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[Rubikant]

Holy shit how did you finish the level so quickly without the magic? I'm trying to figure out what I did differently. You even killed enemies with kunais more often than juggling them for bonus points. I don't get how you got so many natural stage points, especially since you lost your X4 multiplier near the second half of the stage. Good job nonetheless! I didn't even know you could pull chain the boss like that either! Is that just from charging your sword or something?

The main key is just not dying and not getting hit often. Its true I flubbed the second map pretty badly, but I got x4 at the beginning, lost it during that section, then got it back and kept it for the rest of the level, so I had it for large sections at a time. That x4 not only is giving me a bunch of extra points but it is keeping my run speed at 130% normal helping me finish the stage faster.

In addition to losing the multiplier, getting hit and dying takes away a TON of points and tacks on extra time to recover from the mistake. The difference between this run and previous ones where I did not get S is that I previously died at least once from falling in a pit and ended up taking much longer and having a much worse score such that even when I hit the time bonus I didn't have enough points to make it.

So I guess the lesson here is to concentrate more on not getting hit and on moving quickly than on doing juggle combos. Use the combos to get to x4 ASAP but after that only bother when you have an easy target and not much threat of getting hit while bouncing them around. Otherwise kill enemies as efficiently as possible and move on.

Regarding the boss fight...

If you fully charge your sword attack it pierces enemy defenses, including Yuki Onna's ice shield. You'll notice I also used it on the guy that swings the big polearm around to kill him instantly (the other method is to wait until his attack finishes for him to be vulnerable). You can do this either by holding down the button for long enough or pressing forward+sword immediately after a parry.

So I started the Yuki fight by doing a fully-charged slash, followed it with the contextual attack during her recoil (tap Chain button) and turned and hit her with a couple kunai. Then I parried her ice shards and used the counter-slash to again go through her shield and repeat. Combined with the double-damage power-up she dies extremely quickly with this method. I'm pretty sure its the fastest possible way to kill her.

Edit: It probably doesn't matter much but it may be worth knowing that you get bonus points if you collect something that you can't use - chicken when health is full, scroll when already have magic ready, attack power-up when already have the boost active, etc. That's why I bothered to get things like that when they weren't too far out of the way. Kinda wasted my time getting the extra lives though, didn't help me any...

 

[DCharlie]

woohoo, my copy finally showed up. Musashi'ing today.

 

[mjc]

So this actually turned out to be pretty great? Wow.

 

[Tenck]

I've played it, the game's a TON of fun but gets kinda dull late in the game. I have a review, if anyone's curious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKSfcMy-aZA

Dude your hands were annoying to watch. Felt like 99% of the time you just moved them to just be doing something with them. Then the other 1% was to make noises.

Anyways, great review. Will definitely look into this game.

 

[tolkir]

I'm playing this game now (Hard mode).

I like it so much, especially the gameplay though its 3D isn't very good.
It's worth the 20 € that I paid.

It's very hard, plus the last stages I don't find new lifes.


Let's hope someday it make a new ninja gaiden 2D or 2.5D.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Anyone with framerate sense can tell if it runs in 60 frames?

 

[nincompoop]

Other people have already said it runs at 30.

When's this gonna drop to $10 so I can buy it?

 

[Suzzopher]

Picked this up for £12.98 from Game today, although I had £2.50 on my card so the game cost me just over £10.

Pretty decent game to be honest, lovely old school challenge but has some repetitive level design. Worth the £10 or so I paid though.

 

[dark10x]

Anyone with framerate sense can tell if it runs in 60 frames?

It's only 30 fps. It's not too bad looking but a bit too dark for the system (like Cave Story 3d). It would have been better if they had taken the Way Forward route ala Mighty Switchforce and used 2d with 3d parallax layers at 60 fps.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

Yeah, I got this for Christmas, and it's a gem, from top to bottom.

Tons of content, and a steep, yet rewarding learning curve. I'm up to the last level, and it's brutal. But, once you start nailing jumps and parrying attacks like a boss, the game just clicks.

 

[Xun]

Definitely looks like it was designed for the DS then ported over.

 

[Glix]

This game is very good. It is great for the $20 I paid. Full price, I'm not so sure.

Very old school, VERY difficult. 3D is TERRIBLE, but that is okay.

These guys are great at this, they should look into some sprite artists or merge with Wayforward or something.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Welp, I couldn't resist, and grabbed a copy for around $20. I just had to play this for myself, and it seems the reviews are dead on. The levels are too long, the 3D is weak, the futuristic shit comes too soon and is bland.

But despite all of this, the game is just fun to play, and I'm happy to have it in my library. This is also the most challenging Shinobi I've ever played. The original games were all cake walks.

 

[ShineALight]

This is $17 on Amazon currently, just letting others know and fielding opinions on if it's worth it at that price.

 

[DeVeAn]

Holy shit this games tough. I had to do beginner because normal was too much! Damn, sucks this game didn't do well because it's honestly pretty damn good.

 

[Unicorn]

I'm interested in playing this, but don't want to pay the price for a physical card. Hopefully Nintendo will eventually follow suit with Sony and Microsoft and put games as DD at a later date.

What kind of unlockables are there?

 

[smug]

I got it for $10 with that wal-mart buy 3 games for $30.. this was one of them which I really wanted and I don't regret it.. This game is F'ing AWESOME except for the over the shoulder levels.. I know it's a harken to the old school days but this is the only part of the game that is meh... otherwise it's a REALLY solid game!! Hard as balls to.. which I like!

 

[Allan Holdsworth]

I got it for about $15. Just beat the 4th level on normal with 0 remaining lives after many tries. Phew.

The game plays well and all, but the levels are incredibly long. Around 20 mins is just insane. Should have split them in two or something.

Another huge flaw is that the graphics make it hard to see what's going on many times. Should have gone with sprites. But worse, there are MANY surprise attacks that the only way to avoid is knowing about them beforehand. In level 4 there's a yellow ninja with a fying kick that's literally impossible to see coming if you haven't played the level before. Or a machine gun dude after a wall jumping section.

The parry system is nice but the timing is too tight. But I may just suck.

I also don't get the scoring system. On two bonus levels I got an S rank playing like crap just by getting the time bonus. On another two I played perfectly and still got an A. Getting an S rank on regular levels seems to be impossible for most mortals. Pity, as it could have lead me to replay the levels more.

The game has a lot of content certainly. 8 big levels, 8 bonus short levels plus 13 streetpass levels (1 hit kill). 4 difficulties, ranks for each level, and many achievements. Problem is, most people won't see much of it. Both Hard and Very Hard have limited continues, which makes no sense in a game as long as this. S-ranks are way too strict. Streetpass levels are annoying to unlock, requiring 20 coins each. I mean I get Shinobi is supposed to be a hard series, but this hard?

If you fully charge your sword attack it pierces enemy defenses, including Yuki Onna's ice shield. You'll notice I also used it on the guy that swings the big polearm around to kill him instantly (the other method is to wait until his attack finishes for him to be vulnerable). You can do this either by holding down the button for long enough or pressing forward+sword immediately after a parry.

Why the game doesn't explain the parry thing is beyond me. That could be handy.

 

[Robso]

Sorry to bump, but I can't make threads yet.

How hard is the game on easy?

 

[revolverjgw]

Whoa, I picked this game up for like 5 bucks a year ago and never touched it until today. It's awesome. If it had Shinobi 3's beautiful pixel art and not these ugly DS-and-a-half graphics (I vaguely remember shitting on this game here when the first screens came out), I'd put it up there with the best Shinobi games. There's plenty of technique with the combos, slides, shuriken management and especially the parrying, though I'm just scraping by on normal so realizing the full potential of the mechanics is not going to happen, I just want to get through it alive. But it's fun. The levels are too long but I don't hesitate to take another crack at them after the bosses beat me down. It just feels right, totally has the groove of fighting through an old Shinobi or Castlevania game. Fist pumps IRL when I beat a level, got to love it

 

[Yakumo]

I never even knew about a DS Shinobi game until last week. Then again, I don't follow the DS at all. Still, this release has made me go back and enjoy my original first print Super Shinobi on the Mega Drive complete with Spiderman, Rambo, Batman and Godzilla oh and something that looks quite like the Terminator. man, Sega had some balls then. I've also been giving Super Shinobi 2 a spin and yes, it's still Fantastic but what about Shadow Dancer? The Mega Drive version was slagged when it was originally released but you know, it's actually a pretty good game too even if it isn't the same as the arcade.

Ah, classic Shinobi action. Just a shame the series went to shit with the Saturn Shin Shinobi Den / Shinobi X / Shinobi Legion or what ever name you know it under.

 

[Regiruler]

As I noted in my LttP, this game is great for it's current price. I went into it expecting a beat-em-up, and got that and then-some.

Oh, and the shark boss was the downright worst in the game. Sorry to be the downer on that.

 

[Regiruler]

Sorry to necrobump this, but I've finally beaten Hard mode and gotten Sarah. The unlockable for very hard, Fruit Kunai, sounds amusing enough to go for, but I want an image of it first. Can anyone who's beaten very hard take a picture of what they look like?