Proton Jon plays Ninja Gaiden III - Act 5

...and this is where the story REALLY picks up.

Act 5

5-1

Holy cow, this section looks beautiful.

Expect to see a lot of enemies on the screen at once, especially in part B.

The one-eyed robots just somersault back and forth.

5-2

The tripod laser shooting robots have invincible lasers. You can duck and slash them, and you'll never be able to destroy them. That is bullcrap.

Sometimes, if there's too many enemies, enemy shots or a combination of the two, enemies won't show up where they're supposed to sometimes, due to sprite limitations. You'll also have to deal with a collapsing bridge in part C.

When you make it to the end, Ryu meets Foster, who decides to kill Ryu, extract the secrets of the Dragon Clan and make a superior Bio-Noid. He even sends Evil Ryu after you.

Foster gets surprised from behind by none other than...Irene Lew?!? Apparently, she's still alive and has a machine gun pointed at Foster. Evil Ryu decides to finally go Super Bio-Noid and change into some hideous giant blue humanoid.

5-3

Beating Clancy here is pretty simple. Jump over his shurikens as you slash at him, and avoid the fireballs he shoots downward as he somersaults to the other side of the room. If you have the Fire Shield, you can abuse it to destroy Clancy in no time flat.


After the boss fight, an earthquake occurs and Clancy shows up. He used Ryu and Irene to reclaim the ruins and "thanks" them as the dimensional rift opens up. Clancy goes in, but Foster gets torn to pieces and is killed instantly.

TAS Ninja Gaiden NES in 10:52 by Scumtron

Might as well show off the first one in record time.

Proton Jon plays Ninja Gaiden III - Act 4

Fun fact: did you notice the red line under the words "The Ancient Ship Of Doom" in the sig image for this guide? I only used it to line up the words. I never got rid of it because it actually looked really good when I zoomed back to 100%. Sometimes, it's the little things.

Act 4

4-1

Oh, god. It's Guts Man's stage. If you fall into the drills, it's all over.

4-2

You'll be dealing with spikes that pop in and out of the floor, more of those moving platforms, tiny purple planes and blue eyes that shoot at you. If you get the Fire Shield power-up, don't lose it. It makes getting through this act a lot easier.

The boss is really easy. Slash at him as he comes at you, and when he sinks into the ground, avoid the flames that come out of the ground. If you have the Fire Shield here, this is a snap.

You'll meet Fake Ryu again. We finally find out what his name is: Clancy. He's also been working on "Biohazard" with Foster. He can't work with him anymore, though, because Foster has created a Bio-Noid. You'll also learn about the dimensional rift created when the demon Jacquio summoned died, which has allowed an unlimited supply of Life Energy to flow into the fortress, and that Foster has experimented with it to create the Bio-Noid - a human fused with Life Energy that becomes a superhuman creature. Turns out it was a Bio-Noid that did away with Irene, and Foster is in control of all of the Bio-Noids.

Proton Jon plays Ninja Gaiden III - Act 3

In this episode, we deal with demon dogs for a third time, waterfalls and a whole squad of guys who just want to run into you because they can.

Act 3

3-1

Well, here's a slight variation in the whole Ninja Gaiden formula. We're going left instead of right.

As you jump from platform to platform and climb on vines in this jungle, you'll be taking on fish, robots, and flying things that all want you dead.

3-2

As you go down the waterfalls, you'll be dealing with enemy ninjas and those little spiked ball things from the volcanic segments of Act 2. The pulsating things that throb like beating hearts spit fireballs out like volcanoes.

You'll then be dealing with guys with guns and bugs that act just like the ever-popular Ninja Gaiden Birds before climbing up walls. Welcome to Paradise.

The Flame Shield makes a big difference here. If you die in the middle of a section, you get sent back to part A.

When you get the Sword Extension power-up for this act, you'd better be ready to turn back and destroy that bug that wants to divebomb you.

...

Good lord, those guys that rush across the screen file out in droves.

3-3

The boss is just like the demon dog statues from the first two games. Only one of them actually takes damage. When they jump three times, they toss shurikens that home in on your current position at the time they are thrown. As long as you don't touch them and move around so the shurikens don't hit you, you should definitely be okay.


After you beat the boss (which is probably the hardest one outside of the final fight), you'll meet up with the fake Ryu. He is the one who did away with Irene, and he's working for Foster. He'll wait for you at the Castle Rock fortress.

Proton Jon plays Ninja Gaiden III - Act 2

As soon as the graphics glitched at the beginning, I totally lost it.

Also, the music in the game gets really awesome at this point. I know...I'm surprised, too.

Act 2

2-1

Holy fuck, parallax scrolling! The background elements and the foreground move independently. Nice job, Tecmo.

The quicksand can make things pretty nasty pretty fast. You want to stay on top of it at all times.

The flying enemies will home in on you. Those things plus the aforementioned quicksand make for a dangerous combination. You always want to be at the top when you're fighting those things.

The guys that curl up into a ball and look like rocks somersault everywhere when you get close. If you have the default shuriken attack, you can take care of them and everything coming at you from behind quickly and easily.

2-2

You definitely don't want to touch the spiked ceilings. They hurt.

The first two sections are simple enough. The cannons can be bullets can be best hit from behind, and they can only be hit when they open up to fire. The second section is really easy. 2-2C, though, is a vertical auto-scrolling section where it's you racing against the lava. There is a 1-up here, but you have to know what you're doing to get it. There is also the scroll that increases your maximum Ninjitsu by 10 points just before it, and it's mercifully easier to reach and obtain.

When you enter 2-2D, watch out for the fireballs that shoot out of the lava. They split into four, much like those bombs that fly out of the bottomless pits in Bomb Man's stage in the first Mega Man game.

The boss here is also pretty easy. Its only attack is a bunch of fireballs in a V-pattern, which it only shoots straight down. You'd have to be a fool to be under the boss when it stops to shoot. As long as it doesn't run into you, you're okay.

Ryu finds out that Foster is still alive after a huge video monitor with his face lights up from behind. He's apparently making good on his promise to get rid of Ryu once and for all from the first game...

Proton Jon plays Ninja Gaiden III - Act 1

C'mon, it was bound to happen.

Anyway, the third game takes place between NG1 and NG2. This is confirmed by the game manual, of all things, hence why Ryu still has the Dragon Sword.

Also, you only have a limited number of continues, which makes this game even harder than the second one in ways you can't even imagine. You'll have to dig down deep in order to beat the game without losing them all.

Having said that, let's get on with the game.

Act 1

Why did someone pose as Ryu and eliminate Irene? Is Irene actually still alive? Let's find out!

The controls for this game is basically like the second one. There are some real changes, though. There's no normal blue shuriken this time around, and you start out with the red shuriken that has the ability to boomerang back and forth every time you jump over it. Also, the power-up icons actually show what's inside before you slash at them with your sword. That's really nice, because you'll need to get the right power-up at the right time sometimes like in the first two games. The two waves that go both up and down is the only new special attack in the game, and you can also extend the reach of your sword with the red sword power-up.

In the American version of the game, all the enemies do double damage compared to the original Japanese. Thanks, Tecmo.

The boss is easy. Wait for him to expose his chest and shoot flames at the floor that come at you. Slash at him as he's exposed, then run away while he's moving and wait for him to expose himself again.

Ryu will find out that the lab that Irene Lew was investigating isn't your run-of-the-mill lab. Some random guy shows up and tells him to look for the Castle Rock fortress if he wants to find out what's going on.

darou4321's perfect game of Megamania...and more!

Whenever you hit 999,999 points in the game, the game immediately ends. You can consider the game completed from there.

darou4321's death-free "killscreen" run shows just how challenging the game can be...but if you can figure the enemies out and make a winning strategy, you can make this game child's play!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

VHS video game strategy footage? From the early '80s? On YouTube? Holy crap. Yeah, here's some strategies for the game from How To Beat Home Video Games.

marlinlee plays and reviews Megamania

Space Invaders...or is it?

You may think that this is just a slightly different Space Invaders clone at first glance. But Activision knew better than that, and instead of taking on aliens, you're taking on...hamburgers, cheese and tires...as the Starship Enterprise. Huh?

Actually, according to Wikipedia, the game is a near-clone of Sega's Astro Blaster, and plays the exact same way: stuff moves towards you, you shoot them before they shoot you while trying to avoid them all, the energy bar works as a timer, and the enemies reappear at the top if they move past the bottom. Also, the ship is actually a cross between the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Klingon battlecruiser. Whenever you clear a round, you get bonus points based on how much energy you have left.

Keep in mind that when you're shooting lasers, the lasers move with your ship. Just be careful not to spend so much time directing your shots at the enemy that you direct yourself into the enemy shots!

The pace in this game is pretty good. The patterns will keep you on your toes when you're trying to learn them, and the later levels can still be a blast, such as avoiding the red tires in the tenth level. Another game I consider worth picking up. 

AqualungGameReviews reviews The Smurfs: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it.

/readingrainbow

Highlordretrogamer89 plays The Smurfs: Rescue In Gargamel's Castle

C'mon, it's not that bad.

This game has probably the most frustrating second screen in any Atari 2600 game if you don't know what to do. I remember watching a friend play this on a netbook on the Stella emulator and we both wondered how the hell to jump over that lousy fence. It was harder than it should have been, and that fence became a pain in the ass until we finally found out there's a double jump. To do the Double Jump, you jump, then immediately jump again in the direction you want to go. This second jump is much higher, and as long as you keep jumping, you'll keep doing the high jump. I find it amazing that you have to use the double jump to basically get past every obstacle in the game, and that touching as much as a simple fence outright kills you.

Once you know how to do that, the game's pretty much easy. The hawk and the bat are both easy to double jump over when you do it at the right time. Double jump over the snake when he's on the river. The spider's pretty easy, too. Just walk under him when he's right over your Smurf's head level while he's on his way back up to the web.

It's all really a matter of not screwing up in Gargamel's House to rescue Smurfette, as you have to position yourself in a certain spot and figure out the double jump's limits. The bat waits a little longer than the hawk to dive down for a few seconds, but once you figure the bat out, all that's left is Smurfette.

You get an extra life every 10,000 points.

Is this one worth picking up? Despite the occasional person on the Internet telling you that it's really bad, it's really not that difficult once you get everything down, and it's actually quite enjoyable when you do. There's not really much to the game in terms of action, and it's all a matter of knowing what to do when. Once you figure out how to do the double jump and memorize as the enemies' attack patterns, the game is ridiculously easy. It's a must for a Smurfs fan, but it's definitely worth a shot even for the most casual gamer as there are few choices better than this one for the beginning 2600 enthusiast who actually wants to play the games as much as collect them.


Try this game out. You won't be too disappointed.

Classic Game Room reviews Fast Food

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it.

/readingrainbow

Highretrogamelord89 plays Fast Food

A game where you play as a giant mouth and eat everything but the purple pickles? I'm getting fatter!

This game is as simple as it looks, and I'm surprised there aren't many games out there like it. You control a pair of disembodied lips, complete with a full set of teeth, on an almost completely black screen. Your mission: eat all the food you can while avoiding the purple pickles. If you eat six purple pickles, the game is over, as signified by "BURP! CLOSED."

All the foods have different point values, with the green pickle giving you just 1 point and all the other foods giving you higher point values. Cheeseburgers, pizzas and hot dogs give out the most points. Whenever you see the screen quickly transition to the words "You're getting fatter," you're in the next stage. At that point, press the fire button whenever you're ready and prepare to move around and eat more food. The game gets faster as you progress through the game...and the game gets very fast very quickly. Don't be surprised if you go from purple pickle-free to game over in the span of a few minutes, as this game can get pretty hard with multiple foods flying around at wildly varying speeds.

Speaking of having to press the fire button when you start the next round, if you're playing with two players, the other player plays when you either finish a round or get a game over. When it reverts to the other player, your friend where will be positioned in the exact same spot you were. While this is just a nagging flab at the start of a Fast Food session, it's really annoying when the speed of some of the food gets ridiculously swift, as you'll probably be the indirect cause of your friend getting a game over as soon as the fire button is pressed on the other controller. Either way, lulz will be had.

When you reach an increment of 500 points, you'll get rid of one purple pickle on the top of the screen.

Is this worth picking up? Yes. It's a pretty fast-paced game that picks up speed pretty quickly, forcing you to bring your reflexes to a fever pitch shortly after you start the game. The game's also not bad for one of those "who's best at Atari 2600" tournaments in case you have a system and a load of good games. Whether you're a novice or a full-blown game master, this one doesn't disappoint.

Okay, okay, I'll show the ending.

Maybe you're actually wanting to know what it looks like when you beat this game. If so, good for you. At least it looks slightly more awesome than the rest of the game, but that sure as hell isn't saying much.

Ryoka13x plays Bobby Geht Heim aka Bobby Is Going Home

Besides the plain box and cartridge art that shows a mock-up of in-game footage, there are two others depending on where the cartridge you have comes from: one with Bobby about to run across a bridge in carefree fashion, and another where you see Bobby from behind panicking as giant bats as big as his head and long as he is tall come straight for him.

Guess what? Neither of these alternate pictures describe the game accurately. At all. And if you were expecting something as awesome as the second variation I mentioned, tough titties.

First of all, Bobby is probably the weakest hero ever. Hell, Wally Bear (who I strangely have yet to do a LP of) and Bubsy are stronger than this guy, and they're in perfectly normal places (I guess) where everything in existence wants to kill them. At least they don't die from touching things like walls, butterflies and fire hydrants, unlike our friend Bobby here. I thought the Smurfs game was bad for basically the same thing, but at least you can actually control your jumps a lot better here than in that game, which is basically more praise than this game even deserves since Bobby's jump is really high, and when even butterflies kill you from the slightest touch, there's something dreadfully wrong.

I'm surprised it's even possible for the poor guy to go home. Hell, even the small gaps in the floor that look like either musical flats or the bottom half of a top hat act as invisible water that end up drowning the dude if he just steps into them. Jesus Harvey Christ.

The music? Holy crap, the biggest reason I picked this specific video is to not show off the music. You can barely hear it in this video, which is a freakin' godsend since it's probably the most annoying pre-8-bit set of notes I've ever heard in my life, which is actually saying something. It's not that it's not music, it's just so off key that I question my own humanity for listening to it. I'm dead serious.

The chicken enemies are the worst thing in the game. As soon as they go past the left edge of the screen, they instantly respawn...and if you're standing right where they respawn on the right edge of the screen, you're screwed. What the hell, Bit Corp.

I kinda like the backgrounds in this game, even if they violate the laws of perspective. You get trains, other houses, clouds, and the like. It's slightly picturesque and is probably the most beautiful thing the game is going to give you, but what the hell is with the sun and the clouds? I know the birds move around randomly in the sky whenever you see them, but do the sun and the clouds have to have the exact same movement programming as the birds, especially since they're...y'know...the sun and the clouds?

The bridge that keeps shortening and extending is just the most aggravating part of the whole game. You have to start crossing it normally while it's re-extending and jump to the right when both ends are connected for that one second. If you can actually time it right, you'll be able to land on the other end of the bridging without drowning in a seemingly invisible river.

Once you make it past a few more screens, including one where the chickens are replaced with what look like the springboard from Super Mario Bros. (and there's three of them instead of two), you'll finally make it home. Just enter his house and you'll finally beat the game.

At least the screen where you make it home looks slightly different. There are stars and it's dark, and the stars move like in the Robot Master screen in Mega Man 2. Once you enter the house and stand in the middle of it, you get the proper game over and you can also change the difficulty. Why change the difficulty? I dunno. Level 1 is hard enough as it is.


For some reason, this game is rare, and it only got released in Europe. Why this game was even allowed to be released is just something in itself. It makes the same steps as Pitfall or The Smurfs, but it doesn't even make them half as well, if you can even call this attempt "half as well." The fact that is was even allowed to be released just makes me shake my head. The only reason I would even recommend this game is if you were trying to collect every single official release from 1978 to 1991 in cartridge form. As for playing it...don't even bother. It's good to play for comedic reasons only, but once you beat it on the initial difficulty level you get when you turn the game on, there's basically no replay value. Hell, even the fact that you have to reset the game to continue ticks me off. Stay away. Just...stay away.

We're back!

After about nine months, this blog is finally going back to regular service.

You can thank Kurisu Yamato from Xadara for finally getting all of the blog entries - two-and-a-half years' worth of surplus stuff - out of the broken USB thumb drive that all the potential blog entries were stuck in. He managed to get into the content of the thumb drive, despite the computer not wanting to recognize it, and get it transferred over to a hard drive.

It turns out that one of the "legs" of a chip in the USB drive was not touching a circuit path, and Kurisu had to hold it down in such a way to get it to touch that path in order to get the thumb drive to work properly. Once that happened, transferring was the hard part. Thankfully, everything was ported out of the thumb drive and, as a result, everything is in a safer location - where it belongs.

I'll be starting back where I left off - right in the middle of the Atari Fab Five series - and this entry and the "farewell" entry will be kept in the blog for posterity.

The retrogaming blog is back. Press Start to continue.

- PrinceWatercress

UPDATE (November 5, 2015): Kurisu Yamato finally explains it all.