Contra (NES)/Stage 1

Jungle
You start out on the ledge at the far left. You can either drop down into the water (it won't kill you) or stay on top. Head right and kill the Sniper on the bottom ledge near the water ahead. Hit the weapon sensor for a Machine gun. Shortly after an item capsule, will fly from left to right. Shoot it to get a Rapid fire upgrade which is useful when used in combination with the Machine gun. Another Sniper will be waiting ahead at the bottom, kill him the same way you did the last one. When you reach the bridge, you’ll have to carefully time your jumps across to ramain on the upper path; if you walk across instead, you will be caught by the explosion and fall through. Unlike the arcade version, the bridge explosions can not harm you.

A second bridge follows the first bridge, and you must time your jumps in the same manner to cross it. A turret will be waiting for you on the opposite side of the bridge. If you're still on the top path, you can avoid it and move on, but you should stop and destroy it if you’re in the water. You will find two Snipers in a row hiding the underbrush up ahead. You should be able to spot their heads peeking out from the grass. Shoot them when they stand up to fire at you. An item capsule will fly which contains the Spread gun. You can only reach it if you’re on the top path. Otherwise, you can obtain another Spread gun later on. Fire the Spread gun rapidly to clear large numbers of enemies from your path.

Shoot the Sniper on the ledge ahead of you, then drop to the lower ledge where the turret and weapon sensor are. Destroy the turret and collect the contents of the weapon sensor, a Fireball gun if you lost the Spread gun, or wish to switch weapons. Drop into the water and wade forward to the bottom ledge and destroy the turret to the right. Jump to the narrow ledge ahead then up to the high ledge on your left. Destroy the cannon that rises out of the ground. Then shoot the Sniper on the opposite side of screen. If you don’t yet have the Spread gun, destroy the weapon sensor under the ledge to obtain one. An item capsule will appear from the left that contains a Rapid fire upgrade.

Further ahead, there are series of ledges. Jump to the top and continue heading right. Two item capsules appear at this point. One is a Laser gun and the other is a Rapid fire upgrade. Collect whichever you need, and proceed to destroy the turret that appears on the far right. Once it’s eliminated, jump forward and destroy the turret ahead. Then jump over to the left, and fall off the right side of the platform to the ground below. Destroy the turret beside you. Walk a short distance to the right, and the screen will scroll to a huge structure with various armaments.

Boss: Jungle fortress entrance
Before anything else, shoot the sniper perched on top the fortress. He is the biggest threat to your survival. Once he is eliminated, you should destroy the two turrets above the door. A safe way to the do this is to duck and fire on the top left or the middle ledge, which will be beyond the turrets' range of fire. You may also attack from the left edge of the small platform closest to the turrets, but you must be careful and ensure that the turret mortars can't touch you. Once the turrets have been removed, focus all of your firepower on the entrance to the fortress until it explodes. It is possible to rush your attack and destroy the door as quickly as you can, but you are likely to get hit by the turrets or the sniper if you are not patient and do not clear them out first.