Speed run history
16:08 by Frezy_man (March 15, 2007)
15:09 by vgmrsepitome (May 18, 2007)
14:38 by LigerOfFortune (August 7, 2007)
14:27 by vgmrsepitome (August 27, 2007)
14:00 by LigerOfFortune (July 9, 2008)

Come, gather round and listen to my story...

I will tell you a tale of a boy named Ryu who sought out dangerous villians until the sky ran a scarlett hue.
It started with the disappearance of the girl he loved, a strange red headed girl named Irene with a mullet to boot, her allegiance sometimes moot.
But dare I speak of allegiances? Nono, for the story begins with a betrayal involving none other than Ryu, what a hoot!

Note that you need to have watched the cutscenes for all 3 Nes Ninja Gaidens to understand some of my comments.

Prologue: The Tale of the Water Mullet

Irene:
I have located Foster in the nick of time
Make haste my escape
I must report his location before he commits anymore crimes
Hm, what was that? Oh it's Ryu!
This is more conveinant than an Apu
Hold on a second.. Ryu has unsheathed his sword
Something is wrong, I must run for fear of being gored
Oh no, end of the line, I fall to a sword or plunge into the water so far below..
Option 2 it is but know I'm not yellowwwww~ *splash*

Stage 1: Praying Man-tits

Ryu:
The first level oh what poor fellows..
They don't stand a chance, this isn't a run it's more like a prance
The bosses chamber is near and I wonder what awaits me, so patiently
Oh it's a mantis man and it opens its breast to me
I accept the invitation with my sword graciously

Stage 2: The Art of Fire Dance

Through the desert I leap over hot sand
Dispatching enemies as I please, throwing fireballs because I can
Down the opening in the sand and into the heat that seems to go hand in hand
The lava rises and gets me jumpin'
Past the plethora of nameless foes
And to the beat I be bumpin'

Stage 3: Swamp Stomp

Holding left is the swamps

Random thoughts: What ever happened to 'Swamp Thing'? With so many old cartoons and movies getting a modern revamp I can only hope that the unsung hero of the swamps will one day make a triumphant return to the spotlight.

Stage 4: Spiked Walls and Deadly Falls

Holding right, what a relief
This is no problem, no grief
Lay waste to you here, jump over ye there
An armadillo for a boss? Slashin through him like I just don't care

Stage 5: Survived and Revived

Stage five and I'm on the fly
Never look back, never die
Its raining...only fitting...
For the funerals to come
I'll kill them all, not kidding.

Ryu:
Foster you low down sack of shit
Give me back my woman, or taste the stench of my armpit

Foster:
Ryu, your struggles are amusing but I can't condone
Your womans history, more dead than the act of paging a phone
Now go my ninja clone, slice and dice him, down to the last bone!

Ryu:
To my agility I turn
Yet so does he
He looks and moves just like me, could it be?
You're the one who killed Irene, aren't you!?
Faster and faster, almost ready to strike
With one mere turn of my sword I'll take your life!
Our swords clash, but something has gone awry..
I've been cut, and I fear I might die!

Clone:
Bwahahahaa Ryu
I should be the original, not you!
This has gone on long enough, it's time for the coupdegrace
Do not run away, the least you could do is try and save face!
My face infact, and I'll keep yours intact
The great dragon ninja and all
Pinned up as a trophy on my wall

IRENE:
Not so fast! I'm back from the watery grave you left me
Now eat lead you abomination!
Oh wait, guns are useless somebody help me!
SHIT

Ryu:
Do my eyes deceive me? Is that truly her?
God help me if she is just another fake..
But that can wait
I must revive, for Irenes sake!

Clone:
It's too late ninja geek!
My moves are too fast
Impossible to deak!
Wait, what is this!? My bodies gone numb..
I've been put in my place
Flat on my bum..

Irene:
Yeah have a seat!
Rise again and you'll just be beat.

Ryu:
Irene what the F@&%. And it was my turn to rhyme, I'm the hero! This isn't Mullet Gaiden it's Ninja Gaiden and ninja is basically just another word for Ryu Hayabusa. Now where was I? Oh yeah I was about to make a sweet rhyme -

Ryu:
I've defeated that imposter
And my woman is safe
I feel as though I should be wearing a cape

Irene:
Um Ryu honey bunch? That didn't rhyme snookums.

Ryu:
Whatever, capes are rad.. rad like rad racer. Wait sn-snookums? NEVER DURING THE GAIDEN IRENE!

Irene:
You are so cute when you're mad
But okay okay hush now my little ninja man
It's back to the story and back to the plan!

Irene:
Oh Ryu you handsome ninja hunk
Let me rub my mullet all over your terrible wound
The wound received from that loathsome ninja punk

Ryu:
I got no time for mullets or bleeding
Know this woman I'm hungry and need feeding

Clancy:
Yo sup guys

Ryu:
Oh hey Clancy

Irene:
Who's this guy?

Ryu:
I dunno, met him after the first stage. He basically told me that Foster was being an asshole in a poorly named castle but I already assumed more than half of that.

Clancy:
Ahem.. I'm gonna head into this vortex and take control of the ancient ship of doom now
bwahahaha but before I do you should know something Ryu!

Ryu:
Is it about Jungle Rat Rob? Is he alive?

Clancy:
No

Ryu:
Fuck

Clancy:
Bwahahaha what you need to know is I am the true villian of this game!

Ryu:
Shiiii---t
Then you...you used me bro :(

Clancy:
That's right dawg, peace out and don't forget to suck iiiiiiit~

Foster:
Yo wait for me dood! Ah shiiit ahhgahhgahoojhfkjsdfh

Irene:
Hahaha Foster sucks, but we need to go after Clancy!

Ryu:
No Irene! Only someone with super special awesome powers can travel through that vortex! Didn't you see what happened to that douche Foster? He wasn't super special awesome enough. Look, I'll meet you outside, and try not to die or you'll miss the sunrise with all the trippy colors for the sky. Just like in the first Ninja Garden. Oh, we gotta watch a castle slowly fall apart before that though, it's tradition and i'll make sure to blow shit up on my way out.

Irene:
Ryu....If things get tough...think of my mullet flowing gracefully in the wind

Ryu:
Gross :|

Stage 6: Sinkholes and Assholes

Slippin' and slidin' but keeping my ninja grace
Doing frontflips all over the place
Gotta keep the pace
This shits a race
Foster's alive! >:O and transforms right before my eyes
But I shove my sword up his arse, easy as pie

Tidbit: I have named Foster's transformed state 'Ass-Crab 5000', probably because that's exactly what he looks like.
I'm not sure how many have noticed it but I find it odd that Foster's hair went from being blonde in NG I to red in NG III. I suspect a weird fetish for 'just for men'.
No 'just for men' for red hair in real life you say? Yeah, you're right but you're crazy if you think bio-noids were the only thing Foster was experimenting on all cooped up in that lab. His evil lab to do list looked like this - 1. Invent just for men (red edition), 2. Start the ground work on the snes Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, 3. Make bio-noids, 4. Direct, program, and star in his own game titled Super Agent Men: C.I.A Agent Task Force Noids, The Revenge of Ass-Crab 5000.
The horror of the snes Ninja Gaiden Trilogy was bad enough. Thankfully Ryu Hayabusa heroicly put a stop to his sinister plans before ever having completed the diabolical project 4.

Stage 7: Liger and the Ancient Ship of Doom

Ridin' on the ancient ship of dooooom
Gonna get to the boss like real zoom-zoom
The evil Clancy I will see rot, his ideals will fruition to naught
The ship guard almost made me grab the heal
I'm low on life but it's no big deal, into the frey with the flame wheel!

Ryu:
Clancy, come out and face me!
You've no one left to protect you now
I've fought my way passed all of your traps
Through monsters, clones, swampy things, and mechanical bats
I'll ninja flip my way to you in mere seconds and call it a wrap
This dragon sword of mine hits harder than any 8-bit zap

Clancy:
What do you plan to do to me with that toy?
Face me and you'll 'continue' more than Supermeatboy

Ryu:
Mock my weapon with some reserve
It and I will give you what you deserve!

Clancy:
The fang of a dragon made into steel...
Foolish shinobi, you know not with whom you deal
Now say goodbye to your life and hello to my heel!

Ryu:
Close your eyes now and cleanse your vision
But I won't allow you the time for masochism
In the next life you may be forgiven
For these horrors, how could you be so driven?
But for now, die, it's the job you've been given

Epilogue: X Marks the Spot of My Return

Clancy is dead and the day is won
The sun rises like in games past, such a splendor
My mind wanders
To those 8-bit graphics I'd be privedged to vendor

Run notes: Off memory, I lose time in about 7 places. Most is very minimal, the most being 3 seconds for not attempting the platform rush in 7-2C. Anywho the mistakes are -
1 : The first boss - After learning how to ninpo-cancel in the air it sometimes made me screw up on this boss as the ninpo-cancel is quite fickle and my hands couldn't revert back to the normal/slower way of casting ninpo in mid air so I decided to keep this boss fight even though it was one fireball late.
2 : The third boss - I executed my new strategy for him near perfect, however had I jumped into him for the last hit it could of been a tiny bit faster. I'll say that he typically jumps into me on his way up from his jump and that's what I was expecting. It had never happened the way it did in this run (where he kills himself on his way down from his jump) so I was likely slightly out of the most optimal position and needed to be a few pixels more to the right.
3: The sixth level - Sometimes jumping off the wall to a platform to jump back on the wall doesn't work out and I end up performing a backwards jump which doesn't have enough momentum to reach the wall.
4: Ass-Crab 5000 - Confound those random rocks, I recovered nicely though. What you see is me winging it, testing my might and metal against the super crab. If everything went as planned and I was uninterupted by the falling rocks overhead I developed a consistent strategy to kill Super Foster just after he hits the left wall. After the rocks shattered this strategy I had to revert to my old strategy of ninpo-cancel and slashing him in the bum. ninpo-cancel was my optimal strategy for the preceding run but was not executed properly, again due to the random rocks. Plan A didn't work but I can accept plan B for sure.
5: The seventh level - I thought I was on a roll, that's usually when I get pummeled. I believe it's 7-2A where my health bar gets wrecked.
6: The cutscene after the wall mucus boss (Clancy V.2) - Like a goof I decided now would be a good time to see if I was actually recording and forgot to mash the start button.
7: Skipping the 7-2C platform rush - Technically not a mistake as it wasn't in my plans but I would have gained 3 seconds if this was properly executed. However for the little time I practiced it I could not perform it at all consistently. For awhile it was part of my plans to use this strategy for 7-2C  but as it ruined a great run a few attempts prior and I had not executed it properly in any recorded run so I cut it out and reverted to the old, slower, 99 % consistent strategy. I should mention that this rush seems very tough to pull off, even in practice I failed this much more than I succeeded with it. This is not to say it is not practical as it probably is and I'm sure with some more practice I or someone else could learn the trick to it. Their are many tough tricks in NGIII but i'll say for me this one seems the toughest. That being said I'm sure if I ever tried improving this run I would practice it more and try to incorporate it into the run.

Due to the great reception of the ninja dance class I added more ninja dance moves to 2-B's autoscrolling screen, I hope you enjoy them as much as the original.

Appreciation

Thanks to the Zeths 13:27 save state run and thanks to scumtron for making fantastic Ninja Gaiden TAS's and for kindly answering any questions about the games that comes his way. Big ups to all the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy speed runners - vugmer, Arcus, artic_eagle, tmont, spook, hotarubi, scumtron, Zeth, and frezy_man; without all of these folk the Ninja Gaiden runs would not be nearly as optimized.

Side notes: This run took about 4 hours of recording to produce over the course of 2 days and 2 nights. In those 4 hours I also completed 3 other runs. My first run was 13:52 but with one death, my second was 13:54, and my third was 13:42 (the fourth being what you see here). However the first three runs I completed before viewing Zeths savestate run which after viewing, in theory, knocked 10-12 seconds off my potential best time (Which I believe it to now be 13:20, it would be 13:17 if I go for the 7-2C platform rush but I do not). After I completed this run I did not attempt to beat it, I know I can if I keep at it a little longer, but I want to see what others can bring to the table before I improve upon this time. If there's anything I've learned about speedrunning from speedrunning it's that no one mind, no matter how great, can think of everything.

Thank you for watching.
And see you next.
Tecmo