical Ninja featured a cartridge size of 128 megabits, designed to be much larger than most of its peers and predecessor games to allow high quality musical numbers and voice samples. In total, there are three musical numbers—Theme of Ganbare Goemon, I Am Impact, and Gorgeous My Stage. They feature the talents of Hironobu Kageyama, Ichirou Mizuki, and Toshihiro Tachibana and Etsuyo Ota respectively. The song's main soundtrack is composed of a mix of traditional Japanese and modern instruments integrated in original arrangements. The dungeons feature minimalistic songs which grow in complexity and length as the player proceeds deeper into the lair. The soundtrack on whole is a collaborative effort by four composers. The musical numbers, with forty tunes from the game and one remix of I Am Impact, were released October 3, 1997 on CD. The soundtrack was later extracted from Read-only memory and presented in Nintendo Ultra 64 Sound Format on May 9, 2005; it is one of the most downloaded releases at USF Central. In 2018, the 8-Bit Big Band recorded a cover of the song "I am Impact!" Reception Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon sold 55,000 units in America and 141,000 units in Japan. Reviewers praised the game's story and setting for its quirky, unique flavor. Nintendojo opined that Mystical Ninja features a simple control configuration and easy learning curve. A reviewer for The News Tribune considered the presentation "a terrific upgrade from the Super Nintendo version" but the play