Hi there, and welcome to the new Shinobi (PS2) leaderboards!

I'm the new mod for Shinobi, nice to meet you! You've probably noticed that the leaderboards have been given a significant facelift in terms of aesthetic, and some changes have happened.

0. Runs actually require verification now Pretty silly that they didn't before, but better late than never. Rules are updated as well to include more clarity.

1. Full-game is now ranked by RTA. This is the big one. The former "[Character] Any%" and "[Character] Any% Segmented" categories have been merged into what is simply "[Character] Any% Normal". In short, this change was made to allow for runs that have deaths in them to be valid for the boards. My concern, of course, was that tate strats (the room-clearing cinematic that plays when you max out a set of wave kills) would be changed to something runners would not enjoy if the game were to be run RTA. For reference, the tate cutscenes do not count to IGT. I was informed by Brandino, a long-time runner of the game, that despite this difference, strats centering around IGT are faster overall, and switching to RTA would not affect the manner in which the game was ran. So as of now, runs will be timed primarily by RTA, but we will be tracking IGT as well, and runners will be required to show their end-game IGT screen in submission videos.

2. Any% is specifically Any% Normal Any% Normal is specified on these boards for the purpose of preventing runs on Easy difficulty, as that difficulty is not universal to all versions of the game (most notably the US version does not have this). Most interest in general for Shinobi is around the Normal difficulty, so that will be the standard moving forward until there is more interest. I'm more than open to revisiting this and adding more difficulties in the future, too.

3. Individual Levels (ILs) are still ranked by IGT The standard for IL running in Shinobi has always been centered around IGT, utilizing death abuse strats for refilling ninpo and kunai when optimal. Since this is such a long-time tradition, and makes timing + verifying ILs a breeze, this timing method will be retained even after the overhaul.

Updated 7/28/21: added milliseconds to the board to avoid ties.

4. Characters are variables for ILs Basically the idea here is that whatever character is fastest just ends up being the fastest. You can submit runs of every character as well and they'll all show up. If there's enough interest down the line, I'm totally fine with splitting these into subcategories too.

Updated 7/28/21: Characters are now subcategories.

5. We have a new discord! Since the old discord for Shinobi was not listed here, and not linked anywhere (I had to contact Brandino personally to even get a re-invite to it), I took it upon myself to create a new hub for Shinobi (and Nightshade) speedrunning. Hope to see you there! Link is here (https://discord.gg/R8TZ3EGjGT) and on the sidebar of the leaderboards directly below the "Resources" tab.

6. Emulator runs are still permitted Along with the current WR (by a long-shot) being done on PS2 emulator, Shinobi is unfortunately not a game that has seen much in the way of preservation to modern consoles. Concerning this, and taking into account the currently low amount of runs on the boards, emulator runs will be allowed, and compared to runs on hardware. Something else we can revisit down the line if need be.

I hope that this overhaul serves as the start for a new spark in Shinobi + Nightshade. Much love and happy running.