Contra

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Introduction

Story from the Contra manual:

In 1957 a large object from outer space crashed into Earth's Amazon basin, near the ruins of a lost Mayan civilization. Scientists worldwide heralded the incident as a trivial cosmic occurrence, and thus the collision was soon forgotten. Now thirty years later, rumors of an evil force have swept into the Pentagon's front office and tales from frightened villagers of a hideous being with an army of alien henchmen are sending chills down the spines of top military brass. Unwilling to upset current political stability, an all-out assault on the region has been overruled and instead, two of America's most cunning, courageous and ruthless soldiers from the Special Forces elite commando squad have been selected to seek out and destroy these alien intruders.

Congratulations, pal, you're one of the chosen. But before you take pride in being the best, be warned. You’re about to come face to face against Red Falcon, the cruelest life-form in the galaxy. He arrived on Earth thirty years ago (that is six months time in an alien's life) to establish a foothold from which he will attempt to conquer our world and then use it as a stepping stone toward his ultimate fiendish goal: domination of the universe. Needless to say, playing hero won't be easy. But you have no choice - you must be a hero. Because if you fail, life as we know it will cease to exist, and the vile Red Falcon will rule forever. If you succeed, well...it doesn't matter, because I doubt you will...

In 1989, Konami released what is today an absolute NES classic, Contra. It has a few rough edges, but the game play speaks for it's self. It isn't "toss-the-controller-against-the-wall" difficult, nor is it easy, it actually has a good balance of difficulty that doesn't have very many cheap points that require a good deal of luck - this game is all about skill... and memorization, well, mostly skill. The North American version of Contra isn’t the only version around. The original Japanese version was named Gryzor and renamed to Contra when it appeared in North America. The European version was named Probotector and changed the human heroes into robots for some reason.

Gryzor also have many graphical and sound improvements over Contra. For example, the title screen in Gryzor was animated and the screen between stages resembles the scrolling map in Ghosts ‘n Ghouls. Many of the stages also had improved or animated sections that enhanced the game play. But enough about that, this guide will attempt to walk you through the game, with as little deaths as possible. It was written for both beginners and veterans alike, so that there's little confusion. Well, that's it, and I hope this guide's helpful. I'll fix that as soon as possible.

Game Basics

Player Options

Single Player: This option is self explanatory. You’ll play through the game alone without the second player.

Two Players: You’ll play through the game with the second player on the same screen, sharing everything in the game.

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Controls
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Start Button: Pauses the game.

Select Button: Not used.

B Button: Fires your weapon.

A Button: Not used.

Directional Pad: Moves your character around.

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Weapons
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Weapon:     Shotgun
Usefulness: Below Average

The weapon you initially start with. It’s not too bad if you don’t have if you
don’t have anything else but still look for the Machine Gun or the Spread Gun.
You have to press B to fire each bullet with this weapon and it limits the
effectiveness somewhat.

Weapon:     Machine Gun
Usefulness: Above Average

A weapon that seems weak at first but is actually very good. I’d consider it
the second best weapon in the game. Its not the strongest weapon per-shot but
due to the fact you can just hold down B and let the bullets fly. The bullets
are quite fast as well and have a very fast firing rate which can be improved
even more with the Rapid Fire.

Weapon:     Laser Gun
Usefulness: Below Average-Average

This weapon isn’t too bad in certain situations like bosses. The thin stream of
energy this weapon fires doesn’t have much range or versatility. Another
weakness is once you fire it you’ll have to wait for the beam that was fired to
leave the screen or hit something before you fire another one or the new beam
will cancel out the previous beam. Avoid this weapon if you can.

Weapon:     Flamethrower
Usefulness: Average

This weapon isn't that bad all things considered, but there are better weapons
out there. The fireball that shoots out moves painfully slow, at least in
comparison to other weapons, but it’s fairly strong. It also has a wide range
as the fireball spins around damaging/killing enemies slightly above it. Avoid
it if you can as there are usually better weapons around.

Weapon:     Spread Gun
Usefulness: Extremely High

This weapon is easily the best weapon in the game. If you can keep it, you’ll
have a much easier time playing through the game. It fires at such a wide arc
that it can pretty much hit any enemy on the screen without much effort on your
part from far, and up close it delivers a massive amount of damage that it can
kill just about any enemy or even bosses quickly.

Powerup:    Falcon (Bomb)
Usefulness: Below Average

This powerup is nearly useless, in my opinion. When you touch it, it'll destroy
all the enemies on the screen. While that sounds good, it only appears on stage
5 and when there aren't many enemies to kill on the screen. It could have been
better, if there were more of them, but as it is, it isn't very good at all.

Powerup:    Barrier
Usefulness: Average

Like the Falcon, this powerup doesn't appear very often, but it's more useful
than the former though. When you grab it, it'll protect you for roughly twenty
seconds from everything in the game, except falling into abysses, which you
would die from anyways. It's not bad, I just wish there were more of them.

Powerup:    Rapid Fire
Usefulness: Average

Unlike the other two powerups, this one appears somewhat frequently, but
unfortunately, it's effect isn’t that noticeable in most weapons. What it does
is slightly speed up the firing rate of certain weapons, specifically the
Spread Gun, the Machine Gun, and the Shotgun, but I haven’t seen any change in
any of the other weapons.

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Enemies
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Soldier:
These guys are cannon fodder but still have an annoying tendency to appear at
the wrong time and/or flood the screen in certain stages. Key theme: kill them
quickly and move forward so they don’t swarm. They appear throughout the game
and get a little tougher to kill as you progress/

Stages 1-4: They just move across the screen and jump when they reach a ledge,
although not necessarily reaching the opposite side if there is one.

Stage 5: They start firing bullets at you.

Stages 6-7: They start ducking and firing bullets at you at the same time.

Turret 1:
These only appear in stage 1 and 3. Fortunately they’re quite easy to destroy.
They’re initially inactive but when you get close to them, they’ll activate and
start firing at you. The best way to dispose of these is to approach from the
bottom and fire at the “blind spot”, which is the edge of the sprite where the
bullets can’t reach you. It’s not worth it to attack it from above and there’s
no real situation in the game where you really have to, so just move on.
In stage 3, there’ll be several spots where you’ll have to attack one from the
side, which is almost as easy as the bottom but they’ll usually be enemies
coming at you.

Turret 2 (Hidden):
These also only appear in stage 1 and 3. You won’t be able to see them at first
but when you get close to one, it’ll pop up and fire three bullets in a row at
you. The same strategy can be used as the Turret 1, since they’re both similar.

Sniper:
These annoying enemies unfortunately appear in all of the normal stages (not
bases), except the last stage. They stand in place and just fire at you, as
simple as that, except that they have much better aim than all of the enemies
in the game so killing them should be a priority.

Boss Turret 1:
This is what I guess is the main defense for the first boss of the game. All
they do is lob shells at the ground and are no real threat unless you get close
to the base. Just fire at them beyond their range and they’ll be gone in no
time. Once in awhile they’ll lob one a little further than usual so watch out.

Base Turret:
The main obstacle in the base stages. They fire only occasionally and then only
in the four basic directions toward your character but combined with all the
other crap that’ll appear in any given room, they can be a challenge to avoid.
If there’s only one or two in a room and they’re easy to reach (ie: you don’t
have to jump), it’s probably a good idea to destroy them. Avoid getting pinned
down by these things, and if you do, try to move to a different spot when you
can, in case those annoying Grenadier Soldiers are around.

Grenadier Soldier:
These guys also appear in the base stages and are a considerable pain in the
ass. They come in two flavors: fast ones and slow ones. The fast ones will run
across the screen throwing grenades roughly every few steps. The slow ones will
stop every few steps but won’t start tossing grenades until they line up with
you. Fortunately, the timing when they toss grenades is long enough to allow
you to squeeze between them.

Rolling Grenadier Soldier:
A variant of the Grenadier Soldier. These guys will run across the screen,
often several times if you don’t kill them the first time around, and drop
grenades that will slowly roll toward you. They also have the fast guys and the
slow guys and they both attack in the same manner as the Grenadier Soldier. The
thing is however is that you shouldn’t let them lay down too many rolling
grenades because they’re a major pain to avoid once the screen fills up with
enemies (not so much in the first base, but definitely the second).

Boss Turret 2:
Similar to the turret defending the first boss but not as easily defeated and
not quite as lame. It defends the second boss by firing three bullets total:
one down (toward you), one diagonal right and another diagonal left. It also
has a large blind spot, which is generally any spot between the path of the
center bullet and one of the diagonal bullets. However, it’s better to stay in
the blind spot close to the edge of the screen when you’re dealing with the
side turrets; it doesn’t matter which side you attack the middle turret from.

Scuba Soldier:
These guys only appear on stages three and five. They attack by firing a shell
into the air that’ll split into three before it hits the ground. It’s a good
idea to kill these guys but it’s not always possible. The other option is to
just avoid them and their shots which is fairly easy to do.

Red Sniper:
They only appear during the boss fight in stage four, along with the Winged
Soldiers which are described below. They’re actually quite a pain as they
behave a lot like Snipers. Kill them quickly as they appear from the sides or
you’ll have to do quite a bit of dodging...

Winged Soldier:
Appears along with the Red Sniper. These guys just move across the screen for
awhile and then they jump down at you. Its more of a suicide mission since you
should be able to easily kill them.

Tree Grenadier:
A MAJOR pain in the ass on all fronts; you can’t kill them, you only try to
avoid their grenades making a target of your head. On top of that, they’re
often paired with Gunners which are described next. However, they throw
grenades every four seconds roughly so you have some time to move your arse out
of the way.

Gunner:
These guys appear in stage five and are unfortunately a keeper until stage 7;
they don’t appear in the last stage. Yay! They attack from stationary cannons
that fire baseball sized bullets at you. The bullets move quickly but the
Gunners only fire every three seconds or so, giving you lots of time to pump
them full of lead. They appear often with Tree Grenadiers, so you’ll have to
use the old tactic “happy feet” (ie: move around a lot to avoid getting hit)
when you deal with this sort of situation.

Tank:
These things are armored up for nothing. They’re wimps! They’ll roll onto the
screen, stop about halfway, fire some bullets, and then cruise to the left. The
strategy to defeat them is in the walkthrough.

Big Alien:
I don’t consider this thing to be a boss, but it’s not really an enemy as well
because it only appears near the beginning of stage eight. It’s only attack is
to spit out Shrimp Aliens, which can be easily destroyed. The strategy to kill
this thing is in the walkthrough.

Shrimp Alien:
The big alien above spits these out. All they do is slowly move around and try
to run into you; they can’t attack you any other way. They’re easily destroyed
though but kill them quickly as large groups of them can kill you quickly.

Mouth:
Another alien but this one is attached to the floors and ceilings of stage
eight. They attack by creating these little balls that home in on you rather
quickly if you don’t destroy them quickly. You’ll have to destroy the ball too
or it’ll follow you around until it leaves the screen.

Spider Alien:
These guys first appear near the end of stage eight out of nowhere it seems;
they’re actually spawned from the pod close to the last boss. You have to watch
out for them in case you’re concentrating on destroying the Mouths that infest
the latter half of stage eight.

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Walkthrough
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Stage 1: Jungle
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You'll start out on the ledge at the far left with a nice little flip, but you
can either go into the water (it won't kill you) or stay on top. I'd recommend
that you stay on top just because I find that it's easier, but it's up to you.
Either way head right and kill the Sniper on the bottom ledge near the water
ahead. Hit the item container for a Machine Gun. Not long after an item capsule
will fly by, hit it to get a Rapid Fire which will be useful 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 avoid the newbie
mistake: walking or rather running across, and I can tell you right now that
you’ll never make it. Jump across it instead.

There will be another bridge right ahead so do the same thing there. Once
you’re on the opposite side, a turret will be waiting for you. Avoid it and
move on if you’re on top but you’ll probably have to destroy it if you’re in
the water. A little ahead two Snipers in a row are hiding the underbrush.
You’ll be able to see their heads peeking out from the grass so there’s no
surprise, just kill them when they get up. An item capsule will fly by soon
after, it contains the VAUNTED Spread Gun. You’ll only be able to get it if
you’re on the top unfortunately, but cheer up, you can get another Spread Gun
later on. Until you die or change weapons, you’ll be a killing machine to the
weak enemies in the next few stages so you’d better make use of it.

Kill the Sniper on the ledge ahead then drop to the lower ledge where the
turret and item container are. Destroy the turret but don’t get the contents of
the item container if you have the Spread Gun. Now drop into the water and wade
to the right onto the bottom ledge and destroy the turret to the right. Jump to
the narrow ledge ahead then to the high ledge to the left and destroy the
turret that’ll pop up. After that, kill the Sniper on the opposite side of
screen ahead. If you don’t have the Spread Gun, destroy the item container
under the ledge to get one. Yes! An item capsule will appear from the left that
contains a Rapid Fire, you can get it if you want.

Further ahead there will be series of ledges, jump to the top then continue
right. Don’t destroy the two item capsules that appear here if you have the
Spread Gun; one is a Laser and the other is a Rapid Fire. Mosey one to the
right and destroy the turret that appears on the far right. Once it’s gone jump
forward and destroy the turret ahead. Now jump over to the left and then fall
off the right side to the bottom and destroy the turret beside you. Now all you
have to do is walk to the right and the screen should scroll to a huge
structure with various armaments. Yup, this is the boss. It may be imposing but
it’s a real weakling.

BOSS: Base Defense 1

First things first. Kill the sniper perched on top the structure because he'll
be a pain if you don't. Once you've done that, you'll have to destroy the two
turrets above the door. The safer way to the do this is to duck and fire on the
top left or the middle ledge, which will be way out of range of the turrets.
The slightly more dangerous way to do this is to drop to the left side of the
slightly higher ledge closer to the structure than the middle ledge proper and
fire from there. After they’re gone, destroy the door to finish the stage.

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Stage 2: Base 1
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This stage is a lot different than the previous one as you’ll find out right
away. The walls and such are angled to show depth as if the door is far away.
The idea here is to destroy the locks (the red flashing lumps) placed at
various points on the door in order to destroy the door and move on to the next
room until you reach the boss which is fought in the same general manner.
Defending each room are turrets which are placed on the doors themselves,
Soldiers, and Grenadiers. The Soldiers themselves come in two forms here,
fighting ones and powerup ones. Fighting ones are cannon fodder; powerup ones
will drop a weapon or powerup when you kill them; usually one will appear in
each room. Grenadiers are the real problem. Kill them as fast as you can or
they’ll start tossing grenades all over the place. Rolling Grenadiers also pose
a fairly tough problem.

The best way to deal with the rolling grenades is to duck and shoot at one
which will destroy it or move between two of them if there’s a space. The other
way is to jump over them but it’s not really a good idea to jump straight over
it but rather jumping to the sides is better. You’ll have to time your jump
somewhat but it’s easy as long as you don’t do it too soon or late. Two final
tips for the beginner. If there’s too much action on the screen, simply duck
and wait it out but don’t wait too long because of Grenadiers. Once you can
move again, get up and start firing. Something that I’ve done before is to jump
over the bullets but this only works if there’s only a few and you’ll have to
time your jumps. One thing that lots of beginners do is press up but you should
never do this because you’ll get a shock that’ll leave you unable to move for a
few seconds.

[o] = lock
[t] = turret
||| = grenade slots
lock/turret in center = level with your gun.
lock/turret near top = above you, you'll have to jump and fire to hit it.
lock/turret near bottom = below you, you'll have to duck and fire to hit it.

Door 1:
 _____________________
|                     |   The lock is level with you’re gun so just concentrate
|                     |   on it until it’s gone. There won’t be much resistance
|         [o]         |   yet so this should be easy to do.
|                     |
|_____________________|

Door 2:
 _____________________
|                     |   The lock is on the left and a turret is on the right.
|                     |   Destroy the turret first, then go after the lock.
|   [o]        [t]    |   Again, there isn't much resistance, so it should be
|                     |   easy.
|_____________________|

Door 3:
 _____________________
|                     |   This door is very easy to destroy, as seen in the
|                     |   drawing. Just move to the center, duck and fire away
|   [t]        [t]    |   away until the lock is destroyed. Don't even bother
|        [o]          |   with the turrets, but you can if you want to.
|_____________________|

Door 4:
 _____________________
|                     |   The lock is level with your gun and there's a turret
|        [t]          |   above it. The slots below the lock are where rolling
|        [o]          |   grenades will start coming out once in a while. Stand
|  |||||||||||||||||  |   centered with the lock and fire away. Once the
|_____________________|   rolling grenades start appearing, they should miss
                          you IF you're standing between them. Don't bother
                          with the turret, just work on the lock.

Door 5:
 _____________________
|                     |   Here it is, the final room, and it isn't that hard
|        [t]          |   even though it's quite well guarded. The best way to
|   [t]  [o]   [t]    |   destroy the door is to destroy the two turrets to the
|                     |   right and left of the lock, then concentrate on the
|_____________________|   lock itself until it blows up. Forget about the upper
                          turret, it's just a waste of time, in my opinion.

BOSS: Terminal 1

This boss is fought in the same manner as the stage itself. That is that you can only move left or right and fire upwards. As soon as you’re able to move you should quickly head to either the extreme left or right. You’ll see why a few seconds after you do. Once the turrets start firing, move to the edge of the one you’re closest too and start plugging away at it until it’s destroyed. It’s best to attack from the edge closest to the side of the screen so the bullets don’t get you but this won’t matter after you destroy one of them. After the first one is destroyed, go for the second one and do the same thing.

Now destroy the rest of the stuff to activate the real boss here. It’ll appear along the long black section near the top of the screen and attack by firing large orbs at you. It’s actually marginally tougher than the turrets where. If you have the Spread Gun this battle will be easy. Just stand in the middle and fire at it. None of it’s orbs should get close to you and if they do you can just move out of the way. Doing this battle without the Spread Gun is easy as well, you should have to move around to hit the boss and destroy the orbs. Keep doing this until it’s destroyed. It won’t take long at all.

Stage 3: Waterfall

Here’s the only stage in the game that goes upwards instead of to the right and it’s a pretty easy stage to boot. It’s roughly as the same as the previous stage, only that this one is a lot more fun in my opinion. Also, did anyone notice that we don’t really go near a waterfall besides the one in the background so technically we could call this stage Mountain or something along those lines. Anyway. Head up but avoid the sides because rocks will occasionally fall out of the small holes in the rock. Avoid the item container if you have the Spread Gun or even the Machine Gun. There’ll be another item container ahead with a Laser; I’d recommend that you avoid this as well as it sucks. Further up, there’ll be a Sniper waiting on the far right. Kill him.

Ignore the Scuba Guy in the waterfall, you don’t really have to kill him... unless you want to of course. When the screen scrolls up again there’ll be a turret in the top right corner. Quickly jump to the upper right ledge and destroy the turret from either the bottom or the left if you have the Spread Gun. If you accidentally activated the turret before you were able to get into position, you’ll have to destroy it from the bottom where they’re surely be Soldiers coming in from the right. Watch out for them. Once you destroy that turret, there’ll be a long bridge connecting the two ledges on the left and the right side. Two small flames will also be moving back and forth across the bridge so be careful.

Two item capsule will fly up from the bottom of the screen when you reach the bridge. One of them is a Rapid Fire, the other one is a Barrier. Unfortunately, the turret above you will activate so now you’ll have to destroy it. If you have the Spread Gun, you can destroy it easily. If you don’t you have to get up there, stand up and fire at it in turns until it’s destroyed. Its best to stand under the ledge above you so the Soldiers don’t jump down on you. After its destroyed, continue up until you see the moving rock. Jump up to activate the turret nearby and destroy it. Now jump onto the moving rock and then to the right ledge. Kill the Scuba Guy to the left and then continue up. If you don’t kill him, watch out for it’s bullets when they land.

Ignore the Scuba Guy to the left and continue up, but you can kill him the same way you did the other one. There’s another Spread Gun in the item container ahead. Get it if you need it. Now destroy the turret above you and then jump up to make the screen scroll upwards. Destroy the turret on the long ledge quickly because Soldiers will start coming in from the right to pester you. Jump again to activate the two turrets above you and then destroy them with your Spread Gun from below. If you don’t have the Spread Gun anymore, all I can say is HAHAHA. This stage is easy and you just got a Spread Gun a little earlier. Erm, you can probably get the turret on the left by staying below it and hitting its blind spot.

The one on the right can be destroyed by firing diagonally at it or from right under it. Just watch out for the Soldiers here. After they’re gone carefully make your way up to the ledge where the left turret was and jump onto the moving rock there. Ignore the item container if you have the Spread Gun. If you don’t, the Machine Gun inside it will do you well. You're near the end of the stage now so enjoy the change in scenery while it lasts. Continue up and kill the Sniper waiting on the left ledge above, then keep going and you'll be at the boss.

BOSS: Mechanical Alien

Run to a corner right away and start firing at the arm closest to you. By now both arms should moving around and they’ll occasionally shoot fireballs out of the ends roughly every eight seconds or so. The head will also shoot out fireballs to the left, center, and right but at longer intervals than the arms. If you concentrate all your shooting on one arm you’ll be able to destroy it quickly. After that, start firing at the second arm and you’ll make short work of it. Now stand a little to either side of the head and start plugging it with bullets. If you’re in the right spot it shouldn’t be able to hit you with it’s fireballs. It’s head and chest will blow up to reveal the next stage, ugh, another base stage.

Stage 4: Base 2

This stage is basically the same as Base 1 but only harder... yeah, harder as in more rooms and more enemies and crap thrown at you. The locks also have shields on them. The only way to get rid of them is to blast them to reveal the lock. There’s a lot more action in every room than the last base so you’ll have to start ducking and weaving around to avoid enemies and bullets. Don’t be a hero and start shooting everything; DUCK WHEN YOU HAVE TO. By the way, the Spread Gun is a savoir here. Try not to lose it.

[o] = lock
[t] = turret
||| = grenade slots
lock/turret in center = level with your gun.
lock/turret near top = above you, you'll have to jump and fire to hit it.
lock/turret near bottom = below you, you'll have to duck and fire to hit it.

Door 1:
 _____________________
|                     |   Destroy both turrets to the left and right of the
|                     |   lock, then concentrate on the lock to move onto the
|   [t]   [o]   [t]   |   next room.
|                     |
|_____________________|

Door 2:
 _____________________
|                     |   This room is extremely easy, all the locks are on the
|                     |   bottom, so you can just duck, fire, and destroy each
|                     |   of locks with ease.
| [o]  [o]  [o]  [o]  |
|_____________________|

Door 3:
 _____________________
|                     |   The turret is at the very top, under the two locks.
|         [t]         |   You might want to destroy it - it isn't really
|     [o]    [o]      |   necessary, but it would save you some trouble ahead
|                     |   of time. Other than that, this room is standard fare.
|_____________________|

Door 4:
 _____________________
|                     |   Same configuration as the previous room, except that
|                     |   all the turrets and locks have been moved down a
|         [t]         |   notch. Destroy the single turret, then duck and fire
|     [o]     [o]     |   to destroy each lock. Easy.
|_____________________|

Door 5:
 _____________________
|                     |   Destroy the single turret in the center, then work on
|                     |   the locks on either side of the turret. Nothing
|   [o]   [t]   [o]   |   special.
|                     |
|_____________________|

Door 6:
 _____________________
|                     |   The only thing of interest in this room are the slots
|                     |   at the bottom. Line yourself up with the lock and the
|         [o]         |   rolling grenades that come out of the slots should
|  |||||||||||||||||  |   miss you. Duck when necessary, but concentrate on the
|_____________________|   lock quickly clear this room.

Door 7:
 _____________________
|                     |   Destroy the turret, then concentrate on the
|         [o]         |   lock above the turret.
|         [t]         |
|                     |
|_____________________|

Door 8:
 _____________________
|                     |   Same configuration as the last room in the previous
|         [t]         |   base. Destroy the turrets to the left and right of
|   [t]   [o]   [t]   |   the lock quickly, then fire at the lock to destroy
|                     |   it. Ignore the turret above the lock.
|_____________________|

BOSS: Terminal 2

The same basic thing as the previous base boss. Start off by destroying the block in the way of the turret and then the turret as fast as you can. You’ll see why right away. Around the time you start hitting the turret the bastard brigade of enemies will start coming out of the sides in two main waves: the red Soldiers and the Winged Soldiers. Roughly every ten seconds one of the groups will come out in alternating waves and attack. The red Soldiers come out, stop in your general area, and fire three bullets each at you. Worse still is that they generally behave like Snipers meaning they have decent aim. Get them while they’re still moving around if you can. The Winged Soldiers will move to your general area and try to jump into you. These guys are much easier to kill. These two groups of enemies will endlessly come out and menace you until you destroy the turret and the blocks.

It’s very important to note that you should destroy the turret first before the rest of the blocks or the waves will continue while the real boss appears. This time the boss is composed of four shadowy images that move along the black section at the top of the screen. You can only damage the boss when two of the images intersect with each other. When they do, they’ll stop for a moment before separating again at which time they each shoot out a small, fast moving orb that will try to home in on you. If you have the Spread Gun, you can make mince meat out of this boss, all you have to do is stand in the middle and fire away and occasionally jump over the orbs if they get too close. If you don’t have the Spread Gun, concentrate on one side first and then move onto the other side. Try to destroy the orbs on the side you’re concentrating on so you don’t have to work so much to defeat this boss.

Stage 5: Snow Field

The next two stages are what I like to call the “make or break” point in the game. These are the toughest two stages in the game in my opinion and getting through them relatively unscathed is key to finishing the game. In addition to that there are several new enemies that make an appearance and are almost as annoying as the Soldier. Almost. Tanks are probably the biggest pain in this stage if you don’t know what to do. Read the walkthrough carefully at those points to get through safely (ie: it didn’t result in a death). Head right but proceed carefully once you see the trees. Inch forward then duck when you see the Gunner to the right. You may be forced to move because of the Tree Grenadiers but don’t panic since the Gunners only fire once every three seconds so there’s time to shuffle over to avoid getting hit. Continue right after the Gunner is destroyed.

There’ll be an item container with a Machine Run further ahead but otherwise keep going. Not long afterwards an item capsule with a Rapid Fire will fly by. Again it’s up to you if you want it. Further ahead, there’ll be another cluster of trees so move along slowly and make sure you don’t get blown up. Several more Tree Grenadiers will greet you then. Just continue as you’ve been doing so far until you reach the item container. It’ll have a Flamethrower in it but I don’t recommend getting it. A little ahead, three item capsules will fly by from the left. The bottom one has a Spread Gun (yay!), the middle on has a Rapid Fire (yay), and the top one is a Falcon (yay?). Once you’ve collected whatever you shot, start jumping to the right and kill the Sniper waiting at the end. There’s a Scuba Guy in the water that occasionally gets me with it’s right-most bullet if you don’t move away from the edge where the Sniper is waiting.

Just thought I’d warn you. Keep going until you reach the pipes. Once you go far enough the first tank will appear. When the screen stops scrolling, move to the far left side of the screen then a step forward. Once the tank stops moving, it’ll fire several rounds of bullets at you, which shouldn’t hit you. While it’s firing you should be pumping as much ammo into it as you can before it starts moving again. You should be able to destroy it before it makes road kill out of you. After it’s gone, you’ll reach good old terra firma again soon with a Gunner to meet you. Take care of it and soon you’ll run into another tank. Do the same thing as before and you’ll be okay. Right after that, there’ll be another Gunner and more groups of Tree Grenadiers. Tread carefully past them and you’ll meet one final Gunner before your showdown with the boss.

BOSS: Flying Saucer

This boss is very easy, probably one of the easiest so far. When the boss appears, stand a little to the left or right of it’s center and fire away. If you have the Spread Gun, you should be able to destroy it before it disappears. If you don’t have it, the boss will let out these little ships from it’s sides then disappear. Wait for the little ships to get close and then jump over them two at a time, meaning that one on either side should be close to you before you jump. It’ll probably let out more than two unless you shot them so just keep jumping over them until they’re gone. When the boss appears again, stand at the edge of it again and start blasting it. This time you should be able to destroy it before it disappears and those little ships get near you again.

Stage 6: Energy Zone

Welcome to Energy Zone, the second of the stages I mentioned in the previously, although this one is possibly harder than the last one. It even come with a catchy, energetic little tune. Yay!

The first thing you should know is you can make this stage significantly easier if you follow this one rule: TAKE YOUR TIME. Running recklessly through this stage will only get you killed more often. Phew. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, lets get on with the walkthrough. Head right and shoot the Soldiers that’ll come down from the step-like ledges ahead then kill the Sniper waiting near the item container ahead. The item container has a Machine Gun if you’re interested in it. There’ll be a Gunner on the ledge on the far right, kill him and then fall of the side to the very bottom and kill the Gunner waiting there. Another Gunner will appear once you reach the break in the middle ledge. Kill him and head right again until you see a large hole and above, a pipe with a small flame popping around.

This is why I said you shouldn’t rush through this stage. No, not the pipe, the flame from the pipe, which will shoot out as soon as you try to pass by it. To get through here, you’ll have to jump towards the flame so that it shoots out and then quickly jump across as the flame is retreating back into the pipe. If you died, you might as well just jump right across while you’re invincible. On the other side, there will be two more Gunners waiting for you. Kill them and prepare for another flame gauntlet ahead. Be careful as you head to the right because there will be another flame here, this time coming from the wall on the far right. You’ll have some warning as to when to duck, but do it quickly or you’ll be killed. Wait for the flame to retreat then quickly head closer to the wall to the right.

After the flame retreats again, get ready to jump to the middle ledge when the middle flame goes out, and then to the top after the top flame disappears. Once you’re at the top, fall down to the bottom on the other side and do it all over again. Are you having fun yet? Once you make it to the top there will be another tricky spot so listen up. Kill the Sniper on the opposite ledge, and then inch forward until the flame above starts shooting out. After it retreats, quickly jump to the other side. Resist the urge to go for the item container below. It's suicide as far as I know because I've never been able to get it consistently without dieing. As before, there will be another flame that’ll shoot out from the wall on the far right. Inch forward again and then duck when the flame shoots out, then move toward the slightly lower ledge near the wall.

Once you reach the wall, wait for the flame at the top and the middle ledge to retreat and then drop down. Do the same thing to get to the bottom. Note that you’ll stand up for second when you drop down so watch out. With that out of the way, you’re almost done the stage. Kill the two Gunners ahead and then jump to the middle ledge. Kill the Gunner ahead, jump to the top ledge, and then drop back down to the bottom ledge when you’re at the edge. Don’t try to fall off the side of the top ledge because you’ll never get past the flame just ahead. It extents nearly to the bottom. Once you get past the flame, you’ll be in the clear. The boss is just ahead.

BOSS: Giant

This guy is pathetic. Seriously. I wonder what Konami was thinking when they came up with him. On another note, this boss looks exactly like the Gunners except that he’s much larger. The typical pattern of this boss is to slowly run to the left and then back to the right at which point he’ll throw out these little spinning things that move along the ground. The best way to avoid the spinning things is to jump over the first two and then the third one if he does throw it. He’ll usually pause for a second because he throws the last one so you have a little time to react. Wait on the far left and start plugging him with bullets and then jump over him whenever he gets close. He’ll start changing colors to reflect the amount of damage you’ve done to him. Eventually, he’ll blow up at some point when he’s orange/red. Onward, to the next stage.

Stage 7: Hangar

It goes without saying that you're near the end of the game. Why do I say that? Because the game is starting to recycle music - the classic sign that an NES game is near the end. Seriously though, you've cleared the previous two stages, relatively easily I hope, and it all gets easier from here on in. The two stages that are left, are pretty easy. Err... this stage can be a tad tougher than I've been letting on if you're the impatient type, but much like the previous stage can be cleared easily with CAUTION. You start just outside a huge complex so head on inside. Jump to the upper ledge. I should tell you this right now: it's almost never a good idea to follow the lower route through this stage. It's usually tougher and rife with Soldiers who will appear on both sides of the screen. Stop at the four mechanical arms ahead and study the pattern for a moment. It's easy, just make your way through them. There'll be much more mechanical arms all throughout this stage, but they all have easy patterns, I don't think I need to explain them to you.

Once you make it to the edge of the upper ledge an item capsule will fly by that contains a Flamethrower - I wouldn't get it if you have a Spread Gun. At the next ledge, there are some more mechanical arms, but again, the pattern is easy to figure out. Make your way past them and wait a second at the edge of the ledge. If you have the Spread Gun, just waste the Gunner on the higher ledge at will and continue on. If you don't, just fall to the bottom and move past the mechanical arms there. You can't as far as I know, with the possible exception of the Flamethrower, destroy the Gunner from the lower ledge, and if you try to get up there, the Gunner will... well, gun you down easily, so don't bother. When you get through the mechanical arms, take a short jump to the edge of the next, raised ledge, and destroy the spike wall that pops up from the ground. Destroy the next one too, then the series of long ones ahead.

Once you've done that, jump to the edge of the upper ledge and destroy the spike wall there. A bunch of Soldiers will probably start pouring in from the left and some of them will try to jump to the ledge you're on. If they do, turn around, duck and fire at them. You should kill them before they're able to get on the ledge. Continue to the right and move past the mechanical arms ahead, then destroy the spike wall at the other end. Now, fall off the ledge and use the mine cart to get onto the ledge above you. You'll get another little gift in the way of a Barrier. Muh hah hah hah, now you're playing with power (ok, ok, that was lame, but still, I couldn't resist). Now that you got the Barrier, just run through the mechanical arms ahead and jump onto the mine cart heading to the right. If you don't have the Barrier, DON'T run past the mine cart or you'll get run over by it thus losing a life. Once you pass two of the walls, jump onto the ledge above you, kill the Sniper, and then jump across the large gap to the ledge of the right.

It can be done, just jump at the edge of the left ledge and you'll make it. The worst you could do is fall to the lower right edge of the screen, onto the mine cart below, in which case you should get off of it, then continue to the right past the mechanical arms. Good luck! If you made to the top right ledge, destroy the series of spike walls ahead, fall off the ledge, then destroy the set of spike walls in front of you. Again, fall to the lower ledge and continue to the right. There’s more mechanical arms ahead but it’s a simple pattern again. Near the far side, a spike wall will pop up so you'll have to continually move left and right as the mechanical arms go up and down to stay alive, while firing at the wall. Soon, you’ll be back on the outside. Here you'll encounter two Gunners and more Soldiers that will come from the left. Once you reach the slightly higher platform, there'll be another Gunner and more Soldiers waiting for you. Kill them and you'll be in the clear, with the boss just ahead.

BOSS: Base Defense 2

This boss is similar to very first boss but considerably tougher. There are only two enemies here: Soldiers, the regular, cannon fodder type you’ve been killing all through the game. They’ll appear either from the door or the far left. And then, Turrets, which are a special kind that fire a bullet into the air and split into three before they hit the ground. Fortunately, there’s anyways a space that you can stand where you’ll be safe from the blasts. They alternate however, so you’ll have to watch where they land. If you don’t feel like dealing with this, just destroy them, or at least the one on the right. When the siren goes off, head to the far right and fire at the flashing panel above the door, while avoiding the turrets. With the Spread Gun, you can destroy this boss in about 10 seconds. It takes longer without the Spread Gun, but it’s still easy.

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. Heh. 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 I call the Konami syndrome. Simply put, that is the game is tough and many of the bosses are pathetic. Look at Gradius for Pete sake, you don’t even have to do anything to finish the final boss off and up to that point that game is a real bitch. So, despite my Konami rant, I should get to back to the final boss of this game. 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. Yay!

A winner is you!

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 game you play will 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."

Oh! I should consider myself a hero. Yay for me. So, good fun, right? Enjoy the rather popish 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!

Secrets

The Konami Code: At the title screen press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start. For a two player game, press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start. Note that you have to do this before the screen scrolls totally to the left.