Also about your friend beating it in 12 minutes... I'm really not so sure about that. sdkess has a speedrun on his site which is ~18.5 minutes and Lezard has made a timeattack which was just under 12...
I'm curious to see a human do it that fast... the current TG World record sits at 13m36s. [And I should know since I personally verified it and did the report on it]
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Hmm.. well I talked to him the other day and he said his best was 11:40.. but he doesn't use the fast attacking trick that was used on the last bosses. He did say he got a lot more ninja magic in the stages to use the jump 'n slash much more often, though he always ended up at the bosses with minimal ninja magic (except the third one, of course). He's out of practice though, but if he ever does pick up the game again, I'll have him drop you a line.
Wow! I just watched your time attack for ninja gaiden and it was great! My friend used to play it quite a lot on his nes for speed and had it at about 12 min for his best run (so he says). I guess there was only one thing I saw that you might have missed...
In the second section of 6-2 before you get to the screen where there is only a ladder to climb (around 9:35 on the avi file), you kill a guy and a bird and then jump down to kill a hopping thing and climb the ladder from there. I remember when my friend played the game, he just jumped directly from the edge of the platform with the guy on it to the ladder and it took him directly to the next screen (bypassing the hopping thing).
That aside, I was very impressed! Thanks for taking the time to make it =)
Nice! I enjoyed your superplay quite a bit :)
I didn't notice that much that could use improvement, but then again I was just happy you completed it :)
I saw you didn't use death as a shortcut back to town. I'm not sure if it would save time, but there are two places it could have a use.
1: The trip back from the black onyx.. You could go from from the last town you visited, and (if you have the wing boots -maybe if you got the ones that you did on the way back on the way there instead) you can get to the next section quite fast.
2: After getting the battle suit, it would save you a key as well as time getting back to town (maybe).
However, I guess money seemed to be the problem (especially for tilte :/ ), so maybe it was necessary to go the long way back for those two times.
I'm not sure if its faster not to buy tilte, since I've made it through the game without it. Those last bosses sure did die fast with it though :) Who knows though.. maybe the time saved from killing all those enemies and buying less food would make it faster...
I guess thats all I have to note. Thanks for making the time attack :)
Shimaknight
P.S. It was pretty impressive without death :) I dont know if it really is better to throw it in there :P