Contra III: The Alien Wars

FAQ
Q: How come the "Konami Code" doesn't work?

It doesn’t work in this game, contrary to what some other sites say.

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================================================================== Game Basics

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Title Screen Options

Single Player: You play the game by yourself.

Two Players A: A split-screen two player mode.

Two Players B: A co-op two player mode.

Options: You can changes the game settings here.

Difficulty Settings ---

On Easy: All projectiles, beams, and flames will move slowly; every enemy and boss is significantly easier to defeat; and almost all enemies will just walk across the screen and hardly fire at you.

On Normal: All projectiles, beams, and flames will move somewhat faster than they did on easy; every enemy and boss will fire at you more often; and every boss is somewhat tougher to defeat. Some will have extra attacks.

On Hard: All projectiles, beams, and flames will move a lot faster than they did on normal; every enemy and boss will fire at you a lot more than normal; enemies will reappear quicker; and every boss is a lot tougher to defeat. Some will have extra attacks.

Controls

Start Button: Pauses the game.

Select Button: Shows the area map when you’re on the overhead levels.

A Button: Uses an Aura Bomb.

B Button: Makes your guy jump.

X Button: Switches weapons.

Y Button: Fires your weapon.

L Button: Turns your guy to the left on the overhead levels.

R Button: Turns your guy to the right on the overhead levels.

Directional Pad: Moves your guy around.

L, R and Y Buttons: Makes your guy jump and fire at the same time. If you do this on the overhead levels, he will spin and fire at the same time.

Weapons ---

Machine Gun Usefulness: Average

You start the game with this weapon. It’s not bad but there are better weapons out there. It has a very fast firing rate but the bullets are rather weak.

Crush Gun Usefulness: High

This weapon packs quite a punch but it has a slow firing rate and limited range. It’s good against stronger enemies and a few bosses when you don’t have the Laser. This is a great secondary weapon.

Homing Gun Usefulness: Average

The Homing Gun has a pretty fast firing rate but the bullets are somewhat weak. The bullets will track enemies and fly into them though, so that’s another plus. It’s not really worth grabbing unless you don’t have anything else.

Spread Gun Usefulness: Above average

Here was the weapon to have in the first two Contra games. It’s not quite as good here since there are better weapons but it still has good range and a decent firing rate. It’s quite a versatile weapon overall.

Laser Gun Usefulness: High

The Laser Gun does damage roughly on par with the Crush Gun but it has other good points. It has a long range and a high firing rate. It’s one of the best weapons to use against bosses. It’s not so good on the actual stages but it still makes it a great secondary weapon.

Flamethrower Usefulness: High

Here’s a good weapon for lots of situations that the game throws at you. It’s effective on the actual stages but it can be used against bosses if you want. It has a fairly powerful attack and the firing rate is high and cumulative. It has limited range though so you have to use it fairly close.

Aura Bomb Usefulness: Very high

This is one of the most useful items in the game. You should have several of these on hand at all times for crowd control on stages or for damaging bosses. When you use them on bosses, try to get close to it so that the Aura Bomb inflicts the maximum amount of damage.

Shield Usefulness: Average

You only get this item twice. It will protect you from all enemies and bullets except falling into an abyss for about 30 seconds or so. After you stop flashing, you’re vulnerable again, so watch out for enemies and stuff. If there are two of you playing, make sure the guy with the shield is in front so that he can absorb the hits.

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================================================================== Walkthrough

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Stage 1: The Streets of Neo City

Ah, the sights to see in the ruined city. Watch out for the dogs eating from the trashcans ahead. On the higher difficulty levels they will run at you after you pass by them. Jump into the tank when you see it and start some carnage. Blast the walls with the turret and watch them crumble down. There will be another one ahead. Once you reach the spot where the flames are shooting up out of the ground, you’ll have to get out of the tank and head off on foot again.

Jump over the bunch of them and grab the powerups if you want. Further ahead, the wall will crumble and a tank will come out.

Riot Tank: This boss is simple to defeat, just pull out a weapon and let her rip. You should be able to destroy it quickly, usually before it reaches the side of the screen. It won’t be able to reach you there if you’re right in the corner though.

Jump onto one of the platforms when the bomber comes and blasts the ground. Keep going right, avoiding the flame balls and pillars of fire. A few times here a pillar of flame will twist over the top of one of one of the platforms. Stay still until it goes away. Continue on until you see the boss and make sure to grab the Aura Bombs on the platforms there.

Beast Kimkoh: Stay on the bottom and start firing at the flashing lump on it’s chest. The boss will fire a huge laser out of it’s mouth once in awhile, followed by a stray bullet so you have to jump to the higher platforms when that happens. You can tell it’s about it fire the laser when it’s mouth starts flashing. Shoot the fly enemies that come out of the top of the boss’s shell if they start bugging you, otherwise just blast it’s chest until it dies.

Stage 2: Maria Calderon Highway ---

The object of this stage is to destroy all the enemy bases in the area. Choose an area of the map to start and destroy each base, which are symbolized by the little flashing circles on the map. Wait for them to open up then duck and fire at it until it’s destroyed. On the higher difficulty levels, you may have to face away from the base to get it to open up and fire at you.

When you’re moving around, watch out for the cracked places in the ground. Those places will give way when you step on them. The only way through is to step across the narrow path that’s remaining. The centipede enemy can be a pain the ass too. Keep your eyes open. After you destroy all of the bases, you’ll face the boss.

Metallican: First thing you have to do is destroy the legs. They will fire a steady stream of bullets until you smash each and every one of them. Destroy the tail next. It’s easier to destroy. Once you do this, Metallican will start flying upwards and then crashing into the ground rapidly. Just keep moving around and firing. You’ll eventually destroy it.

Stage 3: The Old Cyber Steel Mill -

Head right and kill the rolling enemies and others that appear. You’ll eventually reach a spot that has a long pole going right. Jump onto it and kill the flying enemies that appear. Use a Aura Bomb if you have to. At the end, you’ll find a boss to greet you.

Chrome Dome: Here’s an unusual boss, time to smash it to bits. It’s a sphere with a pole sticking out of either end of it. Jump onto the pole and wait until it reaches the bottom, and then blast the core there. Jump off again when it reaches the top. Rinse and repeat until it’s destroyed.

Shoot the missiles that will appear from the bottom of the screen and then jump onto the wall. Not long after you start climbing, another boss will appear out of nowhere and trap you under it.

Tri-Transforming Wall Walker: While you’re underneath it will start firing missiles at you. Climb along with it and shoot the missiles that get close. When you’ve climbed far enough, you’ll reach a part of the wall that will go inwards to reveal spikes all along the top and bottom. The boss will try to bash into you now but it’s still fairly simple at this point. Watch out for the bosses fake thrusts followed by a quick bash into the wall. That’s all you really have to watch out for on the lower difficulty levels. On the higher difficulty levels it will also move along the wall for a few seconds when it tries to bash you.

Continue up and then run to the right to meet yet another boss...

Attack Ship: This sub boss is pathetic. You should be destroyed in no time at all. The first thing it will do is drop grenades around the middle, and then start dropping troops out of the sides of the ship. Start firing at it when it’s dropping enemies down and you should be able to destroy it before it stops. If not, rinse and repeat until it’s destroyed.

Head right and grab the barrier ahead. Run through the missiles and shoot the door. Climb upwards using the poles and shoot the turrets scattered around here. Head to the right when you’re at the top and continue jumping on the poles to get across the holes. Further ahead there will be several powerups and the boss of the stage but first you’ll have to deal with the two robots hanging from the ceiling.

Red and Blue: The blue robot will only fire it’s gun at the ground. It doesn’t move around too much and it’s simple to destroy. The red robot jumps around and fires bullets at you. It will also jump toward you and when you go past it, it will hang onto the ceiling and shoot at you. Stay on the ceiling and start firing at whichever robot is closest to you. When the red robot starts jumping toward you, stay on the ceiling and climb past it to the far corner. Once you hit either robot enough times, their legs will give out and they will start hopping around. Continue hitting them and they will both be destroyed in no time at all.

After they are both gone, the boss of the stage will appear through the wall behind you. Look out!

Robo-Corpse: Robo-Corpse is my favorite boss in the game. It has three attacks. The first one is a flamethrower that moves clockwise around the room. It moves slowly on easy and normal, at least slow enough that you can get some shots in while your trying to avoid the flame. On hard though, you’ll be running for your life. The second are lasers that follow you around until they disappear. In order to avoid the lasers, climb to the high point of the wall, NOT the ceiling, and wait for the laser. Jump off the wall when they get close by. Rinse and repeat until they disappear. The third are a series of bombs that the boss throws randomly around the room. They have a short timer so you can quickly move away if they appear beside you. After that attack it will start from the beginning again. Once you hit it enough times, it will close the door and decapitate itself.

Stage 4: Battle of the Blazing Sky --

You start the stage on a motorcycle and a bunch of guys flying above you. They will drop bombs on you so you’ll have to shuffle around and destroy them if you want. Once you’re out of the tunnel another tank will come up.

Battle Tank: Just sit close to the back and fire away. You might have to jump once in awhile, but you can destroy the shells the tank fires at you. It won't take long to destroy it.

Nothing special happens here. Another boss will meet you further ahead.

Walker: Stay near the back of the screen and fire at it. It will jump occasionally. You can take advantage of that by going under it to the other side if you’re close to the side of the screen. Continue blasting it and it will fall apart soon enough.

The mother ship will appear above and it’s various armaments will start to attack you. Kill the troops dropping out of the bottom and then the gray guy jumping around. After you do, the screen will start scrolling again. Duck past the turrets or destroy them if you want until you reach the weird snake thing moving around.

Wait until it’s off the ground and then quickly move past it. The huge gun further ahead is tougher to avoid. Wait for it to fire and then jump over the explosion going along the ground. With any luck, you’ll be able to avoid it. Soon after that, a helicopter will appear. Jump onto it and a boss will appear.

The Assassin: He'll attach his arm to the bottom of the helicopter and swing around. You should be hitting him here. After awhile, he'll retract his arm to the bottom of the helicopter, then fire a ninja star at you. Jump over it, and fire some more. Rinse and repeat until it’s dead.

Right after you kill that boss, the helicopter will fire the missiles you’re on and carry you away to the mother ship.

Mother Ship: The ship is back for more punishment, so oblige it one last time. To counter the missiles that come from the left, the ship will send missiles of it’s own to destroy them. Jump away when they are about to be destroyed. Blast the two nodes at the top and bottom of the barrier. The better player should destroy the bottom node because it’s harder. After both of the nodes are gone, concentrate on the core in the center of the ship to destroy it.

Stage 5: Mucho Grande Badlands --

The Mucho Grande Badlands stage is similar to stage 2 but quite a bit harder. Choose an area of the stage and get going. Be careful here since you can fall off the side pretty easily and the spinners near several of the bases can be disorienting. Press the L or R button to counteract the force of the spinning, depending on which direction they are going. After you destroy all of the bases, you’ll face the boss.

The Round Ball of DEATH: This thing is one of the hardest bosses in the game. The circular area around the boss will rotate like the spinners on the stage. Press L or R to stop the spinning. If you’re playing on hard, the spinning will be very fast and you won’t be able to counteract it completely but enough to avoid spinning out of control and dying. The boss has two attacks of it’s own, a tentacle and a flamethrower. It doesn’t use them too much but you should watch out for them. Keep yourself stabilized and fire at the eye of the boss. Use any Aura bombs that you have. Hopefully, you’ll destroy it quickly and painlessly.

Stage 6: Red Falcon’s Lair --

Walk to the right and kill the alien hanging from the wall. Continue to the right after it’s gone. You have to watch out for the fast moving aliens that will appear from time to time throughout the stage. The Mouths from Contra will also make a reappearance. Destroy them if you can and use your Aura bombs to make a quick getaway if it gets to tough. You’ll run into a boss in the long corridor ahead.

Red Falcon’s Heart: Well, well, look who’s back. It’s the final boss from the original Contra and it is even easier this time around. The first thing you should do is destroy the two sacs at the bottom and then the two at the top if you want. After that, concentrate on the heart itself and it should be dead in no time at all.

Run to the right and soon after another sub boss will appear.

The Crawler: This weird looking alien is the final boss from Super C. It will charge at you after it comes out of the ground and then jump backwards. When it lands jump on it’s leg and use your weapon on it’s face while it’s visible. After that, it will shoot brown globs into the air and they will rain down on you a few seconds later. A nice trick to use here is pause the game and see where there’s an opening between the globs and then move there. The boss starts it’s attacks from the beginning again at this point.

Continue to the right until you reach several holes. Jump across them and then jump to the wall and start climbing. The third and final sub boss will appear near the top of the wall. As a side note, doesn’t this music sound very similar to the music from the movie Predator?

Vicious Slave Hawk: This boss attacks a lot like the Tri-Transforming Wall Walker from stage 3, that is, it tries to bump into you. Dodge it accordingly and blast it when you can. When you’ve done enough damage, it will switch attacks. Now it will teleport beside you and try to hit you with it’s tail. Don’t stop moving around or you’ll get it. After you’ve done even more damage, it will blow up and you can continue on.

Keep going up the wall and at the top, a capsule will fly by. Grab it if you want and head to the right to meet the final boss of the game.

Red Falcon’s Body: Now this is a real final boss, unlike the laughably simple final bosses for Contra and Super C. You need to destroy one of the arms as quickly as possible or you’ll start dying when they extend outwards, following you around. After one is gone, little aliens will fall out of the socket and start running around. Kill them and destroy the other arm. After that, blast the head and it will eventually be destroyed, revealing the brain.

Red Falcon’s Brain: This battle can either be very hard or very easy. The brain doesn’t attack itself. Instead, the balls rotating around it will decide what happens. The brain is invincible at this point so you have to shoot one of the balls to get started. It isn’t that hard to hit a good or average ball but only one person should hit the ball to choose. You can also use a slow down switch if you have one on your controller to make this part simple as pie. Here’s a rundown on the balls.

Noose Ball [Gray ball with purple marks]

I call this one the noose ball because that is almost literally what happens. About five or six gray balls will surround you and slowly tighten until they kill you. I would avoid this ball only if you don’t have any aura bombs, otherwise you probably won’t be able to destroy them all before they kill you.

Easy Ball [Red ball]

The easiest non-bonus ball you can get, besides the leg ball. A group of red balls will surround the brain doing nothing at all. So, use a few aura bombs to destroy the red balls then pull out a strong weapon and blast it up until the brain switches it’s attack again.

Snake Ball [Green ball with red marks]

Avoid this one like you would the plague or a root canal. If you do manage to get this one, you better have excellent timing and dexterity, plus it never hurts to say a prayer =P. It creates a snake made of balls that wander around the screen for 30 seconds or so, which will probably result in a at least one death.

Rolling Ball [Gray ball]

One of the tougher balls you can get, but definitely not the hardest one in the game. The brain will move to the lower right side of the screen and two or three (depending on the difficulty level) balls will start rolling towards you. The trick here is to time your jumps so you can get over the first ball well enough, but with time to spare so you get over the next one the same way. Use your weapons so you can hit the brain while your doing this.

Leg Ball [Blue ball with marks]

This ball is simple to avoid and lets you get free hits on the brain, so milk it for everything it is worth. Stand at the edge of either side of the screen and hit the brain as much as you can.

Bonus Ball [Gray spike ball]

The best ball you can get, period, but there is a slight chance you can die. The brain will move to the center of the screen and every possible powerup in the game will rain down on you. It goes without saying that this is very good and you should aim for this ball as much as possible.

Rain Ball [blue ball]

NOT GOOD. Avoid this ball at all costs because just like the snake ball, this one is very hard to survive. The brain will drop balls that you can’t destroy and you’ll just have to dodge them as best as you can. There is no concrete strategy here as far as I know, just do try your best to avoid the balls.

Easier Rain Ball [looks like an eye-ball]

This is almost the same as the previous ball, except you can destroy the balls this time, which makes it much easier. Use a strong weapon and blast up the balls bouncing around the screen... or be lazy and use a Aura Bomb.

Ending 1 (Easy or Normal difficulty)

The brain turns purple as it falls to the ground and when the eye closes, the lair will start blowing up. A helicopter lands inside the lair and takes off from the island much the same way as the original Contra, but in 16-bit goodness. Well, you destroyed Red Falcon and his hordes of alien henchmen again and you should be rewarded with an ending, right? Wrong. You need to finish the game on hard to see the real ending. It should say something about trying the game on the next difficulty, but I wouldn’t try that until you can breeze through normal. And I’m not going to tell you what happens either so, hah hah.
 * Sticks tongue out at you*.

Ending 2 (Hard difficulty) --

Red Falcon's Brain Part 2: Yeah, It’s still alive but this battle is simple. It will try to hit you with it’s newly acquired arms in a left to right pattern and then bash the undercarriage of the helicopter. Start jumping and firing at the brain. Use any Aura bombs that you have left. Also, when you're hitting the brain, DON'T press down while you're hanging onto the helicopter or you’ll fall off of the helicopter. Rinse and repeat until it’s finally dead. You finished the game. Congrats.

The brain is destroyed for good this time. The helicopter will continue out of the lair and leave the island behind, just like the original Contra. The credits will scroll along and awhile later the chopper will land in Neo City where a bunch of people are waiting. The army will give you a metal for your bravery and the game will end. Besides that weak ending, you should get a sincere congratulations from me. You've finished the game on hard and that’s no easy task for anyone. =). If you found it easy, you can make the game harder by changing the number of lives you get in the option screen. After awhile, the game will restart on hard, with all your current weapons and lives. Good luck!

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================================================================== Cameos/References

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Blades of Steel: You can see various advertisements of other Konami games on the scoreboard once in awhile.

Contra: Well, the old heart from the first Contra is back, but unfortunately he is still pathetically easy as before.

Super C: Red Falcon’s form in Super C is back and this time he is marginally tougher then he was in that game, but that’s not really saying much, trust me.

Predator: This seems like a joke since it’s rumored that the heroes from the first Contra were modeled on Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Anyway, if you listen to the music just after you kill the Crawler, you will notice it sounds just a spot of music from the movie. I’ll have to find the exact spot and the music.

Super C: Red Falcon takes the form of one of the easiest bosses from Super C, the evil Jagger Froid. Heh. It’s a good thing Konami finally started thinking and toughened up Red Falcon enough so that he is a good challenge in this game.

R-Type/Gradius: The last part of stage 3 seems like a reference to R-Type because the huge ship that hovers above you. You can destroy the turrets and pieces of the ship as you pass by it. The boss of this same stage seems like a reference to Gradius, thanks to it’s core and the shield protecting it.