Ninja Warriors Once Again - PS4/Switch/Steam

[TransatlanticFoe]

Annnnd didn't that just highlight what I was doing wrong - didn't realise you could pick the direction of the spin throw! I'd tried a lot earlier with a press in the opposite direction on release and on initial execution. That allowed me to be a lot more aggressive throughout, as opposed to previously relying on luck to hand me enough that I could throw from just one side. D'oh.

Much appreciated! Appropriately enough, finished the bastard off with a simple green knife soldier!

[BulletMagnet]

Many thanks, BIL.. I should note that I'll probably be tiptoeing around Ninja Saviors for a bit, since when the thing finally showed up I was already a ways into one of the "Atelier" games, which are ever so slightly different in terms of atmosphere and play style (I'm half afraid just mentioning one of them in your presence is grounds for being kicked out of the thread ), but if I need a break from Cute Girls On An Epic Quest To Do Cute Things this should serve as a suitable palate cleanser, heh.

I should also note, not that it really needs to be said, that it'll be even longer before I get a crack at Yaksha/Raiden unless I break down and credit feed.

[BIL]

I don't believe in chasing anyone off, I'm still awaiting the return of my absent friend Edmans!



(the plan is to offer him a Ninja Gaiden thread lock if he finishes the NES game, only to reveal after that we were lying! )

I'd go ahead and get Yaksha+Raiden by any means desired. Other than the remarkably well-judged brawling, the SFC game's biggest strength was its character diversity (two out of three ain't bad? more like two out of three is GOAT ). Much the same here. I get why they needed to lock up the new two, but ultimately, long-term mastery is where the game's worth is at.

[Stevens]

Another 1 CC with Ninja. Generally clean, but had a close call with Jubei only saved by meter management and another with Bimmy and Jammy that I was able to salvage by burning one of their faces off.

Better fight against Banglar this time. Didn't take a hit till almost the end.

[BIL]

God damn! I'm just about done with PART 0/BASICS and PART 1/NINJA, but I can't. stop. making GIFS of this game! I JUST CANT STOP Stage 4 is a looker.



Not even AUTOCANNONS THAT SHRED ARMOURED SUVS LIKE WET CARDBOARD are of concern for ANCIENT SHINOBI TECHNIQUE



O rly?

Spoiler

In the name of Hurblat, I'll obliterate this ignorance from our tragic age.

So as not to explode mousewheels in ash's thread, imma post 'em in the hideout of notorious scrolling action ruffians "R2RKMF." Here is part zero-one. Please pardon any layout hiccups, lazy man at work.

[mamboFoxtrot]

been playing this game a good deal since I got it, tho I needed some breaks due to SORE GAMER THUMBS
(also, surprised to see that even the not-so-special physical edition of this game still comes with a manual, small poster, some stickers, etc)
best 1cc attempt so far is up to the middle of the last stage with Ninja on Normal, though I haven't made a lot of serious attempts yet -- its mostly just been unlocking characters and trying them out etc

Annnnd didn't that just highlight what I was doing wrong - didn't realise you could pick the direction of the spin throw!

Yeah, I made this mistake as well. Early on I tried choosing the direction once or twice but didn't do the input quite right and just went "welp guess you can't choose the direction". Though, even now that I know how to do it, it can be a bit fiddly. Maybe its about time I put away the Pro Controller and plugged in my SNES or Saturn pad.



random question: does it matter which way you go on the last stage? The right path seemed shorter and easier than the left one, dunno if there's some kind of trade-off I'm not seeing here.

[BIL]

I was wondering about that from when I first picked up the SFC version several years back, up until the release of TNWOA. From what I can tell, the Left path is flat-out harder in both SFC and remake. Nastier enemy waves, and TNWOA also introduces the new "laser wall" hazards - IIRC, they're not on the Right path. Neither is the rad new destructible server rack scenery, which makes SHAWEET explosions when you throw chumps through it! However the main reward is not looking SCURRED.

[mamboFoxtrot]

yeah, that's all I could really figure from it: a weird moment of "choose your difficulty", since its not like there's a scoring system to make the path with more enemies "more lucrative" or anything like that.
I think I'll stick to the shorter path until I actually beat the game a few times tho ain't scurred of bein scurred

[Strider77]

Does this game have any scanline options?

[BIL]

Yep! Has aspect ratio and scaling options, too.



Scanline intensity goes from 0 to 9. Here's my usual, #5:



(click for full res)


(also click for full res, never properly looked but goddamn the startup artwork is beautiful )


(on PS4, here - would assume Switch offers the same options, haven't heard of any version differences)

[BulletMagnet]

Took a brief break from Atelier Firis to play a few more rounds of this, with Kunoichi and Kamaitachi. Managed to get to stage 5 with both (seems that's my wall for the moment), though both runs were nail-biters - seriously, EVERYTHING went wrong on that Kunoichi run, seemingly psychic background missiles, goons suddenly backing up behind one of those robot guys just before I could grab and throw them, outstretched fists waiting for me at the descent of every jump, it's all here!

One thing I noticed more and more as I played was, despite how throws and other such moves offer a load of invincibility, most "EX" techniques that use the battery meter seem VERY vulnerable, which strikes me as a bit counter-intuitive; with Kamaitachi in particular, being poked out of both the back needles and the air spinner move by standard nobodies is a mood-killer to say the least, heh. On the bright side, I think I'm slowly starting to get a bit of a feel for him, despite not being able to take advantage of throws as much as his pals can.

HG101 also put up an article on this, so at least I can say I'm not the only one getting whomped by that bugger of a first boss.

[BIL]

EX moves' uncharacteristic vulnerability seems like a balancing of their damage potential, certainly with Ninja and Yaksha. This is what happens when you don't mind your six while thrashing chumps. Yaksha's flying hentai tentacle deals brutal damage at puny cost:

Spoiler

"OH JESUS, ME FOOKIN PLUMS"

(like Yaksha herself and everything she does until she touches the ground, the tentacles actually are invincible when executed out of the grapple flurry as shown. Much like the three SFC returnees, it's not EX moves at the heart of efficient Yaksha play, but the i-frames of her flurry and combo enders)

Kamaitachi's spines are ostensibly for anti-air, where typically most will miss, but I suggest exploiting his crouch-run and lack of grapple to get into meaty range for pointblank shotgunning. Way nastier damage - stacked spines can kill medium and large enemies outright, IIRC. I never used his "air swim" much, but it at least looks cool.

Something I picked up from the SFC game... don't think of weaker enemies (specifically KNIFE ARMY, who possesses the uniquely deadly trait of infinite respawning) as single entities, but a collective. One's not a problem, but two will get awkward, and three can flatten you in not only a pincer but also a frontal attack. Killing one temporarily weakens the many-headed beast; it's not a victory in itself.

TNWOA's a bit less intense with the wider playfield, unlike SFC where a single lapse will put four enemies at your throat, but I still find this approach curbs the "where the hell did this asshole come from?!" effect. Only to an extent though. The treacherous single-plane brawling makes it an innately "WTF?! DAMMIT" or "taptaptaptaptaptaptapFUCK!" game.

In the SNES game, your “Blaster” meter was mostly used for a screen clearing explosion, though there were also a few combo finishers you could execute if the meter was filled, which drained it slightly. Those moves are still present but each character has a number of added special moves, like Kunoichi’s shuriken attack. While these still consume a bit of meter, it doesn’t need to be maxed out, so you can use them more often. Considering that the meter drains if you’re knocked to the ground, there’s always an incentive to use it before you lose it, and encourages you to play defensively.

This merits clarification - the meter won't drain once it's maxed out, no matter how much of a beating you take. So it's a bit more nuanced than "use it or lose it" - if defense is your primary concern, you're better off limiting EX usage and letting the bomb charge up, then stowing it for emergencies.

He's right that you can play very defensively if you feel like it, bombing then letting it recharge just like on SFC, but the petty concern of pride aside (>:3), I like to think the designers were casting their haughty aspersions on wait n' bomb via the end-stage time stat. Alternatively, you can certainly make proactive use of EX moves whenever you've got the meter for them, but that would seem to be playing aggressively.

Minor Dream Game Hackz tangent: On SFC and remake alike, I would've made the gauge charge strictly on damage given and received. For TNWOA, I'd make it two meters: one for EX, one for bomb. EX would gain far more steeply on damage given. Bomb likewise on damage received.

So aggressive players would naturally have more firepower with the occasional emergency bomb, and those taking lots of damage would get a leg-up.

(right now what I really want is that Dream Game Patch for the annoying input glitch)

There are also subtle tweaks to the ways enemies take damage that make them easier in juggle, and generally the action is much more satisfying than the original version, where it was already pretty fun.

A nitpick, but you can't juggle enemies at all in the original. All of that is completely new to TNWOA.

---

Now. Since the first boss (NEO GIGANTO) seems to give chaps undue troubles (though how undue these are, I may differ!) - I have taken it upon myself to not only BEAT THE LIVING DOGSHIT OUT OF HIM with all four characters - but to do so in a way which I hope highlights his peculiar weaknesses!

"AYKSHUALLY there are five characters, I guess you still haven't unlock-" STFU bitch! I don't know what in sweet fuck I'm doing with Raiden, so I offer no comment! I apologise.

Now, when I went from Ninja to Kunoichi, I thought "my beautiful babies " When I went from Kunoichi to Kamaitachi I thought "still rather similar to Kunoichi, just like on SFC, but with a whole lot of new tricks!"

When I went from Kamaitachi to Yaksha, MEIN FUCKIN HEAD ASPLODËN as I kept trying to initiate grapples by smacking motherfuckers! What I am saying is: Kamaitachi's lack of grabs gives him a very different relationship with i-frames, one somewhat strained in this KNIFE ARMY-populated crowd! So he's probably got the hardest time vs NEO GIGANTO, not that this is saying much!

SPECIFIC DEETS: Of course, you are not fighting one on one. The biggest crowd threats are probably the Drones and Rifles, both of whose sniping can really ruin your shit. I even get shot in the back as Kamaitachi, but it was an illustrative fight and I take bloody revenge on the treacherous dickbutt by squashing him with a golf cart, so it was cool.

NINJA Strongest killer has the easiest fight. Batter Giganto down with triple EX Nunchaku, follow up with regular Nunchakus, soon enough you'll have a fourth EX and then it's beddy-byes. Nunchakus of both type will help with Drones.

KUNOICHI You can do a decent chunk of starter damage with Shuriken, though (as in this replay) he may block some or all of them. Otherwise stay in close and abuse the superjump, he is utterly unable to hurt you during it. Note the side-switch exploit.

KAMAITACHI TBH I've not used Kamaitachi nearly as much as the other three, once getting the Hard clear. But I have to say, what a fun character. Anyway, use aggressively chained Air Swims to butcher Giganto's goddamn face, and follow Kunoichi's superjump and side-switch precepts otherwise.

YAKSHA Ohohoho, what a wicked as fuck technical pointblank buzzsaw of a character. I stall the initial attack. Be not mistaken! Had I wished it, I could have RENT him... as the LION RENDS THE ANTELOPE!

However, I want you all to note the grapple flurry. 1) Yaksha is UTTERLY INVINCIBLE from the start of the flurry until she hits the ground. With a steady stream of KNIFE ARMIES to fuel her sharply-upward trajectory, poor GIGANTO (and indeed bosses in general!) is SMACK-DAB IN A FRACTAL OF FUCKED. Note also that flurried enemies count as thrown (because it is a throw!), provided you don't smack them again. It's not really relevant to this fight, but pay attention anyway. This be a game where you use your loaf, and shit!

Undue troubles:

To be honest, the fundamentals required here are:

1) keep your mitts up, to block and keep your superjump primed
2) aggressively invade boss space with superjumps and/or invincible attacks
3) take appropriate distance OR use i-frames to counter boss wakeups

The more specific side-switching, AI-exploiting tricks aren't critical, though they certainly don't hurt to know about. And all of these will serve you well in the long-term. So take heart, if this big lad is regularly stomping on your dick! Today's humiliation is tomorrow's fuel for victory!

I HAVE COMPLAINT (・｀W´・) Giganto's boss explosion is kinda lame, compared to both the SFC's short, sharp head-asploding pop, and the more recent Wild Guns Reloaded, whose own first boss goes out in an ALMIGHTY, immortally satisfying HNNN *BOOF* HUWAAA *BLAOW* demolition! God damn it's GREAT.

Actually you know what - shamelessly echoing myself from pre-release, I wish REGULAR Giganto was still around as a regular enemy. I'd have the player arrive as usual, only for - womp womp! - NEO GIGANTO to drop through the ceiling and squash the poor bugger flat! THEN, post-victory, I'd have your characters GTFO while NEO GIGANTO not only blew up like a motherfucker, but ALSO set off the ordnance in the background! Good god I'm gonna blast a hole in the ceiling. Yeah, I find his SFC demise more gratifying. TBH I feel kinda sorry for him in TNWOA, with that hapless expression on his face! BUT NOT SORRY ENOUGH

[BulletMagnet]

If nothing else, nobody can ever accuse you of taking half-measures, BIL - thanks much for the info.

EX moves' uncharacteristic vulnerability seems like a balancing of their damage potential

Makes sense, though I suppose my mindset was coming from Street Fighter-ish games (not that I'm any more prolific at those than scrolling beat-em-ups, mind you), where "powered up" versions of moves that cost some super meter are generally "safer" than their "regular" counterparts. Gonna have to take a different approach here, obviously!

[Zaarock]

People are still finding combo routes and other optimizations. (eg. ninja , ninja 2 , kunoichi)

This game really has some nice depth to it. Even going for speed/efficiency there's a lot of cool stuff like this to be done.
RIP Giganto, I think he gets pulverized by everyone now

[BIL]

"You'll be knockdown-resistant, they said. It'll be great, they said!"

[mamboFoxtrot]

He's right that you can play very defensively if you feel like it, bombing then letting it recharge just like on SFC, but the petty concern of pride aside (>:3), I like to think the designers were casting their haughty aspersions on wait n' bomb via the end-stage time stat. Alternatively, you can certainly make proactive use of EX moves whenever you've got the meter for them, but that would seem to be playing aggressively.

Minor Dream Game Hackz tangent: On SFC and remake alike, I would've made the gauge charge strictly on damage given and received. For TNWOA, I'd make it two meters: one for EX, one for bomb. EX would gain far more steeply on damage given. Bomb likewise on damage received.

So aggressive players would naturally have more firepower with the occasional emergency bomb, and those taking lots of damage would get a leg-up.

I think the meter charging passively is actually pretty critical to the pacing of the game. It means you can build it up while bounding over the enemies from one arena to the other, rather than having to spend time punching every dude on the way there. Likewise, it also means that if enemies just want to fart about off screen, its not time completely wasted. Also, well... if someone is willing to stand around to charge their meter between bouts, they'd probably also be willing to grind out the meter just punching the infinite knife dudes, which sounds even more tedious tbh. Being able to build meter faster by hitting enemies could be nice tho, but then might also run the risk of giving you TOO much power

The bomb feels so good at clearing out rooms that it honestly doesn't feel so much like a panic button as it does a reward for not getting knocked down. With Ninja and Kunoichi especially I end up treating the EX attacks as safety options more (namely in the Fuck These Powerloader Wannabes I'm Just Gonna Cheese 'Em kind of way).

[BIL]

True, short of adding aggressive Zombie Revenge-style time limits (I think it was ZR, anyway... I definitely remember its announcer's awesome "THERES NO TIME" holler), which would rather mess with the game's style, it'd remain a very self-policed affair.

I guess you could get around KNIFE ARMY/BATTLE ROOMBA milking by making respawning enemies give no meter, similar to how the PS2 Contras nix their respawners from your stage Hit Ratio. I'd have it so you need to throw a set spawn into them for any reward, so you could get some milky satisfaction but your improvised bludgeon would eventually succumb to repetitive head trauma.

This is getting completely into Mad Professor territory, but I'd love to see an optional SUPERHARD mode (I could swear I remember talk of at least a TNWOA demo appearing in a cab somewhere, pre-release), with some kinda adaptive difficulty, or at least bonus waves. Hard is fun but it feels like there's a healthy room for expansion. Then again I'd like to see a small cabal of cybernetic ANTI-ANDROID SQUAD midboss-tier enemies with plasma swords and jetpacks and powered armour, at which point we might as well talk of TNWAAA (Again and Again and Again). (TIME 2 RIP OFF SUPER SHINOBI II: an agile type w/jetpack & telegraphed fullscreen shuriken burst, a balanced type with a sword and nasty fullscreen swipe, and a bruiser type with br00tal grapples and a damn minigun to punish chickens. I want enemies I can robofacepunch without the slightest remorse!)

[Squire Grooktook]

My collectors edition FINALLY came!

Not pictured: chopsticks









^^^Love how the english text continues from the japanese with the same vertical spacing. Aesthetic.


Would love to get this scanned for appreciators.

Gonna start playing in just a bit ^_^

[BIL]

Excellent, hope you enjoy this as much as I have.

Good lord, Giganto is even getting his ass handed to him by the gang in the official artwork. I like Ninja dropping the elbow on him. And aww - I wish they'd gone with that sleeker rendition of Kunoichi for the game. She looks like a grown-up version of the SFC's murderous schoolgirl. Sexy (as Kunoichi are wont to be!) but commanding. Reminds me of her clear antecedent Kaede, as seen in Kage's attract intro:



TNWOA's curvier Kunoichi is still distinctive, but she totally looks like a soccer mom comin' STRAIGHT OUTTA HAMPTONS sleeper-cell style for one last BOMBA. I like how her new guarding walk cycle seems to subtly evoke the arcade characters' iconic robo death-march, offset by a *fabulous* golden mane of murderous monofilament wire. She looks like goddamn Haohmaru in her Katana startup/cooldown frames.

GOT THE POWER I'VE GOT THE SPEED ♫



Akira Yasuda aka AKIMAN of Capcom legend drew an impressive Kunoichi. Not work-safe, as she is naked as all hell, but I regret nothing! I admire lovingly noir-lit CHISELED MAN BUTT all day when I revisit the Terminator duo, following the latest god-awful attempt at a third film! Is be motif

VENUS ARGUEMENTOR [NWS]

Spoiler

But what the machine is feeling and thinking about, nobody knows. Speaking of, my favourite unofficial Kunoichi art:

Daddy said we'll have ice cream again after I kill the bad people

Spoiler

[BulletMagnet]

Latest updates in the BM Gets Owned By This Game Chronicles:

- Stage 5 remains my wall, so I credit-fed through that and 6 so I could practice them via Time Attack mode; got to the part in Stage 7 where you need to fight 4 of those yellow robots at the same time and decided it was time for a break.

- While we're on the topic, is there a reliable way to throw those things (and other baddies that can toss you, like the secret service guys) from the front? Sometimes it works, other times they just grab me instead; it feels like a crap shoot, especially with Ninja, who has a tougher time getting behind them, and that goes double when there are no small fry around to throw at them instead.

- Stage 1 boss continues to faithfully serve his role as Noob Detector, as I still can't seem to nail down a reliable way to get past him without a substantial life buffer, especially with characters other than Ninja; as with the yellow bots, the biggest bugger is his seemingly random ability to throw you out of pretty much anything (though being caught unawares by his hitboxes doesn't help either; sometimes he swings away as I'm standing in front of him and misses repeatedly, other times I get clocked, the positioning must be more precise than I'd hoped). The part where he makes a surprise stage 5 reappearance is where a lot of my runs end.

- Not to say that boss number 5 is a cake walk either, though in his case my main issue was the fact that progressively more annoying "regular" enemies seem to show up as you beat them down, so you seem to be best-served leaving the tanky but otherwise not too bad beefy dudes he starts with alive as long as possible while focusing on him as best you can. Will need more practice...

- Stage 6 was mercifully short...only, of course, to mock me with TWO versions of the stage 1 boss at the end. They seem to have lost the axe kick, but replaced it with an equally annoying slide move, not sure what other differences were present.

- Stage 7, for its part, was the first part of the game where I found myself wondering what the designers were thinking; in other areas foreground elements have been present, but turn transparent whenever you pass beneath them, so no issues. Here, there's a portion with a bridge that covers the lower half or so of your character and remains opaque: this means that not only can you not keep track of downed enemies or the life refills that appear here, but the already-irritating background missiles are present too, and you can't see their shadows either, which means you're totally at the mercy of random dice rolls in terms of avoiding them. I can only assume making this one part of the game like this was a deliberate design decision, but IMO it was a very, very poor one.

- It's probably just nerves on my part (though I still choose to blame the controller ), but I frequently have trouble when it comes to the up and down keys in the clutch; I don't go from "forward" to "down" quickly enough after grabbing an enemy (particularly bosses) and often end up giving them a side throw when I meant to go for the down throw, and also sometimes find my character sitting there wide open and flashing green while holding up when I could have sworn I pressed the attack button, and end up eating a punish (or, worse, the attack just starts to activate before I get whomped, and I get knocked down and lose all my battery). Getting a better handle on those would probably go a fair ways in moving me up from "noob" to "noob-ish".

Back to doing cute things for a bit before I get the urge for another kick in the teeth.

[BIL]

For the st7 "Golem Rush," and indeed any other scenario involving large groups of them, I like to flatten them en masse with throws. Won't do any real damage, but will ensure they're kept in wakeup state while I build meter and reposition myself at their backs. You don't want to fight a pack of them one-by-one, since your normal combo enders will bounce right off of 'em.

- While we're on the topic, is there a reliable way to throw those things (and other baddies that can toss you, like the secret service guys) from the front? Sometimes it works, other times they just grab me instead; it feels like a crap shoot, especially with Ninja, who has a tougher time getting behind them, and that goes double when there are no small fry around to throw at them instead.

Golems are notoriously troublesome with their front grabs. A relatively safe approach is to superjump into meaty range, slam them with a [down] grapple, then combo and grapple them on wakeup. Ninja's front tumble may appear stubby, but its short range is actually perfect for spoofing Golems - here's a quick video example.

Alternatively, if you can get behind them and quickly strike, they won't turn around in time. Useful if you want a combo ender.

Conversely, where Golems like to throw as you approach, Foxes (secret service) tend to rush and throw guarding players, or sometimes duck and sweep. Best approach is to be aggressive - I like to nail them with a jump-in, or a crouch P as Ninja, to preempt both their varieties of bullshit. Jubei (st5 boss) uses throws very similarly... don't turtle, basically. If you're forced to guard in front of Fox/Jubei, watch out for a sudden charge and either counterattack, or superjump through it, or backflip away. Backing up on the ground will just get you thrown.

- Stage 1 boss continues to faithfully serve his role as Noob Detector,

That's a really good name for him, if a bit cruel.

as I still can't seem to nail down a reliable way to get past him without a substantial life buffer, especially with characters other than Ninja; as with the yellow bots, the biggest bugger is his seemingly random ability to throw you out of pretty much anything (though being caught unawares by his hitboxes doesn't help either; sometimes he swings away as I'm standing in front of him and misses repeatedly, other times I get clocked, the positioning must be more precise than I'd hoped). The part where he makes a surprise stage 5 reappearance is where a lot of my runs end.

Just like Golems, your best bet is to aggressively superjump into meaty range - he can't throw you while you're overlapping him, only use his three-hit combo, which is easy to see coming, especially when it's slowly hyper-armouring through your attacks. When you see him cock his fist back, get your guard up for his combo, then resume the attack and superjump after him if he hops away. The Giganto Beatdown Extravaganza I posted recently revolves around this approach, for Ninja, Kunoichi and Kamaitachi - Yaksha can use it too, but she's better off making use of the KNIFE ARMIES to grapple flurry -> invincible hentai tentacle him.

Just stay on him as shown, it really is that simple - dive in. He can't do much at all to an aggressively superjumping player, nor one that's battering him from meaty range. If you hang back and pick at him, not only will you have a much longer fight, you'll also be putting yourself in his throwing range, and more vulnerable to crowd interference (it's much easier to handle his backup when you're regularly busting out combo enders).

- Stage 6 was mercifully short...only, of course, to mock me with TWO versions of the stage 1 boss at the end. They seem to have lost the axe kick, but replaced it with an equally annoying slide move, not sure what other differences were present.

Note the telegraphing hop before the slidekick!

- Stage 7, for its part, was the first part of the game where I found myself wondering what the designers were thinking; in other areas foreground elements have been present, but turn transparent whenever you pass beneath them, so no issues. Here, there's a portion with a bridge that covers the lower half or so of your character and remains opaque...

This is the only design element of TNWOA I find truly poor. What sucks is, the wave that attacks in the bridge area is one of the game's most entertaining - Shinobus, Sarus, Shadow Men and Drones from both directions, plus mortars. And then they make half the screen radioactive with that stupid bridge. I almost wonder if it was an oversight, with most of the game's scenery going transparent when sprites pass behind it.

Oof. Just bomb the fuckers imo. I actually enjoyed getting to grips with that bit, but it's a rare lapse of good sense for this game.

If it's any consolation, the SFC original's mortars are much, much nastier - nowhere near as much of a reaction window. So, uh... it could've been even worse!

- It's probably just nerves on my part (though I still choose to blame the controller ), but I frequently have trouble when it comes to the up and down keys in the clutch; I don't go from "forward" to "down" quickly enough after grabbing an enemy (particularly bosses) and often end up giving them a side throw when I meant to go for the down throw...

Important to note - TNWOA unfortunately has a significant input glitch. Fairly easy to work around when you know it's there, but definitely needs a patch.

Assuming you're not being glitched - you need to be quite deft with the grapple inputs, particularly as some enemies will quickly escape the grab, and the game will not accept diagonals for the [down] slams.

A general pointer when going for grapples (which unfortunately won't work on the front-invincible Golems) - enemies tend to pause for a split-second when smacked. So if you're walking up for a grab, you can take a bit of pressure off by jabbing the target, which will pre-empt their retaliation while you snap on the grab. Bit less harried than gambling on your grab beating their attack.

Also note you can crouch-walk into enemies for a grab (useful if their retaliation forces you to duck), and you can also tank straight through jabs if you're close enough (you can take two jabs before the third knocks you down, assuming you're not crouching, in which case all hits are instant knockdown). Wading through jabs to get the enemy by the throat works particularly well for Ninja, since his [up] throw will pretty much level the surrounding area and give you your pick of waking targets.

[BulletMagnet]

I like to think that your secret lair has a Scrub Alarm (presumably a statue of my avatar with a big flashing red light and siren on top) that goes off whenever I post in here; no idea how else you always manage to respond so fast in such detail, but in any event I appreciate it.

Before I forget to mention it, (I think) I've seen it said here that most of the "specialty throws" - like Kunoichi's hair thing or Ninja's spin - can be aimed in either direction, what's the trick to that?

[BIL]

I'd pay good money for a statue of Twitchin' Sal, never mind one with a siren and flashing lights.

Yeah, the [up] throws of Ninja, Kunoichi and Yaksha can all be aimed using the diagonals. Hair is a little confusing on paper, since it sends the enemy behind Kunoichi by default, but you can indeed send them forward in a "mortar launch" attack by using the [up/away] diagonal.

This is incredibly valuable information VS the last boss, who can only be hit with Ninja and Kunoichi's [up] throws, at least AFAIK. Yaksha OTOH can tag him with her [down] slam, but even then, her flurry is vitally useful with its extended i-frames.

[down] throws on the other hand can't be aimed - using the diagonals will just get you the equivalent [side] throw.

For completism's sake, note that [neutral] throws are the same thing as [forward] - might be handy to know, for efficiency if nothing else. If you want 'em thrown forward, there's no need to touch the dpad at all.

Kamaitachi's pseudo-grapples can't be aimed, AFAIK - if you want to boot the target into a crowd that's behind you, instead of caber-tossing 'em, you'll need to side-switch. Easily done with his lack of grab - just scoot straight through 'em.

[BrianC]

Yaksha's EX throws also do damage to Banglar.

[BIL]

Indeed - it can even hit twice, when using large enemies like Golems and Shinobus! She has it pretty good in that fight. [down] and [EX] throws lash the victim all around, clearing out the vicinity and smacking the boss. [up] flurry will not only drop an enemy on him, and anyone else waiting below, it's also ZETTAI MUTEKI and lets her freely traverse LaserMaku:

Lasers ain't shit but a bunch of dicks

Spoiler

Fan blades ain't either!

Spoiler

(GIFS from my Yaksha starter >:3)

As always with Yaksha, you need to learn how to generate and maintain momentum - but with her basics secured, she may have the easiest last boss fight.

EDIT: AHA! Rereading my Yaksha primer, I caught that lousy prick FOX RED-HANDED with his "player guarding? rush in and throw/sweep" routine! Is REREVANT so posting here.

Spoiler

As you can see, I got the bastard! I GOT 'IM GOOD Don't assume when they dart in that they're going for a throw. Of course, you'll be thrown out of a crouch, even if guarding - crouch P may be the best compromise if you need to keep backing up (in the GIF, I needed Fox to Be My Meatbag for the invincible attack on poor long-suffering GIGANTO).

[Klatrymadon]

Had my first go on this today, and absolutely love it so far. I knew from playing the SNES original that it was going to have some depth to it, but I've still been really impressed with the amount of combat options you have, and that the game constantly tests your knowledge of them. I played it with a partner, and thought the handling of the multiplayer game was quite ingenious, too - you share both your health bar and your special attack gauge, which changes how you read the screen and demands that you take on more responsibility for the other player, not just to keep them alive but to ensure you're both in a position to fire off the right moves at the right time. Aiming for a two-player 1CC could be a lot of fun!

[BIL]

Yes, I absolutely loved the 2P setup! As you say it really necessitates you actually work together as a cohesive fighting unit. With the wide playfield, it could've easily felt like two isolated games on one screen, so that was very cool of them.

[Klatrymadon]

Yeah, it's great! I've just got my first clear (though not a1CC yet), and I think this is already my GOTY - it's been a blast so far and is only just beginning to reveal how much there is to chew on. It's got to be up there with Curse of the Moon in terms of rewarding repeat playthroughs and making a 'short' game impressively dense.

Yaksha's immediately brilliant and showing huge potential for combos, although I haven't figured anything out yet. It's the mark of a great beat-'em-up when each playable character essentially represents a different game.

Edit: just unlocked Raiden after a 2P game. I love that he's this ludicrous epitome of the slow bruiser type but is still just as technical and nuanced as the rest of them. Really feels like you're operating a giant mech. By the way, is it just me or are the joycons a bit crap at registering diagonals in this? When I'm using a good d-pad I can aim throws against Banglar with 100% success, but with the analogue sticks guys will fly pretty much anywhere...

[BulletMagnet]

Here's hoping for SFC Kiki Kaikai Once Again. Lots of other intriguing possibilities, but I want that Natsume SFC Power Trio.

Are you sitting down, BIL?

[BIL]

Three outta three baybee Day one without question. By total coincidence, was revisiting TNWAA yesterday, now it's been a year or so. I got a PS4 specifically for this game before discovering a mountain of Other Stuff, chiefly via Arcade Archives. Even absent that unexpected payoff I'd have zero regrets, this thing's Time Attack mode is some of the most infernally potent arcade crack known to man.