YMMV / Ganbare Goemon 3 Shishijurokube No Karakuri Manji Gatame

---

• Awesome Music: The first stage theme is very energetic and catchy.
• Breather Level: There are two action stages that are just a single puzzle and a boss.
• Contested Sequel: The game features a Zelda-like action adventure format with overworld exploration and dungeons for action stages, which people often consider slow-paced and less fun than the more straightfoward action games in the series. It doesn't help that the endgame seems to be missing content.
• Difficulty Spike: The second walker mech chase is much more difficult than the first, as the player has Yae in the group and must quickly switch between the four characters to avoid bursts of bullets.
• Disappointing Last Level: There's no climatic last action stage, and instead the last task before the final bosses is clearing a Chain of Deals at several spots around the overworld. The fact this fetch quest grants the last three tablets at once and the aforementioned mini levels make it highly likely the last quarter of the game was rushed to completion.
• Event-Obscuring Camera: Towards the end of Mechanical Tower, Ebisumaru must climb a tower by hanging on to a series of spinning poles. The problem is that every next pole will be just off-screen, making it difficult to judge when to jump.
• Goddamned Boss: The one that is a pair of demon heads mounted on opposite walls. The player must use a mirror to deflect on them lasers of the element opposite to each boss, but there's no telling which laser will come out and there's only an instant to react. Each head has plenty of HP and will retaliate if hit with their same element.
• Obvious Beta: The game is fully functional, but it is painfully noticeable that some of the latter action stages weren't supposed to be just a single corridor and a boss. The endgame involves a Chain of Deals that yields multiple mac-guffins at once, and the ending is a gauntlet of boss fights with dialogue that appears to poke fun at the absence of a proper final stage.
• That One Level: The fifth dungeon, Eastern Tower, is long and filled with some annoying and lengthy vertical platforming sections. It's easy to get lost in, there's a great deal of backtracking involved, and some obtuse puzzle solutions. No other dungeon in the game is as lengthy or as much of a pain in the ass as this one.
• Underused Game Mechanic: Yae's air bazooka subweapon is only used for a single puzzle in the whole game, and her katana isn't ever upgraded either.
• Values Dissonance: Crossdressers are a Running Gag in many of the Goemon games including this one, from mild depictions (the closeted newhalf NPC found just after arriving in the future, as commentary on the trans spectrum expanding over time) to more mean-spirited portrayals (bearded crossdressers annoying Goemon; Bismaru being hinted to be a Villainous Crossdresser whose attention Jurokube dislikes).
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Bismaru. He/she dresses and acts feminine, despite having an identical (masculine) voice and appearance to Ebisumaru. It's not immediately apparent whether Bismaru is intended to be a Gonk woman, a Villainous Crossdresser, or transgender and isn't helped by the fact that in the character's only appearance in an officially translated English game (Goemon's Great Adventure for the N64), both masculine and feminine pronouns get used. See Values Dissonance above.

---