| “ | Blast away secret walls to find hidden areas. | „ |
| ~ Legacy of War instruction booklet, page 10 (Saturn) |
River of Destruction is the third stage in Contra: Legacy of War.
Overview[]
In this stage, the Hard Corps first travel on raft along a river which eventually flows into a lake, where they have to destroy a number of enemy threats.
The initial section of the level still takes place on firm land, just after the demise of the giant turtle monster Taka in the previous level. The Hard Corps break through the remaining but heavily armed infantry troops and turrets, but soon reach a port on a river bank with a raft docked and waiting for them. The commandos board the floating vehicle and this automatically begins moving. From this point onward, the travel on this raft comprises almost the entirety of the first half of the level.
Soon after boarding the raft, the Stalking Sea Snake enters the screen swimming below the water's surface and begins slithering all around the floating vehicle, occasionally surfacing and becoming vulnerable to weapons fire. Despite its threatening appearance and quick movements, the Sea Snake remains non-hostile during the initial parts of the trip, and instead it mainly serves as a distraction from the real threat of this section, the many snipers posted on structures along the riversides. These units in particular are very dangerous, as they come armed with rifles that shoot homing beams, making their projectiles much harder to evade while also struggling to remain onboard the small raft.
The raft will usually slow down whenever it comes near to one of these structures, and it is generally worth to briefly disembark on them, as their walls are usually destroyable and contain various power-ups, especially Barriers, which can temporarily make the next raft trip more manageable and less stressful. Care must be taken, though, as the raft won't stop and it will just continue its way, potentially leaving the commandos stranded if they dwindle too much.
The Sea Snake will eventually start attacking by jumping over the raft and spitting three Blobs on the deck, which will then quickly crawl in one direction and then either switch to another or fall of the edge. While they can be destroyed, it is usually better to just stay out of their way and wait for them to fall off.
The raft will eventually reach a final structure and stop for good, although the Sea Snake will continue with its relentless attack. However, the hero can just disembark at this point and freely shoot the monster from that safe spot until it dies (or self-destructs).
To the left of this location, the heroes will now find a Hovercraft docked at the entrance to the lake. Just by standing in front of its control panel will start the vehicle, allowing the player to control it. A radar map of the lake will then appear on the top-right corner of the screen, with the boat appearing as a big white arrow and also showing the location of various surrounding enemies. The objective of this section is to find and defeat three minibosses made of floating debris, then another miniboss on a hanging bridge, and finally the main area boss.
The radar also shows the location of most enemy forces, which are mainly comprised of Acuba units and floating mines. To deal with them, the boat can infinitely shoot volleys of projectiles in a spreading manner, although care must be taken, as the boat is a very large target and taking any shot by these units will take out a life, regardless of where the vehicle was hit.
Once the three minibosses have been found and defeated, the dock will become accessible and the player can then head there and disembark, soon reaching a hanging bridge where yet a fourth miniboss will attack them, the Mythological River Beast. This monstrosity uses its limb-like tail to constantly hit the bridge from below or to grab it and shake it to take the heroes off balance and shower them with the plethora of projectiles it spits.
Once defeated, the heroes finally reach the end area boss, the Petrified Beast Entrance (Gromaides). While its physical appearance notably differs from previous incarnations, now being a dinosaur skull on top of a construct of bones from various other creatures, it technically attacks in a similar way as it did in the NES version of Contra, by wiggling its limbs and shooting projectiles from their tips. It shoots standard projectiles from its right limb (left side of the screen) and homing fire bursts from its left limb (right side of the screen). Once both limbs have been destroyed, the monster will resort to shoot tracking energy rings from its eyes. After sustaining enough damage, these will fall off from their sockets and the creature will die, opening its rib cage in the process and giving access inside it and into the next level.
Enemies[]
Minibosses[]
Boss[]
Gallery[]
Music[]
| Description | Audio |
|---|---|
| Theme of Legacy of War Stage 3 #1 - River 1 | |
| Theme of Legacy of War Stage 3 #2 - River 2 |