control "not as fluid as it is in Super Mario 64". 64 Lightland found the game prone to slowdown, and decried the inability to pause the game during Impact battles. The variety of gameplay styles was frequently cited as one of the game's best assets. Kraig Kujawa of Electronic Gaming Monthly elaborated that the unexpected shifts in gameplay style and perspective keep the adventure feeling fresh, and serve to provide some of the most humorous moments in the game. GameSpot said that though Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon borrows heavily from Super Mario 64, its gameplay is more varied and, due to it having the most memory of any Nintendo 64 cartridge to date, it has a much wider variety of textures. Critics enjoyed the soundtrack's integration of pop and shamisen-laden traditional Japanese music. IGN declared that the songs would "permanently burn themselves into your brain" (echoed by Ge-Iro Review, who predicted that the music would not grow tiresome). Sakekan said the Impact song cultivates a heroic atmosphere for ensuing battles. Reviewers criticized the camera system as being difficult to manipulate and occasionally preventing players from seeing key parts of the environment, resulting in extremely difficult platform jumping sequences. The Dallas Morning News decried not being able to save progress inside castles, which become "harder and more complex" with time. Reviewers fluent with past Ganbare Goemon games argued that the absence of the series' numerous minigames and two-player mode hampered Mystical Ninjas replay value, and 64 Lightland felt that the transition to three dimensions had deprived the game of the traditional Goemon feel. Contrarily, Kujawa asserted that "Konami has done a wonderful job of bringing the Mystical Ninja series to a polygonal environment." Mystical Ninja'''s localization was criticized often. Nintendo Power said the translation is poor and the story nonsensical, GamePro found the untranslated battle cries to be alienating to U.S. gamers, and a critic for The Tampa Tribune wrote, "attempts at humor often come across as rather inane. Early conversations with village residents only add to the confusion." The News Tribune countered that the strange localization often compounded the surrealist humor through the use of weird, unusual English and grammar. GameSpot and IGN maintained that the localization is exemplary, and that the content of the game is simply too specifically Japanese to be relatable or even understandable to the average non-Japanese gamer.Next Generation described Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon as lively