Tuesday, February 25, 2020

PrinceWatercress plays Shadow of the Ninja - Part 1 of 2


Here's another short game. This one was pretty fun, even if it has its hard parts near the end.

The year is 2029. America is under the brutal dictatorship of Emperor Garuda. The only thing that can stop him are two ninjas, Hayate and Kaede.

Hayate and Kaede play the same way, so you don't have to worry about any difference between the two characters.

Stage 1-1


Left and Right let you move around. Down lets you duck. A lets you jump. B lets you attack, and you can hold Up, Up and Left and Up and Right along with pressing B to aim with a weapon that you'll be able to get later.

Defeat the enemies that you see at the start or else they will dog you throughout the stage. Duck to take out the robotic enemies. Thankfully, the enemies in this stage are pretty simple.

The boxes can be opened by attacking them. Shurikens can be thrown by pressing B when you have them equipped, and you can see how many you have by looking at the number next to the health meter on the upper-left corner of the screen. Speaking of health, if you run out, you'll have to use a continue. Yep, the game does the "lives and continues are one and the same" thing. Fun. At least you keep your current melee weapon when you die.

The red potions refill a little bit of your health; the blue potions will refill all of it.

You'll soon find a chain sickle (the proper term for it is kisarigama). This will replace your sword and will give you a longer attack range. You will definitely want to get it if you find it, even if it does have a dodgy hit box, as you can attack enemies that are above you with Up, Up+Left and Up+Right in conjunction with the B button.

The boss here is some guy who runs really fast to slide at you. Dodge him as he moves, then strike at him as he punches at you. If you have the kisarigama, you can hit him twice instead of once before getting ready to move away.

Stage 1-2


The red guys with the shoulder pads will rush at you, and while they can't hurt you, they are annoying. Keep mashing the attack button to keep them at bay.

Take out the purple guys who stand and slash in place when you see them; they can seemingly hit you out of nowhere.

The missile pods shoot missiles, and while they can be destroyed, they take a lot of hits to kill.

You can get the katana back from boxes, but I would not recommend it.

Stage 1-3


Some of the wheels that you see in the background will have platforms on them. If you jump into the underside of a platform, your character will grab on. Press Up on the Control Pad and your character will pull themselves up.

If you fall into a pit, you lose a little bit of energy and you'll re-spawn.

The big red guys with the guns will hold their guns up to block your attacks, and are only vulnerable when shooting their guns.

Stage 1-4


The boss here is a red robot with an eye. When it lands, it will shoot mortar shots upwards before flying upwards and coming down in a sine-wave platform. Keep near it so it doesn't fly around wildly, and keep smacking it when its eye is open as it fires. You'll take damage, but the robot will go down before you do. If you have the kisarigama, this battle is a little bit easier since you can aim upwards if you need to. Beating a boss will refill a little bit of your health.

Stage 2-1


You'll be in the sewers now.

The ninjas that jump out of the water will stay in place and throw shurikens every so often. Be ready to strike it quickly if and when you manage to get near them.

The mid-boss is some sort of worm that pops out of one of two holes below the ground. Keep your distance, strike the blue head and be ready to jump over the projectiles it shoots out.

After that, you'll be in a vertical section. Watch out for the steam that shoots downwards out of the pipes, and if you need to, use the platforms you can hang off the underside of to your advantage by holding Down and pressing A to grab onto the underside so you can face the robots here without taking damage.

The boomerang throwers can be a bit of a pain, but they are easier to hit with the kisarigama. If you can attack the boomerang guys fast enough, you can knock their projectiles out of the air.

The shurikens are useful against the helicopter robots that come at you.

Stage 2-2


The robots with the cannon arms shoot a single shot forward. Duck when you fight them, as they split in two after taking enough damage and the upper body will fly around and attack. The sliding guy is fairly fast but is beatable.

The marbles are bombs. You can use them to take out some of the red guys that slide and punch...who are basically the first mini-boss now bumped down to normal enemy status. Thanks for that, game!

Stage 2-3


The boss is a tank. Shoot at the cannon with what looks like a blue claw in it to reveal a red cannon that will shoot multiple fireballs into the air. Strike it once (twice with the kisarigama), then move away. If you are on the ground, there will be a laser cannon that shoots blue fireball projectiles that you will have to jump over to avoid. You can destroy that cannon, but there's not much of a point to it.

Stage 3-1


You'll be on the rooftops of some buildings, so be careful where you jump as you fight the cannon arm robots. Further on, you'll see enemies that move from one side of the screen to the other, as well as monkey enemies that bounce up and down and try to lunge at you.

If you can attack the boomerang guys fast enough, you can knock their projectiles out of the air.

Some of the big red guys with the guns here can kneel down to shoot, and they can also aim downwards from a standing position.

The boss here is a samurai. Watch the bottom of the screen to see where he will show up from, and stay on the move so he doesn't hit you. Hit him several times and he will eventually explode before pulling himself back together. Better to be hit by that than the sword.

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