Endgame

From hereon out it’s all bosses all the time, and a strange mix of them at that.

First up is that transforming helicopter from level 1. Apparently it survived having a giant monster turtle dropped on it.

It starts out with a lightning trap and a barrage of missiles. Putting damage on the legs while simultaneously destroying incoming missiles is actually pretty tricky. Fortunately the missiles have forgiving hitboxes meaning you can afford to simply dodge a few before they become a necessary target.

Do enough damage to them and it will switch to mech mode. When it lands and sends fireballs along the plane, resist the urge to jump as soon as possible and wait for it to start attacking. If you jump at the wrong time you might put yourself in a spot where there’s no way to dodge the fireball as you land.

Its beam gun attack is just another one of those “once-then-never-again”-attacks which I hate. There’s no variation to it. Just duck and wait. You could try to position yourself so you can hit it with the flame thrower while it’s shooting, but unless you’re trying to speedrun it’s just a pointless risk.

And now, the relic… maybe? Who knows. What I do know is that it took me a while to figure out. First up is space-dhalsim. He can either throw two homing fireballs at you that you lure by jumping at the last moment, a extend-arm attack that doesn’t reach clean across the screen so it’s safe to just stay there, and an extend arm attack that you dodge simply by not hesitating when running under him. All in all not very difficult, but there’s more coming…

The axolotl has two harmless and one lethal attack in its arsenal. First, it has a puking attack that you avoid by simply staying on the other side of the screen, but then it has a rotating q-tip attack. They start their spin from a slightly different angle depending on where you stand when the attack starts.

To not end up with a really difficult configuration you’ll want to stand at the back of the screen as it starts, then move to mid screen. From here you’ll have several opportunities to get under them before they corner you. The flame thrower makes them contract, but not for long enough that you can just run under them. Finally it has a triple dash-attack. It’s random whether you can stand, have to crouch or have to jump to avoid it, but it’s too slow to be dangerous.

Next is a jellyfish. Tiny, exploding jellyfish spawn all around the upper portion of the screen. Shoot them and they fall straight down, leaving a scary-looking but completely harmless smoke trail. Already this is fairly tricky as you need to clear out small jellyfish while putting damage on the big one, but the real danger comes when it does a lap around the screen. It forces you to jump, something you absolutely do not want to do when danger is raining down from above. I lost most of my attempts here. The best solution I could come up with was just to clear out a few jellyfish in timing with the swoop to give me enough space. As you can see in the video though, it was still a close call.

The cell is simple if you do it correctly. You’ll want to find the right spot to stand, and then just lock yourself in place and fire your machine gun, making slight adjustments to take out the homing spores it launches. Take too long however and it will move to your position, and it’s hard to tell when you need to switch sides. Better to kill it before it has a chance to move. Also, do under no circumstances use the flame thrower. It will counter-attack with a jet of hot steam that kills you anywhere on screen.

Finally we’re… Inside the cell I think. The center has, similar to the previous boss, a reforming shield that you need to take down before you can hurt it. The sperm move erratically, and can attack en masse at a moment’s notice. You have to be able to recognize when an attack is on its way and switch your attention from the boss to them so that they can’t corner you.

…

You’d think that’s the end but Contra Shattered Soldier has one true final boss left. It’s a short fight, but each restart makes you watch a little cutscene, so it feels longer than it is! It’s a tricky one though. At first I was completely stumped on how to deal with its bouncing fireballs. I finally figured out that if you stand on the nose of the plane the first set will always bounce low, meaning I can always jump over them, and if I head backwards after that the last two sets will always be low also. If you stay in the back the fireballs will occasionally bounce high, forcing you to walk under them. Taking that out of the equation made everything much easier, but I still lost a few attempts to its rapid fireball attack. It can either go straight forward, or down at an angle. Landing in between fireballs, especially when they explode on the plane, isn’t easy but if you’re lucky you’ll only have to deal with it once.

Finally the boss tries to pull you back into the fire. Stand on the nose of the plane and hold down the shoot button. I’m not sure if shooting the boss at this point actually does anything, but I’m not taking any chances! And yes, if you touch the fire you WILL die.