Helpful Ninja Gaiden Advice

Hey r/Nintendo. I have been playing a ton of Ninja Gaiden since it came out for the online service (and I played it a lot for the NES back in the day, as well as on the SNES collection). A friend of mine IRL was asking me about it, cause he'd had a lot of trouble, and I told him about some of the tricks and such I'd picked up over the years. He said some of them were so helpful and interesting that he encouraged me to post them, so here I am. Hope you find these as interesting discussion topics as my friend did.

1. Climbing walls. Normally you can only climb ladders and you just stick to normal walls, but with precise timing you can jump away from a wall and then back onto it, gaining height. This is never necessary but it's a great way to cheese through some tricky parts and particularly a boss later on (Masked Devil). In stage 5 there is an outdoor section where you can avoid a very difficult jump by climbing a wall and taking an intentional hit to knock yourself over the wall to safety.
2. Birds. Probably the most annoying enemy in the game and the cause of the most deaths. Birds can spawn from basically anywhere on screen and they home straight towards you. They do two points of damage (bullets do just one, go figure), and they often will nail you in the air and knock you into a pit. To deal with them, just get used to their timing and use a precise slash or Ninpo shot to kill them. Alternatively, dodge them and let their momentum carry them off screen where they'll despawn.
3. Any Ninpo is better than no Ninpo. Even the small shuriken is very useful as a projectile and arguably better than the windmill Shuriken because it costs less. Every Ninpo is useful so don't ever hesitate to slash powerup droppers. Art of the Fire Wheel (diagonal upward shot) is often very useful so don't hesitate to grab and use it. You lose your Ninpo if you die, and it's usually not a huge help on bosses, so take what the game gives you and use it liberally.
4. Jump and Slash is broken. The Ninpo that turns your jumping attack into a spinning slice is easily the strongest in the game. Not only does it make you effectively invincible and murder everything in your path, it also tears through bosses with lightning speed. Of course keeping it long enough to face a boss is pretty difficult and really only doable on the second stage. It consumes a lot of Ninpo, but you can prevent it from activating by holding down when you slash in the air.
5. Death/continuing. Death is not a huge punishment in this game. You go back to the start of the current scene upon death. Upon game over, you continue at the start of the stage block you're on (eg if you game over in 5-2, you continue in 5-2, rather than 5-1). Most stage blocks are rather short so a game over is no biggie.
6. Bloody Malth/Marth. The stage 5 boss is kind of notorious. He hits hard and his attacks are unavoidable, but he's actually very easy. You get a full health refill before you fight him (cause Malth is honorable), so all you have to do is damage rush him. Just get in his face and slash him, ignoring all damage, and you should kill him before he kills you.
7. Stage 6. Most stages in the game are more or less fair, the final stage is not (and is somewhat legendary for difficulty). Some tips for conquering it: 6-1 is short, so just bum rush your way through it. 6-2 is the hardest in the game, with lots of pits and flying guys, so jump sparingly and just tank a lot of hits. If you can, try to scroll dudes off the screen to kill them. Get to the edge of platforms before jumping so you spawn any fliers that might interfere with your jump. Keep moving so you don't get overwhelmed by birds. Don't worry about spending all your lives, just get through it, cause a game over in 6-3 just starts you back in 6-3. 6-3 is not as hard as 6-2, but it's still tough. Just push through, ignore out of the way powerup droppers cause they aren't worth it, but take what's directly in your path. Don't stop and try to kill everything cause you'll be overwhelmed. He who fights and runs away, etc.
8. Final bosses. Make a save state before them, and don't be ashamed. The three-boss gauntlet is very difficult and unfair because a death to any of the three sends you back to 6-1, unlike any other boss in the game. Because the game takes your Ninpo away and adds it to your score after every boss fight, Ninpo is no help on the second and third bosses. However, if you continue and get back to the gauntlet, you start at whichever boss you died to, so Ninpo could help in that case. Fortunately you get health refills for each boss. Some individual tips: Masked Devil. His body is invincible, but the game outright tells you to attack the target in the center of the room. Climb the walls to avoid his orbitals and wait for him to close to you, then jump over him and attack the target a few times. Then repeat with the other wall. Jaquio: He's pretty tricky so just practice the timing of avoiding his projectiles and attack only when its safe. You can usually only get off one hit at a time, patience is key. The Demon: His projectiles hurt so be careful, but he's honestly not too bad compared to Jaquio. Just don't choke. Take his head out first, then the tail, then the heart, dodging projectiles when necessary.

Well that's about it folks, with these tips you should stand a much better chance against this fantastic but unforgiving game. Bottom line is don't give up, the mechanics are tight and every obstacle is surmountable. With practice, you too can put the Jaquio and the Demon in their graves. Feel free to ask me any questions about the game mechanics, strats for anything I didn't touch on, or the amazingly ridiculous plot! Also just post your experiences with the game, and add anything I may have overlooked.

Submitted December 15, 2018 at 05:29PM by magicarpaltunnel https://ift.tt/2PFKnM7