Released in April 1990, Super C added new, innovative ideas to the Contra series, like shooting aliens, shooting giant aliens, and shooting with five-way spread guns. Well, even if the game isn't very innovative, it is well known for being more difficult than Contra — there are more enemies on the screen at once, and the Konami code only gives you 10 lives instead of 30. The story features the two most heterosexual shirtless guys ever, Mad Dog and Scorpion, in a mission to kill Red Falcon.
Note: Picking up no items is the equivalent of low% in Super C.
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0:14:06 by Jim Hanson.
Author's comments:
Strangely, I think stage one might be the hardest stage to speedrun. I probably died here more times than in any other stage.
Things didn't go my way during this stage. In fact, this stage had been giving me some serious trouble for about two days, even though it's one of the easiest stages. At least the boss fight always goes well; just step up to the side of the tank and unleash hell.
I learned quite a bit about Super C from watching the TAS and from reading the TASers' comments. According to the TASers, the mini-boss isn't immediately vulnerable: "The spider mini boss can only be hit once it shoots, but when this happened appeared to be manipulatable. Being close to him made him fire sooner." Go to the following link if you want to read all of the TASers' comments: http://tasvideos.org/1490S.html.
The barrier that I obtain near the end of the stage doesn't help me in any way; I get it just for fun.
I can kill the boss faster with fire (some people call this weapon "flame" or "force"), but I have to keep spread so that I can use it to destroy the bubbles at the beginning of stage four.
Why are bubbles so deadly in so many NES games? The bubble showers at the beginning of this stage made me so angry that I slammed my bedroom door into my wall, so I'm definitely suing the bubbles for the damage done to my wall. By using spread instead of fire, I greatly decrease the chance of getting killed by the bubble showers.
This is a fun stage, much like the waterfall stage in Contra. But I missed a jump, which elicited a nasty slew of curses.
I don't immediately start shooting the boss because of what the TASers discovered: "Note that the boss can be hit sooner, but cannot be damaged sooner. In fact, hitting him before he was vulnerable appeared to slow him down in getting vulnerable." I tested this theory, and from what I can tell, it's true.
In stage four, luck determined whether or not you survived the bubble showers. Now, in stage six, the mouths can randomly appear directly beneath you and kill you, so you have to depend on luck once again. Needless to say, if you've just done a hell of a job speedrunning stages one through five, you can imagine how nerve-wracking it would be to have to walk through a field of randomly appearing mouths and how pissed you'd get if one of them bit you.
This boss fight is my favorite because you just shove your gun barrel into the side of the boss's face and blast him.
This is my favorite stage. I get a serious rush when I play through it.
I botched up the part where I shoot downward through the green alien eggs, but I quickly regained my composure and blazed through the spider-pod section.
At the end, to celebrate the fact that he has saved the universe yet again, Mad Dog demonstrates his powers of levitation. He definitely considers himself a hero.
No items: 0:16:32 by Ray Cullen.
Author's comments:
As Red Falcon was making his preparations, the Pentagon heard rumors of strange happenings in a jungle surrounding the Amazon River, rumors of a hideous, evil monster living amongst the local villagers. Common sense dictates this was nothing more than crazy ramblings; tales of Sasquatch, the Abominable Snowman, and others have never panned out. Still, what's the harm of sending a few men in on the Government's dollar to assess the situation, we thought, maybe they'll get a nice vacation to boot. So, to avoid disturbing the fragile political stability our countries shared, the President sent two soldiers to quietly gain intel. What was supposed to be a covert operation became anything but. The rumors, crazy as they were, were true, and something had to be done. I'm sure the U.S. government was relieved it had selected the two "most cunning, courageous, and ruthless" soldiers from the Special Forces Elite Commando Squad for this mission. That's what they called us: Corporal Lance, aka Scorpion, and me, Sergeant Bill, but you may call me Mad Dog.
It wasn't long after arriving in South America that Scorpion was injured, leaving me to fend for myself. Hell, I thought, if Rocky can single-handedly stop the Cold War by smacking some Russian automaton in the boxing ring, then surely I can stop an alien attack against our fair planet with the help of some good ol' U.S. of A. ordnance. And I did. Too bad nobody was supposed to hear about it; I could've used the accolades. But alas, no one but a few military and political higher-ups knew how close we came to annihilation. Though largely unappreciated, I don't regret what I did, even with the emotional and mental toll it took on me. I did it for my country ... for my world, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I just wish I didn't have to do it again so soon.
Scorpion and I were enjoying our early retirement on a beach in Rio de Janeiro with some beautiful native women mere months after sending Red Falcon packing. Then we got the call: Red Falcon was back. Damn. It's hard being the best person for the job, and retirement or not, I had a job to do. Old Red's strategy this time around was to take over the minds of the entire U.S. Army, a plan which we learned he had already accomplished at Fort Fire Storm. Scorpion, though permanently injured from our last encounter with these aliens, still wanted to help. So I gave him a video camera and told him to record the most exciting war man has ever fought. "Your cockiness will be your death," I recall him muttering. "My cockiness is what beat that bastard the first time around," I responded. I wouldn't have been so cocky had I known my nemesis had gathered up some friends, friends just as evil as he.
I don't know if my actions are supposed to be classified, but here are my comments and memories of what Scorpion recorded:
Nothing could prepare me for what I saw after jumping out of the chopper at the Gates of Fort Fire Storm. My fellow soldiers, many of them my friends, were brainwashed and wanted me dead. Though it pained me to harm them, I had no choice. But I did have a choice to make their deaths as respectable as possible. So, instead of using more aggressive ammunition, I used the unassuming bullets of my standard issue assault rifle to kill them. I'm sure they would've preferred that than getting burned by a flamethrower or bombarded with excessive projectiles. Anyway, on my way to the fort, I was able to kill all of the soldiers except one - whom I found laying at the bottom of the second hill. Knowing there was no time to stop and kill him, I shot him in the back a few times, thinking that would be enough to prevent him from warning others of my presence. I was wrong. Right before entering the fort, I heard the low rumble of an approaching helicopter. I jumped back over the pit, raining bullets down on anyone below, and got in position for the oncoming assault. It wasn't much of one though, as I quickly downed the chopper. I'm glad Scorpion was able to keep the camera on it the entire time.
Fort Fire Storm itself was very easy to get through. I don't know who taught these soldiers how to shoot, but I was able to run right past them without their bullets ever coming close to hitting me. I pitied some of them too much to kill them. Deep into the fort, a few could've easily finished me by just moving a step or two in my direction, but they didn't. I don't know if the brainwashing made them stupid, or if they were too scared to face me, or even if a part of them realized I wasn't the bad guy. I didn't have time to ask or consider the morality of my actions. Before I was able to exit the fort, I had to destroy a huge tank with three soldiers. Knowing the one in the middle was in control, I focused my shots on him, while sidestepping the bullets from the other two soldiers. Within no time, he died, the tank exploded and killed the remaining soldiers, and I danced on top of the wreckage to celebrate my quick victory.
On the other side of the fort was a place known as the Tropics of Torture. I was just happy to get out of that stuffy fort; I didn't care about any "torture" I might experience. The water was refreshing too, even with my littering it with all the dead. Before haphazardly jumping in the first lake, however, I took a moment to stop anybody from jumping in along with me. When the second lake became a little crowded, I thinned it out by shooting some soldiers approaching me from behind; I'd rather be safe than sorry. Soon after exiting the water, a huge mechanical spider attacked me. Boy, these aliens sure have an imagination. I couldn't have asked for a better fight against this thing, as I smashed it in record time. Well, maybe I could've been a second faster. I know I could've definitely been faster at "The Wall," which nearly knocked me on my ass when I rose up from the ground. I was incredibly lucky I didn't die during this battle, which was close to happening three times over. With a keen eye, I was able to avoid its bullets by the skin of my teeth. After tearing down the wall, I looked over at Scorpion, who was hiding in the bushes. Sensing my disappointment with the "slow" battle, he gave me a thumbs up. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about," he said, "the fight looked pretty sweet on my end." Man, what a friend.
Next on my route was the Lair of the Jungle Aliens, a boring place where I rode some elevators. At least the aliens had some good music blasting through the place, and I couldn't help but use my gun as a make-believe drum stick. I gotta waste time somehow. When the first elevator stopped, I jumped to the one above it as fast as possible, which started up right after I landed on it. The ride to the top was smooth. Winged creatures and bubbles fell victim to my wrath. "Take that you scary bubbles!" By the way, I was so accustomed to using my lowly rifle that I didn't feel the need to find a better weapon against those that deserved it - those dirty aliens. When the elevator finally stopped, I looked up to see some sort of chandelier. Pretty, I thought, until the thing started shooting lasers at me. I demolished it pretty fast, though I wish Scorpion would've captured the entire explosion on tape.
Upon exiting the jungle aliens' lair, I was awestruck by the majesty of Massacre Mountain. Too bad I couldn't stick around to soak up the sights. As I made my way up, I was caught off guard by some dudes with jetpacks shooting at me. "Holy shit, they have jetpacks!?" I yelled as I lost my footing and fell a few feet back down the mountain. I climbed back up, took care of the brainwashed soldiers, and then took a few seconds to avoid some boulders, boulders that I could've gotten past quicker had I jumped in the right spot. Nuts to that though. Before long, I encountered the Krypto-Crustacean, a ship of skulls that was less intimidating that it looked. However, I was so angry about my fall down the mountain earlier that I couldn't focus on the battle and thus, didn't take down the ship as fast as I had hoped.
As I said before, Red Falcon had recruited some friends. One of them was Jagger Froid, and I was now in his lair. The path to him was full of peril, from spiders shooting bullets that were hard to see against the background, to mouths that popped up out of the ground without warning to shallow you whole. There were also these one-eyed, brain-showing creatures that kept spinning around me. They weren't that bad; they just wanted some company. I told them to scram, for I had things to kill. They left, and luckily, it didn't take long before I was face to face with Jagger himself. "Time to bomb his ass," I grumbled as I unleashed a barrage of bullets into his gnashing teeth. My celebration was cut short when I learned I only destroyed a decoy. I figured Jagger wouldn't have been so easy to kill. Or so I thought. He was just as easy. I gave Jagger such a beating that his pet snake slithered into a hole, too afraid to come back out. Red Falcon should've hired better help.
It turned out Jagger was guarding the entrance to the Radioactive Lava Fields. This place sure was annoying, what with all those aliens constantly running up behind me. Thank God that one didn't kill me right before the last purple monster. I then shot my way down through a bunch of green skulls so fast, that my trigger finger became numb, numb at the worst possible time and place. This was the most difficult part of my mission, and it was a pain to make it past those spider pods alive. After vanquishing the second pod, two spiders dropped down from the ceiling, disturbing my strategy and forcing me to wait before dropping down to the next level. A few more drops, then I was looking up at the Temple of Terror, the last line of defense before Red Falcon's Poison Palace. The battle was long, the battle was sloppy, but considering how I couldn't even feel my hands at this point, I'm satisfied with the outcome.
After taking a few seconds to recuperate after that last confrontation, I headed for Red's location. The most embarrassing thing would've been to die by falling in a pit, especially after all that I've been through and being so close to the end. So I steadied myself before each jump. Finally, after getting nearly killed by an alien after jumping over the last pit, I found Red Falcon ... and he soon found himself dead. Whew! What a journey.
So, that's it. Thanks to Scorpion for recording my run, Nate for transferring from VHS, Radix for having a place to show it, and the rest of the staff at SDA (DJGrenola and Mike Uyama, among others). Thanks also to everybody who expressed an interest in seeing this challenge completed, including Frezy_man, vgmrsepitome, and stanski, who, by the way, made it possible for me to finish challenge in the first place.