The Laser (L), also known as Laser Gun, is a recurring weapon featured in the Contra series. It usually fires a long laser beam which inflicts high damage upon impact. It generally is considered to be one of the most powerful weapons in the games it appears in.
The Laser gun shoots a long beam of energy that inflicts heavy damage to enemies. The appearance and behavior of the laser beam(s) varies by game, but the most common version is as a glowing blue long horizontal beam.
Laser guns in later games also sport additional properties, such as homing capabilities or shooting in a specific direction. Neo Contra introduced a satellite laser in which the laser is fired from an orbiting satellite.
Allegedly, the Laser was not very popular in the first game due to being limited to a slow rate of fire. In addition, if a successive beam was fired, the first one would disappear, making this weapon incapable of shooting consecutively in a rapid manner. In spite of this, a skilled player could make the best out of it due to its high destructive power. The behavior of this weapon was revamped in later games, giving its shots a higher rate of fire and a faster speed to the rays, as well as removing the handicap of the first shot disappearing when firing another one.
The Laser is one of two weapons in the game that comes in the form of the gun itself and not a Falcon Symbol (the other being the Machine Gun).
The Laser in the NES port was remarkably weaker than its arcade counterpart. This downgrade in power was also present in the arcade version of Super Contra.
The Laser Gun in this game appears as a long flashing blue and yellow horizontal line of energy when fired. Its strong blast can pierce through multiple weak opponents, but cannot pierce through some more heavily armored or larger foes. Only one laser beam can be onscreen at a time. Only when one laser beam completely dissipates, the hero can fire another round. This restriction only applies to the Laser Gun currently being fired, meaning that if two Laser Guns are in possession, a second beam can still be fired from the second one while the first one's beam is still active.
In top-down view stages, the Laser Gun fires a continuous mid-range stream in front of the player. Its powerful stream is useful against tougher enemies like the Crawler Tanks, Dome Defenders, and the two top-view bosses, but its small range can be a drawback against long-range attackers. The Laser Gun is also useful in a dual gun attack when paired with another Laser Gun, as it can easily take out a swarm of weaker close range attackers.
The Laser Gun doesn't appear in the Game Boy port, Contra: The Alien Wars; and in fact, it's the only weapon that was removed from the original game.
Ray Poward's Weapon A is the Vulcan Laser. It shoots several small beams one after another, effectively being an upgraded Machine Gun. While it deals twice as much damage as the default Machine Gun, it is notably the only Laser-based weapon that cannot pierce through multiple enemies at one time (though it can still pierce through normal walls and surfaces). This variant would later be slightly reused in Contra 4 and more properly in Contra ReBirth.
Sheena Etranzi's Weapon B is the Break Laser. It behaves identically to its Contra III counterpart but is able to pierce through all enemies it hits, including boss enemies.
Sheena's Weapon C is the Ax Laser. It has the Break Laser's properties of piercing and blue coloration. However, while the Break Laser is long and powerful, the laser beam of the Ax Laser is split apart into five weaker small fragments that can home in on enemies and hit them almost instantly. It also bears the Spread Gun's restriction of only having two sets of five blasts each onscreen at a time, forcing the player to wait until shots fly offscreen in order to fire the weapon again.
Browny's Weapon A is the Victory Laser. It shoots rapid fire V-shaped laser beams. It can pierce through enemies and can turn 360° angles, but is difficult and somewhat slow to steer properly. Up to five arrows can be on-screen at a time, and rapid tapping the FIRE button instead of holding it yields slightly better aiming results with the weapon.
Like in Contra: Hard Corps, Legacy of War features diverse types of laser weapons specific to each character (only CD-288 doesn't have any type of laser based weapon):
Ray: The Red Falcon gives Ray the Homing Laser. As its name implies, this gun shoots a long laser beam that wiggles in the air seeking a target.
Tasha: The Blue Falcon gives Tasha the Sparkling Laser.
Bubba: The Blue Falcon gibes Bubba the Straight Laser.
When the Flame Whip is selected and charged by the Rifle, releasing the FIRE button unleashes a long Laser blast capable of piercing through foes. Because Rifle charging is required, this Laser may possess less firing speed than its predecessors but can still quickly fly offscreen. Laser blasts produced are a collaboration of three thinner yellow-orange beams with a bright core between them in the center of a blast, with blue electrical energy seen close to the tail portion of a beam. Orange energy rings are also produced aesthetically, demonstrating the beam's power level.
Multiple Laser weapon variants are present for the heroes to utilize:
The Lock-on weapon of the Type B set is the Lock-on Laser. It is a lock-on weapon that can shoot five laser bolts simultaneously. The power of each laser bolt is medium.
Heaven's Laser is a lock-on weapon used for the unlockable Type D set. When fully charged, a laser from the sky drops down on a locked-on opponent. Fitting this behavior is the weapon's icon, which resembles a space satellite.
The Reflective Laser is a flamethrower-type weapon for the unlockable Type E set. It fires a long red Laser Beam capable of piercing through opponents.
The Fairy Laser is the Lock-on weapon for the Type E set. When a target is locked, the gun unleashes five energy bullets in a swirling pattern that soon home in on its enemy.
The Ripple Laser is a solid projectile standard weapon for the unlockable Type F set. It fires long range rings of laser energy at targets and is capable of rapid fire.
The G V Laser is the flamethrower-type standard weapon for the Type F set. It fires a long continuous beam of orange laser energy as long as the FIRE button is held. This Laser's behavior appears similar to the top-down Laser from Contra III, but also incorporates whip-like features similar to the Flame Whip's behavior when turning.
In this game, the laser beam acts as a slightly more powerful version of the standard gun. When the FIRE button is pressed, a small blue light/energy beam is shot out, which can pierce through almost any enemy or boss the heroes encounter. Although holding the FIRE button allows for continuous fire, repeatedly pressing the FIRE button allows for shots to be fired at a faster rate. When the gun is upgraded, the laser beams grow double in size, and holding the FIRE button produces a much faster rate of fire.
Exclusively in Challenge Mode, a weapon called the "Classic Laser" also exists. It is a weapon mirroring the properties of the red Laser from the NES version of Contra.
In earlier builds of Contra 4, the upgraded Laser in top-down stages appeared as a long beam similar to how the Laser operated in top-down stages in Contra III. When the FIRE button is held, a long Laser stream is immediately unleashed in front of the player. This Laser is extremely powerful, gives off a loud sound effect, and may cause the game to lag or hang due to strong amounts of RAM memory used.
Contra ReBirth features a smaller variety of weapons for the player to use than the standard Contra game; the Laser is one of these guns. The gun shoots a series of short laser beams straightforward, one after another, similar to past incarnations of this gun in previous titles. It is the most powerful weapon in the game, although its reduced coverage makes it one of the less versatile. All of this weapon's power is concentrated on the small beams and it can pierce through enemies, allowing it to take down various targets in line and to quickly fell resilient foes and projectiles with just a few shots, even if they are on the opposite side of the screen.
Unlike the weapon of the first game, it is based upon, as well as any other of its incarnations, the Laser in Contra: Evolution fires a powerful and long straight beam that covers the entire screen. The beam is released almost instantly, although its duration on the screen is very short, allowing for continuous fire.
Renamed the Chain Laser, this laser fires thin straight piercing beams that sharply angle diagonally mid-flight. When an enemy is near, the laser's sharp turn will target toward the enemy's direction. The beam will oddly not target Missiles. Upgrading to Level 2 will cause the individual beams to increase in length and slight size, allowing for more damage to be delivered. Upgrading to Level 3 will give the laser the appearance of a long continuous laser, further increasing damage output. This weapon's behavior is similar to the Ax Laser from Contra: Hard Corps and is considered one of the most effective weapons in the game due to its piercing and homing capabilities. The weapon is color coded a deep blue, not to be confused with the Ripple gun's cyan.
The Ripple Laser also makes a return (simply named Ripple). The Ripple is now capable of rapid continuous firing but possesses short range capabilities. The Ripple can reflect small enemy bullets. Dashing while using the Ripple Laser gives off the appearance of the hero being surrounded by a reflective shield.
The Laser Rifle (L) belongs to the Assault Rifles class. This weapon fires a chain of short beams, each of which splits into three fragment beams upon contact with an enemy or obstacle. Fragment beams penetrate enemies and disappear after traveling a short distance.
The Laser Ex (L+) belongs to the Cannons class. This weapon shoots individual bunches of energy that penetrate weak enemies or explode on contact with stronger ones (similar to a plasma shot).
Called Laser Beam in this game. Its assigned color is blue.
Base strength laser beams appear similar to their Contra 4 variant, and retain their enemy piercing property. When upgraded to Level 2, the laser beams take on a deeper blue hue, and additionally, instead of piercing through after hitting an enemy target, may ricochet toward other nearby targets with very slight homing properties.[2] Its Overload is the "Hyper", which surrounds all player characters in a blue after-image aura, distorts the background music, and slows down time on all enemies and their projectiles for around six seconds.
Instead of the Laser Beam, Ironside and Fang utilize the Ring Laser when a Lpower-up is collected. Similar to the Ripple Laser from Neo Contra and Hard Corps: Uprising, this variation fires mid-sized sets of three cyan ring shaped bullets in the shape of a cone that pierce all enemies in the attack line. The firing rate is rather slow, taking at least one second between consecutive shots. When upgraded to Level 2, it fires four ring-shaped bullets at a time, increasing its damage output by approximately 33%. Its Overload is the "Stream", which fires a super-powered laser blast for around three seconds, piercing all enemies in the attack line.
When Sheena collects the L power-up, she equips the Laser Beam and uses the "Stream" Overload, while Browny equips the Ring Laser and uses the "Hyper" Overload.
In Contra III: The Alien Wars, the Bosco Spider uses a laser cannon in Hard mode, with the laser beam being identical to a hero's Laser Gun in top-down stages, both visually and lengthwise.
In a pre-release screenshot of Contra: Hard Corps, Ray is shown to be wielding the Contra III Laser on his Slot C.
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