Video games - Contra III: The Alien Wars

Home > Listing Index > Video games > Contra III: The Alien Wars

	Video games - Contra III: The Alien Wars

__NOEDITSECTION__ is a 1992 Super NES video game by Konami and a prominent title in the run and gun genre.

Contrary to its name, The Alien Wars is the fourth title in the Contra series, following the canon established in 2002's Contra: Shattered Soldier
with the inclusion of Operation C
, which had previously been omitted from the timeline.

The Alien Wars was released in Europe and Australia under the Probotector label, as Super Probotector: Alien Rebels.

Storyline

The game takes place in 2636, two years after the events of Super Contra
. Bill Rizer and Lance Bean are deployed once again to counter an alien invasion.

Gameplay

Taking advantage of the then-new technology provided by the Super NES, The Alien Wars graphics improved significantly upon those of earlier games. The level design is more complex, and provides more opportunity for interaction than was possible in previous Contra installments. For instance, players can grab on to poles and navigate them in a monkey bar fashion, climb walls and ladders, destroy buildings and scenery, and commandeer tanks.

New styles of levels in The Alien Wars involved motorcycle chases, riding on missiles, and two Mode 7 enabled overhead levels similar to those in Super Contra. The weapons system had been revamped, and players could carry two weapons instead of one, only losing the one they're currently using if they die. They could fire these two weapons simultaneously in a spin-jump circular fire pattern that hit enemies on all sides: however, getting hit while doing this attack results in the player losing both of their weapons. Finally, the player now started off with the submachine gun — in the previous Contra games, the initial weapon was a semi-automatic rifle — eliminating the need to tap the fire button rapidly.

Lives

Unlike its predecessors, there is no cheat code that extends the amount of lives. Instead, the player can adjust the difficulty (which determines the amount of continues and durability of enemies) and the number of lives to start with. Three, five, or seven lives are the available choices.

Power-ups

The set of weapons available is for the most part unchanged, with the exception of the Fire Gun, which was converted to a flamethrower.

Blimp

: Additional weapons and powerups can be acquired by shooting down blimps that sporadically screech across the screen.

Barrier Shield

:Makes the player invulnerable to attacks for a short period of time.

Smart Bomb

:A special collectible weapon that kills enemies on the screen in a radiating explosion.

Crush Gun

:Fires very powerful rockets in rapid succession. Grabbing two of this power-up and switching between them rapidly allows the player to constantly fire rockets, quickly destroying durable enemies.

Homing Gun

:Shoots rapid-fire missiles which home in on the target. While convenient, it deals significantly less damage to enemies than other weapons.

Spread Gun

:Fires five shots in an arc, effective when enemies come from different directions.

Fire Gun

:Projects a short-ranged stream of fire.

Laser Gun

:Fires a powerful, but slow, beam.

Levels

The game comprises six levels, each with an end-of-level boss, who must be defeated before progressing to the next stage.

Stage 1: Occupied City

Once a metropolis, the city has quickly become the center of the conflict. The later parts of the level involve platform jumping where an incorrect jump will usually result in instant death.

Stage 2: Destroyed Expressway

The Expressway is the first of two overhead levels in the game. The level is essentially a maze of streets and bridges that have been overrun by the alien invaders. Within the level are five control points, which must all be destroyed in order to proceed to the boss.

Stage 3: Industrial Area

The industrial area has become a landing pad for alien aircraft and stronghold for an assortment of alien creatures.

Stage 4: Aerial Combat

The mission is divided into two sections, motorcycle chase and helicopter assault. The level revolves around a battleship which will presumably give an indication of the whereabouts of the alien base.

Stage 5: Steep Cliff

Similar in design to stage 2; the player must destroy five alien generators to progress to the boss.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Contra III: The Alien Wars ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Contra III: The Alien Wars; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay