Konami's Goonies for the Nintendo Famicom

I love Konami's Goonies for the Famicom. it is easily one of my favorite platformers. Everything from the flyer artwork for the Nintendo Vs. cabinet version to the 8 bit rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Goonies 'R' Good Enough," just hits all the high notes for me.

The front cover of the Famicom box

The back of the Famicom box

Konami's Goonies follows the movie in a somewhat roundabout way. You are Mikey and you must play through some of the various areas from the movie. Your objective is to rescue your friends who are locked behind skull doors. There is one friend per stage that needs to be rescued with six stages in total. If you miss any friends, you do not make it to the pirate ship and the game goes back to the first stage. Throughout the stages you have to collect bombs to blow open the skull doors to find your friends, life vials, or a slingshot. Hidden throughout the levels are various items and diamonds. The diamonds are collected for points and to refill your life while the items are collected to help you get through the game. For example the headphones help protect you from musical notes that one of the Fratelli brothers belt out at you. Some special items hidden in the game include character cameos from other Konami games.

The stages somewhat follow the movie with you starting out at the Fratelli's hideout/restaurant, climbing through the basement (full of heat vents that have flames blowing out of them), down through the leaky steam pipe area, followed by going through the caves with big dropping boulder traps, further down to the water level (which has octopuses (or Octopi if you want to be a jerk about my grammar)!) with waterfalls until you reach One-Eyed Willies Ship in stage 6!

But, enough of the game description, let's check out the Japanese Famicom commercial for the game:

OK we get it, the Goonies 'R' GOOD ENOUGH!

If that doesn't get you excited, the music is top notch in this game. Everything from the 8 - bit rendition of Cyndi Lauper's "Goonies 'R' Good Enough" to some of the music on the later stages go together so well. Don't believe? Check it out below:

Goonies 'R' Good Enough

Here's the song from Stage 3, doesn't this sound like an 8 - bit Cyndi Lauper B side?

This game was also available in both a Nintendo Vs. version and a Playchoice 10 version. My understanding is that the only differences had to do with a Vs. in the title and/or a new timer. A Nintnedo Vs. cabinet with Goonies is a new holy grail of mine, but for now I will have to do with the Famicom version and some awesome flyer and arcade cabinet artwork:

Front of the flyer

Back of the flyer

Instruction card!