Part 10 of this series, stage by stage, on Normal for now. TrafficKing starts out with a rather unintimidating chase sequence (just avoid being near explosive barrels for too long and you'll be fine) followed by an equally unintimidating boss fight - but you'll need to know how to damage him. Stay either inside or outside of the four exhaust vent tower things, shoot each until they start steaming up, then get inside of the "square" area between all four of them before doing the same with the fourth. All the while, King is firing at you, but that's what your dash is for. If you have Overload, put skill points into both it and Frag, fire Overload up and bomb King to hell until he gets back up. Rinse, repeat. Finish him off and prepare for the third and final set of stages.
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Commentary track available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlEahFEAEX8
A pretty quick and clean way to take out the final boss in Ultimate Mode with Zangetsu, with just a bit of luck in taking him out on the low set in phase 1 before the relatively simple phase 2. With a little more foolproofing and placement manipulation, the boss should go down 100 percent via the "Holy Water" subweapon. The key here, for the most part, is manipulation of where the enemy lands after it prepares its attack. By standing just under the block seen in this video and getting to that little space just after it starts heading to the landing destination, you can mostly hack away at the orbs and the boss simultaneously, with most remaining orbs sailing over you if you're doing it right. The only thing to watch for is when both hands go low; you have to get up high and just above the usual "safe spot" before any attacks come out. With the "Holy Water" you can take out most orbs that come out, or if this set comes later and you have the Attack Up power activated, you should ideally take out phase 1 before it even becomes an issue. Likely more methods to come.
Played on authentic PS4 hardware via the Share feature. No cheat codes, pausing, turbos, save states or any other cheats were used.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S47y_D6p7ks
A commentary track to accompany the domination. Had to talk kinda fast, because there's a lot to cover in such a short time. Nonetheless, Super Contra dissected and decimated!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iykrAGAsLRY
A reupload from last year. Original description:
May to the June baby! In April!
Bill Rizer returns to match the Red Falcon's revenge by attacking aggressively.This game can be incredibly cheap and unfair, but I fought fire with fire via the Super Machine Gun, the weapon of choice over the Spread Gun in this version. While shorter than its NES counterpart, it's a lot more unforgiving. The curve is almost totally vertical, too; even the first stage can be incredibly challenging, especially mashing against the Tank early on. Once getting the Super Machine Gun, however, it becomes time to blaze through the game, running through Stage 2 and then surviving 3-5 with a bit of luck. There are plenty of things outside of your control that can end your run, including a possible glitch at the end of Stage 4 that makes the last pod invincible (thus not allowing the quick boss kill). Still, everything worked out well here. This was even my first attempt today, which is almost never the case in pulling off a successful run! Practice made perfect.
Played on the PS4 Contra Anniversary. No save states, turbos (other than the in-game rapid fire), tool assists, pausing or any other cheats used.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQPiDF4sOzk
May to the June baby! I thought I would come back to this idea now that youtube has done away with annotations and now that this game is available as part of a collection on the PS4. Much easier for me to do commentary that way. I go into brief detail as to how the process should go, but it will still take quite a bit of practice and even a bit of luck for things to go your way without dying.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bstsHE8Nq4U
Nothing special, but learning the ins and outs of this game. I'm sure I made plenty of mistakes that I will improve upon for a more streamlined hunt, but got the job done!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmyuFd8SuW4
Yikes! They're starting to get rough now! I tried to be a little too cute early in the fight, but I pulled through with Burst Mode and some rather lengthy combos that led to a Stun I could exploit. Still haven't had to use any Health refills with my enormous life bar! Dozens of hours of grinding Orbs paid off!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8PdFXo9rwU
Ugh, Jagi is among the most annoying bosses in the game, mostly due to his 2-phase fight without any recovery in between. I used healing items between phases (Boo! Hiss!) but ironically, I'm not sure I took enough damage in Phase 2 to even warrant doing so! Live and learn, I guess. Still have to get better at reading Phase 1. And I will.
The fight goes from 2:17 to about 6:00, then Phase 2 at 7:54 to 9:45.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PxWkD6gHIY
This is more of an epilogue style mini-marathon than a full blown final stretch. Not to spoil anything, but I was really hoping for a Mirror Match style final fight instead of the pair of Heavy Cyborgs you fight intermittently. They throw the kitchen sink of standard enemies at you with a very short timer, but if you've been getting a hang of the Frag 'n Dash, that will build up to survivable time very, very quickly. Stick and move, and turn on your Overload as often as you can and this final stage will leave you feeling a tad empty and wanting a greater challenge.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCMBjrdJUfY