This is Contra 4 for the Nintendo DS, it seems to be part remake of the first Contra and part new game. Anyway it's the same ol' Contra concept of a lone hero saving the world bare chested from Aliens by running to the right, sometimes jumping upward, sometimes even going forward in 3D(!) and shooting a lot. Also, once, he jumps around on a speeding rocket. It has all the ingredients of a great game, and great it is.

This run was started as a solo project by me (cpadolf) exactly two months ago, and since then zggzdydp has joined in as well (and all the completed stages where remade). It clocks in at just over 22.5 minutes, which is pretty good as my goal was to get under 25 minutes.

Choice of weapons: In stage 1 double M and S is picked up, F and S would have been a bit faster, but too much time has to be sacrificed in order to get double F for it to work out. In stage 2 we go for double M and double C, which we keep all the way until the last stage. The reason for this is that C+M is by far the best weapon combo in the 3D stages, and even though exchanging M for F would likely speed up stage 4, 5 and 7, the losses in stage 6, 8 and the time lost grabbing double F (as at least one would have to be grabbed out of the way in order to have it for stage 4) would be a lot bigger in the end. For stage 9 though, we get double F to deal with the final boss, as it is the best weapon there (note that the mini boss at the start of stage 9 can't be speed up, as no matter how fast you kill him he will run out of frame once then come back and die at a fixed time). Also note that single C is as strong as double C, the only difference is how long it reaches.

Tricks: There isn't much out of the ordinary here. Sometimes death is abused to cross over big gaps without having to use the grapple hook, and at some places you can do a small zip forward by dying at the right spot (in a gap between to platforms/railings, if you are far enough ahead you will be transported to the next platform/railing instead of going back). And in the climbing parts of the game you can climb faster by jumping just as you walk of a platform, there is one frame where you will jump from slightly under the platform and thus land on the next platform faster (since you don't have too fall down as far again), this usually saves 1-3 frames per use.

Something something. I don't know what to write. Ask if you have any questions.

Thanks to: Atma, for pointing out the railcar shortcut in stage 1 and Satoryu for pointing out a shortcut in stage 4.

adelikat: Accepting for publication.

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