Hello everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the Weekly Contests!  Okay, we have a really big problem this week and it comes in the form of aliens from another galaxy.  Yep, that's right, aliens!  And not innocent-looking aliens like this one (even if he eats cats):




Your three heroes from Contra on the NES, Mad Dog, Scorpion, and Bimmster, were sipping lemonade on a beach in Rio one summer afternoon with some bronzed-up, super-busty, lovely South American ladies wrapped around each arm when the vile Red Falcon decided to invade Earth once again.  Wait, what's that you say?  Bimmster wasn't a playable character in Contra?  Of course he was!  You just had to pretend that you were playing as him...  Anyway, Red Falcon has brought in some reinforcements this time from across the galaxy to conquer Earth and these evil, alien dudes mean business!  You'll have to tangle with the Babalu Destructoid Mechanism, which was used to disintegrate the Tralala Solar System many millenia ago.  Rumor has it Red Falcon hated their rendition of Jingle Bells and Sharp Dressed Man and decided to destroy them (pfftt, he should know that every girl is crazy about a sharp-dressed man, but, whatever).  Also recruited is the ever-fishy smelling Krypto-Crustacean from the Ichthyoid Galaxy.  This thing means business, and let me tell you, it's so frightening that it scares the crap out of the likes of Octoroks, Bloopers, Cheep-Cheeps, Zoras, and even Bubble Man himself.  To make matters worse, Red Falcon has recruited one of the most fearsome aliens to ever inhabit the galaxy.  Yeah, that's right, he has joined forces with the fearsome...






No, not that guy!  He's not even an alien!  Sure, he might look like this guy...





...but he is not an alien...even though he is a weirdo.  Anyway, I'm talking about the ever-terrifying, horror-inducing, fear-instilling, pants-crapping, hide-under-the-bed-and-suck-your-thumb-and-clutch-your-security-blanket-and-Teddy-Bear-while-you-wait-for-your-mommy-and-daddy-to-scare-the-monsters-away-from-under-your-bed-and-your-closet-and-your-dresser, run for your freaking life alien-entity known as Jagger Froid.  Yeah, you heard that right...Jagger Froid!  He may not have moves like Mick Jagger, but he's here to make sure the universe will fear his ridiculously stupid name.  And to help him stop you and your Contra Force (Whoa, I'm getting ahead of myself, here.  The Contra Force hasn't even been formed yet.  Heck, it's still 1990 and not 1992 yet.  That sounds like a cool name and all, but I have a feeling it will not be a very popular NES game), he has created his infamous Fruit-of-the-Doom defense line (sounds like a pair of underwear...and dirty underwear at that).  This includes aliens like Lip-o-Suction, which will suck the, uh, life out of you.  Hey, it's better than what Kickle would do to you...unless you're into that sort of thing.  He also has Spit Soldiers, which would rather spit acid at you instead of swallow you whole (pfftt, spitters are quitters), some goofy-looking blue spiders that spawn rapidly and are annoying to deal with at the worst times, and some other stupid enemies that aren't even mentioned in the game's manual because Konami forgot to mention them or didn't have time to come up with stupid, pun-filled names for them like all the rest of their Konami/Ultra games created in the 1980s and 1990s for the Nintendo Entertainment System (if you owned any of their games as a kid, you'll instantly know what I'm talking about).  The worst thing about Red Falcon's invasion of Earth is that he has transformed all of the soldiers in Fort Fire Storm into aliens, so you won't be getting any support from your compadres.  Instead, you'll have to blast them in the face, chest, and right down their throats with a fiery load...from your spread-shot gun and none other than your Spread-Shot gun!  Come on, you know you only play Contra or Super C to use the Spread-Shot and none of the other weapons.  And you know why you don't use any of the other weapons?  It's because they suck worse than Wayne's World or Hydlide or Deadly Towers or X-Men or Action 52 or Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle on the NES.  Hey, you might like those games, but I think they suck.  Opinions are like assholes, and everyone has one.  Just deal with it if you disagree with me.  Anyway, I don't have any more advice to give you about the alien invasion, so if you need more info, contact this guy:





Okay, enough stupid chit-chat and lame humor, it's time to get serious.  It's time to take on the vile Red Falcon and his band of goons (and please don't call them “Goonies,” as that's insulting to a certain 80s movie).  Suit up as the ever-buff Mad Dog, or the All-American, alien-destroying Scorpion, or the totally bodacious and video game-conquering Bimmster as you take on Red Falcon in the Earth-Saving mission known only as “Super C”.  No, I'm not talking about the toilet-bowl filling, septic-field clogging, Bo Abobo-card calling, bowel-bursting turd known around the NintendoAge universe as a Super C.  I'm talking about the government-sanctioned, planet-saving mission known as “Super C.”  Okay, you got me, Bimmster may not be a playable character, but you can still pretend to be him...at least I will be pretending to be him as I blast all the alien scum into oblivion.  Here's what you need to know to stop Red Falcon and his band of alien cronies in the mission know as “Super C”:

• 1 player only
• Only two playthroughs allowed (after you beat the game for the second time, you must stop playing and take your picture before level 1 starts again for the third time (be ready to take your picture after the credits roll on loop 2).  Anyone suspected of playing the game on a third playthrough or beyond will have their score disqualified).
• Play until you are given the chance to continue for the first time (Play until Game Over)
• Absolutely, positively no point racking allowed.  You are are only allowed to kill the enemies that are a threat to you.  Anyone suspected of point racking will have their score disqualified. This game isn't fun to play for a low score.  Let's play it without any sort of point racking.  If you can come up with a better set of rules that don't involve any sort of point racking, please let me know and it will be implemented.
• Take your picture on the Continue Screen if you lose your all your lives. If you beat the game twice, take your picture on the Area 1 start screen so we can see your score + your lives remaining.
• If you beat the game twice, multiply your number of remaining lives by your score.
• Highest score wins
• Participation: 20,000
• GENRE: Action/Platformer

The contest ends Sunday, 2/25/18 at 11 PM NA time.  Your user name MUST be written or typed on a piece of paper and be in the picture for your score to be valid.  The entire TV screen, or computer monitor if you are playing on an emulator, MUST be in the picture for the score to be valid.  No partial screenshots will be considered or accepted.  No screenshots by hitting "print screen" on a computer will be allowed.  You must take a picture of your computer monitor.  There may be instances where this will be acceptable, but it will be at the discretion of myself and the contest organizers.  Also, the use of turbo controllers is forbidden, as well as any cheat codes, Game Genies, slow motion functions, or save states if playing on an emulator.  Also, we will only be using NTSC systems for the contests.  The use of PAL systems will NOT be allowed.  Good luck everyone and have fun  

1st	SwiftFrost	10,533,120
2nd	tablew/chairs	9,993,730
3rd	the tall guy	9,467,030
4th	bertsampson	8,559,000
5th	arnpoly	4,343,400
6th	RichardHead	844,040
7th	Gutling	388,430
8th	bluzebrother11	296,400
9th	Liduario	280,890
10th	Gloves	144,720
11th	gutsman004	142,160
12th	Moist Towelette	134,880
13th	mbd39	103,860
14th	Seppatoni	100,550
15th	Krunch	98,220
16th	JamesRobot	70,920
17th	Murray	68,500
18th	Yoshi	63,380
19th	SuperJimtendo	61,580
20th	laddersandcakes	61,020
21st	smick	43,100
22nd	skinnygrinny	42,020

The time for revenge it is. Attack aggressively, you shall!

Art by BrendanCorris (https://www.deviantart.com/art/Co...)

Art by SuperJimtendo.

Honour system rules, this should get interesting. I have to admit I've been practicing this one a bit and I was dreading having to play for low score. What specifically makes it so un-fun to play for low scores anyways?

You would have to skip fighting a lot of enemies.  For a game like this, that is not fun to me.  I would rather see people have fun playing this game for high score rather than low score.  Of course, that means not point racking.

I'm off from one of my jobs on Monday so I think I'll devote a bit of time to this. Unlike Contra,I never really played this too much. I'll see what I can do.

For me, Super C is easier than Contra. I don't know why, but it is. I've certainly played Contra more than Super C, but maybe I've learned the enemy patterns and attacks better in Super C than Contra. I've no-deathed Super C a few times, whereas, I've never no-deathed Contra (best I came to doing that was a 1-death run).

I’ve no deathed neither. Hell I’ve never beaten either without the Konami code. Lol. Actually I’m better at the arcade version of Contra than the NES version. Also the version I like better although I know I’m in the minority on this.

Eh.

Yay. A game I'm good at, is fun and only takes a few minutes to play. Even for two back to back rounds. What a difference a week makes!

It seems like the difficulty maxes out after the third loop in Super C where Contra gets to the point where the slowdown gets so bad it's almost unplayable. I actually no deathed Super C for 8 loops trying to see if the score maxes out (I don't think it does) before I finally quit playing. If I remember correctly, it takes about 7 full loops to max out the score in Contra. I'm pretty sure the slowdown gets really bad about the 4th loop, so I always felt like Contra was the tougher game of the two.

844,040

Spread gun or die bitches !

1) 69,560
2) 102,510
3) 280,890
Of course, I'm following NA rules but for Nes games I feel more natural to use a turbo controller. That's because when I got my first Nes it was a clone called Turbo Game. The main controller had built-in turbo function.
For the weekly contests, I'm using stock Nes controllers only, so I can avoid the temptation to use turbo buttons.

Super C is a lot harder for me. I no-deathed Contra for the contest and I've gotten over 3 million from looping the game. I've never made it past stage 5 in Super C.

The enemies are more aggressive in Super C. Even on the first stage they're constantly coming at you from both directions. The first stage in Contra is comparatively more sedate, at least on the first loop.



 

An idea regarding the point pressing issue, you might want to consider increasing the number of loops to 4 or 5. That way the high scores will come more from looping rather than killing enemies. A playthrough takes about 20 minutes so it wouldn't be too bad.

The problem is your score isn't visible during gameplay.
 

I can sit on stage 6 and point rack for hours on end and no one would know the difference what loop I got to as long as I just beat the game once. As is sometimes inherent in these contest, honor system is what it is. 

 

So say two people no deathed two loops, wouldn't their scores be identical?

Fair point. At least you'd have to do a lot more point pressing to get the same kind of score that you'd get from looping 5 times.

Low score/progress would work, but apparently that would ruin this game. Too bad about NES games often being terrible to come up with decent rules for.



 

I did a wake and bake Super C run today and failed to notice that !😂
 

Nope. Probably close though. Someone that could no death both loops with the spread gun would take out more enemies in groups than someone that loses a life and has to play a stretch with the standard weapon. There's a pace of play gray area too. I'd say that it's possible to play it safe without point racking which would result in a higher score than someone who can basically speed run the game. There are a lot of variables, but I wouldn't expect huge margins of difference.

The current rule set is probably the best. Even if the rules were low score someone could just continue on the last level to reset their score to 0, point rack up a realistic low score, beat the game and pass that off too.

102,510

 

296,400

In the same ballpark, yes. The higher score would be the person who “took their time.”