Legend: Comparison point, adelikat, MESHUGGAH, total improvements
Part 1 - New York City 821 752 69
Boss start 5412 5256 156
Boss death 5788 5500 288
Part 2 - Tokyo, Japan 6283 5995 288
Boss start 13006 12606 400
Part 3 - Rio De Janeiro13752 13331 421
Boss start 20302 19320 982
Boss death 20619 19582 1037
Part 4 - New York City 21200 20124 1076
Boss start 27083 25743 1340
Boss death 27812 26422 1390
Final boss start 36404 34993 1411
End of movie 37033 35608 1425
Miscellaneous
Thanks to adelikat for his previous published TAS, so I could compare my improvements easily.
Thanks to igorsson for his video, which actually demonstrates what adelikat has done on the last level (going to weapon menu while moving forward and leaving it advances the player’s on screen X position).
Noxxa: Had I judged this without considering the audience feedback, I would have accepted this run to Vault - movement just seems too slow at times, and it came across to me as dull unless I sped up the movie about threefold or so. The entertainment rating for the published movie also is mediocre at best. Despite that, this submission got 7 yes votes (out of 7) for entertainment. So based on that, accepting to Moons as an improvement to the published movie.
I suspect this is another case where votes will not match up to ratings when the movie is published, so its tier may very well be changed in the future, if entertainment ratings turn out low.
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Yay! This is one of those games I had as a kid that I liked before I realized years later how crappy it was. The game could have been so much better with more music tracks, a faster character, and less obscure instructions. (Honestly, unless you read your instruction manual, you wouldn't know that you regain health by going into the doorways and beating up random thugs.) The variety of powers was cool, but as this run shows, most of them are useless.
I liked seeing how smooth the out-of-bounds tricks were with the new use of the Select button. The boss fights seemed quite good, especially the bosses for Stages 1, 3, and 5. The game does drag on, but I liked it enough for a Yes vote.
I would personally be interested in seeing a run that saves all the children, but I think it would make a much more boring TAS to the general audience, especially if you skip the dialogs with the kids in the first place. You don't even interrogate any red-shirt goons either.
For the record, for people who aren't familiar with the game: you should know that the final boss can only be defeated by using four specific ninja powers in a specific order. That's why the time wasted digging in the ground with the Spider power is unavoidable. MESHUGGAH did a pretty good job linking the powers together though in close quarters without getting hurt.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically.
Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.)
Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html)
Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature!
Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
For the record, for people who aren't familiar with the game: you should know that the final boss can only be defeated by using four specific ninja powers in a specific order. That's why the time wasted digging in the ground with the Spider power is unavoidable. MESHUGGAH did a pretty good job linking the powers together though in close quarters without getting hurt.
Well actually, I believe the final boss is a complete glitch. First you can't hit it earlier or it will be counted as a "wrong" power and you get damage. Secondly you need to time your ninpo arts or the damage will only do 1 or 2 "sub" damage (boss has 4 "health" == 12 "sub health". A correct hit should always register as "3 sub damage"), which also depends on where do you hit his hitboxes)
Also I think adelikat used the very same sequence. I've tried to use different ones, but as I said, it's glitchy. Fire rain and (IIRC) Lightning is counts as "same", also you can't throw shuriken between 2 specific ninpo arts and using the "right" art in sequence can also register as a "sub" damage or worse ("wrong" skill).
I didn't checked all possible skill sequences but this one proved to be the best.
edit: I like to read your viewpoint/"analyzing" of my TASes so I'm also interested in what do you think about my [2545] NES Ninja Jajamaru: Ginga Daisakusen by MESHUGGAH in 15:16.06 TAS.
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
Joined: 6/23/2009
Posts: 2227
Location: Georgia, USA
Aqfaq and MESHUGGAH: Thanks guys! I had more to say this time because I've played the game a lot as a kid.
I don't know much about Ninja Jajamaru. To be honest, while it was quite fast, it got repetitive for me. I'll try to check it out again in the near future though and write a movie description for it.
As for this movie, I had no idea the final boss was that gimmicky. I think I'd been screwed by some of his glitches in console, though, where I'd attack him with the right power and still take damage. Also, I don't know why his head looks like a light fixture ;-)
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically.
Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.)
Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html)
Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature!
Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
