I've now completed speedruns of the three Ninja Gaiden games for the NES. From a speedrunning perspective and from a non-speedrunning perspective, I think that Ninja Gaiden III is the hardest and Ninja Gaiden II is the easiest.

I spent about five weeks practicing Ninja Gaiden before, one day, I decided to start recording. Luckily, after about 30 minutes of recording, I had this run. This was a great relief to me because I thought that I might have to spend six to eight grueling hours recording, like I did for my second Ninja Gaiden III run.

• Stage 1-1

  When I first started speedrunning stage 1-1, I couldn't get 119, which is the time that LigerOfFortune and tmont got in their runs. I kept getting a slower time of 118, which was frustrating. Eventually, I learned that there are three things that I have to do to achieve 119.

  First, I have to kill the second enemy almost without stopping.

  Second, I discovered that I can jump from wall to wall (like at 140) without letting go of the A button, which is faster.

  Third, when I do the enemy boost at 134, the enemy has to be close to the wall so that I bounce off the enemy, grab the wall, and then jump off the wall all in a split second. Jump-slashing the enemy (instead of just jumping over him) at 136 seemed to position the next enemy closer to the wall.

  This may seem like too much information about how I managed to go from getting 118 to matching Liger's and tmont's 119, but heeding these types of nuances is what competitive speedrunning is all about. Thanks to spook for giving me tips about stage 1-1.

• Stage 2-2

  At 125, my ninja intuition served me well. I jumped at the right instant so that the bat boosted me forward instead of backward.

• Stage 2-3

  I used only one jump-and-slash against the sickle-wielding giant. I think using two jump-and-slashes takes half a second longer.

• Stage 3-1

  The beginning of this stage includes the biggest boner mistake of the entire run; I ran directly into two enemies who easily should have been killed. I usually get a time of 130 on this stage, but the mistake at the beginning caused me to get 127.

• Stage 3-2

  I missed the enemy boost at 126, which caused me to get hit twice: once by the eagle and once by a projectile.

• Stage 4-1

  At 134, I used a bat boost. At 128, there is another bat boost that the TAS creator used, but in order to perform the same boost on a console, you need perfect timing, and the small amount of time saved isn't worth the risk.

• Stage 4-3

  I saw a really nice damage boost in the TAS and found that the same boost was easy to do on a console. At 120, I used the projectiles to boost myself onto the ladder. This boost saved a few seconds and also allowed me to avoid the axe thrower.

  I used another helpful enemy boost at 114.

• Stage 5-2

  To get through the tricky spot at 117, instead of jumping from wall to wall, I decided to use the flip-through-the-wall maneuver, but I messed up. Usually, I use the jump-and-slash as I flip through the wall so that I kill the bird. But I froze on the wall, so I had to do a little improvisation to get through that spot without the bird or the bat knocking me off the ledge.

• Stage 5-3

  The spot at 133 may not look too threatening, but that orange-clad buffoon is a run killer. He throws his weapons randomly, and during practice runs, he would often knock me off the ledge and to my death. Luckily, during this run, I was already clinging to the ladder when he hit me with one of his weapons.

• Stage 6-2

  I can't believe I missed the ladder at 119. Ryu's ninja chi must have become unbalanced for a second. I missed this ladder only once during practice runs.

  At 98, there is an enemy boost that is used in the TAS, but the boost is extremely difficult to execute consistently on a console. I was considering trying the boost during this run, but the booming voice of Ken Hayabusa echoed inside my head: 'No! The boost will be the death of you.' This sage advice could not be ignored; I skipped the boost.

• Stage 6-4

  The fight against Jaquio can make or break a run, so Ryu summoned all of his inner-dragon strength and deftly dispatched this infamous villain.

• Stage 6-5

  My fight against this boss wasn't so great. The boss's ejaculatory goo-balls hit Ryu twice and covered him in a pungent excretion, but the stalwart ninja continued to fight valiantly. I delivered the deathblow to this boss at 131, but my best is 136.

After the final battle, Ryu climbs atop his defeated foe. What you don't get to see is the flying downward thrust that Ryu executes after the screen fades to black.

Shadow Warriors is the european version of Ninja Gaiden. It's slightly modified from the american version, with floatier jumps, slightly slower etc.

I felt the need to improve my old Shadow Warriors run as I heard Jim Hanson "The Ninja" demolished the old NTSC-WR with 25? seconds. Shadow Warriors/Ninja Gaiden is a nice challenge to speed run, and it's still my second favorite NES-title. This run went pretty well for me, especially the hack and slash platforming play. The Demon could be killed faster as usual, but I'm not very good at him unfortunately.

Thanks to Tommy Montgomery for going through the pain of recording his Ninja Gaiden run, a game he doesn't seem to hold in high regards, teaching me (and others) the basics of the game and more. Thanks to Josh Styger for his 13:33 Ninja Gaiden run which I learned a few more details from. And thanks to the 'SDA-crew' for transferring from VHS and putting my run up on site etc.

Hope you all enjoy the run!

Here are my stage-times for the run with my best ever stage-times in parenthesis:

1-1: 124 (124)
1-2: 148 (148)
2-1: 117 (117)
2-2: 114 (114)
2-3: 148 (148)
3-1: 132 (133)
3-2: 124 (125)
3-3: 145 (145?)
4-1: 124 (124)
4-2: 124 (125)
4-3: 116 (117)
4-4: 150 (150)
5-1: 119 (121)
5-2: 120 (120)
5-3: 111 (111)
5-4: 149 (149)
6-1: 134 (134)
6-2: 108 (109)
6-3: 112 (113)
6-4: 149 (149)
6-4: 131 (?)
6-5: 135 (?)