In January 1991, game-development company Natsume realized there could never be too many ninjas in the video-game world and released Shadow of the Ninja. The game's breathtaking introductory scenes reveal that evil Emperor Garuda rules the United States with an iron fist. As a ninja vehemently opposed to tyranny, you must progress through several side-scrolling, action-packed stages to defeat Emperor Garuda and overthrow his malevolent dictatorship. Ask a friend to join you for some simultaneous two-player action; he won't refuse when you tell him the game allows you to do all of the exciting things ninjas do: jump, slash, throw shurikens, and yell "Ya!" a lot.
Best time: 0:12:37 by Josh Styger on 2008-01-19.
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Author's comments:
- Stage 1_2 - Bad luck with the football player at the top of this level.
- Stage 1_3 - I get hit by the first robot intentionally so that he will fire a bullet to the right that makes the monkey that supposed to appear on the moving platform above the second shooting robot disappear and also stops the second robot from firing a second bullet.
- Stage 1_4 - In the Tas this boss can be beaten before he leaves the ground but I've never been able to reproduce it, always leaving him with 1 health.
- Stage 2_1 - The robot snake mini boss is pretty hard to beat consistently fast but I did alright this time around. For the rest I just take damage and plough through because I found it to be the fastest way.
- Stage 4_2 - This along with 5_1 are definitely the hardest parts to speed run but this part went really well.
- Stage 4_3 - Normally when this boss transforms he lets you attack him for a random amount of time before flying up. However if you are hitting him with bombs he will not leave until he is at 1-2 health.
- Stage 5_1 - Looking back on the video I think the first 2 bombs can be passed without being hit. I grab the very left of the first platform you can hang onto so that I don't scroll the screen up tricking the plasma waves into thinking I'm not there yet so they don't fire. I was about to be hit by one of the plasma waves but luckily a robot spider jumped on the screen and froze it because too much was happening.
- Stage 5_2 - The start of this went really bad as I got hit by 3 spears. I grab the spear because it is very useful for the final boss. While fighting him I stop attacking him when he starts to lose health, this is because I don't want him to turn red on the right side because there is more time to attack him on the left.
Thanks to Klmz for his Tas of the Japanese version "Kage" which taught me a few tricks and time savers. Also for answering my questions about wall zipping, unfortunately this trick doesn't work on the Nes because you have to hold up and right at the same time.
Also thanks to Grumpy Bear.
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