Many of you might be familiar with this game by what would have been its American title: Samurai Pizza Cats. As this game was made a good five years before the series hit the States, at which time the 16 bit generation was winding down, it never made it to the overseas market. For familiarity's sake, I will refer to characters by their English names.
I'm not entirely certain what the plot is as the trans-hack is for a ROM version that seems broken (it didn't work on two different emulators, so be sure to use the J b1 version for playback). It seems the series' mainstays all appear, but you never really get to see many of them in this run as they are either blown away instantly or are in cutscenes.
This game, when played, is best compared to a really simple Ninja Gaiden (made by the same company, even). Except for a run mechanic, the two games seem to play very similarly, but this one is much easier on the player. In fact, one could even describe it as "relaxing".
Because of this game's simplicity, I thought it would have been a simple run to make. I was even going to suggest it to some newcomers as a way to get their feet wet. However, when I took a stab at it, I quickly realized that it would take a metric ton of optimizations to do properly. <@_@> There is a multitude of tricks and glitches, some saving one or two frames, others saving whole seconds.
Batcat is used extensively as his ability to fly leads to a good number of shortcuts. The only level he isn't used in is 6, where I use Spritz exclusively.
One of the major glitches in here is the boss glitch. If the team leader executes a level three ninpo attack on the first frame of combat, the boss is dead. Right there, dead, even the ones that don't show up immediately. As pulling this off requires your weapon to be maxed out, this saves anywhere from a great deal of time (first level) to a little bit (last level). Because this gets rid of bosses before thier sprites load up, the only bosses you'll see are those whose graphics are built into the background. This glitch doesn't work on the second boss as she's programmed a bit differently (and weirdly >_<), so i pull out another glitch and use that instead. ;)
That glitch involves canceling the attack animation either by changing characters or changing screens to a boss. This will cause your attack to become semi-permanent so you hit enemies that are nearby. It can be nixed by delivering a punch/slash, getting hit, or beating a level. Generally I come across this as a consequence of being faster (usually in levels involving Catton), but in the last two levels I had to go out of my way to activate it to eliminate enemies in narrow corridors.
Running was a hassle. If you attack during a running jump, your run will be cancelled when you land, forcing you to spend a frame getting back up to speed. This can be rectified by timing your attack so that the attack animation ends at the same time you land. You'll keep the run this way, sparing you the frame needed to get your run again. Unfortunately the effect doesn't seem to carry through on ladders.
Another running issue is if you attempt to turn around from a run, you're forced to walk along the ground for several frames before you can run again. Attacking in mid air will elinimate that wait, thus accounting for a vast majority of loose attacks in the run. The glitch described in the previous paragraph also seems to get rid of that wait, thus making exactly one attack in this movie completely redundant. A cookie to whoever can identify it. ;P
Otherwise I love how hands off much of this game is. Once you get into a run, you can let go of everything and keep going. If FCEU had an input display, it'd be empty most of the time!
Other glitches:
Usually when starting a level, you're not supposed to have any horizontal motion before you hit the ground. Attacking will override this.
Meowzma can run through dirt if you press down at the right time, as long as there isn't an empty space beneath him.
The hit box on the electrical beams will close up after a while.
Other than that, I show a few useless glitches during the last few bosses.
Various notes
There is some sound glitch whenever you move through cutscenes fast enough that causes a recently played sound to play again. Not sure what the deal is.
The sprite that shows up after glitching a boss to death is the face of the fourth boss.
Recycling powerups requires that I leave the room entirely. Why then don't I just enter and re-enter that door by the power up in level 7? It's because re-entering it would drop me off in an entirely different part of the level.
I really don't like the last two levels. Many situations forced me to pause for a bit, so progress looks a little awkward in many instances. Example: I run for a bit on the conveyor belt towards the end of level 10 because the power up wouldn't appear othwise.
Speaking of conveyor belts, it doesn't seem any faster to jump on the other two I'm forced to run on (ice behaves like belts, oddly enough <~_~>).
Not sure what the deal is with the dirt that didn't disappear in level 5. I just know it becomes intangible.
The gltich you see during the battle with Seymour is this game's wall warp. It has potential for abuse, but that fight is the only place I can get it to work, a place that's completely useless.
That pit I enter in level 6 will always drop you off at the same place no matter where you enter it, so it doesn't really matter.
Throughout the run I jump in order to bait some enemies.
If you pick Polly as the team leader, you'll end up with a close approximation of the Planeteers in cybernetic feline form. ;P
No damage taken; manipulates luck during item drops.
NOTE ABOUT THE ROM
Yes, this movie was recorded with what was labeled as a "bad dump." This was due mainly to necessity (and admittedly ignorance). When I was looking for this game, the version with just the J suffix wasn't working under FCEU or RockNES no matter where I got it from, so I tried one of the other two available ROMS, b1 and b2. b1 worked, but I didn't know the "b" suffix meant "bad", so I continued recording anyway.
After recording, I found another dump under the filename "Cat Ninden Teyandee" that I'm assuming was a "good" dump (as it only had the J suffix) that worked. Personally I couldn't tell the difference between the two, and apparently neither could the fcm as it played without a hitch. So... Whatever, I guess. :|
Addendum: And now I'm having issues with that ROM again. *sigh*
Conclusion: The good dump has a bad header. If you wish to use the good dump, you'll need to pick up a program like cajoNES (available at Zophar's Domain) to clean it out. And yes, the movie will work.
adelikat: Aceppting, for reasons posted in the discussion.
Dada: To those struggling to find the ROM: try searching for
Kyatto (or Kyattou) Ninden (or Ninja) Teyandee. It seems to go by a few different spellings.
