GG Shinobi FAQ/Walkthrough v. 1.0

This FAQ copyright 2001 by Ezra Poetker(Epoetker.)  All reproduction for
public(not private) use without my express consent ([email protected]) is
prohibited.  The only sites currently given free dibs on my FAQs are
GameFAQs, about.com, and RoyalRanger's NES site( nessite.myrmid.com. )
Actually, if you see a GameGear Faq on Ranger's NES site, you have to wonder
what he's up to...anyway, if you see it on someone else's site, feel free to
E-mail me about the infraction.  Then I can send the five ninjas of death
off to give 'im a nice beatdown.  All other rights reserved.

Version history:

9/8/01: First version posted to GameFAQs.

Ah, the ever-present side scrolling ninja game.  A rare breed nowadays(
unless you count Sengoku 3,) but these things were oh-so-popular back in
that numinous time known as "the day." GOOD ninja games were even better,
and good ninja games that could be played on a handheld were enough to make
one faint.  Unfortunately, good ninja games on an unpopular handheld were
consigned to an ignominous fate of invisibility among the poor
black-and-white crowd.  But thanks to the Magic of Emulation(TM), they be
available again to the po' black an' white men tryin' to make it in this
world.  And it ain't just one ninja this time, either, it's FIVE, all with
different weapons, abilities, and special moves. So it manages automatically
to be deeper than 99% of the other ninja games available at the time.  Heck,
it's probably deeper than most early-generation Playstation ninja
titles...only Tenchu seemed to put any real thought into the genre...


Items, a.k.a. Life Cubes and less important power-ups:

Life Cubes: Add two bars to your life meter, which is so amazingly important
that I never neglect telling about their location.  I might ignore 1-ups,
but NEVER Life Cubes.

1ups: Grant you an extra life for Green to waste.

Heart: Restores two life bars.

Japanese symbol(Ninja Art, special, whatever): Pressing START and selecting
this symbol will initiate a really cool fullscreen graphical sequence(for
the Game Gear, anyway) of the ninja casting their particular Art.

Bombs: Who said the game doesn't have a sadistic streak?


Ninjas and their hobbies:

Red: Your starter, his sword has the oft-neglected advantage of covering the
front of the user pretty well with its wide swath.  If there's multiple
enemies coming at you simultaneously from different directions, the sword
can be a pretty effective lifesaver.  Red also has the power to summon
earthquakes, which break rocks and kill all enemies onscreen.

Pink: Gotta love those powerful bombs!  Second in strength behind the
sickle, they can save your butt time and time again.  Pink is quite suited
to quickly plowing through hordes of medium-strength enemies while only
occasionally stopping to dodge.  When you do need to, however, you can jump
on the CEILING and crawl like Spiderman by pressing up and keeping jump held
down to stick to flat surfaces.  Then just press left or right to crawl
along.  Pink's also got the ability to release a huge light blast, which not
only illuminates dark areas but stuns enemies like a flash camera.  Probably
gives them red-eye, too.

Yellow: I might have underrated this guy, but still he's not all that much
compared to his stellar companions.  Full blast charges kill most enemies
with one hit, but in cases where you get simultaneously attacked by two
baddies at once, you're left frantically shooting weak blasts at your
rapidly advancing foes.  Stick with Pink or Blue for most close-in combat,
and only bring this guy out when you need to imitate Jesus' "walking on
water" bit.  (Skeptical theory #2543: Jesus was really a just a ninja who
used various arcane arts like this to fool his gullible followers into
making him a God.) Oh, and Yellow's Lightning Barrier special absorbs quite
a few hits before tanking, so you'll probably find some good use for it...

Blue: Kusarigama butt-kicker.  Wields the strongest weapon in the game, and
if that's not cool enough, can use the sickle-and chain to swing from pegs a
la Ladd from Bionic Commando.  SUPER GOODNESS.  And did we mention that he
has probably the most useful Special Art in the game?  Okay, so perhaps
there's something better than being able to fly around in the middle of a
tornado as invincible as you please, but if so, I haven't found it.

Green: Unlike Yellow, his projectile is USEFUL(good), he can
double-jump(very good, just hit jump again at the height of your jump to
perform) and while he's doing his Ninja Flip(TM), he can send down a KILLER
spread of five shuriken at once(awesomely good.)  To counteract this amazing
coolness, he's the second-weakest ninja and has the worst Art imaginable-he
just blows himself up.  Not only are there other people(koffkoffREDkoffkoff)
who actually manage to do something USEFUL with their fullscreen death tech
besides just killing people, this Art actually takes away one of your highly
precious extra lives  And if that wasn't bad enough, it also takes away ALL
of your remaining Arts!  In other words, you'd have to be a complete and
utter fool to even THINK about using this Art except for the purposes of
observing the Game Gear special effects.  He does, after all, manage to
resurrect himself on the spot after vaporizing his body, adding more support
to the "Jesus as ninja" theory.



Stage Walkthroughs:

My preferred order-Highway, Docks, Valley, Forest.  It's the only way to
make sure you get all of the lovely cube power-ups, since many require the
special abilities of a particular ninja.  If there's any you think I've
missed, feel free to E-mail me( [email protected].)

Highway: Great introduction to a game, having you jumping from car to car on
a speeding highway.  Although it probably violates the ninja rule of
inconspicuousness.  Every radio show in the country must have been picking
up the battle...

"Helicopter guy: This is the KKNC traffic helicopter, reporting a sig alert
on the I-5, we seem to have several masked men climbing around on the cars,
and...some of them do appear to be carrying explosives.  We'd advise that
you keep your windows rolled up and avoid any driving patterns that might
provoke a confronta...oh, wait, there's a ninja who seems to be
single-handedly slaughtering the hordes of bad guys.  Ain't it just lucky
how these things seem to work themselves out?  All right, we're asking that
everyone on the I-5 please try to drive close enough to allow said ninja to
jump from car to car.  We'd also ask you to please ignore any bangings on
the roof of your car, however severe.  And if you must put boxes out for the
ninja, please do not put bombs in them...ah, too late.  Rush, back to you."

Side of building: Another fairly straightforward level, but be watching for
all those guys who hurl themselves out of windows, carry hammers, or shoot
arrows.  ESPECIALLY the ones that shoot arrows, as they can kill you very
quickly with your piddly four life bars.  Speaking of which, as soon as you
see the big red arrow indicating the way to the boss, go in exactly the
opposite direction it points and fall down onto the top of the next building
to get to the box with a life cube, which gives you an extra two bars for
the upcoming boss.

Boss: It's PINK!  OH NO!  Actually, as long as you avoid the climbing
kamikaze bomb guys, slash just right before the helicopter hits, and try to
forget that at the speed you're flying, there's no possible way you could
possibly hold onto the plane, much less stand up and perform martial arts
maneuvers, you should be fine.  Soon, you'll beat him, and be rewarded with
one of the best (albeit gayest) ninjas in the game.


Harbor: Here's a quick lesson on how good Pink really is-he can hit guys out
of Red's line of sight, and hit them a heck of a lot harder than a sword
can.  But that ain't all...you can also use his ceiling-climbing ability to
get to the special weapon power-up that's unreachable by jumping.  Just go
up the first crane and scurry along under the beam that overhangs the box.
Head back down and past the second crane (watch out for the bomb throwers,
they DO actually aim for you,) watch the sky ominously darken, and head into
the next section.

The Ship: Collect all the power-ups on the deck and head into the door.
After killing the rolling barrel guy and bomb guy on the ceiling,
immediately head up there yourself to get the life cube on the other side of
the gap.  Jump over the crate and down to the next level to get a 1up thrown
into the bargain! Now just jump down and head left to get to the next boss.

Boss: A ninja AND a giant robot!  They combined the two most powerful
stinkin' things in the world!  I mean, DANG, they did everything right!  How
could this plan possibly fail?  Well, you CAN jump on that gigantic mace the
robot shoots at you, and Yellow DOES make himself vulnerable after two mace
attacks...try to figure out the rest for yourself.  This guy will go down a
heck of a lot faster than Pink anyway, since you're using Extra-Strength
Bombs on him.  Too bad he kinda sucks as a playable character.


The Valley: I'll make it short and sweet: Use Yellow.  Just walk on water
right from the start until you get to the suspicious little platform with
the blade-throwing girl and the box, and you have your next Life Cube.
You're gonna need it for the next section...just keep going until you see
the last waterfall and jump up the stone platforms to enter...

The Cave:  Possibly one of the hardest sections, what with all those
"temporary invincibility" baddies wandering around.  Switch to Pink, and if
you want to light up those dark areas, just use his Light special ability.
If you want to break the rocks, use Red's Earthquake.  And if you're really
up to running through your stock of Specials, use Yellow's Thunder Barrier
to whiz through some of the tougher spots(I HAAAAATE those bouncing spiky
guys!)  Lots of power-ups here!  You'll need them, since Blue's coming up!

Boss: Use Pink or Yellow with him.  Just stand on the tippy-top platform,
dodge if Blue appears above you, and bomb or blast him when he appears right
of you.  He goes down, takes the whole waterfall platform complex with him,
and joins your group.


The Woodland:  Choose Blue( his sickle is GREAT for taking out those
tree-climbing guys quickly) and make your way to the top of the first tree.
Jump along the top until you see a peg sticking out of a tree; just aim your
sickle at it and you'll swing over to the fourth and final Life Cube!  Head
on back down the trees if you want to find some more less important
power-ups, or just go left and head into...

The Temple: The best strategy for those spear-spinning monks at the moment
is just to stand in one place and swing really fast as they run at you.
Blue's strong enough to take both them and the following spiky ball guy in
one hit, so you shouldn't have any real trouble.  Go into the first door(
after picking up the Heart beyond it) to find the ever-so-cool laser-eyed
statues.  Go through the next door to take out another monk-spiky
combo(careful...the misshapen sections of floor have a tendency to crumble
under your weight, sending you back down to go up all over again.) Next door
has another laser statue battle, next another monkspikie attack, next one
more statue, and finally you're on the roof with the boss door blinking for
you.

Boss: Ugly face that splits into three ninjas.  Pathetically easy at this
point.  Green's in the house, and Neo City, here we come!


Frikkin' Neo City: There are so many looping paths in this place that I've
treated each room seperately.

Elevator subsection: Aw crud!  All the elevators go DOWN!  Use Green's
double-jumping skillz to traverse this insanity.  At the top, you have a
choice of paths.  Left takes you to the Water Pipe subsection, right to the
Sickle-Swinging subsection.

Water Pipe subsection:  Two words: Use Yellow.  Leads to Floating Mines
subsection.

Sickle-Swinging subsection:  See above, but substitute "Blue" for "Yellow."
Leads to Electric Beam subsection.

Electric Beam subsection: Ummm...have patience, young one, and advance
cautiously.  Pick up all power-ups.  The path on the left goes to the boss
battle with Yellow, and the path on the right goes to the Monk/Spikes
subsection.

Monk/Spikes subsection: GRRRR-BAAAAAAH!  Unless you want to use Blue's
tornado, the only way to get through here is by some EXTREMELY precise
shuriken throwing-basically the idea is to double jump, throw some shurikens
on the way down, and hope that one of them hits the monk near enough behind
to clear you a landing space.  It's VERY tough, and if you have save states,
now is the time to use them to the fullest!  Bottom door goes to the
elevator subsection, top to the sickle-spikes subsection.

Floating Mines subsection: Use Green to hop the falling platform over to
where the Special power-up is, then switch to blue and either use it right
away or as you're falling to tornado to the left or right door.  Left goes
to the Room of Pain, right to the Green boss battle.

Room of Pain:  Ninjas beat the crap out of you with little chance for you to
dodge.  Use Yellow's Barrier ability to last longer, but bear in mind that
the bottom exit just leads to the Elevator room again...However, the top one
leads to the Spike-Block room.

Battle with Yellow:  Use Blue, and get ready to end up back in the Water
Pipe room.

Spike-Block Room:  Use Red's earthquake ability, and Green, Blue, or Pink to
climb, jump, or fly the distances.  Top door leads to Descending Spikes
room, bottom to Evil Dart Room.

Descending Spikes Room:Should be self explanatory, but in case you didn't
get it, use Red to earthquake the rocks and grab the power-ups.
Left door to Battle with Blue, right to Rising White Stuff section.

Battle with Blue:  Use Blue to battle the red version of himself.  Fairly
simple.  You end up in the Sickle-spikes subsection.

Evil Dart Room:  Just another hindrance, use Green to jump as high as you
can over these things.  Leads to Sickle-spikes subsection.

Sickle-Spikes subsection:  My, aren't I alliterative?  Uhh...hope you're
really, REALLY good with the sickle, or if you're lazy, just use the
Tornado.  Top door to Rolling Spiky subsection, bottom to Laser Corridor
subsection.

Rolling Spiky subsection: Use Pink to climb on the ceiling and avoid the
Spikys.  Left door goes to the Battle with Pink, right to the Buzzsaw
subsection.

Battle with Pink: Actually, Red still seems to be the best for him.  Leads
back to Spike-Block room.

Buzzsaw subsection: Self-explanatory...dodge the buzzsaws that take off two
bars per hit.  Remember that you can move forward while crouched, it helps a
bit.  Also remember to use Green's double jumps.  Leads to Spout-spike
subsection.

Spout-spike subsection: As you might have guessed, it's time to pull out
Yellow again.  Getting tired of all these platform jumps?  Me too.  This one
leads to the Power-up subsection.

Power-up subsection: Yep, it's a room full of power-ups that can only be
reached by Blue's tornado.  Avoid the bombs, grab the Arts and 1-ups, and
don't die on the spikes unless you like losing all your Arts.  Left door to
Guard Robot subsection, right door goes to Spike-Block room.

Laser-corridor subsection: Practically screams for Pink.  Advance while
crouched on the ceiling or the floor, and you should be just fine.  You'll
end up in the Spike-Block room at the end.

Battle with Green:  Use Blue again, end up in the Sickle-Swinging room.

Rising White Stuff subsection:  Pink is your only hope.  Use his Light
special to reset the rising white stuff.  This room leads to the Darkroom.

Darkroom: Use Light again and kill off all the rather easy enemies.  Door
leads to Platform-jumping section.

Platform-Jumping Section:  Use Green.  If you make all the jumps, you can
enter the top door to the Guard Robot subsection.  If not, you end up back
at the Sickle-spike subsection.

Guard Robot subsection: Use Blue for his tornado moves, or green to double
jump past the gaps left by the exploding robots.  Enter the door to face...

Black Ninja Boss:  Well, he copies Yellow, Pink, Blue and Green, so it
probably goes without saying that Red's the only one that can hurt him.
Dodge well, hit hard, and get ready to face...

Robot Ninja Boss: Actually, I think the Black Ninja was harder, but you're
probably squeezed for HP right now.  Still, his pattern is so easily
predictable that if you can't beat him with save states, I seriously suggest
another hobby for you.  Once again, Red's the only one who can hurt him.
Jump, slash head, dodge, lather, rinse, repeat.


Ending: The only thing I'll say about it is that the running animation has
to be the most tweaked I've ever seen in a game.  This ain't Ryu Hayabasa's
ultra-cool stride, it's more like Grant DaNasty from Castlevania 3.



So, uh...that's it!  Time for thanks:

My cousin in Baltimore who introduced me to this game the first time, and
led me to seek it out in the netherworld of emulation.  He also got me
interested in Civilization, and despite all this, his name is still escaping
me at the moment.

ISSChamp, who got me started on this whole crazy Game Gear FAQ business.

Josh Baisley, friend next door who introduced me to Ax Battler and Crystal
Warriors, the two other GG games I wrote FAQs on.

Ninja Jesus, who not only pulled off the "walk on water" trick, but managed
to do the "ressurrection" trick without having to blow himself into a
million tiny pieces.  May not be as impressive, but it saved a whole lot on
the cleanup bill.

This FAQ copyright 2001 by Epoetker.  For questions, comments, flames, and
random brain droppings, E-mail me at [email protected].

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