Laser was the best gun in contra 1 but required skill. It melted bosses and machines.
I haven’t played much of the arcade version of Contra, but on the NES version, the S can actually shoot faster. There’s a limit to the bullets you can have on screen, so if you mash the button fast enough, you get to shoot again as soon as a bullet leaves the screen. If there’s nothing to stop your bullets before the hit the edge of the screen, you’ll end up with a line of bullets in front and a spread of 3 bullets. If there are any obstacles that stop your bullets early, eventually, you just end up with a stream of bullets in a straight line in front of you with no more spread.
The laser only does 4 hits per beam, but you can only have one beam on screen at a time, and if you fire again before it hits, it just disappears before firing the new shot.
