Never played any of the series before, but these first two are really confusing. I get lost in the maps pretty easily, and I ended up stuck with 2/3 of the PASSes and never being able to find the last one.
They're pretty cute games, though. Should I try to stick with and learn them now, or should I skip ahead to Goemon Gaiden 1 and 2 (both traditional RPGs on the FC), or should I skip those too in favor of starting with the SFC games?