The Mysterious Murasame Castle

Nazo no Murasamejou
Developer	Nintendo EAD
Publisher	Nintendo
System	NES Game Boy Advance Virtual Console
Release Date	NES JP April 14, 1986 Game Boy Advance JP August 10, 2004 Virtual Console JP August 19, 2008

Nazo no Murasamejou translates to Mystery of Murasame Castle or Murasame's Mysterious Castle. The game was released through the Famicom Disk System and was never released outside of Japan.

Story

At a Japanese castle during the Edo period, a great storm brings a stone idol named Murasame to life. Murasame casts darkness over the land and hypnotized the leaders of the villages to do it's bidding using five magic orbs. With his new found power, Murasame plans to overthrow the shogun and become leader of Japan. A swordsman named Takamaru has been sent to defeat Murasame.

Gameplay

The game has a top down perspective, similar to The Legend of Zelda, but the gameplay is much different. The game is linear rather than encouraging exploration and the emphasis is on action rather than puzzle-solving. The player never gets new equipment, but can power up the shuriken.

As the player travels through the game, enemies will block the way, usually ninjas. Sometimes maidens will appear. Saving a maiden will give the player an extra life, but some maidens are really devils in disguise. At the end of each level, the castle's lord must be defeated.

Legacy

• The cartridge of the game appears as a treasure in Pikmin 2. Takamaru himself will appear as a character in Captain Rainbow.

Ports and Remakes

• In 2004, this game was ported to the Game Boy Advance as part of the Famicom Mini series.
• In August 2008 it was released for the Japanese Virtual Console.