lightning-themed explosive, which gives heavy damage to every enemy on screen; and a cloak, which makes Takamaru invisible and invulnerable to enemies and objects for a short period of time. When Takamaru reaches more than 99 lives, he becomes invincible. Plot In Edo-period Japan, Murasame Castle houses a gigantic stone statue known as Murasame. The people lived peacefully until one stormy night, when a shining golden object fell onto the castle from the sky. Deafening shrieks arose from the castle, and the shining object is later revealed to be an alien creature who gives life to the stone statue Murasame and takes over the castle. The alien creature extends its power to four other neighboring castles, giving the daimyō lords each an evil sphere of power. The lords are taken over by the alien's evil power, and use the spheres to summon ninja armies and monsters to attack villagers. Hearing of these strange occurrences, the shogunate led by Tokugawa Ietsuna sends Takamaru, a samurai apprentice, on a secret mission to investigate the castle. As Takamaru, the player must infiltrate the four castles to defeat each castle lord, before going on to face the alien entity itself. Development Due to the game’s initial obscurity, not much about its development is known. However, Goichi Suda, in an interview with Nintendo Life, stated that Human Entertainment (where he started video game development) was involved in development of the game to some degree. Release The Mysterious Murasame Castle was released for the Famicom Disk System on April 14, 1986 in Japan. It was ported to Game Boy Advance on August 10, 2004 as part of the Famicom Mini Series in Japan. It was released on Virtual Console in Japan for Wii on August 19, 2008 and for Wii U on July 30, 2014. It was released on Virtual Console for Nintendo 3DS in Japan on July 3, 2013, in Europe and Australia on May 29, 2014, and in North America on August 7, 2014; this was the first time the game had been released in the West. In June 2010, the game was featured amongst others from the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES as part of a tech demo called Classic Games at E3 2010. Reception Nintendo Life's Marcel van Duyn gave the 3DS virtual console re-release of The Mysterious Murasame Castle a rating of 8/10 stating "It's anyone's guess as to why