I actually used a speedrun strat & didn't know it. I kept that fire shield on my normal play through, but the timer doesn't reset in between levels so I beat the final boss with something like 10 seconds left. Masterful speedrun there. Very well executed.
This was by far the hardest Ninja Gaiden. I only ever beat it twice, then put it away forever. The other two I could beat without dying, but I would always run out of time on the ancient ship of doom just before the last boss. You made it look easy.
One of my favorite NES games of all time. Takes me like an hour to beat on a good day haha, so unreal how perfect this play is Watching him blow through the gauntlet of Act 5 and on is just amazing. I never knew the fire shield powerup blocked so much stuff, even the spikes. Ive gotta try some of these tricks sometime.
I couldn't agree with you more! What he did particularly in stages 5 and 7 is otherworldly! 7-2 and 7-3 are two of the hardest levels in the game and yet he just did some incredible things in both!
Seeing this dude beat this game in speed run fashion was impressive! This was one of the two games I owned that I couldn’t finish. (Iron Sword-Wizard and Warriors II was the other one)..Got towards the end and always lost to one of the bosses and went back to stage 5, which was difficult as well. It always bothered me after all these years and even in my 40’s today. So when he finished the game, I finished it as well...Now I have closure! Lol! Thanks man! 👍
40 yrs old now. I remember it took me a few hrs to finish this in my very early teens and this man did it in a few mins 😂 Part two was my favorite. I could have run through that one with ease. One was the most difficult imo and I’ll get around to beating it someday, hopefully. Well done man !
The six thumbs down on this vid are from people jealous that they've had decades to beat this game and they still can't do it. Impressive as always, Arcus! You're the king of the NES. You make all these insanely difficult games look like a breeze. Truly impressive and entertaining to watch.
Wow man, I've watched several of your runs now and am blown away, totally making some of these very tough games look like a walk in the park. Thanks for the cool content!
oh my God, what do my eyes see now, I've never seen anyone pass the game so quickly, I didn't even think that there was no need to jump in 3 and 6 locations, you just could walk like that, Arсus respect you for this quick passage, I'm just very happy that there are such skill players!
About seven years back, I made it a point to go through and beat all the Ninja Gaiden games for the NES. This one, as you said, was easily the hardest. I think that outside of the limited continues, it's the best one though. Really encourages you to use every tool at your disposal and learn the game front-to-back. If I ever got into speedrunning, I imagine that I could probably pick this up because speedrunning strats were practically necessary to beat the darn thing at all. I remember, specifically, using that fire wheel strat you did in the final level to get through the spike walls.
My dude you have some skills hehe, am a big fan of your speedruns! This is by far my favorite ninja gaiden, music on this one is amazing. I remember playing this game as a kid and being totally obsessed with it. Thanx for the memories
I still think The Ancient Ship of Doom has some of the top 3 NES game graphics. This, Vice Project Doom, Shatterhand. All were stunningly beautiful, with masterful music as well. For the time, Culture Brains' Magic of Scheherazade was beautiful too. Man, I want to go back to my era.
I just started twitching and speed running this game. Still getting the hang of clunking the timer! I found it really difficult to clunk on each section so I have just been doing each sequence by boss fight. Great run!
the Ninja Gaiden games are some of best for learning to play at a rhythm, once you get locked in the whole game sort of flows, if you can't do that, the games are crazy hard.
This was the only ninja gaiden I could never beat. 1&2 were hard, but this shit here was on another level for me. I think I made it to around level 5 maybe and called it a day.
Damn, I was wondering how you got through those spikes at the end of the game. Now I finally understand how you do it due to your play. That Ring of Fire is very much needed very cool thanks for the tip!!
If you were to show any of these speed runs to 8 year old me, my mind would have melted. The most amazing feat I ever witnessed back in the day was my cousin beating Mike Tyson
After more than 30 years (and lots of Arcus’ runs), I just discovered that the background sprites of level 4-1A are upside-down. Copy the image and 180degree it, you can see the mountains with snow, clouds and grass at the bottom.
Well you killed my best time..... I only did one timed attempt before (long ago when i had these games), I managed to win in around 30 minutes. If I hadn't continued 2 times it'd have been much better. This is insane
That was fantastic! This game beckons speed and really punishes you for hesitating, or slowing down. Spent many day trying to achieve a pace like that, but it's a hard game lol!
