This movie improves all rejected submission on each levels using more tricks documented by me on the GameResources/NES/Shinobi page.
The route is going to right, avoiding the BONUS STAGE powerup (which is a minimum 25 second ninja shooter mini-game which gives you one of the totally worthless ninja magics out of 5 I guess) and only picking up POWER UP power up to kill the blue ninjas with 3HP (at very later levels).
You guessed it right. The game sucks. See you until my next TAS =)

feos: Accepting to Vault...
sheela901: Processing...
feos: Updating the file before it's too late.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #4464: MESHUGGAH's NES Shinobi in 07:36.41
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I had to stop at the five minute mark, but I will watch it again if I ever have trouble with imsomnia.
No.
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Brilliant! Aesthetically this run is like Metal Gear Solid and Clockwork Orange put together in a 8-bit game. You can see the determination in every step as the protagonist walks through these garish environments minute after minute, with stylized violence exploding all around him. ...In the end, it is only him and the field at sunset. Did he find the redemption he sought? ...meh vote.
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Run to the right ftw. Vault it is!
mklip2001
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Umm... that game is special. It reminds me a lot of Wrath of the Black Manta, and I noticed this before I saw your Game Resources page which talked about the game engines. Both games feature ninjas who walk way too slowly and have hostages to save that they mostly ignore. (This Shinobi guy seems dressed more like an American soldier than like a ninja though.) Both games also feature magic powers that are mostly ignored in a speedrun, and they also only have one good music theme that repeats through the whole game. Bosses look poorly programmed in both games, though it looks way worse here. The sliding red samurai boss was pretty funny when he died! Was Alex Kidd in Shinobi World ripping off the final boss of this game, or was it the other way around? I'm sort of amused. The shooting was good. Meh vote.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
negative_seven
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Voting no simply because nothing really makes this game stand out from the many other run, jump, shoot games. The levels were quite tedious and repetetive :/
Zarmakuizz
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I had insomnia but I stopped watching this before 3 minutes. Yes for vault, no for losing your time on something crappy instead of Mario&Luigi :P
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No wonder that there are only rejected submissions of this game... it kinda stinks. Also, no doubt about the effort put into the run, but we have to suffer the consequences of our choices sometimes.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Patashu
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Zarmakuizz wrote:
I had insomnia but I stopped watching this before 3 minutes. Yes for vault, no for losing your time on something crappy instead of Mario&Luigi :P
Are you confusing MESHUGGAH with MUGG? The difference is, MESHUGGAH needs to get back to work on SM64DS, while MUGG needs to get back to work on M&L:SS (or would, if he wasn't already at it)
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PCachu
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Truly, this is the way of the warrior of shadows; to kill the f**k out of everyone in your path with a handgun. And then to kill the final boss who thinks he's Trogdor. I mean, look at all his majesty.
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Definitely an improvement over the other submissions, but this one leaves me with more questions... Is there any frame difference between picking up a hostage and not? [IE. Does the message that pops up in the corner when you collect a hostage cost any frames as opposed to avoiding them?] Since you get so many Life Ups and Life Maxes, were there not more places you could have taken a hit/bump to save time? Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Samsara
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Patashu wrote:
Are you confusing MESHUGGAH with MUGG? The difference is, MESHUGGAH needs to get back to work on SM64DS,
Are you confusing MESHUGGAH with ALAKTORN?
TASvideos Admin and acting Senior Judge 💙 Currently unable to dedicate a lot of time to the site, taking care of family. Now infrequently posting on Bluesky
warmCabin wrote:
You shouldn't need a degree in computer science to get into this hobby.
MESHUGGAH
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Mr. Kelly R. Flewin wrote:
Is there any frame difference between picking up a hostage and not? [IE. Does the message that pops up in the corner when you collect a hostage cost any frames as opposed to avoiding them?]
No, and no. Regarding "hostages"... SEGA developed Arcade Shinobi. Later it was ported (with modifications) to SMS. Then TENGEN reverse engineered it to NES. You can see there are many programmer failures. Hostages are power ups and has nothing to do with completing the game. When you see I damage boost or jump over a power up is because it's a BONUS POWER UP as I said at both submission text and game resources page which concludes in a 25~whatever long you play seconds ninja shooter mini game which gives you a ninja magic out of 5 that's only useable on very specific places (hard coded). Both the Gamefaqs and the game's own manual is off about these informations, bosses won't get more damage from a power up. Even if they would, it would be way slower. Power UP is totally useless on early levels since everyone dies to 1 hit.
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin wrote:
Since you get so many Life Ups and Life Maxes, were there not more places you could have taken a hit/bump to save time?
Damage boosting to the right only possible if they are facing to the right. If you damage boost from an enemy and you land on an other enemy, you get another damage boost (and each falling costs 1 frame) so you aren't supposed to damage boost all the time but when it's possible to reduce the number of fallings. Oh, answer to your question is no more possible places to boost to make it any faster. edit: voted no.
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vault for the sake of completion
I want all good TAS inside TASvideos, it's my motto. TAS i'm interested: Megaman series, specially the RPGs! Where is the mmbn1 all chips TAS we deserve? Where is the Command Mission TAS? i'm slowly moving away from TASing fighting games for speed, maybe it's time to start finding some entertainment value in TASing.
Zarmakuizz
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Patashu wrote:
Zarmakuizz wrote:
I had insomnia but I stopped watching this before 3 minutes. Yes for vault, no for losing your time on something crappy instead of Mario&Luigi :P
Are you confusing MESHUGGAH with MUGG?
Indeed, I though the latter was a shortener of the former, my bad.
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Zarmakuizz wrote:
Patashu wrote:
Zarmakuizz wrote:
I had insomnia but I stopped watching this before 3 minutes. Yes for vault, no for losing your time on something crappy instead of Mario&Luigi :P
Are you confusing MESHUGGAH with MUGG?
Indeed, I though the latter was a shortener of the former, my bad.
Don't worry about it, Family Feud would agree with you.
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Meh cause it was done well. A for effort and all that.
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Antronach wrote:
Meh cause it was done well. A for effort and all that.
Don't forget that you are voting on entertainment, not for effort or publishing.
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MESHUGGAH
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I've found an improvement on the MANDARA level, where we need to shoot down those statues. Apart from other boss levels (which timer based for both spawning and ending them), this spawns the boss after reaching a specific X position. (minor edit: not a new trick, just forgot to document it. already used at final boss since that's the only possible other place in the game where we it makes sense to sacrifice X position as long as you are shooting for 9 frames.) Also found a new trick which only could reduce the final boss level (and different from WotBM) is that falling down remove the "firing" state bit. Since we only have 1 bullet (1 bullet on the screen at a time), this saves time if hitting an enemy takes less then 9 frames and you land within this frame window, enabling you to fire without the neccessary delay. Soooo... what do I do? Cancel it? edit: finished implementing the trick also changed route for next to the last level. 93 frames faster movie here
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I knew it!
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [2708] NES Shinobi by MESHUGGAH in 07:36.41