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Are there any effective stratgies for Twin Cobra Sega Genesis stage 5 and stage 8 bosses? I'm using the default difficulty of Hard A when playing this game.

I think part of the problems may be due to the panorama type view which also seems to vertically crop the screen and places the bosses very close to the middle or bottom of the screen. Here is what I am doing at this point:

Stage 5 boss: have the blue weapon before the boss, then go all the way to top of the screen and use three bombs (top right, top middle, top left) to eliminate as many of the X-shaped guns, try to hit the remaining ones missed by the bombs as they open up, then attack the boss base itself.

The problem with this is that if I mess up the timing and miss too many of the X-shaped guns, or if I don't have the blue weapon, then I eventually end up getting hit by an error dodging shots from the remaining X-shaped guns that fire as the base is firing.

Stage 8: I haven't found any effective way of dodging the shots of both of the vehicle bosses, so I'm currenly trying to go up screen and drop two bombs to try and damage the first vehicle boss before it's fully onscreen, then try to drop two more bombs while shooting it to eliminate it before it fires again.

The problem with this is that if I get hit, then it's essentially game over unless I use the max-bombs cheat code, since I haven't figured out an effective shot dodging pattern when both vehicle bosses are on the screen. And, I'd rather not be using cheat codes to finish the stage, or the entire game.

Any better suggestions for dealing with these two bosses? Thanks in advance.

I can only refer to the arcade Twin Cobra, but if the Genesis port is up to scratch on the original then the strategies are this:-

ST5 Boss - Arriving with blue spread, no bombing whatsoever, do an early sweep on the approach then stay on the left side, because the tanks will come from the left first. Stay to the left until the last tank has been killed then pick your moment to tack right and repeat the process on the right side. By the time the right hand side tanks have been destroyed the Boss will be ready to finish off with just a couple more shots.

ST8 Boss - Your method is fine, rinse the first tank out with bombs and concentrated firepower, get rid of it quickly.

ST9 Boss -> The two tanks linked in the middle, keep blue spread and don't go for the kill. Best method is to last them out. Rule#1 - Don't destroy the brace that joins them! If you do they will roam free up n'down and remove any chance of going up and around them. Joined together they are manageable. Don't bother shooting, just dodge. If you find that you are about to be trapped up the top then drop 1 bomb on the side and reverse tack back down the screen. You won't have to last them out for long, they disappear quickly. You will have blue spread for the beginning of ST10.

ST10 Last Boss 'Safe Spot' method - If you can arrive at the Last Boss with at least 4 way blue spread then position yourself dead centre on the approach, dropping 1 or 2 bombs as the scrolling stops to establish the 'safe spot' position, which is your helicopter nose lined up with a grey line just down from the centre of the screen. Once positioned, all bullets from the tanks will miss you (as long as you keep firing your blue spread )and you can stay in that position until the ST10 Boss dies.

I finally figured out a reliable stage 5 pattern for the Genesis version of Twin Cobra, and unfortunately it is not the same as the arcade due to the screen being cropped at the top and being displayed in a panorama view, so it requires a lot more memorization, precision, and at least two bombs.

Shortly after destroying the two tanks enclosed in the rectangles (just before the stage 5 boss area starts to appear), go all the way to upper right corner of the screen and drop a bomb immediately--this should have eliminated the popup guns on the far right. As soon as that bomb has exploded, return to the exact middle of the screen and then move up to about 1/3 from the very top of the screen. Drop a bomb as soon as the closest middle popup gun opens and immediately fall back to about 1/3 from the bottom of the screen. As soon as one of the left side popup guns opens up, make sure that one is destroyed but then continue sweeping left while firing--if done correctly there are no more popup guns, only turrets. Quickly destroy all the turrets on both sides of the boss before the screen stops scrolling.

Any mistakes, then there will still be popup guns to contend with. But if all was successful, then there are two strategies to defeating the boss:

1. With at least 5th level blue, there is actually a safe spot off to the side of the boss. Remain in that spot until the first set of mobile tanks with popup guns appear. After destroying the two tanks, carefully sweep to the other side (don't get hit by the front firing guns of the boss), find a similar safe spot on the other side, and the boss should go down shortly after the second set of mobile tanks with popup guns has appeared and been destroyed.

2. If any life was lost at the boss, then the maximum possible is third level red. This will require careful back and forth sweeping to take shots at the boss from the very edge. Again, After destroying the two tanks, carefully sweep to the other side (don't get hit by the front firing guns of the boss), and repeat the same type of sweeping motion on the other side. The boss should still go down shortly after the second set of mobile tanks with popup guns has appeared and been destroyed.

Genesis version, they made these the stage 7 boss. It's likely using a simpler pattern than the arcade because simple left-right sweeping does eliminate them. The pattern is go one way for two shots of the enemy, then switch directions, then repeat: shot, left, shot, left, shot, right, shot, right (repeat). They made it so up/down movement of the tanks isn't a factor even when the brace has been destroyed in the Genesis version. (US Genesis version only has one midboss boat after the stage 2 battleship with the turrets, planes, and dual gun horizontal moving tanks, and only has one of the lines of shots fired by the stage 4 bosses., so those areas are also simplified.)

Stage 9 gets these two vehicles rotating around fixed rectangle and has little spinning fan-type guns at the corners of each vehicle.