I just went for a max points run (taped it), but didn't quite make it.  I ended with right under 5,000,000.  I'm having a really hard time against the Alien like creature at the beginning of level 8.  Those damn things it shoots out take a ton of hits after you've beat the game 4+ times.  I'm also having trouble against the red falcons spiders. 
How do you defeat each of these enemies during the late rounds of your max run?  Do you try to shoot the bottom spiders until you kill the pod they come out of for good? 
Other than these two spots I have most of the game mastered.  As long as I can keep my spreader I can go untouched for the majority of the time, but once I die and all I have is a pea shooter, I'm in deep crap!!!

It's all repetition and memorization.  Once you play it enough you will be able to run through the game without even getting touched.  If you think the first run through is hard, wait until you've beaten it 5x in a row.  The game gets damn near impossible!!!

Yea, they are the worst!  In fact, I think the only enemies that get tougher with each run are the level 8 ones.  For the Red Falcon head with the yellow shrimp, I stand below it by that barrier shooting up at an angle.  If one or two of the shrimp go in my line of fire or down and to the right I try and kill them.  Otherwise, I just avoid them take a couple potshots and move back into position (meaning the shrimp that go over your head and to the left).  They will only really make one pass at you before moving off screen so as long as you can keep it down to 1 or 2 drifters you can mostly avoid them all together. 

Honestly, I try to just avoid the spiders in the later runs.  Probably not the best tactic but it worked for me.  I just put all my focus on the brain and only end up with 4-5 deaths tops before it's dead.  When the spiders start spawning I just move back a bit and try to jump over/in between them and hope for the best.  If anyone has a better method, I'd like to hear it. 

I think you're right.  In the other levels there are more enemies, but I don't think any of them require more hits. 
Looks like you and I are fighting the Red Falcon head the same way.  My problem is that I rarely have a rapid fire spreader at that time (which is what is needed to take it down with ease).  That part is hard as hell if you only have the machine gun. 
I fight the heart differently than you do.  I try to kill the spider pods on bottom first, and then go right up to the heart and shoot diagonally up to the right.  While at the same time jumping over the spiders that fall from the top and go nearly straight down (this only happens around 1 out of 3 spiders or so). 

I think I'll most likely get a max score by the end of the week.  I'm taping on VHS, so I can send it into Twin Galaxies.  Not that they have a different category for it or anything, but do you think anyone has ever gotten a max score WITHOUT DYING?  Talk about being a true Contra master!!!

What's funny is that the average person considers this game to be very difficult on the first run through, when in reality it isn't even a challenge compared to how incredibly hard it gets on run 5+.  If only there was a code where you could start at max difficulty right from the beginning. 

If I have to choose regular shot or machine gun for the alien head (or anything for that matter) I go regular. The regular shot is more efficient, even without the R upgrade, to me at least. I dont know, I just hate the machine gun, I seem to do much better without the damn thing.

Herb your gonna have fun getting the scores this week
so many lol

Your wish could maybe become a reality, user "hybrid" on these forums makes Game Genie codes for fun.  If it's coded in the game, there's a possibility that he could create a code to unlock it...

Just wanted to bump this thread, there's a heated discussion about the "Hardest Video Games ever" on a honda forum and Contra came up a couple of times. I didn't think Contra was hard at all and there's several people in here who completely demolished it.

Wow, this is gay. I was actually going to compete this week but fuck it now. Rules should have been set up to prevent this. At least he was honest with how he got the score.

^wow, I completely wasn't paying attention to the original thread date. I just saw contra and got Excited.

Hmmm... Mr. Vader, here's the link for contest for this week:http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/...
This one is an old contest, and we try to make rules clearer now to avoid this kind of performance.

Jone: Go tell these Honda guys that Contra is nowhere near to be called a difficult game. And don't forget to heat the discussion in your own style