This is my third attempt at this movie. My previous attempt was 13:00:06 long and it got several Yes votes. That movie stayed in submitted-movie-limbo for a few months. However, while that movie looked good, it had several flaws.
This attempt is 12:52:47 long and it's noticably more aggressive than the previous attempt.

Run Summary

  • Aims for fastest time
  • Played on highest difficulty level (3)
  • Runs into enemies to save time and/or entertainment value
  • Minor bug abuse (Level 2-2 ends without actually reaching the exit)
  • Contains lots of ninja abuse: kicking them out of the air, tricking them into jumping off of buildings, shoving them off buildings, etc.
(_Still_ not my previously planned pacifist run. That's still on hold for now, sorry.)

Game summary

One of the lesser known Shinobi games, Shadow Dancer is still a solid entry in that series. I had a blast with this game in my teens--three difficulty levels and lots of ninja fighting action. The game sure looks different in a TAS though--there's quite a few enemies that a TASer can run from that a normal player can't.

Weapon notes

All attacks that start from a standing position (be they sword or shuriken) force you to stand still for a few frames and are therefore rarely used.
All attacks that start in mid-air (jumpkicks, shuriken or sword (if you walk off a ledge, you can do a midair sword attack)) will let you keep your forward momentum. If you hit the ground while still in the attack animation, you can still glide forwards.
Dog--The pooch can be used to momentarily stun most non-boss/non-ninja foes. Unfortunately, it takes too long to set up such an attack. (You have to both charge a gauge and wait for the dog to notice an enemy. Worse yet, the dog tends to be very slow on the uptake.)
Ninja Magic: Does 2 points of damage to bosses (most of the time), kills everything else. Only used to end the game--it's just too slow to use in any other situation.
Bumping: Running into enemies can result in a bump. Even if the bump moves Shinobi forwards, it's slower than walking. However, bumping still has advantages in the right situations--it stuns enemies, it moves enemies, sometimes a jump that completely clears an enemy isn't possible, the bump can allow you to reach a platform that you wouldn't be able to reach otherwise, etc. Bumps are used for both speed and entertainment value.
Bunny hopping: Repeated forward jumps are slightly (very slightly!) faster than walking. I think if you do a forward jump and then do another forward jump the instant you hit the ground you get one frame's worth of extra forward momentum. I don't bunny hop everywhere--there's plenty of places where jumping just gets Shinobi into trouble.

Level notes:

_This section contains spoilers--you might want to watch the video first_

1-1

Ouch. I'm not entirely happy with the very first frame of the very first level. It starts off with jump, jump, walk, jump, kick. I now think walk, jump, jump, jump, kick would look better and it might even save one frame. (If I figure out a way to make other substatial improvements to the movie, I'll redo this--right now, the improvement would be tiny and the cost needed to make that improvement would be large--I'd rather spend that time making other movies.)
Happily, the rest of the level kicks butt.
I have to pause for the Manhole from Hell (Just what's in that sewer, anyways?) but I found a way to jumpkick the gunman after that. This is faster than trying to shoot him with a star. After that gunman, I basically bunny hop through most of the remaining level.
There's some enemies that fail to show up at the end of the stage--the game sometimes prevents enemies from appearing if there are already several on the screen.

1-2

This stage starts with another jump=jump-walk-jump situation just like 1-1. (Ouch.)
However, the rest of the level is a huge improvement over my previous attempt. I manage to kill the first shieldman before he can release his shield which saves several frames.
At the 45 second mark, I delay jumping. The ground splits due to an earthquake and by walking on the ground during the start of the earthquake I can get dragged a few pixels to the right for free.
There's two jumpkicks that miss in this level, one near the beginning and one near the end. I think that jumpkicks that miss are amusing--the jumpkick animation isn't supposed to happen if there are no enemies in range. (The game gets confused if you do a jumping attack near a prone gunman.)
Shortly after the 48 second mark, I reveal the 1up icon with a jump kick. The 1 up icon is mostly concealed behind a roly poly fighter but you can still see it if you know what to look for. This is a bit odd--normally you can't kick things that are on an upper level if you do a jump from the lower level.

Boss 1

I'm constantly adjusting the distance between the boss and I so that I can time the stars properly. He gets in only one attack--you can't stop the first earthquake.

First bonus round

Unfortunately, there's four bonus rounds that can't be sped up at all.

2-1

Back to the regularly schedules hostage-freeing, jump-kicking action!
This level is pretty much just a nice stroll across the bridge with the occasional jumpkick to keep the riffraff in line. Other than backtracking slightly to pick up hostages, you can run right through this stage.

2-2

It's a bunny hopping rampage! I found a route that's several frames faster than my previous attempt.
I get close enough to reveal the 1up icon but choose not to do it--it doesn't help anything and, unlike the icon in 1-2, kicking this icon doesn't demonstrate kicking a target from the "wrong level".

Boss 2

Not much to say. I manipulate the boss a bit--where he appears depends on where you stand. His hand attacks can be (and are) manipulated even more.

Bonus #2

Another autoscrolling stage where the player is invincible. Big whoop.

3-1

At 4:33, I jump on a box I'd rather jump over to prevent the missing hostage glitch from occuring. (If there are many enemies on the screen and Shinobi is in the wrong place and a shieldman tosses his shield, the game can get confused an make a hostage disappear. This makes the level completely unwinnable until you die and restart the level.)
At 4:40, I jumpkick a red and grey guy--if I don't, he bumps into me, wasting my time.

3-2

Fixed scrolling stage. Can't speed things up, so I kick the ninjas around for fun. I also walk completely off the platform a few times only to be bumped back onto the platform.
I do not kill any ninja directly--every last ninja is lured, bumped or kicked off of the elevator. Look out below!
Since I do not land any directly fatal blows, I get a huge 200,000 point "Peaceful Bonus". I am not sure what is particularly peaceful about jumpkicking a ninja off of a multi-story elevator.

Boss 3

Special thanks to Neofix for showing how to beat this boss quickly.
It's very important not to get too close to her. If you do, she slowly backs up with her buzzsaw hands covering her face. Killing her is much faster when she doesn't keep her guard up--she falls faster than she backpedals.
Since final jump is done at the last frame, falling off of the stage doesn't count as a death.

Bonus 3

Just why are 50 ninjas bouncing off of skyscrapers anyways? And why doesn't the stage end with Shinobi going SPLAT?

4-1

There's a rare standing sword attack here--it's either stand still for a few frames or do a forward jump attack and get caught on the next ledge, losing even more frames.
This is a fairly difficult stage to time atack--it's very easy to lose frames and not realize it until you check the clock. After many, many failed attempts to find a route just as fast as my previous attempt, I finally found one that's a few frames faster.
There's a jump over a pit and a green monster near the end--it's faster if I do the jump as soon as possible as this minimizes the air time after I clear the green monster.

4-2

You can always see the floor but you frequently cannot see your ninja or enemies. If you use the Game Genie code AAPA-CASG, you can never see the floor but you can always see your player and all enemies. I did the whole level with it on. When I turned off the code, the movie didn't desync. (Note to be 100% clear: No Game Genie codes are needed to play back this movie.)
It's another bunnyhopping rampage and one that's slightly faster than my previous attempt. It's a bit of a shame that things are so dark--it's not easy to see what's going on.

Boss 4

Normally, this is an annoying boss that's invincible most of the time. Using frame states, you can keep him in hitstun until he's dead the moment he becomes vunerable.
The boss' path is determined before it even starts to move. I had to expiriment with button presses during the animation that starts the level to find a way to luck-manipulate the boss into stopping just above the left edge of the platform. I lose frames if the boss stops anywhere else (E.g., on right side or on the left side but closer to the top of the screen).

Bonus 4

I tried to be as aggressive as possible. Somehow, that makes this bonus level four frames _longer_.
I'm keeping the extra 1/15 seconds--while staying in the center is actually the fastest way to complete the stage, it _looks_ faster if you aggressively hunt down the ninjas. Quite frankly, the bonus stages need all of the help they can get in the entertainment department. I'm not entirely happy with the situation--I lost four frames!--but staying in the center is boring.

Level 5

Lots of running, very little fighting.

Room 1

Another bunny hopping rampage--gunmen aren't good closeup fighters.

Room 2

The sword may be slow but that works to my advantage here, as it damages a large and slightly spread out group roly poly guys. I found a slightly faster way to get into the pit, rescue the hostage and leave the pit.

Room 3

I have to slow down for a few of the jumps--the green monsters cannot touch or be touched by Shinobi as they fall from the ceiling. I have to make sure that I'm not standing where they are when they land--one touch is fatal. I found a faster way to deal with the green monster that lands on the tall stack of boxes just before the hostage. I do two midair sword attacks to clear the way to the end of the stage while keeping my forward momentum.

Room 4

Just before the first jump, I walk forwards, stop for one frame and resume walking fowards. That one extra frame means the difference between kicking the first two ninjas and harmlessly bouncing away. Can't do anything about the lag--killing ninjas takes a long time.

Room 5

More ninjas, more running, one more section of lag as Shinobi leads the parade. I have to stall very slightly at the beginning of this stage to deal with the first ninja just like I did at the start of Room 4.

Boss 5

Another boss that's both invincible unless attacking and takes a long time to attack. This boss is even immune to ninja magic most of the time.
Ninjas that roll off the screen disappear and are never heard from again. Ninjas that do a back flip from the edge of the screen also permantently disappear.
Shinobi isn't supposed to be able to stand still and then do a jump kick against ninjas that are doing forward flip attacks. That's one of the things that make ninjas such challenging opponents--the high priority of the air attacks is supposed to force the player move out of the way of the attack before they can counterattack. However, the evil ninjas have a gap in the forward flips. If you crouch just before the attack hits and then jump you have just enough time to sneak a jumpkick into that gap.
I'm not entirely sure how the boss' helmet works but I do know that if you throw a bunch of stars during the first attack wave, the boss delays lifting his helmet for 3 seconds. I used as few attacks as possible and was rewarded for doing so: this fight is 1 second, 17 frames faster than my previous attempt!
I end the game with ninja magic--this saves a bunch of frames as activating the fatal ninja magic clinches the game, allowing me to quit the movie as soon as I release the button.

Wrap up

When I started this movie, I was hoping to save at least seven frames from my previous attempt as I wanted to break the 13 minute mark. I certainly didn't expect to save four hundred thirty seven frames!
While this movie isn't perfect--I could save four frames by using less interesting tactics in Bonus Level 4 and I would like to make extremely minor tweaks to levels 1-1 and 1-2--it's a huge, huge improvement over my last attempt.
Most importantly, this movie does a very good job of showing extremely aggressive gameplay. There's a few places where I had to slow down or stop but these moments are both few and brief. There's a severe shortage of Shinobi TAS videos and I'm hoping this movie can help correct that trend.

Truncated: I have decided to accept this movie. While the bonus levels are boring, the entertainment level is high enough overall to make up for it.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1015: trazz's Genesis Shadow Dancer in 12:52.82
Joined: 8/13/2005
Posts: 356
Location: Canada
Very nice improvement. This time I'll vote right away instead of waiting six months.
Editor, Experienced player, Reviewer (967)
Joined: 4/17/2004
Posts: 3107
Location: Sweden
Oops, this went under my radar. Watching and voting now instead. At 2:58 somewhere (i paused too late), could you have walked further ahead before switching sides, so that you landed on the wooden box instead of the ground? (I's a shorter jump so it should take less time.) I really liked how you played the Statue of Liberty level. At 7:28 something (again..) it looked like you had to pause in mid-air to grab the prisoner. Could you just jump earlier? The bonus levels and final boss are sort of repetitive no matter what you do. I think four frames is an easy trade-off for making them a little more interesting. Keeping all the ninjas alive for the final jutsu was also cool.
Joined: 10/3/2005
Posts: 1332
Jeez. This one kinda fell by the wayside, didn't it? It's not the best game ever made, but I think this movie gets the most out of what's there. ...Or at least as much as could be expected for a game as obscure as this. Voted yes- a week ago.
Player (94)
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 122
Truncated wrote:
Oops, this went under my radar. Watching and voting now instead. At 2:58 somewhere (i paused too late), could you have walked further ahead before switching sides, so that you landed on the wooden box instead of the ground? (I's a shorter jump so it should take less time.)
Well, I could. I'd have to bump into a ninja on the way to the box and then I'd land on a knifeman on the other side of the fence... It's noticably faster to jump early, avoid the two ninjas and kill the knifemen cleanly instead of playing human bumper cars on the shorter route. :)
Truncated wrote:
I really liked how you played the Statue of Liberty level.
That level was something that more or less just fell together. I started by goofing around with the first pair of blue ninjas (I play chicken with the second ninja's swords) and after a few more waves, I noticed that, while I hadn't been completely pacifistic, it was possible just to kick a ninja off the level instead of having to fight them conventionally.
Truncated wrote:
At 7:28 something (again..) it looked like you had to pause in mid-air to grab the prisoner. Could you just jump earlier?
If I jump earlier, the green cyclops will still be on the platform when I land. Since Shinobi is completely incapable of attacking downwards and the green cyclops monsters are deadly to the touch, jumping any earlier means that Shinobi will die. Or maybe he wouldn't die--I think Shinobi can activate Ninja Magic mid jump and become invincible as he lands but Ninja Magic would waste multiple seconds. In any case, the jump is already as early as possible. Jumping even a frame earlier has very bad consequences.
Truncated wrote:
The bonus levels and final boss are sort of repetitive no matter what you do. I think four frames is an easy trade-off for making them a little more interesting. Keeping all the ninjas alive for the final jutsu was also cool.
Well, I don't keep all of them alive. I get at least one of them to commit suicide by going too far off screen... It was fun to leave a ninja alive at the end of wave four and finish the game by killing off that ninja, almost all the ninja from wave five and the boss with a single button.
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
Another yes from me! Nice played. Allthough. Ain't it quicker to throw two shurikens instead of the ninja magic?
Player (94)
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 122
Highness wrote:
Another yes from me! Nice played. Allthough. Ain't it quicker to throw two shurikens instead of the ninja magic?
You must be referring to the end, no? That's the only time I use ninja magic. The stars are faster, movie wise, but the magic is much faster, input wise. Once I release the magic button, the game is a guaranteed win and I can stop the recording.
Player (70)
Joined: 8/24/2004
Posts: 2562
Location: Sweden
Ah. Strange seat you got there. The game is not completed faster, but your movie is stopped faster. And yeah, that was the place I was referring to. :D
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
Location: Germany
And hell, it makes for a more interesting finale than just seeing him throw another two shuriken.
Player (94)
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 122
KDR_11k wrote:
And hell, it makes for a more interesting finale than just seeing him throw another two shuriken.
I think so, too, especially considering that one must face at least five waves of ninja and there's only three patterns. I decided to have fun with the rerun of pattern #2 and I'm a bit surprised that I was able to find a way to stay alive through the whole pattern without using the attack button, even if I had to use bumps to get past the vertical wall of forward-flipping ninjas.
nesrocks
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Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
just watched this, i found it very funny how you played around with the generic ninjas, like they were nothing at all :) good job. feel sorry for the lag though, but yes vote.
Joined: 4/5/2006
Posts: 3
Yes!!!(oops... i can´t vote =/) I really enjoyed the movie, specially The Statue of Liberty elevator and The Final Battle :) Great job for a great classic!!
Haste is the enemy of perfection but there are tool assisted emulators now ;)
Player (94)
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 122
FODA wrote:
just watched this, i found it very funny how you played around with the generic ninjas, like they were nothing at all :) good job. feel sorry for the lag though, but yes vote.
Thanks for the complement. I'm not worried about the lag. A human player isn't supposed to successfully run away from so many ninja, particularly in level 5's Room 4 and Room 5. (It does make finding the right frame for a jump hard in those two rooms, though--the game is so busy drawing ninja that it doesn't manage to "listen" to the controller during all of the frames.)
Player (94)
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 122
deathout wrote:
Yes!!!(oops... i can´t vote =/) I really enjoyed the movie, specially The Statue of Liberty elevator and The Final Battle :) Great job for a great classic!!
Wow--you've made one post and it's just for me? That's almost better than a vote! By the way, getting voting privledges isn't that hard. Just make 20 or so (20? 25? It's not a huge number.) posts and don't do anything obnoxious (including spamming just to get the needed posts).
Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
Was it a desync or did you take a bunch of damage on the Statue of Liberty stage on purpose? Other than that, I found this more entertaining than the previous versions and will be glad to give this a yes too. I especially like how you end input before the game is really over.
ideamagnate| .seen aqfaq <nothing happens> DK64_MASTER| .seen nesvideoagent * DK64_MASTER slaps forehead
nesrocks
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IdeaMagnate wrote:
Was it a desync or did you take a bunch of damage on the Statue of Liberty stage on purpose? Other than that, I found this more entertaining than the previous versions and will be glad to give this a yes too. I especially like how you end input before the game is really over.
there is no damage in this game, it was bumps to show off :) neither the player or the enemy was damaged. (if the enemy attacks you once, you're dead)
Player (80)
Joined: 3/11/2005
Posts: 352
Location: Oregon
I thought it was strange that it looked like he took damage, but that I couldn't find the damage indicator. Thanks for clearing that up.
ideamagnate| .seen aqfaq <nothing happens> DK64_MASTER| .seen nesvideoagent * DK64_MASTER slaps forehead
Player (94)
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 122
IdeaMagnate wrote:
Was it a desync or did you take a bunch of damage on the Statue of Liberty stage on purpose? Other than that, I found this more entertaining than the previous versions and will be glad to give this a yes too. I especially like how you end input before the game is really over.
As FODA said, there's no player damage in the game. Every character that has more than one hitpoint is an enemy ninja or a boss. The dog can take damage (he yelps and then transforms into a puppy) but that would be cruel. The bumps on that level are used to shove ninjas around, cancel their attacks and showing off. People said that just killing the ninja wasn't very interesting. Even worse, there's nothing you can do to speed up the level. To make things more interesting, I don't use normal tactics on that level and try to see how many silly situations I can get Shinobi into before the ride is over. Three bumps run into a ninja that has already left the platform. In two of those three, I've walked Shinobi completely off of the platform and he's completely helpless. In both cases, the suicidal gold ninjas bump Shinobi back onto the platform and the game continues.
Joined: 4/5/2006
Posts: 3
Trazz wrote:
Wow--you've made one post and it's just for me? That's almost better than a vote!
Oh yeah! I was working on a shadow dancer run based on Neofix 01 version movie... Then FODA show me you perfect(or near perfection) movie and I had to coment and congratulate you :)
Haste is the enemy of perfection but there are tool assisted emulators now ;)
Player (94)
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 122
deathout wrote:
Trazz wrote:
Wow--you've made one post and it's just for me? That's almost better than a vote!
Oh yeah! I was working on a shadow dancer run based on Neofix 01 version movie... Then FODA show me you perfect(or near perfection) movie and I had to coment and congratulate you :)
Big difference between trying to beat ~14:05 and 12:52:47, no? If you're still intested in Shadow Dancer, good luck on your run. I tried to leave behind as few opportunties for improvement as possible but I might have missed a dozen frames here or there without knowing about it. I only have vague ideas on how the second and last boss move, so there might be luck manipulation opportunites there. I might think differently later, but for now, the 12:52:47 run is my last attempt at figuring out this game.
Joined: 4/5/2006
Posts: 3
Huge difference! My run was about 13:58:?? taking all the lifes that didn´t slow me too much and doing some improvements at the bosses based on the NeoFix´s 14:05... but without watching your movie i didn´t realize that you could beat the bosses too fast, specially the "FireStar" at level 4 :) The truth is that for now i don´t have the necessary patience to make a "frame by frame movie". I hate do fastest menu selecting, and these kind of things :) I have no fun making it, so I prefer run in 33%/50% speed most of the time! I really like of the game Shadow Dancer so I am still playing it but for fun! I think there is too much work to beat your run(if it is possible) and win only by one or another frame while copying 99.9% of your movie is not what I am supposed to do :P
Haste is the enemy of perfection but there are tool assisted emulators now ;)
upthorn
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I just watched this run, and I'm withholding vote for now, because I'm in a terrible mood and don't want it to influence my decision, but I didn't find this run entertaining at all. I think that's more the fault of the game than the player, but it remains true.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Joined: 5/26/2006
Posts: 5
Location: UK
Definetly an improvement on your last run! there are still some points that could be improved and i'd love to see a pacifist run of this. The only thing I think could be improved is the bonus stages...sometime you miss one of the two ninjas that can be hit with a single shuriken. But that's me being a perfectionist...and i've never had the patience with this game to have a stab at it! The grand finale of the boss is clever...and you only used your special once...to great effect! -J.
"The Flowers are Still Standing!"
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RetroHolo wrote:
Definetly an improvement on your last run! there are still some points that could be improved and i'd love to see a pacifist run of this. The only thing I think could be improved is the bonus stages...sometime you miss one of the two ninjas that can be hit with a single shuriken. But that's me being a perfectionist...and i've never had the patience with this game to have a stab at it! The grand finale of the boss is clever...and you only used your special once...to great effect! -J.
Bonus rounds: They're slow, not very interesting and a bit weird to TAS. The kill-two-with-one-shot trick is much harder to pull off than it seems. If the two ninja in question do not overlap just so, you cannot get the two-in-one-shot to work--one ninja will absorb the shot completely and thus protect the other. It might be possible to fix such shots by moving to the right or to the left some but, in the movie, if I do not hit two at once when it appears such a trick might be possible, it is not possible to do that trick from Shinobi's current position. Other improvements: It's been awhile since I've seen this movie, but, offhand, I'd do the Statue of Liberty level differently. Granted, I'm aiming for a so-bad-it's good sort of theme, as killing all of the ninjas normally is boring but that level could still use a bit of polish. If nothing else, I'd cut out the strobing. I would definitely keep the main theme of that level--all ninja must fall off the elevator!--intact, though. Pacifist run: Well, it's not exactly possible. Boss stages require the player to slay the boss. Also, some stages appear to require at least use ninja magic once if for no other reason than to keep a hostage from disappearing due to glitches that can occur when there are a large number of enemies onscreen. (If there are lots of sprites on the screen, it is possible for a hostage to just disappear. If this happens, Shinobi cannot get credit for rescuing all of the hostages without resetting the level by dying.) Also, I do not think that the themed rooms of Level 5 can be completed in pacifist mode--between the shots fired by the gunmen and the deadly-to-the-touch green monsters, there does not appear to be a Shinobi-sized gap through the stream of deadly-to-the-touch obstacles. However, it is possible to clear all non-boss stages from 1-1 to 4-2 without using the normal attack button--it is possible to earn a Peaceful Bonus in all of these stages. I haven't made a TAS of this because of several reasons. The main reasons are: * lack of enthusiasm over the normal run * the pacifist run would have large parts that merely duplicate the original run (all bosses, all of stage 5, all bonus rounds) * bonus stages are boring
Joined: 12/20/2004
Posts: 226
I was just wondering why this hasn't been published yet. It has well-optimized movement with some entertaining dodging in hectic situations. The run was even accepted by Truncated. Oh wait, I know why this hasn't been published yet. It's a Genesis game =( If you're wondering, I voted yes on this run at least a month ago.