Minor update - added a screenshot I took of NES memory to better show Ninja Gaiden 2's ring buffer in action.
For any who care, since there's no such thing as a structure or array on the NES and they needed to store three sets of 8bit values, it's technically three ring buffers of 64 bytes each from address $0100 to $01BF sharing one cursor located at $004B.
Buffer A = X position.
Buffer B = Y position.
Buffer C = Status - Walking, Direction, on wall, hurt, etc.