Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

The balance in Alien Soldier is a bit screwy, but I feel it's similar to Contra III's weapon balance in that (whether intentional or not) most of the lower-tier, weaker weapons mainly exist to give newer players extra avenues for learning the game. Someone who's played either game many times through has little use for either game's homing weapon or sword force, and all skilled players will eventually gravitate towards a limited set of weapons, but I think it's fine if certain weapons are designed with beginner players in mind even if they have little long-term viability.

[Sumez]

Here's one for the archives... I was looking into secrets for Bubble Memories (the second Bubble Bobble 3, that is not Parasol Stars), and came across an "FAQ" on GameFAQs looking for a description of the endings. Here is what it says:

The 7 potions won't become complete unless you play up to the 70th
round with 1 credit. –NOTE-: this is virtually impossible to do
without aid of the save-game function in Raine, so I think
something got lost in the translation. The potions do become
complete even if you continue.

I guess I have a mission now.

EDIT: Just tested it out, and the game doesn't require a 1CC if you find the potion cards on every "X5" round - but as long as you're on your first credit, those cards are pointless. That's really surprisingly lax for Taito, especially considering how convoluted unlocking every secret in Bubble Symphony was.
Man, this game is almost impossible to find resources for.

[Vanguard]

Nello. I recently finished a replay of Faxanadu. It's much better than I had given it credit for.

This time around I made sure to keep a full stock of various key types so I didn't get stopped constantly. Instead I ran into the opposite problem: keys eventually go out of date and all those leftover jack keys will waste valuable inventory space. You can't drop them, and you can only sell keys to shops that offer that type of key. There are NPCs that give out ace and joker keys and I thought I'd get an advantage by taking an extra of each with me. Turns out there's only one joker and one ace door in the entire game, and no shops that sell them. Had to backtrack to the ace and joker doors to get rid of the things. Anyway, the key system is very annoying and nothing good comes of it, but it can be worked around with foreknowledge.

Enemy design is hit and miss, with more misses than hits. In terms of mechanics anyway, the visual designs of the bizarre alien dwarves are great. The double hit mechanic goes a long way towards making the weak enemies engaging. It almost feels like playing with a scoring system as an optional extra thing that adds a bit of difficulty in exchange for a reward.

There are way, way too many rooms where you take damage immediately upon entering. It's got that unpleasant euroshmup feeling where you need to pay an HP tax to get through certain areas. Speaking of unavoidable damage, is there a graceful way to deal with the dwarf king? It seemed like the only way to avoid damage was to stock up on wing boots, so I resorted to damage racing him with an inventory full of healing potions. Despite all that, the difficulty level was more gentle than I remembered and Faxanadu probably wouldn't be a very tough game to no-miss. I don't think I'd ever bother just because dying is too useful for warping and building up gold. With strategic suicides you don't need to grind very much at all.

A while ago I recommended leveling only up to either Warrior or Myrmidon to give yourself more time with wing boots. I'm gonna rescind my recommendation for Warrior rank. The extra seconds with wing boots are absolutely not worth dealing with the bad controls and low amount of gold you get at that level. Myrmidon's not bad, you get a decent acceleration speed, a lot of respawn gold, and 20 seconds with wing boots is still plenty enough. Even upgrading all the way isn't a bad idea, the only problem is that 10 seconds with wing boots isn't much if you don't know exactly where you're going in the final area. (First find the invincibility ointment, then use your boots and fly straight up!)

To add a suggestion to the pile of dream hacks, I'd like a version of Faxanadu where your character always moves as if he were at max rank, and where keys are reusable and don't consume inventory space. Maybe reduce inventory to ~5 slots to compensate?

Anyway, Faxanadu isn't bad, though I still say it can't match Zelda 2 or The Battle of Olympus.

[BIL]

Glad to hear you enjoyed it a bit more this time around. Definitely a game in need of caveats, much moreso than Zelda II. I've a recent fondness for unpicking ARPGs into relatively smooth pseudo-1CCs... so even its most vexatious aspects didn't turn me off, though I was very aware of them. A very peculiar game, but one I'm confident recommending in its niche.

On the subject of unpicking vexations!

Speaking of unavoidable damage, is there a graceful way to deal with the dwarf king? It seemed like the only way to avoid damage was to stock up on wing boots, so I resorted to damage racing him with an inventory full of healing potions.

Ah, this chap. Been a while and I'm a bit short on time this month, so for now will just hint at my ultime demonslayer technique. It's questionable but satisfying, a bit like the game as a whole.

However, game structure does indulge in (and invite) a certain degree of underhanded abuse. It's technically a flip-screener, and not shy about clobbering unsuspecting players as a new room scrolls in; you'll quickly learn to feather the B button while transitioning. Enemy placement also targets ladders, occasionally mandating a hit or two before the alighting player can respond. In your favour, even nastier dungeons and bosses are highly vulnerable to a little item cheesing - the creative, mildly precarious sort I enjoy, with skilled handling required for certain victory. Wing boots, ointment and an hourglass aren't much use individually, but deployed right, they can screw the most fearsome enemy with MacGyver-esque satisfaction.

[BrianC]

I played some SMB DX GBC while waiting for allergy shot and noticed a few things:

-Physics are slightly different from NES and diagonal stop can only be done while big
-Music and sound effects are a bit off at times
-Mushroom retainers jump at the end of a world
-it's possible to get hit by a cheep cheep near the flagpole of 2-3, which wasn't possible AFAIK in the original
-odd brick physics of Super Mario All Stars are thankfully absent

[Vanguard]

However, game structure does indulge in (and invite) a certain degree of underhanded abuse. It's technically a flip-screener, and not shy about clobbering unsuspecting players as a new room scrolls in; you'll quickly learn to feather the B button while transitioning. Enemy placement also targets ladders, occasionally mandating a hit or two before the alighting player can respond. In your favour, even nastier dungeons and bosses are highly vulnerable to a little item cheesing - the creative, mildly precarious sort I enjoy, with skilled handling required for certain victory. Wing boots, ointment and an hourglass aren't much use individually, but deployed right, they can screw the most fearsome enemy with MacGyver-esque satisfaction.

Interesting! I did exploit ointment against the Evil One, but didn't think it'd last long enough to be much use against the dwarf king. Shouldn't have leveled past myrmidon rank!

[BIL]

IIRC, by the time I reached DK's dungeon I was at the top rank - still had a fairly comfy window of time to grease up with ointment, haul ass to his room, then Wingboot+Hourglass him for the no-hit kill. I'd guess the shorter item time affects certain stunts, but this one's very doable.

I was quite proud of myself, like that time I wangled my way out of having to fight Legacy of the Wizard's rock golem with Pochi.

[Marc]

-odd brick physics of Super Mario All Stars are thankfully absent

You have my curiosity now. Admittedly, I haven't dabbled with SMAS for many years now, but I don't remember it being off at all? In fact, weren't they partial emulations or s omething?

[BIL]

It was a programming error on Nintendo's part, apparently. In the compilation's SMB1/2J ports, breaking a brick has you keep travelling upward. So if you're merrily sprinting along at top speed and whack a brick, instead of sharply rebounding, you'll slam to a halt. I find it annoying as all hell, and reductive to the games' key element of momentum. I ended up just getting their respective FC and GBA versions.

As for the coding, IIRC the compilation's SMB3 is heavily based on Famicom code. Total layman here though! It came up briefly a while back, in a discussion of the SFC's backwards compatibility features.

[BrianC]

There's a couple areas in SMAS where you'll die if you hit a brick over a gap, when it's possible to make the gap after hitting the brick in the original. Thankfully, there's a hack that fixes the glitch (and there's even a patch that works with the All Stars/World combo), though it's disappointing the game was released this way. Other than the stupid brick thing, the physics actually seem to be more faithful than the GBC port of SMB.

The differences in SMB USA in the collection are also perplexing. AFAIK, nothing as broken as the brick glitch, but more like odd glitches introduced like mushroom blocks duplicating after going down a jar. Many glitches were fixed, as well. There are also some odd day/night changes to levels.

I don't mind the updated graphics and music in All Stars, myself. They are definitely better done than the "enhancements" of the Ninja Gaiden Collection.

IIRC, by the time I reached DK's dungeon I was at the top rank - still had a fairly comfy window of time to grease up with ointment, haul ass to his room, then Wingboot+Hourglass him for the no-hit kill. I'd guess the shorter item time affects certain stunts, but this one's very doable.

If it wasn't for the previous posts, I would almost think you were playing some long lost Donkey Kong game.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Due to the Steam's latest downright refusal to boot on my PC, thus unable to play Gigantic Army I paid for legit, I have re-tried playing Captain Claw which at least works on WinXP Pro (correctly playable at 120 Hz update at that). Pretty sweet if you don't mind it being distinctively a computer kind of platform game (complex branching stages, level editor). The gameplay can be quite engrossing.

[Vanguard]

Played through Faxanadu again to try for a better run while everything was still fresh in my mind. It's an immensely better game when you know exactly which keys you need. It's pretty simple, though. You don't need any jack keys after you finish up with the three fountains, and you don't need any queen keys after the misty area. You only need one joker key (make sure to get the ring from the old man or you'll need another!) and one ace key.

I wanted to see how far I could make it without dying and lasted until I found the black onyx. That turned out to be for the best because that's when the money grind gets really bad if you don't exploit suicide. Faxanadu is probably better to play for speed than a no-miss.

One good trick I heard about is that the king at the beginning gives you gold if you have none, so spend all 1500 and return to the king to get a head start on items without extra grinding. A dagger, deluge, and 7 jack keys will use up 1500. You could also spend 400 on the "training" at the beginning and then buy only 3 keys. That way you don't need to kill yourself for an hp refill too. The speedrunners' method seems to be to buy a dagger, deluge, potion, and elixir, then sell the potion back and buy 3 jack keys.

I tried to cheese King Grieve, but couldn't get it to work. I brought an ointment to his room and used an hourglass immediately after entering. The ointment wore off almost right away, which seemed especially early since I was at myrmidon rank. I've read that his room and a few others set the ointment timer to zero upon entering and that seems to be the case. (They included that mechanic but then didn't bother using it for the final boss!?) I wonder if maybe I'd need to use the hourglass before entering for the ointment to stay active? Anyway, the hourglass is supposed to stop his fireballs, which is plenty good enough, but for some reason he kept shooting and I had to resort to potion-tanking again.

In terms of damage:cost ratio, fire is the best spell in the game, but its vertical hitbox is smaller than deluge and thunder's, enough that it often can't hit enemies beneath you that other spells would be able to reach. I consider that far more important than damage, so I might just stick with thunder or even deluge in future runs. Tilte is powerful enough to kill the Grieve semi-gracefully, but it's terribly expensive so I'm not sure if it's worth it. I haven't bought the death spell so I don't know whether it's any good against out-of-reach enemies, but its damage is good and its cost isn't bad so it might be a happy medium between thunder and tilte. It's still expensive, though. Really though, thunder is fine for the entire game as long as you've got a way to deal with Grieve.

By the way, I wouldn't bother with this, but I read that the timer for wing boots and such only ticks down at the "end" of each second, and if you keep pausing the game for that moment, you can keep them indefinitely.

[Sumez]

Been playing Liquid Kids (Mizubaku Daibouken) the past few days. Not really intensely, but the game feels very easy, so I hope I'll make a 1CC out of it before moving on.

I don't actually remember if I got the 1CC back when I got the PCB, but oddly enough the game reminds me a lot of Elevator Action Returns in the sense that it's overall a very easy and manageable game without any particular barriers that should keep me from essentially a no-miss. However, it feels like anything in the game can kill me at any points for no practical reason other than letting the chaos of the game's mechanics get a bit out of hand resulting in getting hit by something I didn't even notice was there.

[Sumez]

Alright, and the very next game I played since the previous post, I got a 1CC. Despite dying to one of the easiest bosses, and failing to get the 1UP on 4-1.

I think an easy 1CC was what I needed at this moment, but I really wish the game had been a bit more challenging, even if I'm not sure it would be doable without it getting frustrating. Probably the easiest arcade game I have completed, not counting Prehistoric Isle 2.

[Jonny2x4]

You could always trying adjusting the DIP settings to the highest difficulty and fewest lives (including extends) possible.

[Sumez]

I prefer to play arcade games on their default difficulty (so a clear is a clear of "that game", not of "that game, but with these restrictions"), but I'm actually genuinely curious about what they'd do to make this game harder, so I think I'll give it a try next time I get some arcade time for myself.

[BIL]

Incidentally that's how I play Elevator Action Returns, the other Taito sidescroller VING lovingly ported to Saturn! (although lately, I suspect my waifu EDIE is the game's EZMODO character...)

So the last time I popped in there was a bit of interesting talk regarding Ninja Gaiden RNG, but now it's gone because forum glitch. Oh hell naw! I'd typed up a response and notepadded it for later! I will attempt salvage. ;3

---

[RE: NG1 Hammer Bros RNG]

From TASer notes and my own experience, I'm 90% sure boxers have RNG too. Specifically, the timing of their jabs once you've entered their striking range. There's no reason to get socked with even the worst luck - optimally spaced sword will always beat jab - but this does complicate things slightly. Very early jabs require a quick response. Very late ones could feasibly lure the unwary in dangerously close.

It also creates the infamous scrub trap where a panicky player gets jabbed, then alternates between whiffing at the erratically moving boxer and getting socked all over again. Don't cry noobs! Learn to extricate FFS! Use the hitflash to secure your space, retreating if need be, then attack. One of my favourite little minigames, along with the Hammer Bros approaches.

twice to that asshole at the bottom of that one jump in 4-3.

I highly recommend death from aboving that one with a Jumpslash launched alll the way from the top of the screen, it's fun and practical. Sans JS you want to heave Ryu as rightward as possible to insure against pit knockback.

[Jonny2x4]

Personally I don't think AC Contra is remotely challenging unless you play it on the highest difficulty level with the lowest amount of lives (then again, I'm only familiar through MAME emulation and that one Nintendo DS compilation with all the Konami games, which fucked up the rolling mines pattern). Super Contra, on the hard, becomes super tough on the highest difficulty (I've yet to cleared it myself).

[Durandal]

What's next? Satanist vampire pedophiles from another dimension?

[BrianC]

[RE: NG1 Hammer Bros RNG]

I know you mean a different Hammer Bros, but I'm under the impression SMB's Hammer Bros. also has RNG. Trying to get past the first one in 5-2 as small Mario in Vs. SMB is a pain. No mushroom before him in Vs. SMB either. The Cheep Cheeps in 2-3 also have some nasty RNG at times, especially when they make the Koopa Troopas change direction. I noticed RNG in a couple other areas too and a few areas where more or less enemies appear at times.

[FinalBaton]

What's next? Satanist vampire pedophiles from another dimension?

That's amazing, lol

[BrianC]

What's next? Satanist vampire pedophiles from another dimension?

That's amazing, lol

I'm guessing this is exclusive to the MD version? Crazy!

[BIL]

Ah yes, MD Rolling Thunder 2 - one of the happiest examples of full EN text in a JP cart! Surprisingly characterful, with its charming manga take on Avengers / The Saint-esque cheerful mayhem. The passwords are a good laugh too.



^I'M GUESSING SO, ALBATROSS OL' CHUM





RAPID GUN FIRE /captainalex

[BIL]

Oh lawd, my FC action gaming backlog has officially AEXPRODED. Snaffling wants like a man possessed, these last couple months. Imma write a few things up.

After rediscovering the refreshingly back-to-basics beatdown of FC Spartan X Game B LOOP 4 CHALLENGE (ta again Stevens!), I decided that with my latter-day FC library pretty sound, I'd nab more of those rugged early/mid-80s ports. A slightly different animal than the Contra/Double Dragon II-style Super Deluxe God Port For Consumer Hardware! No, I mean the stuff that still trades primarily in MERCILESS DEATH. And on that note! Oh my my, aww hell yes. Longtime wanty-want-want get. ¦3

Spoiler

TATAKAI NO BANKA (Capcom 1986 / aka "Trojan" on NES) My experience with the 1985 coin-op is very limited, basically a few credits via the crusty ol' PS2 Capcom Classics Collection. Grateful for that disc but can't quite love it. Just give M2 all the emulation jobs FFS.

For Spartan X-style purity, the FC port is very nearly what the doctor ordered. Simple, crisp, harshly punishing melee action VS a relentless barrage of mooks and pincer fire - punctuated by swift, deceptively fraught bosses where learned patterns are key, but cannot supplant deft execution.

A shield on [A] is a small but distinguishing advance; smartly, it's by no means free refuge, with crowds adept at swamping turtlers. Proactively killing/deflecting threats with the sword is the generally safer tack. Furthering aggression, it's possible to shield yourself during a forward leap - barging straight through projectiles to punish the sender. (the sniper enemy also has a random grenade that, if blocked, will blow your sword and shield clean away, leaving you reliant on punches and kicks. It's a cool detail, albeit not one the adept will likely see much - particularly with the restore item reliably found nearby) Overall not quite as silky-smooth as Zelda II's sword/shield combo, but certainly a worthy addition to the Spartan model.

The combat suite's best feature is the finessed, satisfyingly lethal OTG sword strike - key to dispatching mooks without breaking your stride, and ideal for more than one boss-slaying technique.



"Ain't so big now, you Gregor Clegane motherfucker!" "GLBTHHBHHH!"

Stage hazards reflect Spartan's "trap floors" with grenade-disgorging apertures, ravenous fish to bat aside with your shield and periodic strafings by airborne snipers. It's a solid, brisk slate of stages and bosses with one glaring weak link: a Mr. Roly Poly Mayne (seen on much better form in a number of other sidescrollers! ).

RPM frankly stinks out the joint, forcing the player to sit by and jump-rope his lame attack. His colleagues are a generally respectable bunch, aggressive and eminently shreddable in expert hands - RPM, OTOH, brooks no technique, only engaging the player when he's good and ready. Mercifully, you only face him twice per run. Consider it a credit to the surrounding game that I devote such scorn to this lone miscreant! In RPM's slight favour, it's pretty nice chopping him in his dumb fucking face once he's finally shown it, then slipping the reprisal.

An interesting and decidedly un-Spartan touch (more 1943, actually) are the optional dungeons, dotted with invisible goodies to liberate via wild slashes. One of these is a Castlevania-esque attack upgrade, granting a whopping 2x damage boost. This is found very early on, and persists until your death - suffice to say, adepts who've wielded this power will soon consider TnB a one-life or bust affair. To my knowledge, there's only one more in the game. I actually got my first 1CC without knowing of its existence - it's definitely a positive addition, upping the tempo from stoical trudge to swashbuckling slaughter. It also cuts down on time with Roly Poly - I was delighted at that.

Enjoyed a lazy Saturday clearing this from scratch, then working out the 1LC. Difficulty curve is a little too back-loaded; figuring out the penultimate and final bosses took a couple credits each, both of them rather fatal to newcomers. After two full runs no-missing to the latter, only to see my six reserve lives obliterated, I suspected there might be a simple Continue cheat ala Milon's Secret Castle or Assault Suit Leynos... and yep:

Spoiler

Hold [up] while pressing Start at the title.

I don't particularly mind resorting to such, in the context of tougher games like this (actually I strongly recommend it, in those two's cases) - especially when time is short, and especially when I'm stress-testing a bunch of new pickups. Basically like credit-feeding an arcade title while learning its ropes, you know? Anyway, pls use your discretion. ;3 I think I'd have gotten an hour or two more before the 1CC, otherwise.

I was a little sad to see there's no loop - the stages could definitely fill out just a tad. Only a tad, though - this is a fine gauntlet as-is, with even a rampant no-miss remaining a fraught thing (unlike in, say, the terminally safe Spartan X2). Stage RNG is volatile, boss damage is brutal, and in fine arcade tradition, all can come crashing down in a moment's lapse of concentration.

By way of illustration I recorded a quickie no-miss clear. Bungled the final stage's cool heli / mook pincer, but I really liked the RNG shuffles earlier in the run, and I was feeling a little shakey, so I settled for it. Damn near died to the last boss's simple yet hellaciously punishing pattern, haha. Stick around after the credits for some mildly amusing stage 1 fuckery I couldn't be bothered with in the main run.

JUDGMENT: Solid Spartanesque with some neat ideas of its own. A fine pickup for fans of the form. Style points for a very cool Techno-Hellenic take on the classic Mad Max via Hokuto no Ken setting! Yo, don't laugh at the Bonus Rats - that's a Postapocalyptic Breakfast of Champions right there!

+Spartan-grade punishing melee action
+Crisp sword slashing, slice they eye out muhfucka
+Rampant pace, arcade danger level!
=At least one loop would've been nice
-Roly Poly Mayne fuckin suuuucks! (however you only see him twice)

[__SKYe]

Great to hear about another good port from Capcom.

Haven't played much sidescrolling action lately, the only highlight being that I reached the last boss in Bare Knuckle 1 (Hard) again, and with some 4~5 lives, but was destroyed anyway.
The bosses' 2-hit KO are brutal, though I wasted quite a few lives on the way. The 1CC will eventually come.

Been playing Liquid Kids (Mizubaku Daibouken) the past few days. Not really intensely, but the game feels very easy, so I hope I'll make a 1CC out of it before moving on.

It's a pretty Bubble Bobble-like game. I wonder if Taito were trying to adapt BB's mechanics in a more standard platformer and ended up with this. The BB and Rainbow Island games are all single screen-ish puzzle like, right?

[Vanguard]

The Bubble Bobble games are single-screen for the most part. Rainbow Islands is a scrolling platformer, though it only scrolls vertically. Parasol Stars scrolls, but the stages are all tiny and it feels more like a single-screener where the camera couldn't quite fit everything rather than a true sidescroller. The GB Bubble Bubble is the same deal as Parasol Stars.

[Sumez]

What Vanguard said... Parasol Stars is the only one of them that repeats the "single-screen" (sans minor scrolling) arena concept of killing all enemies to move on. Rainbow Islands switched the focus of the game from fighting enemies to meneuvering and making your way upwards as quick as possible (which will also give you a natural advantage over the enemies).

Despite sharing the flowing water effect, Liquid Kids is surprisingly not as Bubble Bobble-like as it could have been - for example you can't bounce on downed enemies or your own thrown bubbles, which is really a missed opportunity for crazy secrets and hidden "expert" moves a la "Gimmick!".
As such it ties much more into The New Zealand Story, but with a slightly deeper physics system to your attacks compared to the prequel's plain ol' jumpin' and shootin'. This really feels like the same era of Taito that also made Parasol Stars, for both better and worse (with the exact same lining up of downed enemies for extra scoring mechanic).

[Sumez]

And curse you BIL. I really liked Trojan on the arcade, but I've always avoided the NES/Famicom version (are there any regional differences I need to know about?) because everyone has always told mee that it's a terrible port. Now I need to change that mindset, and probably invest in it too.

[__SKYe]

Thanks for confirming it, I knew that at least some of those games are single screen, but wasn't sure if some of the later ones were eventually made into bonafide sidescrollers.

Despite sharing the flowing water effect, Liquid Kids is surprisingly not as Bubble Bobble-like as it could have been - for example you can't bounce on downed enemies or your own thrown bubbles, which is really a missed opportunity for crazy secrets and hidden "expert" moves a la "Gimmick!".

I've only got some brief experience with it, but it immediately felt really BB like -- on the surface, at least. I'll probably give a try someday as it seems to be a pretty decent title.

[BIL]

And curse you BIL. I really liked Trojan on the arcade, but I've always avoided the NES/Famicom version (are there any regional differences I need to know about?) because everyone has always told mee that it's a terrible port. Now I need to change that mindset, and probably invest in it too.

Hmm, no idea about FC/NES, sorry. I could well imagine it being regarded as a lame port, much in the way Gun.Smoke is by some. However I consider AC and FC G.S different experiences entirely, enjoying both the former's ferocious intensity and the latter's ambling goodtime blasting... wouldn't surprise me if AC/FC Trojan turned out the same.

(I really like the "Trojan" name, not least because of the neat tie-in to "Spartan!" And, uh, the rubbers too! A tough choice which to keep depending on circumstances! )

On its own terms, it certainly keeps up with contemporary FC sidescrollers - there's a degree of glitchiness but it's totally benign, the overall handling is superb. Conversely, I really want to like FC Senjou no Okami, but the combo of frenetic pace and laggy aiming puts me off.