Armored Car

Not to be confused with Armored Truck.

The Armored Car (装甲車, Sōkōsha^?) is a vehicle in Contra III: The Alien Wars.

Location

Found unoccupied in plain sight shortly after the first Middle Fortress in the first stage, Occupied City Street, allowing the player to hop in and ride it.

Usage

The right and left keys move the car forward and backward, respectively, while the ATTACK button fires the "Konan Cannon"^[2] straight ahead. The force of this blast is so powerful that it will push the tank back a little with each shot fired and can fell a Middle Fortress with a single shot even on the Hard difficulty setting. While inside the tank, the driver is immune to attacks, with the tank absorbing the damage instead. Enemy ground forces will simply turn around if they touch the tank while it remains idle (both piloted and unpiloted).

The tank can also be used to run over ground enemies. However, with each enemy ran over, the vehicle's durability weakens. The player must be wary of support units perched on upper platforms, such as snipers and grenadiers, as they will concentrate all their fire on the vehicle as it moves forward; as well as choose carefully when to fire the cannon, lest the force of the blast makes the tank to recede and be hit by an otherwise already evaded thrown grenade. Visible cracks will notify the player of the vehicle's soon to be demise. After receiving enough damage the tank will be destroyed, forcing the hero back out onto the streets on foot.

The JUMP button allows the player to get out of the car. Only one pilot can man the vehicle at a time, although it also has a large backspace for a partner to climb aboard while it drives; however, the backseat partner is not shielded from enemy fire.

It is impossible to ride the Armored Car past the area with leaking gas pipes on the street, as touching their constant leaking flames will instantly destroy the vehicle.

Gallery

Trivia

• When the player stands on top of the Armored Car, their idle sprite changes; they instead appear standing with their legs more close together instead of spread apart.
• In the Game Boy port, Contra: The Alien Wars, the Konan Cannon fires missile-like heads instead an energy blasts like in the original game and other ports.

• In Contra Advance, it is possible to hack the vehicle's weapon as a usable gun, where its firepower can be used to defeat most enemies and bosses (that are affected by weapons fire) in one or two hits. Doing so will glitch the player's weapon icon to an unused "Press Start" text (with the 's' and 't' at the end of each word cut off), as the cannon was never meant to be a standalone weapon the player could obtain by normal means. No matter which direction the hero is facing, cannon bullets will always fire straight toward the right side of the screen. Interestingly, if another weapon is picked up, the tank weapon's weapon drop will be a Barrier.

See also

• Tanks

References