Ninja Gaiden [NES] + R2RKMF: Scrolling Action Monogatari

[wiNteR]

I had a possible glitch on Ninja Spirit (arcade version). It was on the first scene of stage-4 (there are three scenes in that stage), when towards the end you go downstairs for the next scene. I felt that my character was hit by the samurai's sword so I actually took my hands off the controls (also the jump was from the upper platform to the stairs). But surprisingly, a few seconds later I was on the next scene (however, with all ghosts/trails missing but with no effect on weapon power-ups).

Not quite sure whether this was an actual glitch or not. But the missing trails certainly make it quite likely a glitch. I didn't have sound on so I don't know about the sound effect that played. Perhaps playing emulated version might also have a role in this, but I certainly don't know enough to make an informed comment about this.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yes that's a very easy to get glitch. If you die and fall into the hole that leads to next area before the death screen comes up, the game will forget that you died.

It's happened to all of us because we all die a lot at that stage :3

[Sumez]

Does it happen in the PCE version? I feel that knowing this glitch exist, it should be something that must be done on purpose on every playthrough. Much like "suiciding" after a boss in Gimmick!.

[BrianC]

Off the top of my head you may also want to check out Jigoku Meguri or Bloody Wolf.

fixed. The US title for the arcade version is too easy to confuse with the US name for a certain other TG-16/PCE game.

[wiNteR]

Yes that's a very easy to get glitch. If you die and fall into the hole that leads to next area before the death screen comes up, the game will forget that you died.

It's happened to all of us because we all die a lot at that stage :3

Actually, I find that particular scene comparatively easier. I just keep moving to the right (while staying on lower platform). Usually the whole scene is over relatively quick. For some reason, due to re-spawn time or whatever very few samurai seem to show up in that particular scene if you just keep moving to the right. I only tend to use the upper platform towards the end when making the stairs.

Of course this is all when you are "fully" powered up (weapons+shadows). Without being powered that scene is certainly very fun.

I do get caught-up in the second scene relatively often though even when fully powered (because of obstacles, switching the platforms can leave one in a bad position).

[Shoryukev]

I really need to get my hands on a copy of Ninja Spirit. It looks like an amazing game, especially with all the conversations I've seen spawn up about it. The shadow forms remind me of Ninja Gaiden 2, but the different weapons seem to give it a lot of strategy and variety. I'm definitely going to keep my eye out for these other titles mentioned, but Ninja Spirit is #1 on my list!

Overall I'm excited about venturing into the TG-16/PCE library. I had a neighbor who had one when I was very young, but we only lived next to him for about a year so I don't really have any memories of it. The shmups alone are worth the price of entry, but I'm quickly finding out the system has a lot more to offer. I should have got myself one years ago!

[Squire Grooktook]

that dumbass unlicensed "Worlds of Power" book

...forms the basis of Blaster Master: Blasting Again on PSX, believe it or not.

Blasting Again, while not a masterpiece, is a fairly fun game, once you get accustomed to the tank's controls in a 3D space. Levels are large, there are upgrades to be gained, and the game feels pretty open given that you can start hopping between different areas early on.

It's kind of more an interesting curiosity than a more finely-tuned action adventure like its NES predecessor.

Adding onto this, it's been 15+ years since I played it, but I only just this moment remembered how good the water caves area theme was.

[BIL]

Interesting - very YACKesque hybrid of space lounge and techno pulse. Good stuff, reminds me a lot of his Senko no Ronde OSTs.

[Squire Grooktook]

Hmmm, what's this? I could have sworn there were supposed to be some platforms here when I played way back. Let me look up a longplay just to be sure.



Yeah. Guess the rom dump must have fucked up and forgot to render them. Oh well, time for some leaps of faith~



FUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[WelshMegalodon]

Hilarious.

It's 2017 and you're still using Jnes? Try Mesen, puNES, or Nestopia UE.

[BrianC]

Hilarious.

It's 2017 and you're still using Jnes? Try Mesen, puNES, or Nestopia UE.

I think you missed the joke.

Spoiler

It's a region difference between Blaster Master and Meta Fight, not an actual glitch.

[Squire Grooktook]

Yea I was playing Meta Fight but I wasn't sure if it was a glitch or not lol

[WelshMegalodon]

Ah. My bad. In my defense, I haven't played Meta Fight. The original title screen looks pretty slick, though.

[FinalBaton]

Eh, tried Low G Man for the first time tonight! That's an... interesting action platformer, haha.

There are some cool things about it but at the same time there's an equal amount of not-so-cool things (controls are stiff, choppy enemies animations, and more). Still the game's charm got me playing until Chapter 2 Scene 3B. That was enough for a first crack at the game. Will most probably play it again. A quirky little game, this one is!

I played on an emulator though and since I have some lag on my setup, I couldn't quite play as well as I usually do, which took a bit of fun away from the experience, unfortunately. Maybe(probably) that on an actual cart/flashcasrt, and on my crt, I would've had even more fun with LGM.

[cicada88]

Beat Gimmick! with all bonus items for good ending. There are a ton of extra lives if you go for points; I entered stage 6 with 17 lives I think before wasting 5 on the bosses final form. This is without milking the stage 5 bonus room for unlimited lives.

Next stop is no death attempt in order to get my moneys worth out of this. After you learn what to do, it's actually a pretty easy game execution wise. I'm still kind of weak at the stage 6 Boss final form and the Bonus boss.

[BIL]

Yea I was playing Meta Fight but I wasn't sure if it was a glitch or not lol

Good to hear someone else was inspired to revisit. I found it unexpectedly compelling, getting back to a decently quick clear.

I remembered hearing Area 4's exit was altered for the NES, and looked up TCRF:

There was a part of the map in Area 4 where the player was forced to control Jason and make a desperate suicide-leap for a ladder suspended in mid-air. We reluctantly changed that [...] following complaints from the U.S. staff.

Now, if it were possible to see the critical ladder from behind the locked door before ascending, and thus plot a safe fall using the background columns, I'd be down with the FC version. Unfortunately you can't see shit. Tokai's odd penchant for isolated cheapshots in otherwise distinguished games strikes again! Unlike the story, the US staff made the right call this time Iwata-san. 3;

Shame too, as once you know how to use the BG, it's bracing fun snatching the ladder a split-second from impact. In both versions, there's some obscure glitch you can use to clip through the door; UraniumAnchor demonstrates it in his run at SDA. I used to use it but always take the leap now.

[Squire Grooktook]

Good to hear someone else was inspired to revisit. I found it unexpectedly compelling, getting back to a decently quick clear.

Yeah. It's been nearly a decade since I last played it, back before I had a pc and was playing on real hardware.

One thing I definitely did forget is how well some snippets of level design work. Moreso then any other Metroidvania, there are stretches of platforming and meticulous enemy placement that realy do feel like a dedicated arcade-blaster. The opening horizontal room and a number of the wider areas in area 3 for example really feel like warzones with varried assaults of ground and aerial enemies blocking your path and wizzing by for pot shots as you soldier forward. I might go so far as to say that this might be one of the best "actiony" examples of a metroidvania out there, even if it's not up to an arcade-style titles no-nonsense pacing.

On that note, I really love how varied and characterful the enemies are. Each stage has its own cast of enemies that are shockingly creative. You got everything from standard classics like sine-wave pests and meandering grunts, to funky shit like the gravity altering wall crawlers, cowardly bomb droppers in stage 3, skull bombardiers, etc. A lot of them really do feel "vehichular" in their patterns too. The way aerial bombers tend to fly off to some other target or destination after passing you by really helps the mech action feel.

Also littleman might have nothing on the tank, and the top down stages comparatively drab (though inoffensive), but I do feel that his presence is vital to the game. Moreso then any other mech action title, it gives the labyrinth and its battlefields a sense of inhuman scale, and with that also comes a sense of alienness. It might be easy to forget as adults, but this game really did excite my imagination more then most games when I played it as a kid.

[Shoryukev]

Eh, tried Low G Man for the first time tonight! That's an... interesting action platformer, haha.

There are some cool things about it but at the same time there's an equal amount of not-so-cool things (controls are stiff, choppy enemies animations, and more). Still the game's charm got me playing until Chapter 2 Scene 3B. That was enough for a first crack at the game. Will most probably play it again. A quirky little game, this one is!

I played on an emulator though and since I have some lag on my setup, I couldn't quite play as well as I usually do, which took a bit of fun away from the experience, unfortunately. Maybe(probably) that on an actual cart/flashcasrt, and on my crt, I would've had even more fun with LGM.

It feels a bit choppy and unpolished, but there's some real fun to be had with Low G Man. I played it a lot as a kid and always had a good time, jumping on top of a frozen enemy and downward stabbing them just feels badass.

Parasol Stars is one of the absolute best titles available on PCE, it is absolutely mandatory in any collection, and much better than the famicom port, or the downright broken Amiga version. It's a perfect example of that well executed gimmick platformer Taito so excellently churned out one after the other during that period.

You couldn't be more right about this one. I'm not the biggest fan of Bubble Bobble, but something about Parasol Stars is insanely addicting. I'm going to be playing this one for a looooong time. Thanks for the suggestion, it's absolutely fantastic!

[Sumez]

Parasol Stars is by far the most accessible game in the BB->RI->PS trilogy, and it's really difficult to say which one is objectively better, because they are all amazing games in different fields. (but honestly, Rainbow Islands is the best one But it's also the one with the highest newbie entry barrier)

PS used to be my favourite of the three for a while for that reason. Easily more polished controls than its prequels, and it just has a nice flow and feel to it. Its biggest issue in my opinion is how it is obviously designed for home consoles despite its arcade like gameplay. The difficulty starts out really low, and remains there for several worlds until it finally picks up around the casino themed one - it does manage to get super difficult towards the end though, especially if you're going for the true ending with all 10 worlds. Also, going for a high score can get tedious due to how much you're able to just stand around farming the spots with secret items, especially on the early levels. A tighter time limit on those levels or just not allowing secrets items to spawn more than once would have easily fixed that.

Although it does have the obscure powerup system, it never manages to achieve the same incredible depth that Bubble Bobble had, but I think it manages to strike a better balance between puzzle and action gameplay, where BB was mostly puzzle, and RI almost entirely a straight up action game. There's no doubt that this game is Taito at their finest, and difficult to imagine that Fukio Mitsuji was not somehow involved. Let's not forget that the game kicks ass in 2-player mode, which is a great way to ruin friendships.

Actually, if you ever get a CD drive for your TurboGrafx, you should pick up Rainbow Islands too. It's probably the best port of the game (I haven't actually tried it, but videos of it look literally arcade perfect except for some flickering). PC Engine CD games are all region free.

[Sumez]

Seeing your other posts here which also mention your newfound love for Parasol Stars makes me happy, and makes me want to pick up the game again to see if I am still able to 1CC it. It is such an underappreciated game, which is strange considering the love that typically exists for this series, but I think part of that might be due to most people being more familiar with the Amiga version - imagine the same game, but having to press "up" to jump D: - which coincidentally also ruins the ability to lift your parasol above your head while standing, a pretty important defensive move that carries the game, especially during boss fights.

If Dracula X weren't around I would share your sentiment that this game is the best on the platform. It's that good.

[BIL]

Damn, I really wants Parasol Stars now. :O One of the last biggies on my HuCard shortlist.

I'll vouch for Rainbow Islands' PCE-CD port. Bit pricey, and not strictly AC-perfect, but ala Cotton, Gradius II and Forgotten Worlds it's such a labour of love and craftsmanship I had to pick it up. edit: also, options translation!

Just to check something... you can't revisit cleared islands on the PCB to collect missed secret items, right? I was 99% sure but now I wonder if I just never tried.

[Sumez]

Nope, if you miss the order of the diamonds on PCB you're screwed. That said, I've never been able to get all secret rooms on a single credit anyway, that shit is hard, especially on stage 6. There's simply so much going on that it's almost impossible not to pick up a color out of order by accident. It's pretty easy up to and including stage 3 though, and pretty much mandatory if you want to clear the full game.

Conversely, I don't think I've ever missed getting every single big diamond (which is required for the true 1CC, secret rooms aren't).
On the first 2 or 3 islands you gotta be careful not to miss any colors (but since you should be going for the correct order anyway, that's a non-issue), but on the subsequent islands you get so many diamonds it's almost impossible not to get one of every color. The only island that might be an issue is the Arkanoid one, since the stages are so short. You should always go for completing them on the first two rounds, where you've got a bit more time, and if you miss one, do everything to get it on the 4th.

I'm gonna record a 1CC run of AC Rainbow Islands some time soon, now that I've got a shitty video capture PC up and running.

[BIL]

Nope, if you miss the order of the diamonds on PCB you're screwed.

Thanks for the confirmation! Man that's harsh. As I'd expect from a hardcore arcade masterwork, though.

As I thought, the PCE-CD one is better regarded as a consolisation, thought it does at least ding you one life per island restart/revisit. :3 (and of course you can just decline to use the feature)

[Shoryukev]

If I ever get a CD-drive (alternately I might get a PC-Duo eventually so i can play Japanese Cards) I will definitely look into Rainbow Islands! PS does start out easy, but as a newbie to the series it works for me. Gives me some to learn the ropes and get some confidence going. It kinda reminds me of early Mega Man games where it's teaching you the game mechanics through the way the level design puts you in different situations.

Pushing up to jump in the Amiga version definitely sounds like it would make the game feel broken. I hate that jump mechanic in general but I find myself pushing up to guard myself with the parasol a lot, not being able to do that would be terrible.

I've only seen a few of the boss-fights so far but they've been awesome. I really like what the turbografx/PCE does visually, they show off some great parallax scrolling and large colorful sprites very often and I love that.

I haven't tried 2 player yet. As of right now I've only got one controller and no turbo-tap, one of my few frustrations with the TG-16 so far. The single controller port and no reset button are odd choices. I've got an RGB amp on order, till then I've gotten around the RF only output by attaching wires to the pins on the back for composite video and stereo sound. Looks ghetto as all get-go but it works.

I agree Dracula X is probably the best on the platform, I don't own a physical copy but I play it on wii virtual console a lot.

[Sumez]

As I thought, the PCE-CD one is better regarded as a consolisation

For a game like this, anything other than absolute arcade perfect emulation should be regarded a consolisation. The PCE port is the only one I'd even consider worth getting, though. There are so many details to the controls in this game that are lost with any slight change to how it plays. I'll admit the Amiga version is an extremely admirable effort that obviously had a lot of love put into it, but if you've played the arcade game at all, it renders that one completely unplayable in comparison. In fact, I can't even play the emulated Taito Legends version, due to input lag.

thought it does at least ding you one life per island restart/revisit. :3 (and of course you can just decline to use the feature)

To be honest, I can't think of any reason to make use of the revisit feature apart from practice (which is a very good reason, though). In any serious run, you'd either get the secret door or not go for it at all. Sure, _I_ can't get the secret room on island 6, but someone who's able to do it, should be able to do it somewhat consistently. And once you've got island 6, getting it on any subsequent islands should be easy peasy, since you can kill enemies without using rainbows (and thereby risking picking up diamonds that you don't want).

edit: Actually, to clarify - I HAVE gotten the secret door on island 6, but not without losing enough lives in the process to use a credit. It makes an already difficult island even more difficult. Island 7 is actually easy to get the secret door on (more wide platforms, fewer aggressive enemies, easy first round), but unless you're planning to credit feed through the game, the reward you get is completely pointless.

[FinalBaton]

It feels a bit choppy and unpolished, but there's some real fun to be had with Low G Man. I played it a lot as a kid and always had a good time, jumping on top of a frozen enemy and downward stabbing them just feels badass.

The lance stabbing is badass indeed. In fact there's a lot of badass-ness in the game.
There's a bucn of things I really like in the game. The use of color for one. The sprites look cool as well. The musice I also like.
I don't mind that the gameplay is more methodical, I personnally like action games that play like that.

And from what I played the unpolished aspect isn't too bad. It reminds me of Astyanax, or Rastan on the SMS. Those games are still enjoyable even though they're unpolished.

[cicada88]

Beat Gimmick! with all Bonus items with 11 lives left. I think I can get a No Death run, but I need to get more consistent at the stage 6 boss.


Anyone know the intricacies of scoring in this game? I know for example you get a ton of extra points for making the stage 2 boss fall off the ship. You also can get about 40k points for using a special weapon on the group of 3 missiles in the "lever room" in stage 5. I'm looking for other things like that.

[Sumez]

With no timeout on the stages, I guess scoring is sort of pointless in that game?

[cicada88]

With no timeout on the stages, I guess scoring is sort of pointless in that game?

It's basically pointless, but I just want to know where to get the big points for the most lives/points possible on a no death run.

Enemies don't respawn though, so there isn't any milking to get extra points. It's more about having to be the most methodical as far as killing everything, making large kill chains, and special item rationing.

[Sumez]

If you wanna cheese the game, you can very easily get inifnite lives in the stage 5 "basement", if you go to the left where the treasure is on the right. The machine there lets you produce two 1ups, and killing yourself respawns the items you can use to get them.