Contra 3, completed

Mission accomplished.  I finished Contra 3: The Alien Wars (SNES), 1-player mode, on Hard difficulty.  This took a way shorter time than I expected, after spending some time learning through the various levels.  I actually cleared stages 1 and 2 without losing a single life, and almost did the entire thing without any continues!  Unfortunately, I died on the VERY last section (escaping while on the helicopter) as I only had 2 lives and did a silly messup, and didn't have much practice against that boss besides.  (It's not a particularly hard fight, I just brain-farted).  It took me 2 more continues to get through that stage with a decent weapon/setup but it honestly wasn't too hard.

Anyways, feeling pretty accomplished, having finished both this and Super Punch Out as well as having finished my Super Metroid RBO run.  The next SNES game I'll play is going to be A Link to the Past.  I've never fully properly played this one (only bits and pieces) so I'm actually extremely excited about it!



This is probably not going to be found by anybody relevant, but some assorted tips and tricks on the off-chance that you happen to try playing through Contra 3:

GENERAL:
- The Crusher missiles (C) are amazing weapons, most of the bosses become exponentially easier if you've got one or two on hand.

- Learn to weapon-switch and fire both weapons by spamming X, this increases your DPS by a ton, especially with weapons like the Crusher missiles.  This is a bit awkward to manage with just your thumb, so at many points I actually used a claw grip instead.

- Don't be afraid to use bombs for any sections where you think they might help, or where you anticipate losing a life.  You have a lot of lives to throw around, you may as well get the most out of the free bomb you get with each one.

- You can stand in place while aiming diagonally by holding R.

Level 1:
- Pretty easy for the most part, but you need to be surprisingly careful through the initial section.  Move forward very slowly, especially at the parts with the dogs, as if you run forward too fast you'll trigger a bunch of enemies at once.  Don't be afraid to bomb through these parts, you get a TON of bombs in this level.
- Stay way back on the first fire section, the fireballs can randomly shoot out pretty far and kill you.
- For the boss, spam double C missiles and use your bombs.  Be ready to jump over the small shot that he fires at you.

Level 2:
- You can hit enemies through barricades using the C missiles (yep, best weapon in the game.....)
- The "objective" things have different conditions for "opening up" to be hit.  One of them only opens when you're facing away from it.  One only opens when you let go of fire.
- I haven't figured out how to consistently avoid the boss's spinning, but it's not really that big of a deal, you'll at most lose a life or two.  You should feel free to use up your bombs on the boss, you won't need any for a while anyways.

Level 3:
- This level really requires practice.  The gunner guys in the first half are bound to kill you unless you know ahead of time where they are, so be sure to memorize where they spawn.
- The helicopter/drill miniboss thing is annoying to fight without C missiles, but shouldn't be that dangerous, just play it safe.  When it dies, be sure to jump off as soon as you can and keep jumping, you can randomly get snagged and die off of the bottom of the screen.
- Right after that, stay to the right side of the screen and shoot diagonally down+left to hit 3 missiles, then move left and jump up, and get ready to collect the C missile drop.
- For the boring autoscrolling wall climb section, just climb up as far as possible every time he takes a step, and avoid the missiles.  Don't try to shoot them down, it'll just distract you (and slow the game down).
- The wall-mounted drill boss is REALLY annoying, you have to practice this a number of times in order to get a feel for the rhythm of drawing him up and then dodging down.  Definitely watch some videos of this in action, and make sure to climb ALL the way up or down when dodging, as if you don't it will still kill you.
- After that, feel free to use a bomb to kill the 3 shooting enemies.  You can kill them without if you take them out one by one, but it's probably safer to just use a bomb.
- For the part with all the turrets, remember that the doorways spawn 4 enemies at a time before pausing.  There's one or two parts here where bombing is pretty useful as there are a bunch of turrets.
- For the two cyborg boss guys, hopefully you have two C missiles (if not, bomb for more DPS) -- best strategy is just to hang on the ceiling and fire away at them, but try to not be directly above either of them, because they can jump up on the ceiling.  If they do jump up, try to kill them as fast as possible.
- For the big guy in the wall, I like to start at the =bottom= of the room and go counter-clockwise.  This gives you enough time to dodge the lasers and be "in time" to catch the rotation of the flame.  You want to be RIGHT BEHIND the flame beam when it starts, otherwise you won't make it around.

Level 4:
- The trick for the first section is that the bikes that are flat (not tilted) are the ones will drop bombs.  So just stay in the back half of the stage, ignore the shooting ones, and jump over the bombs.
- Feel free to use bombs through any section that gives you issues here, like the gray dude miniboss that climbs all over the place.  Better to use a bomb and keep a good weapon than to die and lose it.
- The end boss where you're hanging onto the missiles -- use up all your bombs.  If nothing else, you'll kill it that way.

Level 5:
- I like to start at the top left here, as even if I have no weapons, it's easy to kill that objective right away to get the C missiles.
- In general just proceed carefully and take your time.  Don't try to actually cross any of the bridges as they all explode.
- For the swirly sand, you need to DOUBLE TAP the L button to spin faster against the spin direction.
- Against the boss, you really want to have double Cs if at all possible, it really really counts against this one.  Spam both of them, but be careful not to go too close, as if you do you could accidentally move into it when the sand starts moving.
- Again, when the stand starts moving, you need to double-tap the L button to keep up the rotation.
- If you lose your weapons, you can probably try to kill the arm thing to pick up another one (??)

Level 6:
- After the very first miniboss, in the run and gun section with the shooting segments inside the wall, I'd recommend using a bomb, it's easy to die there and it makes things a lot easier.
- For the infinitely-spawning-facehuggers boss, use a bomb and try to gun down the pods quickly.  If you gun down the bottom two pods quickly, life will be a lot easier, as you'll only have to worry about dodging/shooting the bugs that jump down from the ceiling (from the back egg).  If you only have the machinegun, use bombs, and hold R to aim diagonally upwards without moving.
- For the boss that charges at you, bomb and unload into his face, but as you're dodging all of the falling bullets, be ready to jump over the beam that he shoots.  He shoots it pretty much at the end of all the falling bullets, so don't get caught off guard!
- After that you get one C missile -- do NOT lose this.
- For the gargoyle boss, just be sure not to die with your c missile selected.  Deaths are fine, using bombs for his first phase is completely ok.  Just do not die with c missile selected.  Keep your weapon!  For his second (teleporting) phase, just make sure you always move after he teleports, it's easy to dodge.
- For the boss with the two heads, kill one side's head as fast as possible.  For the other one, if it does the long reaching pattern, you can jump to force it to arc around you.  Otherwise this part shouldn't be that hard.  Feel free to use bombs if you ever get in a tight spot, as you won't really need them that much against the next section.
- For the brain boss, learn the "safe spot" trick with the 3-section rock tumbling variation and always aim to get that one.  It lets you easily unload a ton of damage into him safely by crouching with your face right up next to the brain.
- If you miss that variation and get one of the adjacent ones, they are both pretty harmless too.  One of them you get surrounded by balls which you just need to shoot down (use a bomb if you have no good weapons).  For the other one you just need to dodge the brain's orbiting projectiles (easy) while shooting.  If you kill all of the projectiles, you don't need to dodge at all.
- Obvious, but for the final escape, use your bombs!  Be sure to avoid accidentally jumping down to your death while trying to aim downwards.  If this section of the fight goes long, you'll have to dodge not only his ram attacks, but his left and right arm sweeps as well.