CONTRA III: THE ALIEN WARS
TIP SHEET
V1.1
This document was written by FM2000 (cassanit@lightlink.com) It may be
freely distributed for non-commerical purposes. It may be modified as long
as credit is given to me for the original document, and you indicate that
the document has been modified from its original version.
Special thanks to Jacob Poon (a270poon@cdf.toronto.edu) for some of the
info in this FAQ.
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General Game Tips:
* To make the game much easier, and to maximize your fun playing it,
I highly recommend you use a joypad/stick that has turbo fire
capability. Also, slow motion wouldn't hurt either, but it is not
essencial. Chances are, if your controller has turbo fire, it also
has slow motion anyway. An auto fire feature is even better, as you
will see.
* The difference between the three difficulty levels is that the
enemies behave differently, and take more shots to kill the higher
the difficulty. Some obstacles can't even be destroyed in hard
mode.
* In order to see the real, complete ending of the game, you must
complete it with the difficulty setting on HARD.
* The ending is no different whether you set the number of players
to 3, 5, or 7. So, unless you beat the game several times and
want to really challenge yourself, set the number of lives to 7.
* Don't hesitate to use your bombs. If you die, you lose all of
your reserve anyway. Plus, when you come back after you die,
you will always start out with one bomb in your arsenal.
* Please note there are NO codes for this game, including a 10 or
30 man code, found in previous Contra games. (What a
disappointment.)
* However, there IS a way to max out the number of players you can
have. There are several places in the game where you can stand,
be safe from enemy attack, and just keep killing aliens. This
method can take a while, about 2 hours to earn enough points
to earn 29 men (your limit). When you find a place, either
turn your controller to autofire (if it has that option), or
wrap a rubber band around the Y button (or whatever button you
assign fire to). The easiest place to try is right at the
beginning; In stage 1, walk over to the car, but don't blow it
up. Instead, jump over it, and stand so you back is to the car.
Then, just stand there and keep shooting.
* This is a really cool, and extremely useful trick. You must have
turbo fire controller I mentioned to do this. Either hold X (or
whatever button you assigned to switch weapons with) with the
turbo fire set, or turn on autofire (which is a lot easier) if
you have it. Check it out, you can fire both weapons at once!
Before you pick up a new weapon, either release X (if you are
firing manually by holding the button), or stop the autofire so
you can put the weapon you are about to pick up in the weapon slot
your choice. You can stop the autofire by pausing the game,
turning off the autofire and pressing X again if the indicator is
not in the slot you want, or possibly your controller will turn off
the autofire when you press and hold X down. In the latter case,
you will have to use trial and error to get the indicator in the
desired spot when you stop the autofire, but it isn't a big deal.
There is no "best" configuration of weapons; it depends on the
situation. Having 2 weapons of the same type doesn't quite double
your firepower, but it is still better than firing one weapon at
once.
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Version Differences:
This section explains the differences between the US, Japanese, and
European versions of the game. The rest of the info in this FAQ
applies to all versions of the game, except as noted in this section
below.
* The game is knows as "Contra Spirits" in Japan, and "Super
Probotector: Alien Rebels" in Europe.
* In Japanese version, you get unlimited continues, but not European
and US versions.
* You will face the Stage 6 real boss in Normal and Hard modes in
Japanese version, not just hard.
* The European version features 2 robots, instead of human commandos,
as the main characters.
* The Japanese version has codes, the only version that does (see
below).
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Codes (for Japanese Contra Spirits only):
30 lives
On the title screen, quickly push Down, Down-Right, Right, then Start. If
you do it correctly you will hear a guy screaming. This code remains
active until you change amount of lives in options menu.
Stage Select
On the title screen, quickly press down, down-left, left, then start. To
make it work, the cursor must be pointing to '1 PLAYER', '2 PLAYERS A', or
'2 PLAYERS B' before start button is pressed. If done correctly, you will
hear an alien screaming.
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STAGE 1
This stage is pretty straghtforward, especially compared to future
stages.
* While traveling through this stage, you will encounter man-faced
mutts burrowing through trash in the background. In easy mode,
the will not attack you, but in any other mode, when you walk
by them, they will leap to life and attack you from behind.
* Twice in the stage, you will come to a heavily defended wall in
the middle of the road. You will probably remember it as the
end stage obstacle from stage 1 from the original Contra. Use
the same tactic here; shoot the sniper on top, then blow up the
two guns in the center, then lastly, take out the sensor on the
bottom.
* Halfway through the stage, you will come across a tank. Hop in
if you want, though it is kind of pointless since you can only be
inside of it for a very brief period of time before you have to
exit it to continue; it will protect you from enemy attacks until
they destroy it, or you jump out, so you may as well take it for a
spin. Oh, and you can take out the second wall mentioned above
with one shot using the tank.
* When you get to the part with the delapidated old buildings in
the background (right after you blow up the second wall), you
will come up against four jets of fire coming from the ground. If
you are still in the tank and touch the flame, the tank will begin
to smoke, and will explode shortly after. So just jump out of it
when you get there. If you shot down the eagle and got the barrier
shield, it will wear off by the time you cross the fourth jet
unless you keep shooting at upper-right angle and keep running
towards right. That will allow the shield to protect you from all
jet streams.
* The turrets that pops up from the ground can't be destroyed by the
tank.
* Then, you will be attacked by a small tank hurling explosive
canisters, which was hiding in a building. No problem, just hug the
left side of the screen, and let him have it as fast as you can.
He won't run over you if you are against the left side of the
screen.
* Now, you'll be attacked from above, and the ground below you will
turn to fire. Jump up on the two platforms before the bombs are
dropped.
* As you make your way to the right, you will first find hot rocks
spewing out of the fire. In the easy or normal mode, you can
destroy all of them, but in hard mode, they keep coming back. You
should destroy them before passing, if you can. Then, you will
come to two large rocks jumping out of the fire. In easy and normal
mode, they can be destoyed. So stop and destroy them, if you can,
or time your jump carefully.
STAGE 1 BOSS
This boss is essencially a walking hive/turtle hybrid. He will
periodically release wasp larvae from this back, as well as his
mouth in hard mode. He will snap at you with his mouth, but it can
not reach very far. He can also shoot large power shot streams from
his mouth, but they are easily avoided. He uses his head to block
your shots at his exposed red glowing organ-thing under his neck
(on his abdomen) in hard mode. The deadliest attack comes from the
organ, which emits random tiny white shots, which you may not even
notice when the action heats up, especially if you set off a bomb.
Watch for them!
The strategy is simple: divert his head away from his organ, if
necessary, so you can shoot it, all while avoiding the larvae, both
flying and on the ground, as well as all his other attacks. When you
first engage him, you'll probably have plenty of bombs you acquired
up to this point. So, let 'em rip! Don't worry about saving them,
especially in hard mode, you lose them all if you die anyway. Just
don't let the explosion blind you from the organ's tiny shots or any
other attack. Keep jumping from level to level to divert his head,
then jump back down and unload all you can before he tries to block
you again. In hard mode, you cannot destroy any other parts of his
body, so if playing in hard mode, don't waste your time trying,
just keep firing at his weak spot. Even not in hard mode, it is
probably just easier to ignore the rest of his body and also just
focus on the weak spot since the attacks from the other parts are
fairly easily avoidable anyways.
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STAGE 2
This is the first of two overhead stages. Blow up all the
bunkers on the highway and you will be taken to the end boss.
Don't forget you can see a map of the stage, complete with
the location of all the bunkers.
* You can start wherever you wish on the stage, but I found it is
easier to start at the second from the top section on the right,
and then go across the stage counterclockwise destroying the
bunkers.
* The way the guys in the bunkers behave depends on the difficulty
level. On easy mode, just approach a bunker and it will open and
the guy inside will fire a few bullets at you, and you can easily
avoid the shots and fire back. In normal mode, they will open
when you approach, but the guy inside will fire a stream of
bullets which is more difficult to avoid and counterattack. In
hard mode, the bunkers will not usually open until you are
behind them facing away. In this case, move to the right side of
them, and move upwards, away from the bunker, very slowly, until
the bunker opens up. You can also open the bunkers in hard mode
by lying down. Watch for the spray of bullets which comes after
the bunker opens, especially in hard mode!
* The land mines on the road do not explode when you first walk
over them; they explode after a second or two. Be careful not to
walk over one, and then retreat back over it when it explodes.
* Remember the giant centipedes take even more bullets to kill,
the higher your difficulty. In hard mode, you may be better off
trying to avoid them, rather than defeat them.
STAGE 2 BOSS
This guy is no sweat really, as long as you keep on your toes. He
He will initially come down from the sky and try to smash you, so
just watch his shadow and move back as far as you can when he starts
coming down. He will also try going up and coming back down on you
later when he is weakened. Just use the same tactic. His main threat
is the three pods at the end of his six legs, and his tail. He will
start spinning around, then fling himself across the area. Be sure not
to let the pods hit you. Then, there is the tail. He will spin around
slowly and try to hit you with a little beam it emits from it. He
can also emit little white shots from the pods on his legs, but they
are no threat, unless you get really close to him.
The idea is to first take out the pods and tail. Follow him as he
fligs himself around, and fire on the pods and tail. When he starts
to spin, and the tail is coming toward you, back away so the beam
doesn't take you by surprise. Once the pods and tail are gone, the
threat from him is greatly reduced. Just don't touch his main body,
which is easy enough to avoid now. Concentrate fire at the red spot
on his face. If he flies int the air and tries to stop you, just
back off as described above, then reposition yourself so you can
hit his red spot, and fire.
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STAGE 3
This level goes from a side scroller, to a vertical scroller, and
back to a side scroller again. This level is full of tricky jumps
where you have to cling to various surfaces. This is the most complex
stage when it comes to getting around.
* You'll start off being attacked by green rolling robots. Crouch
down and shoot them when they open and fire. Watch out for the
two snipers you will also encounter, on your way across the
screen to some scaffolding you must jump and cling onto to get
across the vast expanse to the next structure.
* There will be a swarm of mutant flies as you cling on the
scaffolding and try to cross on it. The flies will grab you
and try to bring you to the top of the screen, where you will
then die. Just keep shooting like mad as you continue, and you
should be able to kill all of them before they get a chance to
grab you. A laser gun is extrememly effective here. If a fly
does grab you, press up and fire to kill the fly, and you will
land back on the scaffolding.
* Now, you will be faced with a robot with two rotating arms, and
a drill in the top center. You have to wait on the scaffolding
until an arm goes around and hits you; you will then grab the
arm automatically. As you go around, aim at the red spot on
the bottom of the robot. Don't touch the robot's body itself,
and get off the rotating arms when the drill emerges from the
top of the robot. When you finally destroy the robot, get off
of the arm you are on immediately, and avoid the missiles which
will come at you from the bottom of the screen after you
jump off.
* Now, from the two beams just above the robot you just blew up,
grab onto the wall on the right. You will then be attacked by
another robot, which will slam two giant legs above and below
you. Continue climbing up the wall as it inches itself along
the wall. Each time it moves, it will fire two missiles at you.
Stay toward the middle of the robot when it starts to move, and
then move up quickly and begin firing your gun to destroy the
top missile. Don't try this with the bottom missile, as its
leg could strike you when it moves.
* Once the robot stops, two walls will come out, and it will
stretch its legs against them. It will go up and down on its
legs, and will extend a drill, and try to strike you against the
wall. Stay towards the top or bottom of the screen, and then it
lunges at you, move quickly, and shoot its exposed red spot
between the two drill tips. Beware, in hard mode, it will lunge
at you, and keep the drills exposed while sliding up or down at
you. So, if you are playing in hard mode, do not hang around as
long after he lunges to shoot at it, and be ready to move quickly,
should the come after you. After you defeat the robot, be careful
of the three snipers waiting for you above you on the other side
of the screen.
* You will encounter a small ship with a searchlight at the top of
the structure. You can stay on the left edge or right edge of the
screen to avoid the explosive canisters. Then, position yourself
under the ship, and shoot its weak spot above the searchlight,
while taking out the approaching aliens on the left and right that
the ship releases.
STAGE 3 BOSS
Upon entering the boss chamber, immediately grab onto the ceiling,
and start firing at the brown robot. The brown robot poses the
greatest threat, because after a short time he will jump and grab
onto the ceiling and fire at you. If you are quick, you should be
able to destriy him before he gets the chance. A "H" and "C" gun
combo here is extremely effective. Once the brown robot's body goes
down, turn you fire to his head, which can jump up at hit you on
the roof. Finally, fire at the blue robot and destroy it. Please
note, the blue robot poses no danger when you are on the roof,
because it can't reach you. The only thing it does is prevent you
from jumping down off the roof to avoid the brown robot's potential
shot while hanging on the roof.
Now, the real action begins. The walls will open and a huge robot
head will appear. Shots from his eyes will trail after you, and he
will breathe a stream of fire that will follow you clockwise in
the room, starting at the center of the bottom of the room. When
he first appears, there will be a brief delay where he shakes his
had and spots you. Use this opportunity to get in some free shots.
When the beams from his eyes emerge, or he starts breathing fire,
walk clockwise from the center to the left of the room, up the wall,
right across the ceiling, and the drop down as close as you can on
the right side of the head. The idea is to outrun the beams and fire,
and jump back down and stand directly under the head so you can use
those few seconds the beams and fire are trailing you to shoot it.
Once the fire has almost come full circle, and it is about to come
down under the head, move tothe left and wait. It will probably
retreat, and throw time bombs around the room. Find the spot
furthest from the bombs, usually a corner of the ceiling, and go
there quickly. Once the bombs go off, he will reenter the room. Get
back into position under the head, fire a few rounds into it, then
wait, and be ready to outrun the fire or beams again. Try to
anticipate its moves, so you can get a head start, and therefore
have more time to fire at it. Two or three times around the room and
he should bite the dust.
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STAGE 4
* You'll start off riding a cycle through a tunnel, and be
attacked by aliens in flying cycles above you. Stay on the left
side of the screen to avoid their downward file, aim up and fire
to try to waste a few of them, and be ready to jump to avoid the
grenades some of the will throw down at you.
* You will then be faced with an assortment of alien guys with
jetpacks flying from the left hand side to the center of the
screen, shooting at you, and a green tank. Concentrate most of
your fire on the tank itself, to damage it as well as destroy the
missiles it will fire at you. When there are too many alien guys
hovering above the tank and shooting at you, jump up once or
twice to take them out.
* Okay, now you will have to face the weapons on the bottom of
the dirigible that you will have to blow up at the end. First
comes three guns which fire a beam of electricity down at the
road for a fixed amount of time. In easy and normal modes, you
can take out the guns, if you are fast enough. In hard mode,
you can't, so down waste your time. Overall, you are better off
timing your move, so you can go under the guns when the beams are
not active.
* Then, you will see four hatches with a bar across the length of
them, and a red alien guy and seveal black alien guys. Concentrate
your fire at the red alien, taking out the black aliens as
necessary. Once you defeat the red alien guy, you can continue.
* Now comes a giant flailing arm. Wait on the right side of the
screen until the screen scrolls over and it is close to you.
Then, when the arm retracts, go under it quickly. Or, to dodge the
robot more effectively, you should move behind it if it jumps
towards left, and move to left if it jumps toward right. Since it
doesn't shoot when jumping, it is not difficult to do.
* Finally, you'll face a giant gun aimed downwards. It may seem odd,
but approach, then quickly retreat back to the right when it
fires. It should fire and miss you as you go back. This can be
very difficult to time right, so don't sweat it if you lose a
guy here. The screen will continue to scroll and you'll just go
by it when you come back. If you wait on the right hand side of
the screen, the fire of the gun will be targeted right at you, and
you will die.
* A odd looking alien robot with two dangling legs will appear. Stay
on the left side of the screen, jumping and firing at the oval
shaped body of the robot (not the legs). If you stay on the left
side of the screen and shoot the occasional missile it will fire,
you shouldn't be killed.
* Now, a chopper will appear. Grab onto it. As you begin to rise, a
ninja type dude will appear, and and hook onto your chopper with
a bionic arm of sorts. Move to avoid him when he grabs onto the
chopper, of course. He will swing about on his arm for a little
bit, and that is when you should shoot him with everything you
got. He will eventually stop swinging and pull himself up on his
arm and be face-to-face with you. When he swings his sword, jump
to avoid the weird orb thing that comes out at the same time.
After one or two rounds of this, he should blow up and fly off.
The missile you are attached to will be released, amd you will
go flying through the sky. Be ready to jump onto one of a series
of missiles coming at you.
STAGE 4 BOSS
This boss is a real doozey. The key is to time your jumps between
the flying missiles just right, so you can steady yourself to fire,
and then jump back before the missile expires so you don't fall.
Don't worry about the little red pill shaped things it releases,
if you keep firing at the targets on the blimp, you should
consequently destroy them. First, target the bottom gun. If you
try to take out the top gun first, there is a good chance, as you
jump up to shoot it, the bottom gun will catch you off guard and
hit you with its fire. If you are shooting at the bottom gun, you
will focus more of your attention on it, which is far more important
than worry about the top gun, which poses very little danger as long
as you are on the top three missiles. Also, both guns fire at
regular intervals, so try to get their timing down. Once the
bottom gun is destroyed, go for the top one, which should be no
problem. Lastly, jump back and forth from the second to third missile
from the top, shooting at the big red area that was previously
shielded. Remember to hang onto the same missile you are on when the
blimp blows up; the missiles will not explode once the blimp is
defeated.
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STAGE 5
This is the second of the two overhead stages. Blow up all of the
alien spawning pods and you will be taken to the end boss, just
like in stage 2. I highly recommend starting at the top right corner
of the stage, and defeating the pods right side down, and then
the pods on the right side on up.
* The southeast bottom of the stage will have a "sea" of swirling
sand that will cause you to spin like mad when you are on them.
In easy and hard modes, you can press and hold L to steady the
screen so you can attack the pod in the middle. In hard mode,
also press and hold L, but it will only stop you from spinning
very fast; you will still spin around. In this case, use a bomb
to help destroy it, since you can't get a good consistant stream
of fire directed at the pod.
* DO NOT fire your guns while you are standing on a bridge. If you
do, it wil begin to explode and crumble.
* Be careful of the sharp turns on the west side of the stage.
Don't get too close to the edge, and use L and R to scroll the
screen to make getting through those turns and twists easier.
STAGE 5 BOSS
I *really* hate this thing. After you dodge the claws that go in and
out of the hill of flesh and do enough damage to its weak spot, the
eye in the center, the sand around it will begin to move, and the
screen will spin if you are on it. You can control the spin in easy
and hard modes using the L and R buttons, to a point. You shouldn't
have too problem in those modes in dodging the arms, using bombs
on it and shooting the eye. However, in the hard mode, this guy is
really hard, especially if you get motion sickness easily, because
you can't stop the rotational spin of the screen while you are on
the sand. Hold the L button to try to steady yourself on the screen.
You'll still rotate around, but not too uncontrollably. The best
strategy for this guy in hard mode is simple: if you are not on the
sand, you don't spin, and you can't reach the eye if you are on the
outer edges where there is no sand. So, do a kamakaze run. Do enough
damage so the screen starts spinning, then trigger a bomb if you
have one, then rush towards the eye. You'll die, and come back
invinsible for a few seconds. So, use the new bomb you have, and shoot
for all you're worth at the eye, and make sure you get as close to
the eye as you can, short of actually going into the eye itself. Doing
this will cost about 5 to 7 lives, but at least it gets you past it.
You'll probably need another continue for the next stage, since you
lost so many lives killing the eye creature, so make sure you go into
the boss round with two or more continues.
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STAGE 6
* Gee, this stage looks like the two final stages of the first two
Contra games, with those mouths that spew those fuzzy things.
Same strategy works here as well; shoot and avoid the fuzzy
things, and shoot the mouths that generate them. Even if you don't
have any special weapons, you can still destroy all the mouths and
pods and running aliens from the platforms safely by shooting in
all direrections (i.e. holding L, R, Y). Crush gun is not
recommended for such use.
* Hey! That looks like that giant head that spews alien embryos
from the original Contra. Gee, I wonder if... Anyways, he is
no problem at all. Stand on the lowest level and aim at his
mouth. If you are fast enough, and have a halfway decent gun,
destroy the embryos before they even are able to leave his mouth
and chase you, and you'll do damage to the head. He'll go down
very quickly.
* Well, I'll be, it is the giant heart from the original Contra!
This time around, it is even easier. Take out the bottom two
alien generating thingies on the ground first, then take out
the one closest to you on the ceiling; probably what you did
when you beat him the first time in the original Contra. You
can take out the last one if you want, but you don't have to.
Then, just jump and shoot the heart. Please note in this game, if
you touch the heart, you die. So don't press up against it and
fire diagonally, jump and fire.
* Look kids, it is the final boss from Super C! This time, it
moves, and will try to ram you, as well as shoot those big
fuzzy things up into the sky to come back down and kill you.
And, the face is shielded by a bony mask, which periodically
comes on and off. Easy enough, though. When it tries to ram you,
jump onto the body, being careful not to touch the head area and
not to get hit by the slow shots it will release from its head.
When it throws those fuzzy things in the air, slow down your
attack, and move around as much as you can to try to avoid and
maneuver between them. Two or three rounds of ramming and
throwing the fuzzy things up into the air should be enough for
it to go down. Another strategy is to stay close to the alien when
it shoots fuzzy things, and only try to dodge when necessary. This
will cause its eye beam to miss more frequently.
* Next, you'll run into the giant silver hawk. This guy will
start off by flying back and forth towards the wall and you.
Position yourself either near the top or bottom of the screen
when is away from the wall, and then move away from your position
quickly when he comes darting at you, and then shoot his head as
he backs off again. After a few bouts of this, he'll back off, and
start disappearing and reappearing, swinging his tail. Use the
same strategy as before to avoid his tail and retaliate.
STAGE 6 BOSS
Okay, you have made it to the end. Done a certain way, he is a
cinch. Okay, first comes the head and claws to each side of it.
Immediately concentrate fire on the left claw (since you are
automatically closer to it). If you do it fast enough, and have good
weapons, you should be able to take it out before it unfurls and
tries to hit you. Once the left claw is down, shoot the face, making
sure to destroy both eyes, which can shoot tiny shots at you. Then
go for the right claw, being sure to back off if necessary, since
you now have plenty of safe room. Remember, you have to hit the end
of the claw, not the claw body, to destroy it. Now, shoot the
undefended brain, at the top of the head. When shooting the
undefended head, I suggest to use homing gun, spread gun or just
plain rifle. Flamethrower takes too much time to switch firing
direction (even left to right switch); crush gun's fire rate is too
low; laser gun is a mixture of both.
Now, he is where a slow motion controller will come in handy. The
brain will go to the center of the screen, and a series of balls will
spin around it. When you shoot one, the brain will stop spinning,
and will attack you using whatever attack method the ball you shot
stood for. Though you may personally find you prefer another
ball-method, the easiest to handle overall is the giant eye. Stand
on the left or right hand side of the brain, and, if you have a
slow motion controller, turn it on so you can time you shot to hit
the giant eye. If you don't have a slow motion controller, just
try to time it right manually. Two things about the giant eyeballs
that the brain will attack with: one, they are easy to destory, and
two, they are worth *LOTS* of points. It is possible to earn enough
points during each "round" of eye attacks to earn another life. See
a strategy here? If you have less than 5 lives left or so, *AND*
are playing in the hard mode, you should stop and just keep building
a good reserve of lives for the *next* challenge. If you are not
playing in the hard mode, that isn't necessary, though it might be a
good idea if you only have a couple of lives left, to earn a few
extra just in case you screw up towards the end. Four or five "rounds"
and the brain will go down. Another alternative to choosing the
eyeballs is the grey ball with spikes. The brain will drop off tons
of power ups, along with bombs and spiked balls. Just dodge the
spiked balls and you will be very happy with the rewards, at least
for a while.
If you are playing in hard mode, now you get to face the real final
boss, and fight for the right to see the real ending of the game.
Upon jumping onto your helicoptor, you will begin to rise out of the
cavern. But, unlike easy or normal mode, you won't just fly on out,
you'll be attacked by a very pissed off brain, in a spiked metal
suit, with two flailing arms. The strategy here is to KEEP MOVING.
Go back and forth, from left to right, jumping up and firing at its
eye in the center, all the while avoiding its arms. Occasionally, the
brain will come up at you with the spikes on the top center of its
body. Be ready to jump out of the way, and to retaliate afterward.
Jumping will also cause the alien to move back down so use it to
buy yourself a couple of seconds. This guy is quite hard, especially
the first time around. You can go through lives quickly, so have at
least five lives, as I mentioned before, and ten or more if you are a
rookie. Practice and patience is the key. Good luck!
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