Try our affiliated browser extension - redirect to BreezeWiki automatically!

Bundle

“ A species of Bundle that has been powered up by body modification.
It can float alone by using weak psychokinesis, but it flies as hard as it can and spits out venom for attacks. 		„
~ Official description from Neo Contra

The Bundle (鬼頭獣 バンドル Kitō-jū Bandoru?, lit. "Demon Beast Head Bundle") is an enemy in the Contra series. They are newborn crustacean-like aliens capable of levitation.

Description

Bundles are usually vomited into the world by Demon Dragon God Java as a sort of attack mechanism. They are crustacean-like aliens that slowly float through the air either directly toward their prey or by surrounding it. They don't have any other form of attack, although since Java can vomit them rapidly and in endless numbers they may overwhelm the player if allowed to. They are notably fragile, though, and it will usually take just a few shots from most weapons to take care of them and prevent them from overpopulating the area.

Appearances

Super Contra

In the arcade version of Super Contra, Bundles are first encountered at the end of Area 3, Deep Jungle, as one of Dethgerbis's forms of attack, who releases them in large quantities from a large hatch it bears in the middle of its body. Unlike the rest of its incarnations, this variant of Bundle has lost the ability to fly and just wriggles across the floor, behaving just like a worm. They are encountered again in Area 4, Alien 1, where they hatch from Eggrons (instead of the usual Buggers). They are launched toward the player's direction, and if not destroyed in midair, they'll scurry along the floor at fast speed.

Bundles don't appear in the NES conversion of the game, Super C.

Contra III: The Alien Wars

In the final stage of the game, Alien's Main Base, the player has to endure through a gauntlet of bosses from previous games. The first of these is none other than Java, the boss from the first Contra (or likely another creature of the same species). Like in the first game, Java's main form of attack consists in vomiting a wide array of Bundles that will then float in many directions, trying to flank and home toward the player.

Emperor Demon Gava is also able to vomit these alien crustaceans during his boss fight, where they act more like a distraction while the player is occupied in trying to score some hits against the boss himself, while also trying to avoid the multitude of other attacks that take place during the fight, like evading Gava's two serpentine-like limbs, as well as an endless horde of Orians. In the Hard difficulty setting, all these attacks are performed/released at a much higher rate, and if the player allows even a single Bundle to escape, it may pose a considerable threat, as it could home toward the player from a blindside while the latter is desperately trying to deal with all the overwhelming array of other attacks.

Contra: Shattered Soldier

Bundles appear during the fight against the "revived" Emperor Demon Gava. If one of Gava's arms is eliminated, Gava will begin to spew a multitude of destructible Bundle that rise above the battlefield, then fall into the pit below. These variations do not exhibit flying, appearing more as spat-up grubs to the alien beast. Because Gava's arms are not a requirement to destroy in order to eliminate the boss, it is possible to destroy Gava without ever having to encounter Bundle at all.

The Bundle's appearance here is rather fleshy looking with emerald-colored eyes. They bear some resemblance to similar alien creatures seen in Contra: Hard Corps, specifically Bahamut Overdrive. This might not be a pure coincidence, given the circumstances under which Gava is fought in.

Neo Contra

In Stage 5, Neo Contra Research Facility, a variant of these creatures –although with a different appearance– is capable of flotation rather than levitation; they slowly hover about in the air. When approached, they attack by launching venomous acid in an arcing pattern. This is a type of enemy that must be killed strictly by using lock-on weapons.

Contra Returns

Like in Contra III, Gava can vomit Bundles and at a similar rate.

Contra: Operation Galuga

Bundle resemble shrimp-like Grubs and appear within the stomach of Java. While normally they float around in mid-air, these creatures can also ground themselves to attack before floating once more.

Gallery

Screenshots

Sprites and models

Artworks

Trivia

  • In Super Contra, Bundles don't levitate and instead behave just like worms. However, another enemy in that game, the Alien Sac, behaves and attacks almost identically as the Bundle in the rest of the games from the series, possibly replacing its role in this game.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Internal name from Contra: Operation Galuga.