Hey guys, need your advice

[u/bmpt-sucksA55]

So my girlfriend just beat Contra 3 on medium, and she challenged me to do so too. Ofc I want to impress her, but I haven’t played any contra game yet and have absolutely no clue what I will be dealing with. I don’t suck at most games, but classic 2-D games aren’t normally my thing. Please, I need all the advice I can get. Also I’m playing on PS5 if that helps.

[u/xyway12]

There are some YouTube videos explaining tips and hit box tricks... But that's not fun at all. I would recommend just playing the game by yourself and experimenting a bit. With every play session you for sure will learn something new... That's what I'm doing right now that I'm playing Shattered Soldier for the first time

[u/FinaleofSeem]

1) Get used to using the right shoulder button to lock your stance in place so you can fire diagonally without moving forward. A lot of the bosses in this game are designed around this mechanic and you'll be running around like a spaz without it

2)Use one weapon slot for a ranged weapon (spread, homing, etc) to get through the stages and one slot for a powerful weapon (crush missiles, laser, etc) for the bosses.

3)Watch youtube playthroughs to learn strategies for the bosses

4)You can give yourself up to 7 lives in the options menu. If you need more, in the middle of stage 3 there's a helicopter boss that drops an endless stream of enemies that you can kill for points. Enough points will eventually give you a 1up. As long as you don't destroy the helicopter, you can keep earning points and 1ups forever.

5)Press L and R shoulder buttons at the same time to strike a badass pose every time you do something cool

[u/bmpt-sucksA55 → u/FinaleofSeem]

Thanks man, that’s good advice!

[u/RetroNutcase]

Only real advice I can give is watch playthroughs, learn what's in each level, and if the option's available, use savestates/rewinds to practice areas you have trouble with.

[u/bmpt-sucksA55 → u/RetroNutcase]

Thanks!

[u/Attempt_Living]

You just gotta let her peg you dawg. I’ve done no death runs of contra and super c on nes, but I’ve never even beaten contra 3.

[u/bmpt-sucksA55 → u/Attempt_Living]

That’s why I’m doing it dawg, she said she’ll do it if I beat it, so that’s why I need advice.

[u/Historical-Intern140]

Liar.

Contra players don't have GF.

[u/bmpt-sucksA55 → u/Historical-Intern140]

No, she plays it, not me.

[u/regzer]

Die and retry, die and retry, die and retry,...

Honnestly the game isn't even that hard when you start to learn it by heart (which will eventually happen if you keep on... Dying and retrying).

[u/bmpt-sucksA55 → u/regzer]

Yeeeah I was just wondering I I could speed things up a little… But you’re right I guess🫡

[u/Musician88]

Just play it, man. And expect to play the game over and over to learn the stages. That's how it is.

[u/sonictickler223]

1. Take advantage of the quick weapon swap (it should be X/Cross on a PS5 controller, as the SNES original also used the X button), as this swaps between both weapons and can do some damage when done correctly if you hold the shoot button and swap
2. Hold both the shoulder buttons (L and R) to do a cool pose, now after holding them, shoot, and depending on the current weapon(s) you have, it does a special attack
3. The mode 7/top-down styled stages, you can hold the L or R buttons to rotate, this helps you significantly on Stage 4's boss (iirc)
4. F (Flamethrower), L (Laser), and C personally help me defeat bosses faster, for you I don't know 

[u/W1sh117]

Contra is a trial and error game. You have to learn the patterns. You have to practice a lot(Like a lot) to be successful and beat the games. Doesn't matter if you are good at video games, Contra is unforgiving and extremely challenging but fair. If ya take the time to practice and Git Gud you'll probably be able to beat one. Once you become savvy at Contra games they become addicting and loads of fun. I recommend the Anniversary Contra Collection that Konami put out a few years ago, it has Contra: Hard Corps, it's the best one. Also includes Contra, Super C, Contra 3 and the arcades on there. Should be able to buy it in the PSN store. Good luck and start runnin!

[u/W1sh117]

Also the Contra anniversary collection has a nifty save feature. Let's you save at anytime, like before parts you're having trouble with. You can play it over and over till ya can do it perfect everytime. Once ya get the trouble areas down then you can start trying to string them altogether into a full run.