Ninja Gaiden Help

[Rookie]

I started playing this a while back and enjoyed the heck out of it, but never got very far and stopped because i picked up Knights of the Old Republic.
Well I beat KOTOR and KOTOR 2, and i decided i wanted to play a good hack and slash game and i remembered Ninja Gaiden.

So I started in chapter 8 which is right after the airship i guess. But its been so long i've gotten rusty and i can't fight my way out of a wet paper sack on this level. I remember i was doing great, i had mad dodging and ninja skeelz but now i need a little help.

Any tips for Ninja Gaiden as far as moving around and fighting, or even help on this particular level would be great. I just need a little reminder. Thanks guys.

[KaiTenSatsuma]

1) keep on blocking! you will block just about any attack as long as its not a critical hit/grab or a bullet (in which case roll around alot with the guard button and the movement stick, then do a targeted jump and slash at the guy bothering you, the targeted jump is the x and the a button together i beleive, dont hold me to it)

2) save your healing items, the boss at the end of this level can be extremely annoyin (its easy to slip once or twice in a while when running around the big guy and he has a freaking plasma cannon i think)

3) too far away? use the bow and arrow! i know youll need to use the thing at least once in the stage, when you need to shimmy across a giant gap there will be enemies on the other side, you need to take them out with the bow, i suggest going into 1st person view.

4) if you can, upgrade your sword, lets face it, you might remember everything you forgot, but that thing youre swinging is still freaking weak, so if you have enough extra yellow orbs from buying potions upgrade your sword, and if you dont, start killing things untill you do, make sure you use the Y special attack along with 2 yellow orbs or 1 health orb whenever possible to take down multiple enemies to get bigger yellow orbs.

5) review your attack list, im assuming you havnt played for a while (kotor and kotor 2 are fairly long after all) so youve probably forgotten what kind of magic and attacks you have, review everything and try using it at least once to know how you stand and start figuring out what to use for how long in fights.

hope that helped.