- For the enemy referred to as "Vicious Slave Hawks" in the European instruction booklet, see Taka.
| “ | An alien whose entire body is covered in metal. It has a very high hardness and does not accept any attacks except for its weak point, the eye. Occasionally, it will swing its long tail attached to its backside. | „ |
| ~ Shin Contra/Contra: Hard Spirits - Konami Official Perfect Guide (translated) |
The Metal Alien (メタル エイリアン Metaru Eirian?) is a recurring boss in the Contra series. It is a winged Orian-like alien with a single eye that bears a metallic exoskeleton. It attacks by either teleporting to catch enemies by surprise, by shooting a variety of projectiles, by performing swoops and charges, and by lashing and piercing enemies with its long tail.
Appearances
Super Contra
The Metal Alien is the boss of Area 4, Alien 1. It is a winged creature that guards the entrance tunnel to the innermost chambers of the alien hive. It can initially be seen statically hovering above but soon descends to attack the player as they reach this location.
The monster will position itself near the center of the screen, from where it will perform a number of attacks such as spewing indestructible insect gels, stab the player with its retractable inner jaw, or simply by using its body to bump on them. It is not remarkably resilient, though, and will go down with just a few well placed shots from most weapons.
Contra III: The Alien Wars
In Contra III, the Metal Alien appears as a member of the roster of classic Contra bosses that are fought in a gauntlet during the final stage while the heroes are making their way to Gava's inner sanctum in the aliens lair. The flying creature appears while the player is climbing a wall after defeating Kimkoh.
It first begins battle by flying into the center horizontal plane and repeatedly tackling the wall while its tail flails about. Its tackling has a pattern and after every tackle, it slightly moves vertically toward a player's position. Its small head is the only weak point; it is difficult to hit this and can mainly be accurately aimed when above or within eye contact of the creature by most weaponry due to its tail absorbing any shots fired. If the player begins to run out of firing space, they should climb upward or downward to escape the creature's tackle. In the latter direction's case however, it can be faster to simply drop down from a wall then grip back on it if at an incredible vertical height. After receiving some damage, the winged alien performs a second strategy: it now backs away to the left side of the screen and teleports out of the area. Within a second, it will reappear at the player's last known horizontal position and perform a long tail strike at the wall. The beast then quickly teleports away again to repeat the process infinitely. When it teleports, the heroes must keep moving to escape. They must move up and down in a pattern to gain some distance, only moving large distances to readjust or escape an attack. They must be at eye contact level or higher to damage the beast, below the beast will have little to no effect as its tail will block incoming bullets. The heroes must be at a good enough distance above the alien or else its tail might hit them as it points slightly upward. It can still be possible to hit the beast from below using certain weapons and quick timing. Enough damage will cause the creature to erupt into explosions, its tail breaks as it falls into the chasm below.
Due to the limited maneuverability for being hanging to the wall, as well as the urge for fighting the creature in its own territory and with an advantageous position, the fight against the Metal Alien can become quite stressing, which only worsens on higher difficulty settings due to the higher speed of its attacks and increased resilience. In general, the player must lure the monster to strike first, then quickly descend a little and fire at it at an angle, hoping to score a few hits; then climb up again to lure it into attacking once more and repeat the process, lest the player runs out of room below to descend and counterattack.
Contra Returns
This incarnation of the Metal Alien resembles more a cybernetic dragon than an alien and does not teleport.
It has the following attacks:
- Shoots three sets of energy projections; these make a short dash before stopping, then they alter their trajectory toward the player and travel in that direction before stopping short, then they once again change their trajectory and dash toward the player before disappearing.
- Breathes fireballs down diagonally toward the player as it flies from either left or right. Once the fireballs make contact on the ground, they will burst into flames that will last about three seconds. If the player walks onto these flames they will get damaged.
- Either dives diagonally or swoops at the player.
- Walks toward the player and swipes with its long tail.
- Hovers about two feet above the ground before making a rapid straight charge attack. This move will catch the player off guard if they don't focus on inflicting enough damage. Afterward, the Metal Alien will fly back to where it made its charge.
Contra: Operation Galuga
This incarnation of the Metal Alien retains a similar appearance to that of the original variant but having a more detailed mechanical appearance and a different attack pattern due to being fought on the ground instead of on a wall.[4]
It has the following attacks:
- Teleports around, spitting a glob of acid each time it teleports. Upon impact with the ground, the acid splits into four smaller chunks, two going farther outward and two going farther upward.
- Repeatedly stabs its tail into the ground while moving to the left or right side of the screen.
- Flies off into the background and off-screen before charging straight ahead. If the Metal Alien makes contact with the player while doing this attack, it will grab them, behaving similarly to a Gigafly.
Once enough damage is dealt, the Metal Alien's teleportation abilities become unstable, which in turn causes it to implode.
Notes
- This enemy does not appear in Super C, the NES conversion of Super Contra.
- This enemy does not appear in Contra: The Alien Wars, the Game Boy port of Contra III: The Alien Wars.
Gallery
Screenshots
_-_01.png "Metal Alien - Super Contra (arcade) - 01.png (47 KB)")
Sprites and models
_-_02.png "Metal Alien - Super Contra (arcade) - 02.png (10 KB)")
Artworks
(does not appear in the game)
(does not appear in the game)
Trivia
- The Metal Alien is an obvious reference to the xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, up to the point of recreating the creature's characteristic elongated head, retractable inner jaw and overall body complexion.
- This enemy was originally planned to appear in Contra 4, but was scrapped from the final release. Remnants of its scrapped appearance can be found in its Gallery artwork and within internal files under the name "Winged Alien".
- The actual Winged Alien theme used for Black Viper's throat may have originally been planned to play as the Metal Alien's theme in this game, being similar to the creature's Alien Wars appearance.
- The Falcon Viper enemy from this same game somewhat resembles the Metal Alien, being that it is basically just an Orian with bat-like wings.
- The Metal Alien's artwork from Contra Returns bears a slight resemblance to the Red-Eyes Black Dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh! (another Konami franchise). More specifically, the Metal Alien resembles the Red-Eyes Black Metal Dragon.
- Coincidentally, the Metal Alien also bears a slight resemblance to Ridley from Super Metroid (another game that takes inspiration from the Alien films). Both creatures bear a similar body scheme, while using their tail as a means of attack in a similar fashion.
- This reference is more noticeable by its attacks in seen in Contra: Operation Galuga. Also, within the same game, Sheena Etranzi, a blond-haired female playable character, says a quote during the battle with the Metal Alien that may possibly reference the battles between Metroid's Ridley and Samus Aran.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ Contra III: The Alien Wars instruction booklet, page 15.
- ↑ Super Probotector: Alien Rebels instruction booklet, page 17.
- ↑ Contra Returns Boss Challenge.
- ↑ @ContraSoldier (Contra Official（魂斗羅公式）) at X (April 19, 2024).
- ↑ "Careful. You're hunting a hunter." - Sheena to the Metal Alien at the start of the battle.