Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[FinalBaton]

It's like I said a few months back, I hail from... CUCK ISLAND (■｀ω´■) You can't expect too much of me.

lol

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

After reading a mention of it somewhere in the last several pages of the thread (belated cool to see you posting here again, kitten) I decided to try out Ninja Warriors Again... again and have found myself really getting into it. It was my least favorite of the Natsume SNES power trio before (felt it didn't have quite enough variety for its length despite its fantastic mechanics, and admittedly I still feel that it could lose maybe one stage and not be any worse for it) but after having improved enough at it to get close to 1CCing hard with Ninja (and to successfully clear normal), I've come to feel it's probably the best of the three. Like so many arcade brawlers, it's really not a game that shines until you can start making serious attempts at clearing it without continuing - my earlier misgivings were just because the game doesn't hold up especially well if you credit-feed, unlike Wild Guns or Pocky and Rocky. Usually I don't expect console games to be transformed so powerfully once I make the jump from grinding through to shooting for a clear, but Ninja Warriors certainly pulls through.

Ninja is far and away the most fun character, naturally. The sense of weight he exudes while you steer him around the battlefield is reminiscent of something like Gigantic Army; I don't think there are as many characters in 2D action games who fight quite as viscerally as him - he even gives Haggar a run for his money, if only just so. I think Kamaitachi is fun too - certainly much simpler but I think his odd grab keeps him exciting to play as. The only character I can't get into at all is Kunoichi, since her low damage and reliance on longer combos is a bit of a turn-off. But I'll keep plugging away at her. (One question, though - what is the input for her full grab-pummel? Mashing the attack button doesn't seem to work, so are you just supposed to tap it in a certain rhythm?)

[kitten]

The only character I can't get into at all is Kunoichi, since her low damage and reliance on longer combos is a bit of a turn-off. But I'll keep plugging away at her. (One question, though - what is the input for her full grab-pummel? Mashing the attack button doesn't seem to work, so are you just supposed to tap it in a certain rhythm?)

ty for the wb!

and i'm pretty sure it's just down + attack after a grab isn't it? same as ninja's utmost important knee impalement? TNWA has a really diverse moveset given how incredibly simple the control scheme is.

also:
ninja > haggar

[BIL]

Glad to hear you're enjoying it, Ilpallazo. I definitely agree TNWA might've worked even better as a shorter, deadlier credit... I think it'd have been more immediately threatening to cycle in further fallen bosses as mob leaders (or tag-teamers). Would've liked to fight st2's menacing chainsaw beast while st3's stealth assassin rained grenades from above. However it's clear Natsume pursued the other route, a myriad of smaller enemy configurations, with all their usual aplomb. By the end I don't think there's a mixup they haven't thrown at the player - in a game with mechanics and enemy design this good, I'm happy to give 'em a bit more runtime.

(for the uninitiated, this is why the SFC version must be played, if at all possible; the SNES one straight-up deletes Katanas and pastes in a legion of Claws to compensate, harming the mixup game. Still a helluva good brawler, but don't settle for less!)

I notice their FC sidescrollers Dragon Fighter and Kage have this slightly loose pacing, too. It's only around stage 4 that they get really aggressive, and at the penultimate that they are unmistakably trying to kill you. Makes it objectively tempting to say one of the preceding three stages could be chopped - but they play so well that, much like TNWA's, I'd never want to.

Solbrain/Shatterhand gets around this somewhat by letting you set the stage order, as does Wild Guns, so the easier stage can be used as a breather (or if you're really pushing it, a refuelling stop after going all-out on a harder stage).

Natsume Power Trio is the right description, for sure. Kiki Kaikai, TNWA and Wild Guns are all desert island material. I was playing the hell out of WG in late summer, ironing out kinks in my run - not the hardest game to survive, when you really put your foot down, but the finesse and technique involved in dominating it is immortally exhilarating. The scoring system is undeniably busted, but the thrill of holding your ground to the last possible moment is its own reward.

That and regular, floor-shakingly brutal Vulcan rampages. This reminds me, I need to bump the Greatest Slowdown thread with a perfectly-timed st6-1 double boss kill. That heat distortion, those pummeling explosion sfx, the raining debris, holy fuck it's hawt!

EDIT: dey he is!

Spoiler

Thing what I learned 2DAY: Dragon Fighter's Hard mode unlock and Wild Guns' stage select use the same button sequence! (AAAA, BBBB, AB AB AB AB). Entered at the title screen in DF; at the character select screen (while holding the Select button) in WG. First use in WG will skip Carson City; repeat the code again at stage select to go straight to Last Duel. Might be handy for practicing super XTREEM bullet cancelling / vulcan timing techniques. Or skipping straight to Last Duel to make a GIF.

For Kunoichi's grapple flurry, I believe (relying on muscle memory, haha) you need to hold [down] and hit [attack] to start it off; once it's going, holding [attack] will determine its duration. It's the game's single strongest attack, if completed, but incredibly unsafe, so you'll appreciate being able to break off at a split-second's notice. The absolute shortest variant is actually the only thing the standard knife grunt can survive... this is deceptively useful when you want one knocked down, without something tougher claiming his spot. I use this to get a bit more quality time with the st4 boss and his initial three-knifer backup. Athough Kunoichi's crouching slashes absolutely mow him down, provided you keep an eye on the crowd - so it's more of a showoff thing... Ninja has a more interesting time against him. (ancient run - I squander a perfectly good opportunity to unleash iframe-driven backbreaker hell in the corner, near the end...



Three on the floor, more?
Robot knee doth forge new door.
IN YOUR FUCKIN ASS (・｀W´・)

...and I was still seeking the false refuge of crouch punching - don't be fooled! One of my favourite little quirks in the game system. Duck like a coward, and risk being instantly floored by some random jerk (adios, POW meter!). Stay standing, take a couple inconsequential smacks in the chops as you close in, and get your murderin' mitt clamped around their throat instead. DEVILS GRIP/IRON FIST

Of course you can still be grabbed and thrown if you carelessly walk in on a Karate Bruiser or Sharp Dressed Man, no matter your stance... and ducking is the only way to avoid being blown clean off your feet by the wicked back roundhouse of CAPT BALDHEAD and his young sidekick, the easily-squashed yet formidably-skilled BERET LAD. So many complications here, in an arcade-tight package. It's so damn good.

ninja > haggar

Little Known Fact: in the super secret ending, Ninja

Spoiler

actually survived TNWA by sticking a hand grenade in the bunker's Future Microwave and fucken legging it with his jet boosters.

MAJOR SPOILERS:

Spoiler

Tragically because he had no human skin, or fuckin human face, or human concept of mercy, his pro wrestling career never really took off. It's not his fault he was programmed to hit things until his onboard sensors detected no further vital signs! ;[

Last match before he lost his gig and resigned himself to a service lifetime of highly efficient dish washing at the local MulkDonald's:

Spoiler

Also, the entirely too induldgent promo for Legacy of Ninja-kun!

Spoiler

[BrianC]

I 1cc'ed Wild Guns JP SFC on normal last night. Once I got V-Gun, the final boss was dead.

[BIL]

Yeah, that fight goes dramatically differently depending on your Vulcan timing. He's fiendishly dangerous without it - you need to juggle the front turrets and his brutal mortar shots, some of which will deliberately miss and linger, while others crash right down on you. The exact tell for which is which eludes me ATM, I think it's his firing animation? Or maybe I'm mis-remembering there being a tell at all, haha. It's this boss that makes me favour Annie over Clint; her shorter dodge roll is ideal, where his will put him smack in front of a turret ready for blasting.

Helluva rush doing the whole thing without Vulcan, though with the front turrets being an excellent source of meter, it's likely you'll max out even if you enter with minimal charge. Stand right in front of them and let 'em fire, then soak up everything they put out. Something I always stress to newer players - you don't need to hit incoming bullets dead-on. The outer ring of your reticle is what cancels them, provided you're firing when it makes contact (this makes MG especially good at defensive play, and SG and Grenade progressively more risky). Knowing this, it feels much more secure to stand your ground while aggressively sweeping your reticle around your character's space, blocking all incoming fire - barrages that once sent you running become lucrative opportunities to soak up tons of meter.

Speaking of... an easy way to bias things in your favour at the last boss is to exploit the gatling turret + teleporting hoverbots in the scene immediately beforehand. The turret is designed to miss a stationary player, and the bots can be killed one after another without getting a shot off, with the right combo of agressive fire and occasional lassoing. Nail the groove, and you can enable Vulcan, take 95% of the turret's health, then edge the meter back up and finally blow the door down with total impunity. Ideally the last boss won't get a chance to kill you before Vulcan kicks in.

Not exactly honourable, but it's an absolutely cut-throat fight at the end of a relatively long and (if you're going for maximum dominance) rather intense shooter, so I ain't feel bad. If I'm around 40%, I'm feelin' pretty dick-swingin'. Lower (typically if I blow the door right as Vulcan exhausts) and it's a bit nervous!

[BrianC]

I admit that going back and forth between the original and remake of wild guns threw me off in certain areas. Especially judging shots of certain enemies.

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Oh, you hold the button to get the full Kunoichi flurry! Thanks, I had been trying to find the right rhythm to mash and it was frustrating me. Character makes a bit more sense now.

[Marc]

Does the original Ninja Warriors have ANY merit whatsoever? Unless I'm missing something, it's the first true actual waste of money in the Arcade Archives series.

[BIL]

I like it on a casual level, as a slightly more advanced Spartan X, but I've not got very strong feelings either way. Of those who regularly post here, I think EmperorIng has some more experience with it.

I'd probably have picked up the Mega CD port a few years back, but after behaving itself for most of the game, its new 4:3 POV completely ruins the last stage.This reminds me, I never checked out the PCE port.

[Stevens]

I mean it has a really cool cab:D

[BIL]

Yeah, legendary OST too! Daddy Mulk is one of Zuntata's most famous tunes, for good reason, but the rest is great as well. My favourite is The Motherless Children, quite the prog-pop trip.

Game has quite the B-movie savage mood, too... it's decidedly silly, but laced with real ugliness like the ripping gunfire and screams of terror that kick off a credit, the constant reminders of a city disintegrating under civil war, and the flatly brutal ending (brutal for all parties involved).

"Please... don't kill me...!"

Fucking hell. Gotta say, even when a Taito game doesn't play so great, it'll almost always have some artistic or musical value that makes me glad I looked it up.

[Marc]

I like it on a casual level, as a slightly more advanced Spartan X, but I've not got very strong feelings either way. Of those who regularly post here, I think EmperorIng has some more experience with it.

I'd probably have picked up the Mega CD port a few years back, but after behaving itself for most of the game, its new 4:3 POV completely ruins the last stage.This reminds me, I never checked out the PCE port.

Probably not for me then, the one thing I do enjoy about Kung-fu Master is the pace of it, NW feels like that but with the life sucked out of it.

[drauch]

Goddamn

A REVORUTION BROKE OUT.
AND EVERYTHING BECAME TO AN END.
THE TROUBLED COUNTRY SEEMED TO BE FINISHED
BY THE DEATH OF THE WICKED MACHINES.

BUT THE PEACE DID NOT CAME.

BECAUSE NINJA WARIORS,
THEY ARE IMMORTAL MURDER MACHINES......

It's a slow start, but by the end you really are a murder machine. Enemies like crazy.

[Stevens]

I also recall being able to hear that cab from across the arcade.

[mycophobia]

Tried out Shinobi on hard difficulty today and got the 1CC on first try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_nFTpPCYcA

I like that it changes the enemy layouts instead of just making certain values imperceptibly higher. I got caught off guard a couple of times with the extra enemies but obviously it wasn't that much more to handle. So I think next time I'll tackle the hardest difficulty and maybe also turn fast bullets on.

[EmperorIng]

Ninja Warriors can be fun, but it is definitely one of the more limited examples of that single-plane... I hesitate to call them "beat-em-ups" (hack-n-slashes?) genre. I think like many Taito games that I enjoy or admire, it's definitely one I play for the aesthetics and atmosphere first and foremost. While the game won't offer the visceral satisfaction of learning its nuanced mechanics that the Super Famicom sequel offers up, the game gives you tricks that let you master its enemy hordes and enjoy the carnage.

While I haven't 1CC'd the game (the furthest I got was the final enemy rush in st5 if I recall - a real killer ), I did watch a few impressive replays that allowed me to take better stock of the game and how you can beat it. It mostly comes down to exploiting the AI and enemy patterns to your benefits. Some of it is simple, like getting foot soldiers grouped together to kill them with a few swipes, or baiting the goblin cyborgs into jumping instead of attacking. However, from my observations, the best way to survive is to mostly be on the move instead of killing every enemy that comes your way.

Keeping your ninja towards the front and at a brisk pace can help bypass some of the more nasty encounters, like getting beyond the two masked ninja in st4, backwards-walking at the right-edge of the screen while blocking, and letting them harmlessly throw shurikens (well, not harmless if you don't block!) from the left of the screen until they deactivate. It seems like different enemies spawn depending on your position in the screen - for example, grenade-launchers can sometimes pop in stage 1 (when they usually appear in 4!) if you spend most of the stage towards the right... though this isn't guaranteed.

Manipulating the tanks in the game is one of the prime maneuvers you need to do in order to win. It makes much of stage 4 easier, and makes a chunk of stage 2 simple. Mainly, when the tank approaches, let it come towards you, and to the left of the screen. Jump past it - noting that jumping while blocking pushes you forward in that somersault jump - and avoid it until it gets towards the right of the screen and you can't dodge the gun any more. By this point enemies will start spawning, but you can now jump on the right edge of the tank and ride it through the stage, and the game will spawn lines of enemies directly in front of the tank and they will be crushed underneath. After a while, the tank will deactivate, and the stage will continue. But this relatively safe encounter saves you from potential HP loss. Doing it again stage 4 is almost necessary - though trickier because the kite enemies will molest you from above. One THWAP of the knife takes care of them though.

I can't vouch for the game as a paragon of design, but it does have some exploits, or tricks or skills, that make the game more manageable on a single credit. I think it's MOSTLY fair until the final room, which is just there to make you lose your credit, ha. Or maybe that's my scrubbiness talking.

This reminds me, I never checked out the PCE port.

It's terrible! It may have an admirable look of a semi 8bit/16bit machine trying to copy the sprites, but everything else about it is lame. I can forgive the single-screen display, because what are you going to do? The controls feel stiffer than the arcade original, and I am not so sure that the PCE d-pad was meant for the same type of action as the arcade game.

A big no-no is the lack of several prominent enemies. No tank in stage 2! That's the point of stage 2! Instead you have a wimpy spawn of a fire breather. That's no climax at all. Worse is that without the tanks, half the fun and strategy of a 1CC is out the window, because baiting the tanks into mowing down dozens of soldiers is how you navigate a lot of stages 2 and 4.

I have also noted that the enemy AI doesn't respond in the same ways, meaning that tactics I developed in the arcade game on MAME did not transfer over. In the arcade the stage 1 boss, the enemy kunoichi, can be baited into jumping back and forth between you with some judicious knee stabs and turnarounds with a little bit of footwork. Nice and simple, and it keeps damage at a minimum. Trying to do the same in the PCE port will get you a nasty downward slash ruining your outfit and your day. Beating Ninja Warriors is all about learning to get enemies into reliable action loops, not awkwardly mash the buttons in a frantic melee. This last point is what turned me off ultimately - aside from the kunoichi, the lack of screen space and changed AI meant that the masked warriors and ball-and-chain guys didn't respond in the same way. After trying I got rid of the HuCard never to return.

With all that text, maybe I should make an addition to the 16-bit port thread, where I similarly warned against the Taito hucard of New Zealand Story - though that one is more playable.

[Sumez]

My only experience with the game is the PCE version. I guess that explains why I don't have a good impression of it.

[Marc]

We any Rolling Thunder fans on here? Get back into it once every few years, love the pace and single-minded focus of it. Graphics are odd, really clean lines but nasty garish colours everywhere, and our agent looks like he's going to trip over his own legs when he does the platform-hopping thing. Switch Namco Museum is on sale for £15.00 at the min - the thought of this and Splatterhouse on the go doesn't make that sound like a bad deal all of a sudden.

[drauch]

Yeah, there's actually some good Rolling Thunder discussion a few pages back. Skykid has been working on it.

[kitten]

i spent a decent chunk of yesterday watching predator (which was good, but left me a little underwhelmed - hadn't seen it since i was a kid and just watched commando for the first time the day before, which i more or less adored) & then subsequently playing the nes game. holy shit, what a bizarre game! i know that licensed games often take some liberties with what they're attempting to represent and generally find faithfulness to not matter a squat, but this game is just weird as hell. i have no idea what on earth it was aiming for or if it originally intended to be something else, but this would be an exceptionally strange game without the predator license, imho.

is it unfinished? were the designers really trying or just banging something out? why are there cutscenes detailing the story of the movie at the beginning & end, but everything between is incomprehensible nonsense? i looked up who developed it, and saw that it was handled by dual/klon, who have a pretty varied library of assorted games. they helped develop rubble saver, a personal favorite of mine and another really weird little game. if you've never played predator, i suggest giving it a quick look on youtube or something, you can punch amoebas out of the air and turn huge in BIG MODE to fight gigantic floating predators in some sort of crystal-orb-filled dimension.


dutch strikes one as a guy who would say "whomever," don't you think?



goofus fights with brute strength. gallant fights with his intelligence and words.
i think i killed him by calling him ugly

there's not really anything hiding underneath this one, but i recommend it for anyone like myself whose thirst for more action platformers on the famicom seems completely insatiable. it's bad, but not awful, and i enjoyed my time with it. it's roughly 20 stages long (there's a total of 30, but a few branches meaning you'll skip about a third of them) and not suited very well for 1cc or at least nomiss due to the slight momentum they place in jumps, tricky platforming, and mean enemy spawns all compounding to leave a few frustrating deaths via being knocked into a pit quite difficult to avoid during a single session through. it fortunately offers infinite continues, though they tend to place you back a few stages and make you redo the dreadfully paced big mode stages almost every time. why most checkpoints are right before those stages rather than right after them is quite beyond me!

[BIL]

With all that text, maybe I should make an addition to the 16-bit port thread, where I similarly warned against the Taito hucard of New Zealand Story - though that one is more playable.

Superb review/strategy post. Now I know my experience with the AC game was fleeting, I don't think I ever got the tank to kill anybody.

there's not really anything hiding underneath this one, but i recommend it for anyone like myself whose thirst for more action platformers on the famicom seems completely insatiable. it's bad, but not awful, and i enjoyed my time with it.

Interesting coincidence! I was revisiting the FC version not long ago myself, along with that of another infamous licensed NES sidescroller, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Both have subtle differences (primarily to do with level order) which made me wanna investigate, despite having few positive memories of them from childhood rentals.

Suffice to say Predator fared MUCH better than the genuinely busted-to-fuck Hyde. Nothing I'd rave over, but I liked the knowing meanness of its platforming - that scorpion in the first stage ain't no Gimmick zako, but the way he'll slowly but surely find his way down the footholds to you via gravity and homing AI alone is just precious. The physics are undeniably slippery, but they felt appropriately matched to the action for the most part. Unfortunately the copy I was looking at was pretty pricey for what it was, so I left it after five (small mode) stages in. I'm a fan of KLON's Devil Hunter Yoko MD sidescroller, could definitely sense a bit of the same edgy talent here.

edit: and oh god, the stat bar calling the grenade "PINE" Technically not Engrish, or even inaccurate assuming Ahnuld is indeed rocking vintage frags, but marvelously offbeat regardless.

From old Hanoi to East Berlin
Pineapple
Involved again ♫

Incidentally Hyde's first FC stage is a lot more interesting than its NES one, too. It's a city area that not only looks cooler than the NES's sparse town, but makes immediate use of the "hide from bombs indoors" mechanic. Kinda Rolling Thunder-esque in spirit, if certainly not in execution. The game's performance is utterly fucked, sadly. After tolerating Jekyll's treacly walk speed for a while, even fighting my way back from a Hyde segment, the latter's projectiles - a poverty take on Contra's flittering flame shot - put paid to my interest. Neat ideas, charming setting, abysmal coding. I like the devastating impact of the bombs, that much felt good. Kinda Guevara-esque.

Charming rewrite of Ahnuld's classic line. And damn close to my dream of an 8-bit Terminator where Kyle Reese seethingly recounts "storming the camps and smashing those metal bozos" before a vengeful Sarah Connor later snarls "You're terminated, weenie!" as she hits the switch! I'd actually nicked the game's (quite admirable) take on the film's guerilla camp raid for a draft TRP_STGT banner:

[FinalBaton]

Don't think for a second that the last 2 Ramones references have passed me by BIL

[BIL]

I like to run stuff up the flagpole and see who salutes

Not the worst pick for a task force anthem, tbh.

COMMANDO aka The Ballad Of EDMANDO

They do their best, do what they can
To wean scrubs off the credit spam ♫

You can't spam NES Ninja Gaiden
Scrub egos, in flames again ♫

First rule is! Get good you scrub~
Second rule is! Quit whining you nub~
Third rule is! Don't fish for sympathy~
Fourth rule is! HG101's that-a-way~

[Skykid]

We any Rolling Thunder fans on here? Get back into it once every few years, love the pace and single-minded focus of it. Graphics are odd, really clean lines but nasty garish colours everywhere, and our agent looks like he's going to trip over his own legs when he does the platform-hopping thing. Switch Namco Museum is on sale for £15.00 at the min - the thought of this and Splatterhouse on the go doesn't make that sound like a bad deal all of a sudden.

I managed a 1 loop clear after a few trips to the arcade but I'm pretty damn sure that clearing the 2nd loop is a 1 life only affair based on limited ammo from the halfway respawn point. Someone suggested that may be incorrect but after several more attempts I think you need to be error free. After clearing loop 1 I checked some 2 loop all clear vids and they're all 1-lifes with some neat ammo recharge tricks I never knew about. But there's a really dumb spot at 2-5 right at the end where it seems you need to keep reversing and returning to a spot to try and cycle the enemy RNG to find a non-instant death way through. Against the clock it could be problematic.

[FinalBaton]

I like to run stuff up the flagpole and see who salutes

Not the worst pick for a task force anthem, tbh.

COMMANDO aka The Ballad Of EDMANDO

They do their best, do what they can
To wean scrubs off the credit spam ♫

You can't spam NES Ninja Gaiden
Scrub egos, in flames again ♫

First rule is! Get good you scrub~
Second rule is! Quit whining you nub~
Third rule is! Don't fish for sympathy~
Fourth rule is! HG101's that-a-way~

very nice

[FinalBaton]

We any Rolling Thunder fans on here? Get back into it once every few years, love the pace and single-minded focus of it. Graphics are odd, really clean lines but nasty garish colours everywhere, and our agent looks like he's going to trip over his own legs when he does the platform-hopping thing. Switch Namco Museum is on sale for £15.00 at the min - the thought of this and Splatterhouse on the go doesn't make that sound like a bad deal all of a sudden.

I managed a 1 loop clear after a few trips to the arcade but I'm pretty damn sure that clearing the 2nd loop is a 1 life only affair based on limited ammo from the halfway respawn point. Someone suggested that may be incorrect but after several more attempts I think you need to be error free. After clearing loop 1 I checked some 2 loop all clear vids and they're all 1-lifes with some neat ammo recharge tricks I never knew about. But there's a really dumb spot at 2-5 right at the end where it seems you need to keep reversing and returning to a spot to try and cycle the enemy RNG to find a non-instant death way through. Against the clock it could be problematic.

You played RT2 on MD Skykid, right? I'm looking at footage of that game, and I'm like... really attracted to it (boner included).

I see a ton of similarities between it and my fave game of all time, Shadow Dancer MD. What do you think : will I get off to RT2?????

[Sumez]

What I played of RT2 on MD is definitely very juicy. Would like some time to get into it at some point. Definitely much harder than the Shinobi games, and quite long.

It has a really awesome password system.

[FinalBaton]

What I played of RT2 on MD is definitely very juicy. Would like some time to get into it at some point. Definitely much harder than the Shinobi games, and quite long.

It has a really awesome password system.

This is downright sexual!

[BIL]

MD Rolling Thunder 2 is cool with me. Diverges significantly from the arcade (IIRC it actually adds a few things?), but in its own right it has the immediacy, ruthlessness and tactical intensity you'd expect of the series. I got it with MD Phelios in a nice package deal, but where I quickly grew disappointed in the latter's slack pace, the former is lethal from the word go. Superb 2P co-op experience too, fits the series' methodical style like a glove.

Also, in-house sound test band.



("Across The Tube" is coool - AC ver has suave keys and a murderfaced bassline, MD ver goes for a spacier effect... actually, pardon the godawful pun, it reminds me of Space Harrier II's trippy yet gallant space-pop. Early excellence from Ayako Saso)