Time after world 2: 8:07.
Some general notes before I go into level-specific stuff.
1) I hate frogs. I had to make too many stupid move adjustments due to the little SOBs hopping around offscreen.
2) I hate 2-2. If you paid me a hundred bucks to redo that level alone, I wouldn't.
3) I ran into ONE shuriken powerup the whole world. And that was in 2-3 at a grey ninja I had to string a swing out to kill. Turns out I didn't need to power up since I sword-fu'd the boss.
4) I suck ass at walljumping. I scale the walls good and fast, but I'm totally baffled by the walljumping in the game. Sometimes ninja dude will just hang one frame away from having his feet TOUCH the wall so you can move and kick off the damn thing. No explanation as to why. There's also no proper way to GET his stupid ass to touch down. So that's why there's an ever-so-slight (it's longer at the speed I played at. xx) delay when I walljump.
5) There is a general lack of ANYTHING to kill in these stages. Pretty much the only people dying are hostage takers, armor guys, and the occasional ninja. Very rarely do I kill a regular enemy. Mainly because there hardly ARE any. Level 2 relies on flamethrowers and spikes to piss you off. And armor guys. The flame-summoning ones are the worst. See 2-3's fight for the red key. As such, it means I have WAY fewer chances to use invincibility. Yes, there's a full-meter pickup after I leave the yellow room in 2-1 when I kill the goon before the flamethrower. But I don't need a full meter. ><
In 2-1, the main problem was the resident evil-level of backtracking. You'll see what I mean. In the yellow room, I killed one ninja so I could invinc through another on the trip back through. After leaving, I kill the guy on the platform to invinc through the flamethrower.
2-2 was the level from hell as far as I'm concerned. There are two sets of three) of vertical flamethrowers over conveyor belts. I literally had to stop on each set each way, I think, because there's no way I've been able to test to manipulate when they go off. I do try swinging through on invinc power one or two times, but I only get so far. This is probably the worst level in the game as far as speed goes.
2-3 was much better, even though it was still annoying as hell for me. The main hub is a HUGE room with plenty of grapple fun to be had. Getting the yellow key sucked, though. I pretty much HAD to take care of the hostages first to get enough invinc to last me going STRAIGHT up the center and through the flamethrower as a shortcut. >< Lots of fun THERE.
The fight for the red key is ugly. No matter where I tried moving, those damn flames kept getting me. I should have gone back over that move I make on the platform, but... you couldn't PAY me to do these levels over again.
Boss: I tested it. Fighting this frog-riding monkeyboy up top with swords is much faster (4 seconds + style purposes) than on the ground. He takes forever to get the hell up there, though. But once he does, the fun starts
http://www.savefile.com/filehost/files.php?fid=3674859
Enjoy. Because that's as good as it's getting. From me, at least.
Thankfully, I know the airport levels a little better and they're MUCH less hellish and annoying. More enemies means more meter building. And that means more invinc. Stylish crap like I pulled in world 1, in other words.
Anyway, enjoy. I'm taking a day or three off. ><
