Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[cj iwakura]

Ninja Gaiden II is one of my favorite games ever, and one of the few I can clear without dying.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I wonder how Castlevania veterans would like Elements Of Darkness. Exquisite graphics for homebrew, but the gameplay... Make of it what you will.

[BIL]

Keeping with the cat theme there's Rockin' Kats, released in Japan as N.Y. Nyankies, that has a very cool gameplay mechanic with the "gun" that can be used as a melee/mid-range weapon, a grapple gun a la Bionic Commado and a pogostick like Duck Tales. Some of the later stages get pretty challenging and require good mastery of it.

that's incredible.

Actually, for some reason I remember its advertisement on the back cover of an EGM I bought as a little kid, along with my first noticing of the Atlus logo. Funny how these things remain in memory.

Will give it a go, sounds really good. I dig action games with grappling or other advanced movement options. Neat character design too. Something prescient about a furry animal mascot who wields a snub-nose revolver and runs around in a fedora, necktie and shoes but no pants. Kid's got style.

[Ghegs]

Though it was already mentioned in the Kickstarter projects of note -thread, it should suit here quite well. Shovel Knight has already reached its goal, and it's been confirmed that it will have two songs composed by Manami Matsumae, who actually did some of the music in the very first Mega Man games (as well as Mega Man 10), as well as the iconic "Mega Man exploding into orbs" sound effect. So that's pretty damn cool.

The game itself looks to be very much a NES-style action sidescroller, though there's apparently also going to be some sort of upgrade system. Here's a video (and commentary) of the demo version that was displayed at PAX.

While we're on indie games...did anybody else play Oniken? Really enjoyed that.

[Ghegs]

I got those Game Boy games I mentioned earlier - Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Return of The Joker and Ninja Gaiden Shadow. Funny how all three have some sort of a grappling hook system and NG is the only one that doesn't have walljumping. Batman: TAS and NG are both decent enough, and I like how in the latter many of the tunes are remixes from the NES games. It's much easier than those games though, I got to Stage 4 pretty quickly, and the stage design gets pretty interesting there.

It's Batman: Return of The Joker that really fascinates me. It's such a weird combination of fun stage design and lackluster controls, nicely animated Batman but kind of dumb combat. You only get one life and there's bottomless pits everywhere and water traps 'n other stuff. And the first boss fight is against Dark Claw, which is pretty mindblowing, though I'm not sure if he's really supposed to be that Dark Claw.

[BIL]

I wish Tecmo had contracted Natsume to do an SFC Ninja Gaiden, too. Even if it was more Kage III than NGIV it would've been no bad thing.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's Batman: Return of The Joker that really fascinates me.

Does it have any relation to the NES/FC game?

The only Batman game on Game Boy I can recall having played was the brawler

I wish Tecmo had contracted Natsume to do an SFC Ninja Gaiden, too. Even if it was more Kage III than NGIV it would've been no bad thing.

don't give me a heart attack now

You know, a Ninja-Kun by them would've been swell too (one in the style of Ashura no Shou I mean).

well, at least we got the xbox NG

[BIL]

(spoilers for Hagane's 4-3 secret area) Besides being the object of sealed game collector lust in US format and providing much hilarity for the insane eBay auctions thread, this is why Hagane owns. Such nuanced controls and such a seamless sense of movement. It feels like there's no situation you can't escape (or enter) as long as you think quickly enough.

I'm trying to 1LC both loops this weekend. Normally I dislike it when a game's "second quest" is just the first with tweaked hitpoints, but in Hagane's case it actually brings out the engine's finer points. All regular enemies have twice the HP, meaning you won't be able to snuff them out before they attack and need to take full advantage of the hyper-flexible controls to survive. Lots of backflipping, airdashing and ninja GBH ensues. Or you can do lots of running away, but eh.

[Ghegs]

It's Batman: Return of The Joker that really fascinates me.

Does it have any relation to the NES/FC game?

It's also by Sunsoft and the music is pretty good here as well, but I don't think they shared any of the same staff.

[Edmond Dantes]

It's Batman: Return of The Joker that really fascinates me.

Does it have any relation to the NES/FC game?

Nope, it's its own game.

[Ed Oscuro]

Thanks guys.

N.Y. Nyankies (well, Rockin' Kats at least) looks pretty interesting. A bit more could maybe be done with that fist thing but it's a pretty solid concept, and it's refreshing not to just see players doing straightforward Mario or Dragon Buster style gameplay (i.e. jump on their head or hit them with a sword / whip).

[Edmond Dantes]

I wanna thank you guys as well, for introducing me to Turrican.

Is it... weird to be nostalgic for a game you never actually played, and only vaguely have heard of? Cuz that's the vibe I get. Like this is a game I should have played as a kid but didn't.

Jumping with Up was weird for a bit, but I've gotten the hang of it and can now make those difficult half-circle jumps... well, not with ease, but enough to be managable. Just now I got past the fish boss (I always wanted a thing called tuna sashimi), and would've kept playing except eyes getting droopy.

Gonna have to buy both the Mega Drive and PC Engine ports.

[Ghegs]

It's Batman: Return of The Joker that really fascinates me. It's such a weird combination of fun stage design and lackluster controls, nicely animated Batman but kind of dumb combat. You only get one life and there's bottomless pits everywhere and water traps 'n other stuff. And the first boss fight is against Dark Claw, which is pretty mindblowing, though I'm not sure if he's really supposed to be that Dark Claw.

Goddamn this game. I can't tell if it's genius or Powerglove-level bad. I've managed to come to terms with the controls enough that I can get to the first boss consistently and even have it look more or less good. Beat him for the first time, too. So then I get to the second stage. Pretty cool stage design here too, and you really have to use that walljump. I negotiate through the first area and come across a miniboss.

Which is not an apt description as it's a tank four times my size.

Second stage in and I'm fighting against a tank. With my fists. Well, technically it's just against the grenade-throwing guy sitting on top of the tank, but still. Batman got pretty hardcore back in the day.

In the Options menu there's even a Hard difficulty. I haven't dared to try that yet.

[Squire Grooktook]

I hate to ask this but:

In Hagane stage 2-2, how the heck do you get past that flame thrower without taking damage (the one right next to the blue life up). Like seriously, do you just need to tank it? Or is there a secret path or invulnerable move I can use to get past it?

[BIL]

Cling to the underside of one of the floating platforms (as with any overhead surface, hold [UP] while you're jumping into it) to pass underneath it.

You can also use the harpoon weapon's upward shot to grapple onto any overhead surface within its reach. I like to put bomb on the Select button so the "back" weapon switch is on the A button. That way it's easy to quickly switch from the sword to the harpoon and back, or from the sword to the shuriken and back. Say, if you want to grapple onto a ceiling then immediately switch back to the sword to slash a nearby enemy already clinging to it.

It makes multi-weapon play a lot smoother than having to either cycle through the entire set with X to get back to the bread-and-butter sword, or move your thumb from the d-pad to hit select. I barely ever use bombs besides on the very last boss anyway, and they don't require much in the way of finesse.

[Squire Grooktook]

Oh ok, I'll try that. Thanks.

[Edmond Dantes]

I gave Ninja Gaiden another shot, and... I think the game is trying to make me like it.

Here's what happened, and I SO wish I had recorded because you guys will never believe this, but:

Stage 5-1. I got to that platform over a pit where you have to jump over a bat. But I mis-timed my jump and the bat knocked me into the pit...

... And instead of dying, Ryu came down off the top of the screen and landed on the platform.

That's right, Ryu apparently has been taking Ninjutsu classes from Pinkie Pie.

I'd like to replicate this glitch somehow.

[trap15]

Sounds like you ended up falling so fast that Ryu wrapped around the screen instead of falling into the "death" zone underneath the actual playfield.

Truly a rare occurance!

I'd take a guess that you managed that since you were up at the top of the screen, and you were jumping, and the collision with the bat pushed you up even higher.

[Edmond Dantes]

I actually saw Ryu fall into the pit though. However, he was blinking due to post-damage invulnerability. Could that have had something to do with it?

I think I'm gonna make it my mission to replicate this glitch.

[BrianC]

It's also by Sunsoft and the music is pretty good here as well, but I don't think they shared any of the same staff.

It shares the producer (Kiharu Yoshida) with the Genesis Batman, but no other staff. The music is from one of the composers of the first two Mega Man games and Mega Man 10, Manami Matsumae.

[trap15]

I actually saw Ryu fall into the pit though. However, he was blinking due to post-damage invulnerability. Could that have had something to do with it?

Well yeah. If I explain it entirely, it'll make complete sense how it happened:

Code: Select all

while ryu is falling, downwards velocity += gravity

ryu y position += downwards velocity
ryu y position %= 256 (% means modulus; it gets the remainder of dividing by the rval)

if ryu's vertical position is > 224 (or there-abouts), kill ryu

So if your downwards velocity is high enough, you'll "pass through" the kill zone and pop right back up at the top.

Funky, eh?

[Edmond Dantes]

So Ryu fell so fast he bent the laws of physics?

Now that's a master ninja skill!

[BIL]

I remember that happening a few times over the years on my old NES. I don't recall seeing it in recent times, but then I don't fall in as many pits. ;3 Occasionally I'll see an enemy drop into a pit only to fall out of the sky much the same way. Incidentally, exploiting the screen edge to let enemies walk off ledges to their doom is a good technique if you're shorthanded for some reason. I think I'll record a checkpoint recovery vid for the infamous 6-2 death leap showing how to make that pesky dagger chucker fall off his perch.

Here's some more nutty shit. Happened to me in emulation, confirmed by Ghegs and drauch on real hardware:

[BrianC]

I remember that happening a few times over the years on my old NES. I don't recall seeing it in recent times, but then I don't fall in as many pits. ;3 Occasionally I'll see an enemy drop into a pit only to fall out of the sky much the same way. Incidentally, exploiting the screen edge to let enemies walk off ledges to their doom is a good technique if you're shorthanded for some reason. I think I'll record a checkpoint recovery vid for the infamous 6-2 death leap showing how to make that pesky dagger chucker fall off his perch.

Here's some more nutty shit. Happened to me in emulation, confirmed by Ghegs and drauch on real hardware:

I remember hearing about that glitch somewhere before. I think it was in an old NP or something. Crazy stuff.

[Edmond Dantes]

I just now realized the wall on the right-hand side seems to be made up of Tetris blocks.

[Marble]

The duplicating boss glitch happens when you just kill one of the gargoyles (if that's what you'd call them) and then spend too much time dicking around. The two duplicated gargoyles have a health bar separate from the remaining original; but you only need to deplete one health bar to pass the stage.

[BIL]

In that particular case, I instant-killed the fake (right pedestal) with the Windmill Star as usual, only to have a couple of fresh ones instantly pop back up before I could get to work on the real Cerberus... uh, Kelebross. Looking back at the post I wonder if it was due to going further across the room than I usually am when the fake gets KOd.

trap would know far better than I do, but I assumed it had something to do with game's rabidly aggressive respawning and Ryu's position onscreen.

Haven't had it happen since. It's not all that relevant anyway, since the left-hand pedestal's safespot still works no matter how many Kelebrosses are hopping about.

[Ghegs]

It's also by Sunsoft and the music is pretty good here as well, but I don't think they shared any of the same staff.

The music is from one of the composers of the first two Mega Man games and Mega Man 10, Manami Matsumae.

Well son of a gun, I didn't notice that even though I just said in some other thread that Manami Matsumae is doing music for Shovel Knight. How 'bout that, no wonder the music is good.

Making lil' progress in the game too. Beat the tank in Stage 2 but haven't been able to get to the boss yet, there's some very tricky platforming right after the mechanical beast. Some might even call it cheap.

Gave Stage 3 a try as well (you can choose between the first three stages when starting the game) and that was surprisingly a very short and straightforward train stage. It does look very nice, but after the trick 'n trap-filled stages one and two it's almost a jarring change.

[Drum]

Batman RotJ GB has very platformer-y physics for a more combat-oriented game. It doesn't bother me (I like it - just a smidge of momentum is good) but I thought it was interesting. Fun game.

[null1024]

On the topic of NES stuff, what's the consensus on Shatterhand? Didn't see any mention of it earlier in the thread.
I'm loving the shit out of it right now, great graphics [parallax!], your attack feels so solid [nothing like the feeling of punching projectiles], and the little helper system is neat. Only started playing it 2 days ago, so I'm dying on bosses [don't know the patterns yet]. Managed to beat the top-left stage's boss by sheer luck, I didn't know I could be hit in its death throes and totally should have died from that. First boss is stupid easy with b,b,b helper, a bit bothersome otherwise.

Also, I've been playing Gimmick!, but I dunno if that counts for this thread. I'm able to zoom through most of the first stage now, but the game is carefully designed to murder someone who goes in without having memorized what to do in a spot [notably, I keep dying 3 screen-lengths before the first boss, and if I reach him, I don't know how to deal with his first attack, which always gets a hit on me].

I've been playing other action platformers too [I tried NG2, something felt really off about it, put in NG1 and I love it, but I'll clear Shatterhand before I really go play NG1; I love how Batman looks, but the punch and jump feel really off [the punch moreso, I can deal with the delayed jump], but that's probably because I'm playing it right after Shatterhand's really tight control, I'll give it an earnest effort still because it's quite nice], but really, I just want to play Shatterhand and Gimmick!.

Gimmick! has the best possible Sunsoft music, what with that sexy 5B audio. It's really an AY-chip, like in the Speccy 128, although Sunsoft completely ignores the noise and envelope features. AY envelopes are amazing, you can shape the waveform in all kind of crazy things, you can get a rezofilter effect, etc. It's great. But I digress.


[edit]
oh fuck, I figured out the top-left stage boss in Shatterhand, there's a stupid safespot on the first form and it practically offers itself to be hit if you recognize when it's circling around you as an opening to hit the sides. And only the unbroken sides hurt you when it dies, so just kill them all and hit the face.
Struggling a bit on the top-right stage,