The initial 4 levels were great but man the puzzle rooms in the final level are testing my patience

Let me guess, a maze with a bunch of doors. Like Revenge. I guess just get use to it. It's to extend a short portable game.

>>11880535
Yes it is a maze, but on top of that each room is a puzzle room that either demands great timing, good jumps, or using each of your Ninja's abilities to go through (there are 5 different Ninjas in this game and each with different weapons and abilities, mega man style)

Anyway I just beat the game. I still have no idea how to go through the room with rising water that kills you if you touch it but I managed to find a path through the maze that skips this room. Great game, I hope 2 is just as good.

>>11880561
The color of the backgrounds in the last stage are hints to what ninja you need. The rising water room needs pink's ninjutsu to reset it to normal, there's plenty of refills in that room. But yeah you can't go wrong if you realise the bg color.

2 is great, though quite a bit easier. It has more of a Metroidvania structure - going back to previous areas when you get the right ninja to tackle certain parts, or even find totally new routes. I think each stage has a ninja to free and a crystal to find, you needing both on each stage to open the final one. Stockpiling lives and finding the life extensions will help, and you won't immediately have to have a stage order that nets you all of them as you can always go back.

As much as Shinobi III is one of the greatest fucking shit up with ninja skills-em-ups, I wish the ninja sentai team thing these games had made a comeback, it makes them far more interesting than the rest of the series.

>>11882052
Damn I hadn't realized that about the background colours.

I've beaten 2 as well and it was really good too and I probably enjoyed the final stage more in this one; but overall I liked the straightforward approach of 1 better