Bosco Spider (多砲台掃討機 ボスコスパイダー Ta Hōdai Sōtō-ki Bosuko Supaidā?, lit. "Multi-Cannon Sweeping Machine Bosco Spider") is a boss in Contra III: The Alien Wars. It is a gigantic robot spider that is heavily armed with six turrets –one on each limb– and a mobile laser tailgun.
Description[]
The Bosco Spider is a huge spider-like robot armed with six round-shaped cannons, one mounted at the end of each of its six legs, and also comes with a mobile laser ray gun attached as a manner of tail. It is encountered at the end of the Destroyed Highway, and same as with the rest of the level, it is fought in overhead view mode. Its weak spot is a large red core located on its front.
It makes its introduction by dropping from the sky and smashing onto the ground. Due to this boss's immense size, it may occupy a big portion of the screen for most of the battle. It begins the battle by slowly chasing down the hero relentlessly. Its main method of attack consists in advancing toward the player while constantly shooting from the cannons mounted on its legs when attacking. Once the hero is within close range, it will perform a secondary attack depending on the difficulty:
| Attack | Description |
|---|---|
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On Easy or Normal mode, Bosco Spider will unleash a flurry spread of bullets while spinning. On Easy difficulty, there are few bullets during this spread, allowing the player to easily use the gaps to avoid being hit. On Normal difficulty, the bullet spread is more like a wall, covering almost all of the gaps it left behind. To avoid the bullets on Normal, the player must gain a large distance away from the boss to find a large enough opening in the spread blast and/or strafe over to either the far left or right sides of the spread blast. |
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On Hard mode, the Bosco Spider will unleash a laser ray from its tail cannon and quickly spin both the cannon and its whole body in order to cover a larger area. The only way to dodge this is with quick movements away from the boss. Knowing precisely when the boss will strike is vital to evasion. It's recommended to try and strafe near the sides of the machine, then quickly backtrack before it has a chance to fire. Never stand directly in front of its cannon, as it will become impossible to avoid its laser blast from that angle. |
Each of the six leg cannons can be destroyed separately in order to help alleviate the whole ordeal. Every time one of these is destroyed, it will leave behind a weapon power-up or even a bomb.
Once its main front tail cannon is eliminated, Bosco Spider will resort to another attack where it will start spinning its whole body at great speed and then charge at the player. This attack poses less of a threat if any of the legs were destroyed prior to its spinning execution.
Once the mechanical monster has sustained further damage, it will start leaping high up in the air and attempt to land on and crush the player throughout the rest of the fight. Every time it lands, it rests for a split second before beginning the next jump. This gives the player barely enough time to reach the core and possibly land a few hits. When the boss leaps high into the air, keep walking in one straight direction and do not stop until it lands to avoid being smashed, firing if possible as some bullets may hit the boss as its lands. The player is only guaranteed safety while running if all six legs were eliminated, as the player cannot escape a leg's reach should it land deadly close enough to their position.
While this boss may pose a little to moderate threat at Easy and Normal difficulty levels, in Hard mode it becomes very dangerous as it gains enhanced mobility and performs all of its attacks at greater speed, with the end of the battle being a series of continuous stomps where the player must concentrate on getting out of its way while having little time to counterattack.
The Crush Gun is an overall good choice for this fight, as it deals the highest amount of damage and the explosions it unleashes remain in place for a short time, dealing additional damage while the boss slowly approaches. The Homing Gun is a decent backup secondary weapon, as it helps auto-aim for the legs while keeping distance avoiding the laser cannon's attacks. This is useful in Hard mode, where it becomes harder to aim at the back legs while running away to avoid activating the laser cannon.
In the Game Boy port, Contra: The Alien Wars, the Bosco Spider's behavior has gone through some changes; for instance, the boss itself does not spin around and instead the rounded cannons are the ones that spin around it. The tail cannon is not mobile, and instead of a laser it fires vulcan rounds in a spraying manner. In addition, the cannon itself is the boss's weak spot, and once destroyed, the whole machine will be defeated.
Notes[]
- This boss, does not appear in Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX, the Game Boy Advance port of Contra III, due to the removal of both Mode 7 top-view stages in that version.
