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The M2-developed Ganbare Goemon collection, Ganbare Goemon! Daishuugou is out today in Japan, bringing 13 games from Konami's popular series to Nintendo Switch, PS5, and Steam.
But as if that wasn't enough to make us all jealous of Japanese players who are able to get their hands on the collection with ease, it appears there's also a rather fascinating bonus game included in the package, too, in the form of Konami's 1991 Famicom-exclusive shoot 'em up Crisis Force.
The news was shared in an interview with Konami producer Ryosaku Ueno and M2's Naoki Horii and Senor Kawakita, published in the Japanese news publication denfaminicogamer, and came to our attention via GSK on BlueSky. This marks the first time the game has been ported since its original '90s release.
As stated in denfaminicogamer's article, it reportedly knew about the game's inclusion and was going to report it as an exclusive immediately after release, but after discussing with Konami, it held back until it was discovered naturally by players. To not spoil the surprise, it also hasn't shared how the game is unlocked, but it is believed to be hidden behind a "certain code," as outlined by GSK.
Crisis Force was Konami's final shooting game released for the Nintendo Famicom and developed with Konami's custom VRC4 chip, pushing the Nintendo Famicom to its limits. Primarily a top-down vertical shooter, the game featured large bosses, four-way scrolling, and a soundtrack from three members of Konami's in-house band, the Konami Kukeiha Club: Jun Chuma, Kenichi Matsubara, and Yasuhiko Manno.
As Ueno stated, the idea of Ganbare Goemon! Daishuugou was to appeal to "a wide audience," especially those who had memories of playing the Super Famicom game, so the team believed the inclusion of Crisis Force might have left audiences slightly confused or speechless. This led the interviewer to jump in and politely disagree, suggesting that it could become "a hot topic." However, Ueno ended up saying he expected only a few people to actually know about the game and care about its inclusion, with Horii adding, "It's fine if it reaches even just a few people."
Reportedly, the decision to include the game came from Ueno himself before development and was driven by concerns that, if they missed this opportunity, they wouldn't be able to justify reissuing it elsewhere.
Just as a reminder, if you're considering the Steam version of Ganbare Goemon! Daishuugou is unfortunately region-locked. As a result, the best option for picking up the game seems to be the Nintendo Switch or PS5 version.