Post subject: Ninja Five-O (Ninja Cop)
Joined: 6/4/2004
Posts: 284
Hostages have been kidnapped by terrorists. Are you a bad enough ninja to rescue the hostages? ...ok, this game hasn't gotten very much attention, but it's supposed to be a very good game, being a mix between Shinobi and Bionic Commando (with the ninja using a grappling hook to flip up ledges), and also having a good, fast pace. Perhaps an idea for a run?
Former player
Joined: 3/30/2004
Posts: 1354
Location: Heather's imagination
I really love this game. But it's too hard for me to beat ;_;
someone is out there who will like you. take off your mask so they can find you faster. I support the new Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
It's fun, even if it makes no sense whatsoever, even for a videogame. But yeah, good game. A fairly standard, easy timeattack, too. There's enough tricks for the main character to do to make the game varied and interesting. The grappling hook whatsamathingy is much better than Bionic Commando's. I don't want to say it's as free-moving as Umihara's is, but you can definitely pull off some nice stuff with it. You can attach it to the ceiling and slump against a wall and bounce off of it to gain height, etc. Shuriken and a sword are your main methods of attack. The shuriken can be upgraded to some energy-missile doohickey. Hostage takers and keyholders aside, you can pretty much just rush by enemies, too. I dunno WHY I like the game. It's seemingly generic, save for the acrobatics you can pull off. X.x But dammit all, it IS fun.
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
Yeah, really, i didn't know it, and i've just finished it and found it quite entertaining... As KaitouKid said, it'd make a nice TA with some nice trick which could be pulled out... If anyone feels the spirit to TA it... :D, it would certainly be appreciated by a lot of people...
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Jeez, it's surprisingly difficult to find ANY information on this game. Gamefaqs doesn't even have a guide for it. Or any people on the game's forums. So no tips or glitches to be found THERE. I'm going to assume that using the sword is better in most cases. The shuriken, even at level 3, kinda slows you down. So unless there's a big multi-hit enemy/boss or you can get a free shot in while jumping, I'd say go with the sword as far as attacking goes. Haven't tested sliding yet to see if it even hurts enemies. Using the special attack doesn't seem to do much of anything to the first boss. The sword does a considerable amount, though. Of course, getting close enough to USE the sword on him (especially when he's lobbing fireballs) is pretty dangerous. Of course, grappling hook abuse will be needed. Ninja dude kinda hovers at the peak of his jump for some reason. So in addition to being stylish as all hell, I'd say using the grappling hook would be your primary means of travelling if at all possible. Swinging is much faster than walking.
Former player
Joined: 3/30/2004
Posts: 1354
Location: Heather's imagination
KaitouKid wrote:
Jeez, it's surprisingly difficult to find ANY information on this game.
It was made in (very) small quantities. I've never seen a Japanese copy, and the one I own myself I had to import from Europe.
KaitouKid wrote:
Using the special attack doesn't seem to do much of anything to the first boss. The sword does a considerable amount, though. Of course, getting close enough to USE the sword on him (especially when he's lobbing fireballs) is pretty dangerous.
I don't know of how much use ninpou will be in a TAS, considering how long it takes to use VS how much damage it does. It might be more cost-efficient to use it when the bar isn't maxxed for the invincibility instead of the damage.
KaitouKid wrote:
Swinging is much faster than walking.
Much, MUCH faster if you do it right. And combined with acrobatics there's a lot of cool stuff you can do while swinging. So, this will be on Hard of course, or maybe even Time Attack. What about rescuing - full rescue or minimalist?
someone is out there who will like you. take off your mask so they can find you faster. I support the new Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
Boco wrote:
So, this will be on Hard of course, or maybe even Time Attack.
If hard mode is an unlockable feature of the game be careful of SRAM problems (though i'm not sure of it because i don't know much about SRAM...) You should record it from start and do it in normal mode...
Boco wrote:
What about rescuing - full rescue or minimalist?
Well as the game is not very long, i would opt for a rescue TA, as they are some levels (especially in the cave stages) that can be completed by killing one enemy, getting the red key and entering the red door...
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
So, this will be on Hard of course, or maybe even Time Attack. What about rescuing - full rescue or minimalist? I'm pretty sure Hard's one of those annoying things where you need a completed game save to use. Bah. Technically, killing the hostages would be quicker, but where's the fun in that? It seems that as long as you don't attack from the front, the hostage will be safe. I hit the R button to do one of those Zero-ish sword things when falling after a missed grapple when I was fooling around earlier, came down on top of a hostage taker - sorta to the front - and the hostage lived. I suppose some testing should be done to see where EXACTLY you can and can't hit the hostage takers...
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Yeah, no Hard Mode. Only Easy and Normal. Well, I ran a few test runs. I tried to grab the damned powerup from one of the goons under the platform that leads to the Red Key. But no dice. There was just no good way to grab the damn thing and swing up while keeping a decent speed. Not that latching onto the ledge, swinging right for building up speed, then swinging back to the left and up onto the platform is any better. Bah. Best time I got was 36 seconds. EVERY attack this asshole ninja makes has a good amount of recovery time to it. You throw shuriken, you're gonna wait awhile. Use the sword, you've got recovery time. Use the sword while jumping, you have LANDING recovery time. I think the only thing that doesn't lag you is throwing shuriken while jumping. And that may just be when jumping from high places. After getting the Red Key, I leapt over the goon on the right side of the upper platform with a precise jump with a shuriken throw at the peak. It extends your horizontal air time for some reason. When I landed, I landed in a walking stance. Make of that what you will. But due to the craptacular way VBA does its movie files and my not being a part of the whole movie-MAKING scene, I somehow managed to b0rk the 36-second test. I may feel more like restarting tomorrow, but right now I'm too ticked off to care. Blehhh. But there's a time to try and beat, if anyone else wants to take a crack at it. More people should play the game, anyway.
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
If you did it before, you can do it again. Keep trying!
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
Come on KaitouKid... I'm sure you have the spirit to make a TA of this game... I may want to try it, though i have my RMZ4 TA to finish first...
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Opening stage: 36 seconds. Time after level 1: 1:30 even. I thought I had screwed up after getting the red key since I still had a hostage left to save. Fortunately, luck was actually WITH me for once. En route to the last hostage taker, I picked up a shuriken power-up. Annoyingly, I found you can't throw your shuriken the set number of times and then turn to leave without watching the final hit. You are forced to stay onscreen until the victim's 'saved' animation starts. ._. A bit stupid, if you ask me. It looks pretty good so far. I got a few acrobatic swings in, and I'm slowly getting the hang of the damn chain in slow-motion. I have a feeling this game's gonna drive me totally batty if I stick with it. X.x
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
hehe, i knew you could do it... Yeah i know it's lame that u have to wait for the hostage animation to finish, but if you carry out the TA without that goal, it shall look stupid at some parts of the game... As i said before some levels can be completed within 5 seconds even late in the game... And when you've done a few levels (3-4 or 5) you should post your WIP in this post so that we (and especially I) could look at it ;) ;)
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Time after stage 3: 2:59 Gah. There were two LARGE vertical rooms here. Each of which I pretty much needed to get to the top of. I did some nice swinging here and there, but there's certainly room to improve. I'm just too lazy and don't care enough to go back and fix the mistakes. It's not like I'M going to be doing this TAS. I'm just fooling around and giving some base times to beat each level by. Or something like that. Anyway, I guess I'll send the WIP to anyone who wants to see it after I beat the first boss. [Edit: 3:27 after boss 1. He's MUCH easier to deal with if you stay on the upper platform with him. My sense of style got in the way at the end, in addition to many tests proving that, unless I used my special technique to end the fight, the boss would either stab my ass or go into one of his stupid invincible jumping phases.] [Edit 2: You know, it bugs me. The hit detection in this game is absolutely BAFFLING. Sometimes I've been able to swordjump at the front of the bad guys and rescue the hostages. Other times, I've tried aiming at the EXACT same place and killed the hostages. Same goes for shuriken throwing. I primarily use my sword since it's faster overall, at least until I get the Level 3 shuriken upgrade, but there are a few victims I rescue long-range. And I KNOW I've seen the bad guy either turn or yank the hostage back around front. But the hostage still gets saved when the final attack hits. This happens RIGHT after I get the fireballs. Final victim in stage 2 gets freed by this confounding method. I dunno, it's weird. And curse it all, I'm bugged by the random sloppy mistakes. Plus I didn't seriously take into account just how useful sliding is until I was making my way to the blue door in stage 3. I may go back and redo the whole thing, I dunno. I'd rather not and wait for someone who's used to doing these to come along, but... like GTA, if I want it done, I'll end up having to do it myself. o.o V-nyu~]
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
[Edit: 3:11 after the boss. >> I'd say that's a fairly good improvement, I'd say. Any better would need frame advance usage for precision grappling. Frame advancing is murder on my wrists, so I won't be able to do it. I play at 6-15%, depending on the place I'm at. But the lower the speed, the more unresponsive my dumb gamepad becomes. Anyway... I picked up a level 3 shuriken upgrade in stage 3. Stage 3 has a few nice little acrobatic moves. Mostly in the blue and yellow key rooms. Yellow key room especially turned out nice, though I had to try that damn move I pulled off at the very top about 30, 40 times. I kill one of the armor guys, ledge grab -> hop up, grapple, swing over, shoot the final hostage taker, let out some slack in the chain, swing up, sword jump to deal with some bullets... ach, it was a MESS! But I am much, much happier with how it turned out. Figured out how to manipulate the boss into flame-spewing, too. You just have to stand right next to him after he jumps. Otherwise he just goes wandering off and goes back into his regular fighting stance. I'm pretty sure you can only attack via shuriken, too, as sword strikes make him recoil. So... yeah. I'm officially going to move on to world 2 tonight. And I'm gonna start making backup movies and such. Might as well take the insurance. >>;] [Edit 2: Well, let's see if this place works. *I* was able to get it via a different browser, so... http://www.savefile.com/filehost/files.php?fid=6014804 Until I find somewhere better, that'll be my temporary WIP site, I guess. At least it's simple and not clogged with ads or anything. o_o Rom used = 1062 - Ninja Five-0 (U)(Trashman)]
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Grah, dammit all. Version 3, Test 8 started. ><; In my trial run through 2-1, I realized I could turn invincible by using the special power when the gauge wasn't full. That would've been some handy information to have. Stupid Gamefaqs. >< I wonder if there's anything ELSE I don't know about. Blah. On the up side, after stage 2, I'm one second faster than last time. And I can already tell that the invincibility will be damn useful in certain parts of stage 3. Top of the yellow room comes to mind. --; Which means that the nifty little ninja smash I did up there in v2 is totally useless now. >:o I'll finish the bank later. My arms need rest. X.x
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
Don't use your whole arms; just use your fingers.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
Waouh, KaitouKid you rule!!!!!!! I knew you would do it, and i'm quite happy because you manage to make some impressive moves, and it's pretty nice to watch... Just a one thing : You should avoid miising shot or grapling attempt (in you first or second level you missed one) I'm glad you're carriying out the game and freeing hostages, it makes it more interesting... Be sure to take the shortest route in each level... i know it'll be hard in the later levels, but if you want i'd be very happy to help you out, as i've almost finished my TA... But do not worry and take your time... And your movie will be super cool, hehe ;)
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Shots were never missed. Any time I jump and throw a shuriken, it's to gain extra horizontal airtime. Usually used to jump over enemies. It seems if you extend your jump out that way, the game makes it pretty much impossible to LAND on anything sticking up. I've run some tests and I always just hit some invisible wall just before the object I want to land on, falling down vertically. As for the grapples, yeah, no more of those this time. Most of those were just random double-taps of the A button. No excuse for those, though. They don't extend your horizontal airtime as far as I can tell. It may look like it, but I haven't seen any difference. I'm honestly baffled as to how the bejesus I picked a second up. I was sure one of my grapples was off slightly. I just can't work out how, exactly. But results are results. Maybe I CAN eventually get the time on the Bank levels down to 3 minutes even. Doubtful, but... >> Now I remember what I forgot earlier. You lose all your powerups between stages. Stupid game! >< Grr... It's like it's trying to annoy me silly.
Former player
Joined: 3/30/2004
Posts: 1354
Location: Heather's imagination
KaitouKid wrote:
In my trial run through 2-1, I realized I could turn invincible by using the special power when the gauge wasn't full.
...I mentioned that in my second post here. You can also pull yourself up ledges, extend/release the grapple line, free look, etc., but those are less useful.
someone is out there who will like you. take off your mask so they can find you faster. I support the new Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun.
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Goes to show how thoroughly I read messages, don't it? >>
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
http://www.savefile.com/filehost/files.php?fid=5852907 So um... 3 minutes even. <.< >.> Basically, I was getting pissed - anyone who was in the channel tonight can verify that - about the whole planning of when and where to use the invincibility. The problem was I hit Full Gauge before entering the first room in 1-3. Y'know, the one with all the damn sliding. Eventually I decided on a new route. The overhead victim - the one between the chandeliers (sp) - would have to wait. I went straight across, killed armor dude for the blue key, killed the guy in front of the door, entered, and used my Full Gauge ability. It didn't take but like 160, 180 frames. X.x It didn't seem to LAST as long. Now, I don't know if it's because it was a single-screen room with only three enemies in it or what, but... In any case, it was a HEEEELL of a lot faster than is possible on foot. I literally enter, activate, and LEAVE. The rest of the stage goes well. The yellow room is... nice. Especially the escape. I have to kill two enemies... I think two. On the way down. Why? To activate split-second (count the frames!) bursts of invinc power to slip by enemies unharmed. The escape looks pretty good. The collission detection continues to baffle the hell out of me, but there ya go. I tried getting boss dude beaten in under 3 minutes, if by juuuust a half a second or so, so that it'd read 2:59. But no matter how I cut him up, it still rounded out at 3 even. So 3 you get. Shaving it down to that time is still pretty good. I'd LIKE to say I could've gotten by with one kill fewer, but... timing it all is a pain in the ass. >> So here's version 3, test 9 for now. Enjoy.
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
Very impressive, i didn't even know that you could use some kind of invicibility, and i think that you use it pretty well... The grapling have been improved and it's almost perfect (but perfection does not exist ;)) I think that it was a good idea to use your full gauge attack in that nasty room... And the boss was quite good as it was last time... Longing for the rest of your movie :D
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...
Former player
Joined: 6/6/2005
Posts: 384
Gah. After 2-1, the time is 4:29! X.x And there is NOT a lot of room to improve my route, either. It's because the damned level is SO spread out. From the start, you have a hostage DIRECTLY above you, so I swung up and took him out. Then I managed to get lucky and jump across the top of the first area, taking out the hostage taker on the RIGHT side of the area. I then slide off the ledge and go into the first normal door. This leads to a tall room. The yellow key is at the top-right. After getting it, I have to go through the normal door in the MIDDLE of the room to reach a room with the yellow DOOR. It also has four ninjas. I had to kill the rightmost one for the return trip. In the yellow room, there's nothing but a case holding the blue key, flanked by flamethrowers, which I thankfully moved quick enough to avoid. I then have to make my way out of the yellow room, across the red ninja room, using the temp invinc. from the single ninja kill earlier to quickly bypass the leftmost one, exit THAT room, scale BACK to the top of the tall room, and take the normal door across from where I grabbed the yellow key. THIS exit leads to a room with the final hostage and the blue room. The only thing behind the blue door is a single screen room with a shuriken powerup (which I don't get) and the red key. It also has flamethrowers. After that, I have to make my way out of that room, the final hostage room, drop to the bottom of the tall room, then make my way to the top-center of the FIRST room to exit the stage. >< If anyone can pull the level off in under 1:29, be my guest, because I'd love to see how it's done. I may go back and take another stab at it later, but it's a hideously annoying stage to have to deal with...
Former player
Joined: 5/24/2005
Posts: 405
Location: France
Do not worry about your time, just do it the better way you can... I'm replaying the game and I try to map it in order to find the best route... And the harbour level seems to be quite tricky relly, though the airport is not very hard, only the boss will take time... And you'll have (imo) to manipulate luck to take him out... Though you're not as far as that for now... let me finish my exam (after tomorrow) and i swear i'll help you out...
Not dead yet... still very busy... damn...