The Peace Keepers (this is a stinker, not as good as I remember it, there's no fucking music?)
This is entirely incorrect. The Peace Keepers does have music, and it's a pretty interesting game with some features you won't find in any other SNES beat 'em ups. First, it's got a four player versus mode. Unfortunately the main game is two player only, but still, this is the only SNES beat 'em up which supports more than two players in any capacity, and anyway no home console beat 'em up on any system before the PS2 has a 4-player main game mode, oddly enough. Of course once it finally happened, and we got a 4-player home beat 'em up, nobody cared because the genre was pretty much dead, but it's true -- no home system beat 'em up from before the PS2 has a 3+ player mode in the main game (ie not in a fighting mode, like The Peace Keepers or Guardian Heroes for Saturn).
Second, the game has branching paths and multiple endings. Try looking for that in most any other SNES beat 'em up! There are 4-5 characters to choose from, too. Good stuff. The game is pretty hard, but decently fun. I kind of wish you got more continues, but oh well... at least there are options. And on that note...
As for the music, what you need to do is go into the options menu and change the sound option to Music. See, this game has two audio track options -- either environmental sound only, so you hear things like the waterfall running, etc., or music only, so you hear music, but not the environmental sound. I like both tracks, but there are some areas where there's no environmental audio, which is kind of boring sounding, so the music track probably is better overall, though those silent waterfalls are odd. Yeah, it's pretty lame that the game doesn't support both at the same time, but yes, there is most assuredly a soundtrack in the game. The environmental sound option is on by default, so you'll need to switch to Music to hear it.
Overall there are better SNES beat 'em ups, but still, The Peace Keepers is a decently good game with some unique features. The game is the third in a series; in the US all three titles were released, but each has a different name. The first one is Rival Turf, the second is Brawl Bros., and the third is The Peace Keepers. This last one is the best of the three for sure.
Can the Japanese version of Mystical Ninja (Ganbare Goemon: Yukihime Kyuushutsu Emaki) be played decently without knowing any Japanese? I remember playing my friends PAL version and didn't need to do any (or much) reading but I didn't get very far.
Also same question about any of the other Goemon games on the SNES. Thanks
EDIT: Also, are there any good adapters out there to play Super Famicom games on a PAL SNES? I've seen ones for NTSC games but not Japanese ones.
The Goemon games DEFINITELY need walkthroughs to be played in English. The games have town-exploration elements where you have to wander around town, talking to people, etc., and if you can't read the language, it'll get quite annoying. Either play it in English, or use a guide while playing, and know that you're missing out on part of the fun, because the scripts in these games are always good stuff.
On that note, yes, I don't care what the reasons are, it's a tragedy that the second through fourth SNES Goemon games STILL don't have translation patches! I want those, badly...
