Contra (NES)/Stage 8

Alien's lair
Well, for such an easy stage it sure has some foreboding music, and... what's this, aliens! Well, well, well, that's where they've been hiding, so much for the storyline of the game. This stage is short and sweet in general but a little tougher if you don’t have the spread gun. Head to the right and destroy the two item capsules that fly by. The best way to get both of them while they're flying by is to destroy the bottom one by firing downward at it then destroy the other one by firing up and diagonally at it. You'll get a machine gun and a barrier for your troubles. You'll come across an enemy straight out of the movie Alien. You know what I mean? The pop-out-your-stomach alien. This enemy has an uncanny resemblance to it. The easiest way to dispatch of this blatant movie rip-off is to stand right against the wall and fire diagonally at it, while destroying any of the little shrimp-aliens that it shoots out.

After a while the alien and the wall will blow up, allowing you to continue. This whole next area, right up to the boss is the problem I told you that might be tougher than usual. Conversely, those people who still have the spread gun at this point will have no trouble whatsoever. In fact, they probably don't even need my help anymore so let me just concentrate on those unfortunate people who don't have spread gun. Continue to the right and you'll come across a bunch of mouths on the ceiling, four to be exact. When you come up to the first two don't move any further to the right until you destroy them and the little balls they shoot out. Once the first two mouths are destroyed, move on to the next two, then jump over the crap below you to the little ledge. At this point, a final item capsule will fly by. You can destroy it by firing straight ahead and it should fly into it, revealing a spread gun.

Continue on your rampage by destroying the two mouths to the right, then jump to the next ledge and destroy the row of mouths along the bottom. Now jump to the higher ledge ahead and destroy the two mouths level with your gun, then fall to the bottom ledge again and destroy the two sets of mouths below and above you. Jump over the two holes and destroy the next set of mouths at the bottom, then the ones at the top. Around this time, spider-like aliens will start coming from the right, so watch out for them, they move quickly. Continue to the right and you'll see one last mouth. Destroy it and you'll find the final boss of the game.

Boss: Red Falcon
This boss is actually quite easy, continuing what some call the Konami syndrome - the levels are tough but the bosses are easy. Destroy the Mouth near the boss if you haven’t already. After that duck and fire at the two pods at the base of the heart. The Spider Aliens will periodically come out of the pods, mostly the two at the top and they may try to drop down on you so watch out. Once the bottom two pods are gone, move right again the heart (don’t worry, you won’t get killed by doing this) and fire diagonally at it. More of the same will happen, just destroy the Spider Aliens as they appear and then continue to hit the heart. After awhile, he’ll blow up.

Ending
The island will blow up and sink into the ocean while a helicopter carries you off to safety. If you were disappointed with the ending, you shouldn't have expected much. Most NES games have this sort of ending. Now on to the congratulations screen.


 * Congratulations.
 * You've destroyed the vile Red Falcon and saved the universe. Consider yourself a hero.

Enjoy the ending tune while the credits roll. After that, you'll get to start the game all over again with all the points and weapons you ended with. That's it, and good luck the second time around!