| “ | Flutter about all you want! Your time is over! | „ |
| ~ Animal Contra |
Animal Contra is an anthropomorphized bull terrier who is a member of the "Four Hell Warriors of Neo Contra". Able to listen to, comprehend and converse with words, he appears in Neo Contra as a boss in the fourth level. He lures the players onto his ship and then sets it to self-detonate. Bill Rizer and Yagyu Jaguar Genbei escape by riding missiles and surfing to battle this creature. He fights them in a mecha that fires reflecting lasers and shooting blasts. After his vehicle is destroyed, he is sent flying off into the sky.
Animal Contra is the only member of Neo Contra whose fate remains unknown (he was presumed to have died on impact but never confirmed).
Personality
As an Elite Four member, he is sadistic and cunning. He apparently prefers to let his men die if his ship goes down, completely contradicting the claim that a 'captain goes down with his ship' (to which Jaguar notes).
Strategy
| “ | A floating fighter driven by Animal Contra himself. Its full name is Tactical Invasion Maneuver Gunboat or TIM Gun for short. As the name suggests, the attacks from the arm guns installed on the left and right is a bender. All of the reflective bits that infinitely spring up are loaded by Assault Soldiers. Special training is done day and night in order to perform a perfect formation. | „ |
As was the case with Guerilla Contra, you have to fight the vehicle the boss rides rather than the boss himself. The primary target is the massive laser cannon located on the middle section. This is a standard forward firing laser which is fired as the boss moves in a circular motion around the edge of the screen, kinda like in Stage 3, but harder to avoid. Before taking out the big laser you have to destroy the two smaller lasers attached to each side of the center unit. When the boss is about to use the smaller lasers it first brings up small mirrors which will cause the lasers to deflect from one to another in various patterns. Once fired the vehicle will rotate about the screen like it does with the big laser. The smaller laser cannons can also fire a stream of parallel laser bolts as the boss moves back and forth quickly, but this is pretty rare.
Avoiding the main laser is not that difficult as long as you are far enough away from the boss and you start moving as soon as it begins revolving about the screen. For the smaller lasers, get in the center of the bots and the lasers will ricochet around you, trapping you inside. Move with the lasers when the boss moves and do not bother trying to destroy the bots. You can try and avoid the lasers all together by staying outside of the bot formation, however it is possible you will get trapped in a corner and therefore be unable to avoid the boss when it moves.
Also like the case was with Guerilla Contra, you must destroy both smaller laser cannons before the central weapon in order to achieve a 100% hit rate. Do not bother firing on them when the smaller lasers are firing; concentrate on surviving instead. The best times to attack is in between laser firings or when you are being chased around by the big laser. It is easiest to hit the side cannons from above/below the boss since they are very wide. Also, you will need to destroy the side guns, and then the main weapon. It tends to (but not always) begin by firing burst shots from both side cannons. Just like Lucia, use this opportunity at the start, and take out the side guns with ease, since this attack is easy to dodge.
It is possible to stay very close to the core of the machine without being injured. At point-blank range, the boss can go down quickly from some weapons like the Spread Shot. Much like Phase 1 of the Plant Contra, explosive weapons will also prove to be devastatingly effective.
Gallery
Trivia
- When the small lasers fire, they will ricochet off mirrors and form a six-sided star similar to the Star of David.
- The exact nature and origin of Animal Contra is unclear. The fact he is a bull terrier who dresses, talks and acts like a human is odd to say the least. However, given characters like Hungry Beast and SnowBear, who are genetically enhanced animals with human-level intelligence, the origin of Animal Contra is probably similar; and considering how deeply engraved genetic engineering and bio weapons are in Master Contra's army, this seems more likely.
- It is also possible his appearance may be a reference to the Man-Faced Mutt, as those enemies make no such appearance in Neo Contra. This is similar to another dog's appearance in the previous PlayStation 2 game Contra: Shattered Soldier, as they did not appear there either.