I don't know whether to be happy because I just beat Shinobi III for the second time today, this time without continuing (I had more than 9 lives when I finished it, even) or angry because I only lost one life, and that was due to accidentally falling to my death because I wasn't holding up at the right time. If it weren't for that I wouldn't have lost a single life the whole way through (save for the two or three lives I had to sacrifice when using the Mijin Ninjitsu, which I suppose counts as losing lives). Next goal: finish the game without using Mijin, or any Ninjitsu, at all.
Yeah, I love this game.