Adrian Feiertag: This is a no-deaths run of the 'much revered' NES game, Zen: Intergalactic Ninja. Okay, so the game is universally considered abominable by even novice game designer standards, but it's the thought that counts.
Zen was not, by any means, an enjoyable speedrun experience. The game seems like a cross betwixt your standard Konami TMNT game and Contra, 'cept you're an alien, and the designers showed no concern for the player.
I'm calling this a mercenary run, because I never played nor owned the game prior to deciding to run it. Bored one summer day, I pilfered through a local game retailer's selection, saw Zen, figured it would be relatively easy enough, and bought it solely for the purposes of speedrunning. Of course, I was dead wrong, regarding the difficulty.
The run was done out-of-the-box, so nothing was altered in the options menu. Even though the run was therefore performed on Normal difficulty, I couldn't imagine the game being significantly more difficult than it already was.
The first four levels can be played in any order, although two bonus games and an extra level will be placed between your selected levels, as you go. After these seven challenges, one then endures a falling sequence and then a gauntlet of five bosses, resulting in a total of thirteen obnoxious levels.
Note: While I can perform a flip-over-the-shoulder move, intended to do more damage than the standard attack, I often ignore the maneuver during boss fights, because slaughtering them with repeated standard attacks ultimately proves much quicker. While Zen may only appear to make three attacks, for instance, I may have pushed the button nine times, resulting in greater incurred damage. |
