Overview
A strategy guide for completing (and perfecting) the new Hardcore Stories.
Opening
Even though it’s called HARDCORE MODE, it’s actually not really that hard. It mostly just takes a while to do, but you will have a great time doing it if you are into hardcore platformers (like me!). These tips will help you to plan a better story run, and you can also get some pretty good in-game support with some of the new features that Ultimate Editions offers.
1. Use the early levels in a story to hoard lots of gold
It’s easy in the beginning and hard at the end. Make use of that set up to prepare yourself for the coming levels of E-difficulty. Don’t try to collect everything though! Still keep in mind that some of the gold is not worth your time. Some levels have coins stashed at strategic places to make it harder for perfectionist to collect them all (which you should not attempt on your first try), and that takes us to the next tip:
2. Don’t be a perfectionist on your first run
There are 25 levels in each story when you are playing hardcore. That’s a lot of levels. Far too many to take on without a plan. You will need to play it through at least once to know which levels you are good at and which one you need to practice more at. Frankly speaking, you can’t be bad any level if you want to make a perfect single-gold-run. The strategy for regular mortals is to make multiple attempts at clearing a story. Pick some levels to perfect in a single run and move on. Get the rest on your next run and so on and on.
3. Let the timerbar help you (the right way)
Time management is very important on those harder levels. The maximum size for the timerbar before the Ultimate Edition update was 270 seconds big. Now it can be big enough to contain 540 seconds. You can change this in your “options menu” when you are at the start screen. The new sizes needs to be unlocked by playing the new Hardcore Mode so you won’t be able to access them right away. Change it as soon as you unlock a bigger one. You will be doing yourself a favor.
With a longer timerbar you can avoid having it being filled up in the beginning and giving you a false sense of having time. It is a great visual aid when you make it bigger and harder to fill up during a run. Example: you can see how much those last stacks of coins compare to your already collected stack. Planning a run will be much easier due to your more spot on evaluations. You will also notice your personal improvements easier. You might notice that the bar is suddenly longer at a certain level in a story compared to your last run, so you must have gotten faster or more efficient. There is a lot to gain here.
4. Don’t be afraid to pause for a moment
Some levels can be quite complex. There might be a lot of ways to go, some enemies might have patterns that are hard to memorize, the level can change halfway through due to switches or sometimes a level has all these things. It can be quite frustrating when your flow gets harshly interrupted in this game where you get mad kicks from playing like an agile speeding bullet. Believe me, I know that feeling far to well… So for you to increase your chances at succeeding, there are situations when you need to slow down.
Make up a plan before starting a new level. If you notice that things are changing fast: pause and take a look at how the change has affected you. If you notice that you are dying a certain point on a level: pause and take a look at your strategy. You dying at a rapid pace will only result in you loosing time and getting more careless due to frustration. The pause button is your friend and part of the game.
Some thoughts
I remember when I played an earlier versions of this game back in the days when it was normal for computer screens to be big as cars. I remember finding it’s ancestor “The Way of the Ninja” on a Swedish website that specialized at flash games. It didn’t have many levels, but it was love at first sight. It had heart and soul even though it wasn’t as polished as N++.
Metanet Software Inc is such a great game development company. Releasing so much great content for free. It has been 12 years since the last time I played as their agile ninja, and I’m glad they lived up to expectations.