I just had a chance to go through the first (short) level. I rented this game two or three times back on the SNES, so I'm pretty familiar with it, but time's made me forget some things about it, most notably how deliberately corny and oddball this game can get. The "close-up" joke in the intro was more amusing when I was eight than it is today, but I still appreciate how the game makes it clear from the first minute that it's going to be unapologetically goofy.
This carries through to the enemies in both the "overworld" and side-scrolling sections. The only enemy in the overworld that would be a legitimate threat is the samurai (who never unsheathes his blade). The rest include a man with a bucket on his head, what seems to be a carpenter, and my personal favorite, a guy carrying a fish (which flops around on its own after you take out the guy carrying it). Even better, none of these normal enemies seem to be hostile, or to even take notice of you, so as near as I can tell all your characters are really doing here is mugging innocent villagers. I'm sure they had it coming...? The enemies in the side-scrolling sections are a little more traditional, but even they occasionally make weird faces, and in my mind their animations are so "cartoony" that they seem more comical than threatening.
I don't like how slow your character initially moves, but it's easy to upgrade his speed by buying some cheap sandals. Other than that, I think the game generally controls pretty well: you won't be doing any fancy tricks or tight platforming, but I don't think the game ever asks you to do so. Combat so far is pretty simple, with inattentiveness being the only way to get hurt, but I recall that changing later on: luckily I don't have any real complaints about the controls beyond the slow initial speed, although taking hits does make you lose some sandals, so it can become a problem in longer dungeons.
Finally, I kind of like the minigames. They're all simple, but aside from the maze they all require some skill, and they offer enough money to make them worth your while without ever being required to advance. I recall that there's actual arcade games later on, including a Konami SHMUP, but I couldn't find it in the first level, and I don't remember if those are full-fledged games or if they're just abbreviated versions of real arcade games.