This game glitches a lot. I notice certain locations will have an enemy and sometimes not. You almost have to plan for both situations and switch your technique accordingly (sometimes it’s like in the middle of a jump). It also make some areas of a stage difficult or easy depending on wether the enemy will be there or not (7-1b lil jump guy buy the second magic replenishment).   
 

The sprite drops are there to prevent slowdown. It's more like a feature than a bug.

Glitched platforms that end your run are a bug. You're lucky if it doesn't happen to you.

I've been able to make it to make it to the boss of act 7 without dying (after using continues). That boss rush really isn't that bad.

I wonder if it drops platforms for the same reason it drops enemies.

 

The final day!

That can happen in NES games, but not in this case. What happens is all of the enemies and platforms disappear. You can climb the ledge in the background and you can kill yourself by falling into a "pit." Check out the Youtube that I posted. Someone else had the same glitch.

And I was able to reproduce it on an emulator.

 

It's actually a pretty cool glitch that normally wouldn't matter too much except when you're going for a deathless run.

Those ninjas are failing to deliver on the final day.
For ninja shame!

Made it to the final boss, died once. Completely choked on the first boss, made it with time too.

Hoping I can pull out a no death.

Act 3 gives me the most trouble. Not a single health replenishment, those fucking fish and the toughest boss in the whole game imo.

“Ninja ninja” (love this)  is taking the crown damn it! 
 

Um, there's a health replenishment in act 3. You must have missed it.

Act 7 gives me the most trouble. You have to be perfect as well as fast in order to have the slightest chance of making it to the final bosses with enough time.

 

Oh yea there is a health replenish lol 

act 6 has none but at least I figured out how to beat the boss with barley any life. 

Act 7 isn’t that bad imo 

 

Since I'm not likely to get to play any more, I'll show my hand now.

628,100

Picture later on.  

Can't wait to see those final scores rolling in by the end of the day! Totally thrilled to see who will be our next champion, or if arnpoly will achieve to defend his title.

I'm sure a lot of you guys are working on your score at this very moment, so keep up the good work to make this exciting!

Edit : Wow, someone posted a score while I was typing! Good job Arn!

The family ninja dropped a big bomb, even though we haven't seen the picture yet.
I wonder what tricks the other ninjas will pull to beat him.

Yeah, while it is a very impressive 1-life score, I have the feeling this won't be the winning one. Maybe you should skip your responsibilities for today and play some more Ninja Gaiden Arn  

I'm not confident in this score at all. I played for about four hours last night and only improved slightly. Just too many mistakes and restarts. I could do better for sure and I'm not satisfied, but whatever happens happens.

If you can convince my wife and 3-year-old, by all means please do!  
 

This might be all I'm good for. I've played act 7 through without dying but not without losing a life in earlier acts.

565600

https://imgur.com/gallery/NBu60yc

Hahaha, I know exactly where you're coming from, easier said then done for sure! Skinny is pretty much in the same boat, but he probably compromised a month of his own personal time just to play all this weekend long , lol!

I had one bar of life left when I made it to the final boss. Lol. I can run them with just a few bars but I can't no damage them lol.

I'll take a few more shots at it today. I can't believe I've gotten as good as I have within the time I had.

Arnpoly is excellent competition. I know he doesn't have much more time, if any more at all, than me. I had to grind like I did the battletoads week. Fortunately this game is a little easier but than battletoads imo.

B U L L S H I T

For starters, it's the final section, and that by itself plays on the nerves. There are some platforming sections where you can easily make a mistake and fall, such as the disintegrating platforms with the helicopter enemies and the moving platform and elecricity right before the 1up.

The sections with the spikes are like mini mazes. If you don't know remember exactly where to go, you're in trouble.

In addition you have to speed run it because of the strict time limit.

It's way harder to no death than any of the prior acts.



 

The first final boss always hits me at least once. The other two I can beat without getting hit. That doesn't mean anything if I can't even get that far on one life, haha.