- For the actual enemy called "Kimkoh", see Kimkoh.
- For the enemy referred to as "Vicious Slave Hawk" in the Contra III English instruction booklet, see Metal Alien.
Taka (奴隷獣 タカ Dorei-jū Taka?, lit. "Slave Beast Taka") is a recurring boss in the Contra series. It is a giant tortoise-like alien monster who appears in various installments, either as a boss or a miniboss.
Appearances
Contra III: The Alien Wars
| “ | Slave Beast Taka A giant alien resembling a turtle awaits the player at the end of Stage 1. The laser emitted from its mouth is powerful. Climb up the ledge on the left to avoid the laser. |
„ |
| ~ Shin Contra/Contra: Hard Spirits - Konami Official Perfect Guide translation |
First appearance of this alien enemy in the series. It is encountered at the end of the first stage, Occupied City Street.
After blasting their way through the alien lines in the city ruins, the heroes arrive to a dead end, with a high wall blocking further progress. However, after a brief moment of uncomfortable silence, the earth suddenly begins to tremble, and the sound of approaching stomps can be heard louder each time. The wall then crumbles apart and from the opening emerges a humongous monstrosity: Slave Beast Taka.
Taka is an alien creature that somewhat resembles a gigantic tortoise, with frontal clawed legs supported by strong muscles that appear to be made of some sort of brain-like tissue. The monster has an equally enormous hive protruding from the top of its shell, from which it releases swarms of flying alien parasitic insectoids. The hive's opening can be destroyed, thus preventing any more insectoids from coming out. The hive cannot be destroyed in Hard mode.
It can also vomit a plethora of disgusting maggot-like creatures that will start crawling on the ground. Another of its abilities consists in extending its neck a great length to chomp distant prey with its powerful jaws. If this wasn't enough, it can also unleash a powerful energy beam from its mouth.
Taka can only be harmed by damaging the big core-like heart exposed underneath it, although this organ can also shoot back projectiles at great speed. In Hard Mode, an additional projectile is fired from the organ at a set interval slightly different from the first projectile interval, alongside the first projectile, making Taka's attacks much more difficult to avoid.
Taka also appears in the Game Boy Advance port, Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX. Its top hive can be destroyed.
Contra: The Alien Wars
Taka appears roughly the same as its console appearance, however there is no wall it crashes through, simply walking into the battlefield from an open outdoor space. Taka also does not fire any flies or Grubs in this battle, leaving itself one on one with the hero. It extends its neck at times and its chest can fire one or two separate bullets that aim toward a hero's last targeted position. Taka may sometimes fire off a fiery blast from its mouth near the central plane. Its top hive cannot be destroyed, though it goes unused anyways. Its lower core is the boss's weak point. Enough damage will have the beast erupt into explosions, ending it.
Contra: Legacy of War
In Legacy of War, Taka is now fought from a top-view perspective. It has variations of its previous attacks:
- Breathes a large stream of flame.
- Releases bug-like aliens.
- Elongates its neck to bite the player at a distance.
Contra: Shattered Soldier
| “ | A giant alien was retrieved by the Blood Falcon and underwent a revival modification surgery. However, it often goes out of control and attacks its own troops. Upon closer inspection, you can find soldiers accidentally swallowed in the vomit... | „ |
| ~ Shin Contra/Contra: Hard Spirits - Konami Official Perfect Guide Translation. |
During the heroes' assault on the Fortress, they were about to be frontal assaulted by a transforming Mr. Heli-Robo until the massive Slave Beast lands on top of the transformer, crushing it completely. With one threat gone, another one arises...
Slave Beast Taka initially behaves and attacks the same way it did in Contra III, with a few minor differences. The arena is generally the same, featuring a left sided three-story platform for the heroes to adjust their aim and stances to, although the top platform is now a hang-bar instead. During the course of battle, the giant beast once again summons tiny bug-like insects from its top hive to attack the heroes. Instead of summoning worms from its mouth, it now summons them from a lower hive underneath its neck, which effectively replaces its core weak point. A slow-moving energy orb can be spewed from its mouth over time reaching the general middle horizontal zone of the left platform. The orb has minor homing capabilities and will slightly arc direction toward a hero. All of these hazards move leftward until they disappear off-screen, with the insects being vulnerable to Weapons fire once again. Unlike with the previous battle from the past, the massive beast now deflects certain weapon fire from any portion of its body except one, its head. The heroes' best position to eliminate it is to stand in the middle zone and continuously fire upon the head, changing elevation temporarily when a purple orb is summoned to avoid it until it leaves. If the heroes get too close to the head, the beast may extend its neck out a small distance to damage them. The extended head cannot reach the border of the left screen however, leaving a small safe zone open from this attack. Optionally before killing the head, the two bug hives can be destroyed for 3% additional Hit Rate each (6% total). The two hives can only be destroyed by uncharged Diver Mine bullets, all other weapons (including its charged variant) will be simply deflected but the hives will glow from the deflected bullet fire, hinting their destructibility. If the two hives are destroyed, the large beast will resort to its extended neck more frequently along with its occasional purple projectile.
After sustaining enough damage, it will turn around and reveal a disturbing giant humanoid face, commencing the second phase of the boss fight. Its only possesses two alternating attacks (in order):
- The head will vomiting a noxious arcing spew that reaches a wide area. The vomit will visually contain winged insects and worms, plus one soldier per spew. This can only be avoided by staying close to the beast on the lowest elevation.
- The idle head will spew its winged insects and worms as before (this time from its nose), as well as one slow moving purple orb from its mouth per before alternating attacks. This time, the purple orb travels at the lowest horizontal elevation and may sometimes pass through the floor depending on its arc.
The boss no longer deflects gunfire; however, it is still immune to damage save for one weak point. The heroes must continuously aim and fire at its constantly open mouth and exposed tongue to harm the beast. The best time to inflict damage is during its arcing spew, where angled diagonal shots under the arc can hit the beast with ease. Otherwise, the heroes can simply stay on the lowest elevation and return fire while avoiding its projectiles as with its first phase. Enough damage causes the beast to leak green blood and fall to the floor defeated, clearing the mission. The defeated beast adds another 10% to the Hit Rate, and the player who dealt the finishing blow to this form of Taka is awarded 1,000 points.
It has also been revealed that Blood Falcon was successful at presumably recovering its remains sometime after the Alien Wars and has performed resuscitation surgery on the large beast. However, the results have proven it to be uncontrollable and even soldiers end up getting eaten alive or attacked by the giant monstrosity. The process was extremely painful, but early tests showed an increase in Taka's mobility, strength, defensive and offensive capabilities. It also shows signs of heavy mutation, which results in growing a second face with humanoid features where the anus should have been. This is mere speculation, though.
Contra Returns
The battle with Taka takes place in what looks to be a large spacecraft. The monster makes its entrance by smashing down an automatic door and breathing flames at the player. Its eyes burn with fire. In this game, the alien beast can be damaged by firing at any part of its body. It resembles more an kaiju monster rather than an alien creature.
Taka's attacks are the same as in Contra III, although with some new tweaks:
- Taka vomits alien insects at the player. These remain pacing back and forth on the ground, not going anywhere so the player will have to take out these crawlers.
- Taka breathes a flame stream toward the player's current position. The flame lasts quite a bit and inflicts additional damage, so it is advised to move away as quickly as possible.
- Taka takes a few steps forward and stretches its neck to bite the player. During this attack, Taka's full body can be briefly seen.
- Taka releases swarms of flying alien insects out of its back. Unlike Contra III, it does not have a hive to be shot down to prevent more bugs from coming out, so the player will have to keep on negotiating with any flying insects released by Taka. These bugs spew acid at the player and take a few shots to be taken down. If not taken out quickly, they can cause a lot of problems as Taka will continue attacking regardless if they are present or not.
- Taka takes a step backward before shooting a long and deadly laser beam from its heart/core.
Contra: Rogue Corps
| “ | A fiend shaped like a turtle. As it gets bigger, it outgrows its shell and needs to seek out a replacement like a hermit crab. When fully matured, it is big enough to take up residence inside of the ruins of abandoned aircraft carriers. Its vital organs, such as brain and heart, are dispersed in various locations on its body, so it can survive even after having its skull broken open or taking massive damage. | „ |
| ~ Official website description |
This reincarnation of Taka has two differently colored eyes (one red and one green) and hides its body underneath the ruins of an abandoned aircraft carrier somewhere off the coastline of Damned City mainland. The Rogue Corps visit this aircraft twice during their Mission requests, but Taka is only encountered in the second visit, meaning it was likely dormant during the first Fiend wipeout of the area. On the second travel to the carrier, the creature reveals its long neck and attempts to strike at the heroes on its back.
Taka only demonstrates one attack: it charges energy from its mouth and unleashes it in a broad sweep once fully charged. While charging, the massive beast can be shot at its large brain-like organ attached to its throat, though only weapons with long enough reach can make contact. If the heroes are successful at inflicting enough damage to prevent the breath attack from firing, a jet will fly by and drop an Obese wielding an anchor. While battling this Fiend, Taka will constantly repeat its charged breath attack, though it can either be halted as before or simply dodged. Eliminating the Obese Fiend will cause its anchor to drop. The character then proceeds to throw the anchor towards Taka's massive jaw to weigh the beast down. This has no effect on the beast, and two more jets fly in to drop another Anchor Obese, repeating the process yet again but now with the aircraft firing laser turrets in alternating set patterns. Once the heroes grab hold of the second anchor, it is tossed at Taka's other side of its neck and the two anchors rip the entire neck apart.
However, Taka survives this, and both halves of its head rise and begin attacking the player. During this second phase, the player is thrusted into Shooting Gallery Mode. Each head can fire projectiles of varying size and speeds: the red-eyed segment will unleash PYRO aligned fireballs while the green-eyed neck fires POISON aligned projectiles. The necks are capable of also slamming onto the ground to damage the hero close-range or may perform a wide sweep with its neck. Both the slam and sweep leave the beast open to a quick close-range attack or Dodge strike, however. The necks will take turns and alternate with these attacks: one will fire projectiles while the other slams or sweeps the ground. When a neck receives enough damage, it will momentarily fall to the ground dazed, leaving it open to attack. The other neck may either continue to strike if it was not dazed or will wait idle for its other half to return. The dazed neck eventually rises back into battle, and if the second half of the neck was either waiting idle or was also dazed at around the same time, once into position, the two necks "reform" to charge up a large breath sweep attack, while also firing small Generic bullets in the center of the area form their eyes. While charging, if the combined neck receives enough massive damage, the attack is halted and the two halves fall apart, both being dazed momentarily before returning to battle separated once more. when their health is low, their neck slam becomes more frequent to perform as the two quickly alternate slamming. Also, they may both perform a neck sweep one after the other that is difficult to dodge without proper timing or stunning one of the necks before it attacks.
Enough total damage will cause both necks to explode, ending the creature once and for all.
Gallery
Screenshots
(front)
(first form)
(second form)
Taka's guts can be seen inside the severed halves of its head and neck.
Sprites and models
.png "Shattered Soldier Taka model (first form).png (381 KB)")
(first phase)
Artworks
.png "Returns Taka art crop (full).png (363 KB)")
Music
| Description | Audio |
|---|---|
| Theme of Shattered Soldier Stage 1 Boss - Slava Beast. |
Trivia
- The English instruction booklet for Contra III: The Alien Wars names this enemy as "Beast Kimkoh". However, in the Contra universe, Kimkoh is a totally different creature, mostly known for being the final boss in Super C for the NES. This was likely an error made by the localization team (among others found in the English booklet).
- In most of its appearances, Taka has its eyes closed.
- The European instruction booklet for Super Probotector: Alien Rebels names this enemy as "Vicious Slave Hawks" (the kana タカ Taka can be transcribed into 鷹 "Hawk" in kanji). However, in the English instruction booklet, the same name is given to another enemy otherwise known as the Metal Alien.
- In Contra: Rogue Corps, Taka shares a few traits with Yokozuna from the same game. Both bosses have two phases, are not refought in another Mission, and share the same two boss themes.
- The official Rogue Corps website states that this version of Taka is a Fiend, meaning that this Taka may not be the same one from the mainline Alien Wars and is instead a Taka variant from another timeline, one in which Red Falcon conquered the Earth. Its massive size and appearance give off the impression that it was bred and raised from inside an abandoned aircraft carrier in its own timeline.
- Coincidentally, Taka bears a slight resemblance to a Queen Metroid from Nintendo's Metroid franchise (another game that draws inspiration from the Alien franchise). Both creatures are quadrupeds possessing long retractable necks, are able to fire off a powerful beam from their mouths and are able to spawn multiple creatures to assist it in battle.