Shinobi 3 (Normal Mode) Playthrough (Sega Genesis)
0Classic fucking game. See below for some tips. This took a little over 3 hours and 2 full attempts. An attempt means exhausting all lives and continues. Another hour or so was spent using save and load states to practice the falling rock level and levels that came after, before doing the full run.
I was just looking to get a legit victory over the game, since I beat it on normal many years ago, but used save and load state for one small jumping part I did not understand. Technically that meant I didnt beat the game legit back then.
Was alot of fucking fun to revisit though. Its a moderate game difficulty wise I would say. Not too hard. Its considerably easier than both Revenge Of Shinobi and Shadow Dancer on the genesis , which I both completed. This one is probably my favorite in the series, but Revenge Of Shinobi is also at the top.
Most of what I did is easy enough to figure out from the video but a useful survival tip that I didnt use, except for bosses, is to use suicide magic (makes you explode and die) when your life is at the end. You need to have atleast 1 magic available to use it, even though you immediately get the magic back (maybe because you respawned) . The purpose of using this magic when you are about to die is that it gives you a full health bar and the magic you used back. If you were going to die anyway its better than restarting at the previous checkpoint. On bosses its also EXTREMELY powerful, so you have the benefit of being able to fight the bosses with as many health bars as you need, plus doing massive damage.
When doing this keep in mind that you need atleast 1 magic to be able to keep using it. Once you use it you will get 1 magic back, but if you dont have any left you cannot use it. So use the fire magic or any other magic last.
For the final boss I didnt even dodge barely. What I did was a 2 suicide magic combo, followed by the fire magic to finish off. Had I done the fire magic earlier I could not have chained the 2 suicide magics together. So keep that in mind if you are having issues.
I fought until I was about to die, to do maximum damage then used suicide magic, got my life replenished from that, fought again until near death, used suicide magic again, then fought again and finished off with fire magic to kill him. No real dodging needed unless you have less than 2 lives and no magic. Just dont do it when youre at 0 lives or you will die.
You can really exploit this on easy mode because you get 9 lives per continue on that mode, instead of the 3 on normal.
Also I try to use fire and suicide magic when the boss is vulnerable. It seems if you do it when the boss is not ready to damage it may not do any damage. I may be wrong though. Suicide magic may even bypass that rule.
Aside from difficulty you can set shurikens up to 70. Keep in mind where the 1-ups are as well, in the video. I missed atleast 1 if not more, but those can make a difference. On normal its better to learn most of the bosses. Too much suicide magic will drain your lives, so use it on problem areas only.
Stay tuned !!