Super C (NES Review)

October 25, 2024 by 6 Comments

Super CSuper C
aka Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Released February 2, 1990
Developed by Konami
Included in Contra Anniversary Collection

Like most of Super C for the NES, this isn’t from the coin-op. And thank God for it.

And you thought Contra on the NES was a major leap over the arcade game. That’s NOTHING compared to the gigantic leap Super C made. A leap so high that the letters O-N-T-R-A didn’t make it! At least in the United States, and can you blame them? They had to jump over an ocean to get here. An ocean! Not “Ocean” though as in the game publisher that’s like “why does everyone hate LJN? Did you like any game made by us?” But, I digress. The bad news with Super C is that the top-down stuff from the arcade is here too. The good news is the top-down stuff plays better on the NES. It’s not amazing, and it still makes Contra as a franchise feel like an also-ran. Even mixing it with the side-scrolling genre doesn’t make it stand out in what is an exceptionally crowded field. It really doesn’t help that, for a brief window, Super C has ghastly visibility issues. I tried using a CRT filter, which works on some NES games with noisy backgrounds. It didn’t help with Super C at all. Hey, I love the effort to make an otherwise average game design stand out as a viable set piece. But, I prize being able to see what’s going on more than I do the facade of a new area. But, as much as I miss the third person bases, the two top-down levels don’t suck. Besides visibility issues, they ain’t too bad at all. They work better with the bigger playfield of the NES.

Can you see that I’m about to die?

The other good news is that Super C is so fun that, if not for those top-down levels, I think we’d be talking about whether or not it’s better than the original. It’s insane that they took a mediocre coin-op and turned it into THIS, because Super C is fantastic! They added several levels and set-pieces, and almost all of the additional content is of the side-scrolling variety. In other words, they added more of the stuff that would make people want a sequel to Contra in the first place! Everything wrong with the coin-op’s concept is fixed here, and everything that didn’t work there works here. Things I didn’t expect. For example, everything wrong with the jungle stage in arcades had nothing at all to do with the logical flaw of dumping the third-person areas. It was just a lazily designed stage that relies on foreground objects blocking your view for challenge, then dumps straight into what is the 7th boss in the NES game.

The section with earthquakes manages to be both fair and thrilling without any “gotchas.” This is such an impressive sequel.

In Super C, the jungle level is fine. While it still lacks platforms for the actual jungle part of the jungle level, the pacing of when and where enemies are utilized is smarter. No foreground to block your view, either. Then, they added a memorable mini-boss and a better finale. Instead of a jarring hard cut to the alien base, you run through the earthquake section pictured above. With it comes the first truly tricky platforming section in home Contra history. It’s almost like Konami had the same observations I had: why even have a platform game without edge-of-your-seat jumps? The historically awesome, effective jumping physics are copied exactly from the original NES game, so why not be equal parts platforming AND bullet dodging? The first NES Contra did that, and last I checked, it was pretty sweet. The coin-op doesn’t have a viable jump at all. You can’t even clear a gun with your jump. If a gun you don’t want lands in front of you, you have to wait for it to vanish. If it is possible to jump over it, I never accomplished it.

Super C leans hard into the platforming side of the game multiple times, something I really don’t think the original ever did. In this segment, the ceiling raises and lowers. It’s genuinely thrilling, and there’s multiple jumps that saw me holding my breath. What a wonderful game!

In retrospect, that might be the one thing missing from the original NES Contra. There, the platforming isn’t amazing. There’s hardly any thrilling jumps. I can’t and won’t hold it against that game, because platforming isn’t the point. It’s a means to an end for Contra’s defensive game. Even when it feels like a traditional platformer in stages like the Hanger or Energy Zone, it’s actually more timing-based than accuracy-based. That’s certainly not the case with the sequel, which elegantly steers into a platforming focus on multiple occasions. In the arcade, levels felt like straight 2D lines with only the illusion of platforming. On the NES, Super C is a run & gun with a heavy emphasis on platforming, and it’s remarkable how transformative that is. On the NES, the jungle might still be the weakest side-scrolling stage between the two real Contra games (Contra Force is coming up NEXT at IGC, even if it’s not next sequentially), and it still rises to the level of better-than-decent. It proves within the first third of the game that NES Super C is no half-assed effort. There’s new mini-bosses. There’s new full-sized bosses. They kept all the weapons from before except the flamethrower. Oh, there’s still a flamethrower, but it’s different this time. I don’t feel like a complete tool using it, because now, it looks like this:

It doesn’t look great in screenshots, but it’s awesome. Instead of bullets doing ridiculous corkscrews, the flamethrower now shoots the biggest bullets in Contra, which explode with splash damage upon impact. This was in the coin-op too, but it was made to look like a grenade launcher. I like shooting fireballs better!

Super C uses the same engine as the first game, and much like the first game, it’s not a lives code that trivializes the difficulty. Autofire and the spread gun will do it. Hell, even the flamethrower is now overpowered with autofire. So, I decided to use the same test I created for Contra: beat the game, without autofire, the lives code, or emulation-based shenanigans. First, I cheesed the game a few times with autofire (including a co-op game). The third game, I had a no-death, no-cheating run. I’ve played Super C significantly less than Contra, so that gives you an idea of just how much autofire and the spreader annihilates the challenge of the NES Contra games. It’s not like I’m a professional gamer over here, but with autofire, both Contra and Super C are some of the breeziest side-scrolling run & guns I’ve played. Hell, I think I would have run the table the first time around, but I messed-up several jumps along the way. Jumps I, if not clocked, learned to pace-myself and wait for during co-op. The real challenge came when I disabled autofire entirely and fired up the Japanese ROM. I made it to the second boss before I died, and I genuinely believe if I had never swapped the spread gun for the laser (which, in two previous solo sessions, I’d barely seen and hadn’t used), I would have gone a lot further without dying.

Death #1. Oh, and this time the electrodes and laser kill you.

Like with Contra, playing Super C straight-up, on its terms, mostly made me focus on the item drops. This time, I learned how unevenly-distributed the guns are. It became pretty clean early into the game that Super C sometimes becomes more stingy with the weapons. It really started after the second level. At the start of the third stage, the first two items it gave me were rapid fire and a screen-clearing bomb. It was quite a distance from the start of the level that I got my first REAL gun, the machine gun. During a one-off set-piece where a cannon fires a series of bombs, I ate death #2 right before I collected the laser. Thankfully it was waiting for me when I came back to life. Death #3 came against the six-legged robot, at which point I learned that I could have stood on top of it, because I landed on it when I respawned. Except, you can’t shoot down at it. The target is underneath it. Death #4. Same f’n mini-boss. I was THIS close to a game over here, but it blew up at the last second. I got a free life too.

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I didn’t get my beloved spread gun back until I reached the earthquake section, but I ate death #5 on the base boss, followed by death #6. Game. Over.

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Rather than start over, I was curious if I could make it to the end with just the continues it gives me. Nobody expects gaming super heroics from me. Again, I’m certain that I’m capable of brute-forcing most games through repetition to the point that I could ace most games. There’s some that I feel are out of my reach. Like, there’s no way in hell I could do a no-death run through something like Battletoads. But, I think most people, if they chained themselves to one game and one game only, could drill a full ace into muscle memory. That’s not the barometer. Perfection isn’t. The question is “could an average gamer, with a normal non-autofire controller and no access to the 10 lives cheat beat Super C in 1990?” Yep. It’s not that hard. Like Contra or Castlevania, Super C’s difficulty is vastly overstated. And hey, I made it through the entire third level without dying. Not only that but I literally let out a cheer three times in this level alone: for the cannon, the six-legged robot, and the base. I made it to where the vertical section of level four starts before I STUPIDLY threw away a life by starting to climb before the bombs fell. Idiot. And then soon after, I gave up another death. Another change from Contra is there’s a lot more stuff to dodge, and the turrets take more hits to kill.

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The stinginess with the items was still in full force as I reached the elevator. When it finally spit out guns, it was only the machine gun and the rapid fire. Little redundant there, but hey, that’s literally how the first Contra starts. I died again and fell to my last life without any guns and without even seeing the 4th boss. Thankfully I shot the right canister to get the spread gun. I just needed to hold on for dear life, but I assumed that, even if I get an extra life, I wasn’t going to make it much further. I was wrong, and Super C totally confirmed to me that the spread gun is the most overpowered gun in the game. I did manage to beat the 4th boss, but no extra life yet. I was only 1,000 points short, and got it right after I started the next stage. In fact, I ran through level 5 without a single death. Spread gun kept. Scored another extra life from the boss. I made it through stage 6 without dying too, and was near the end of stage 7, and then it happened.

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I had defeated the egg thing, but it spits the aliens out in unpredictable trajectories, and it caught me. I had one floor left of these things, and the next one ate up every single life I had except one. I did end up getting another extra life, giving me two to fight the 7th boss without any special gun. I did manage to ping it to death, but I lost a life in the process too.

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Final level, no lives, no guns, but still on my 2nd continue and..

Yep, that’ll do.

I did it! One continue, no codes, and no cheating of any kind. And honestly, if I went again, I think I could probably make it without a game over at all. Swapping the spread for the laser in level two stupid, especially since this Contra is quite miserly with the guns at times. The next spread gun wasn’t spawned until right before the third boss. Hell, I’m pretty sure the first laser isn’t spawned until the second level. And yet, sometimes the game spits out weapon chances right after you just had one. The pacing is all over the place. Is that why Super C isn’t remembered as fondly as Contra? It can’t be because it’s a sequel. This is video games. Sequels being better is the norm.

My final death, and I was sh*tting myself because it happened early in the fight. But, I discovered that you can lean-up against the front leg of the final boss and aim diagonally for a direct line to the alien crab sponge monster’s weak point. It’s not a cinch after that. The millipede it spits out is invincible so you have to get a feel for its timing. Decent final boss. Sure beats ending the game on a top-down section, like the coin-op did.

Or, what if it’s something dumber? I’m absolutely open to the possibility that the lack of the Konami code is the reason. It’s not an accident that it’s gaming’s most famous cheat code. It’s harmonious. Rolls right off the tongue. But, it’s long enough that it has a secret handshake vibe to it. If you know the code, you’re in the club. The “I take video games at least seriously enough to know how to get 30 lives in Contra without looking it up” club. But, I’ve already talked about that excuse. Think EVEN DUMBER.

Too dumb. Little less.

What if Super C didn’t do as well because it was called “Super C” instead of “Super Contra?” I sure hope that’s not the reason, but you can’t rule it out. I’d like to take it for granted that kids of the 80s/90s knew a sequel when they saw it. Maybe they did. But maybe their parents didn’t. Mom & Dad might know that Junior loves a game called “Contra” but, when browsing games, it might not be self-evident that Super C is Contra. I’m guessing Contra had a lot of casual buys from parents for their kids. Great cover art. Trendy. Looks like the movies Junior likes. Super C has okay cover art, but nowhere near as eye-catching or memorable as the first game. The letter C is the same. That’s it. It’s not exactly McDonald’s-like memorable, especially back then.

Even if you assume the cover is close enough to the original (not even close), that doesn’t mean people not in the know will instantly connect the two. As dumb an excuse as that is, it had to factor in a little bit. It’s called “Super C.” Same engine. Same guns. Same alien invasion. Same platform. But, not the same name. And they did it because the word “contra” was topically hot for non-gaming reasons at the time. Guys, we can’t call it “Contra” because one or two newspapers compared our game to the Iran-Contra Affair! Branding? To hell with branding! Think of the frowny faces! They’ll wag their fingers SO HARD at us!

This boss (no longer the final boss like it was in the arcade game) would later sign a two-game contract with Nintendo, and appear in the game StarTropics as the character “Zoda.” It even got top-billing in the sequel! Then, like so many other 90s bosses, it faded into obscurity. Today, you can meet it at Comic-Con, and for $10 extra get its autograph.

As far as games that slipped through the cracks of history, Super C might be the most inexplicable. It really does feel like a grander version of Contra. On the NES, the bosses are bigger, the challenge is harder, the flamethrower is better, the laser is.. well, actually it’s worse. But the spread gun is god-tier now, and the level design assures that Super C is literally non-stop fun. This is what you want in a sequel. I might not be a huge fan of the top-down levels, but compared to some NES top-down shooters, they’re clearly in an elite class for the platform. I can’t say it’s better than Contra because the pacing and platforms aren’t absolutely flawless this go around. But, it’s not that far behind the original. So, what do *I* think happened? Three words and one number: Super Mario Bros. 3. I think that Contra transcends tastes and genres TODAY, in 2024. I’m guessing it didn’t at the time. But, do you know what franchise absolutely did? Mario. And, in 1990, Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first new release EVENT of the modern gaming era (IE after Atari). A game that was such a moment in the industry’s history that, for the US release, an entire movie was part of the hype. When did Mario 3 come out in the United States? February of 1990. When did Super C come out here? April of 1990. Ouch.

The new set-pieces all work really well too. This feels a LOT more like an alien invasion than the first game.

It’s never just one thing, of course. I’ve come up with four valid reasons that, on their own, would be heartbreaking in their pettiness as reasons why the NES Super C has little-to-no historic clout. Top-down replacing 3rd person? Dumb. No Konami code? Not sure why they did that. Changing the name? Needlessly risky. Launching against what had been the biggest video game in history up to that point? Oof. Yet, none of them account for the complete lack of prestige Super C has to it. Add them all up though, and it’s a perfect storm of bad timing and bad decisions. In reality, Super C isn’t just a good sequel, but it’s a GREAT video game, all on its own. If this had been the first game in the series, I honestly think there’s a chance the conversation around Contra would be mostly unchanged, and the only difference is we’d be talking about Super C and not Contra as a legitimate contender for the Greatest of All-Time. There’s no insurmountable stakes. The action is non-stop, intense, but SO enjoyable. It’s epic, and beautiful, and one of the best co-op releases to grace 8-bits. What more could you ask for? Contra might be the dark horse of the GOAT conversation, but Super C is the clear favorite in the conversation “what is the most underrated NES game?” Hot damn, this franchise is awesome AND interesting, and I love it.
Verdict: YES!
With this YES!, I feel comfortable saying Contra Anniversary Collection is worth $19.99. Hell, it’s worth it for the two NES games alone. That means the 16-bit games are a spectacular end-zone dance.

PART OF THE CONTRA REVIEW SERIES!
IGC Review of Contra the Arcade Game
IGC Review of Contra on the NES
IGC Review of Contra on MSX
IGC Review of Super Contra (Arcade)

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Contra (MSX Review)

October 22, 2024 by 13 Comments

MSXContra
Platform: MSX
Released May 26, 1989
Developed by Konami
NO MODERN RE-RELEASE*

*For the purposes of this review, “modern” means “after Wii U”

The “lost” Contra, or in the case of American audiences, the “there’s another 80’s Contra?” Contra.

I really want to get on to Super C, but there was one last stop to make along the way. Instead of playing the DOS version of Contra, which apparently most everyone agrees is garbage, I decided to skip over to this Japanese exclusive. MSX appealed to me more, anyway. After all, the MSX was the closest we’ll ever come to Konami having their own platform. They were THE gaming face of the MSX, and in the not so distant future, I might be exploring their contributions further.

Some Konami MSX games I look forward to more than others. There’s an MSX version of Konami’s NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and it’s.. not going to be my favorite game ever. To say the least.

Contra on the MSX is a very different game from the Nintendo and arcade games. It might use those as a road map for what the game absolutely needs to pass for Contra, but it’s essentially an entirely new game that wears the Contra name. There’s no scrolling. There’s health, so a bullet doesn’t kill you, at least immediately. There’s no spread gun, aka my favorite gun. That one hurts, but at least the gun that replaced it is actually pretty helpful during boss battles: the “rear gun” which shoots behind you as well. Since one of the game’s go-to moves for challenge is having the grunts spawn on both sides of the screen during boss battles, it cuts down the busy work of shooting a guy on one side, then turning around and shooting again before you can go back to shooting the boss. This becomes very important thanks to the two worst additions to the Contra formula: sponge and small collision boxes.

It was actually kind of insane how many shots the final targets in the bases take to kill. Without hyperbole, these always took me over a minute of pinging them. They have a small collision box too.

I’m grateful for the MSX version of Contra because it validated my suspicion that speed and generosity play a big role in the success of Contra. On the NES, and even in arcades, Contra cuts a blistering pace. The MSX game isn’t “slow” for the most part. Instead, it’s too stop-and-go. When you’re making your way to a boss, it is a close approximation to Contra, only played one screen at a time. But then the bosses happen. They usually have small collision boxes. The best example of this is the jumping alien. In the NES game, you could shoot anywhere on its body and it registered damage. On the MSX, you HAVE to shoot it in the head, and it has a pretty tiny head. Everything is this way. The big ass tanks from the snow level? They’re here, but you have to shoot them in the gun. There’s an annoying little wrinkle that comes with all this: if you have muscle memory of Contra’s jumping from the NES or Arcade, it won’t help you with timing at all here. You jump a little higher and a little floatier on the MSX. I really struggled to aim, whether I was side-scrolling or shooting at the wall in third person mode. Speaking of which, you have to aim up in some levels in third person mode, but for most targets, that goes over them. But, your standard trajectory often doesn’t work either, so you have to jump and shoot as middle ground between angles. So annoying.

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For these reasons, Contra on MSX has a reputation of being especially hard, and yea, it’s true. By the way, there’s NO continues. Yikes. After a couple hours, I opted to use a popular ROM hack that gives you virtually infinite health and I still managed to lose a couple lives. It’s really telling how tough the collision is (not bad, but tough) because with the addition of these challenging aspects also comes the addition of straight-up cheese. Contra MSX’s screen-based scrolling allows you to run past entire sections of the game. The lead-up to the battle with the giant alien heart? It’s here, with the alien turrets that spit  “spores” out that heat seeks you. Only, on the MSX, it’s a cinch! You can just run past them with no consequence. They get a fresh spawn every new screen and need time to fire their first bullets, which in turn need a few seconds before they pose a danger to you. If you don’t care about your score, you have more than enough time to just run across the screen. Nothing chases you to the next screen. Not enemies. Not bullets. They cease to exist. This is almost certainly why they beefed-up the bosses. They had to, because this is a Contra that rewards cowardice. Thanks to that health bar that they chose to go with in addition to a life system, getting shot once doesn’t cost you a gun. But not getting shot at all costs you nothing. Why engage if you don’t have to? You know the bosses are going to be tough, so just leg it past enemies when you can and save your strength for the battle ahead.

“Hey.. HEY.. you can’t do that! That’s cheating!” “Duh! I’m using the ‘cheat enabled’ ROM! How did you think I was going to play? With honor? Hah!”

So, that’s Contra on the MSX. You know the drill. Swap between side scrolling and third person gameplay. Kill a few aliens. Shoot an alien heart to death, then watch the credits..

Hey, wait a second..

Why’s the game still going?

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Okay, okay, yea, I can dig it. When you kill the heart in Contra on MSX, there’s still a lot of game left. As in “you’re only about halfway done.” After the heart battle, Contra introduces more gameplay elements that are new to the series. Like vertical levels where you travel down instead of up. Okay, that’s different. Sure, the cheese issue from before applies even more here. It’s very easy to just drop down to the next screen without engaging anything. But, the highlight is easily a pair of third person bases that are, in fact, mazes. You don’t know which way leads to the final chamber and picking the wrong way takes you back. It’s not that hard to find your way around, but I was impressed nonetheless. The only truly new set piece is a lava stage, and then the final boss is called the “vital alien organ.” As opposed to what? Shooting the Appendix of Contra? The Spleen of Contra? Oh, oh, the Tonsils of Contra! No, that one wouldn’t work. What if they’re infected? You’d be doing the alien a favor. Yea, taking out vital organs probably makes more sense.

The Vital Alien Organ. I will not make the most obvious joke here. You’re welcome.

Keeping it real, Contra on MSX is one of the least popular games among fans of the franchise for a reason. There are certain benchmarks that make for a good Contra game, and this is missing a few. There’s no co-op. Single player only. The gunplay isn’t amazing. It’s pretty basic, especially compared to the more famous NES and Arcade games, and that’s assuming the guns worked at all. The flamethrower from the coin-op/NES is here. You know, the gun that shoots bullets that travel in circles. Circles bigger than the collision boxes are in this version of Contra. You see where this is going.

Yea, the flamethrower bullets circled around the tiny collision box on the UFO. Every single bullet missed when I stood right underneath it. The flamethrower is WORTHLESS against bosses. I think it might be the worst video game gun invented before Goldeneye’s Klobb.

And I didn’t find the laser very satisfactory either. Not worthless. Don’t get me wrong, but just not as fun to use. It’s too subdued. Weirdly, the basic machine gun or the rear gun are the most satisfying and useful weapons. Oh, and this time around, the capsules that fly onto the screen don’t drop guns. They instead drop items that boost your movement speed and firing speed. They’re also much harder to hit. Again, tiny collision boxes. I have no idea why Konami’s team (it’s hard to find credits for a lot of MSX games) made the choices they did, but few of them are in service to the game’s enjoyment. Ultimately, Contra for MSX never feels like Contra. Even with replicated set-pieces and bosses, it doesn’t even come close. I make “dollar store knock-off” jokes all the time, but in the case of Contra, that really is the closest I can come to saying how it feels. If there were such a thing as a dollar store gaming knock-off, Contra on MSX would be the dollar store Contra.

Another change, and this is a very big one: you can’t destroy primary targets until you’ve taken out all secondary guns. Take the first boss, for example. Want to blow up the main target? Gotta take out the top two guns first. Even though it makes the damage noise, the main target won’t blow up no matter how long you pump bullets into it. I actually like this change. It adds stakes, and in fact, would be a positive addition to the NES version. Like the “Final Gate” boss before the alien lair, where you can just run up and hit the target before it even gets one shot off at you? That would be out the window. You’d have to take out the two cannons first. Contra MSX is full of those kinds of ideas that COULD work, but they don’t help this specific game for other reasons.

On the other hand, I genuinely enjoyed the extra levels and effort that went into coming up with replacements for the hardware’s shortcomings. No spread gun? That sucks, but the gun that replaced, while nowhere near as fun, got a LOT of use from this chick. That should count for something, right? And then there’s ideas that are totally out of left field, like how picking up new guns work. Once you pick up a gun, you have THAT gun, and every time you get to another spot where you can pick-up a gun, even if it’s an old one you already have, you can choose to equip any gun you’ve previously found via a menu. I don’t think I’d like that for NES Contra, but it certainly works here. I used it too, to swap between the laser and the rear gun a few times. There’s a lot of novelty here to make MSX Contra interesting beyond the raw gameplay. But, gameplay is king. The best thing I can say about MSX Contra is that it took the skeleton of Contra and boiled a perfectly fine gaming broth both out of it that might make for a lousy game of Contra, but it’s perfectly decent as a bland action game. Contra on MSX might not deserve to wear the Contra name, but it does, and it should be included in any collection of classic Contra games. This deserved a spot on Contra Anniversary Collection, even if it doesn’t feel like the Contra we all love.
Verdict: YES!

The names of levels are hilarious. The boss of the first base is called “Homicide Censor No. 1.” That’s hardcore. Meanwhile, the first stage is called “Asphalt Jungle.” WTF? Do you even know what an asphalt jungle is, Konami? Your game takes place in a LITERAL jungle, not an asphalt one.

Contra (3)PART OF THE CONTRA REVIEW SERIES!
IGC Review of Contra (Arcade)
IGC Review of Contra (NES)
IGC Review of Super Contra (Arcade)
IGC Review of Super C (NES)

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Contra (Arcade Review)

October 21, 2024 by 6 Comments

Contra
aka Gryzor 
Platform: Arcade
Released February 20, 1987
Directed by Koji Hiroshita 
Published by Konami
Included in Contra Anniversary Collection
Sold Separately via Arcade Archives

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When I reviewed Contra for the NES yesterday, I didn’t mention the arcade game at all. That’s because I think the conversation belongs here, in the arcade review. I don’t know if the fact that the NES game is superior to the coin-op is impressive or shameful. Maybe a little from column A and a little from column B. By any metric, the NES has the better game of Contra. Yes, that includes the graphics. I think Contra in arcades is pretty ugly. The graphics look washed-out, but not in a cool, stylized type of way. It’s just so drab looking, especially compared to the NES. But, who cares about looks? Gameplay matters, and I’ll still take Contra on the NES. Despite being a coin-op, Contra Arcade feels like a smaller game. Which is technically true because the NES game has more levels, but what I specifically mean is probably more related to the use of a vertical monitor. The game doesn’t benefit from a taller playfield, even on the waterfall stage where you climb upward. All the vertical screen does is subtract from the playfield without adding any benefits like a sense of claustrophobia or heightened urgency. It’s just cramped, period. The whole game is. By all rights, the arcade game should feel more grand and epic, but here’s the third boss in the NES game that came out a year after the coin-op:

Giant alien monster with two tentacle arms that shoot fireballs.

And here’s the original arcade version:

Two normal turrets, a five-gun turret, and a target.

One is unforgettable, and the other is so pedestrian that it could be any game. The NES version is a gigantic alien. In arcades, it really is just a base, and not even as grand a base as the first boss. It doesn’t even have to be an alien base. It could be a G.I. Joe‘s Cobra-like terrorist organization you’re fighting that has a bad H. R. Giger fetish. It’s just so generic and forgettable. The funny thing is, most of the bosses are almost identical in appearance and gameplay to the NES game, except they feel less important, and others genuinely are. By that I mean they’re bosses on the NES, but not in the arcade. The jumping alien isn’t. The giant UFO that drops smaller UFOs isn’t. Hell, you fight two of each of those in the arcade version. And the base boss before the final level from the NES game? It’s not even in the coin-op. In fact, after you beat the second base, the rest of the game kind of plays out as one large, continuous level. It’s strange, and it doesn’t work. I’ve always felt that bosses are a game’s metronome. They set the tempo, and build a player’s anticipation. Levels are always a little more exciting when you know you’re inching closer to a boss. Contra gives up on that design mentality early on, and it’s not better for it.

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I had a developer friend once half-jokingly tell me something to the effect of, “thank god we started with transistor–transistor logic. If they had access to today’s computing power in 1972, we might still be waiting for the first great video game in the 2020s. They would have had so many options that they wouldn’t have known what to do with themselves!” In essence, great games wouldn’t have happened because the steps that created great games happened due to limitations and not despite them. He was kidding, but I’m not. He was right! Look no further than the arcade Contra. It’s the first game. Not based on anything (well, any video game). Much more powerful hardware than home consoles had at the time. And, when home releases did happen, such as the NES game, it’s pretty dang close. All the set pieces from the arcade game are on the NES, and in fact whole sections of some levels are. The NES game is a faithful adaptation, all things considered. But even with all the potential advantages in terms of hardware and resources the coin-op had, the NES just totally outclasses it. Remember how the vertical screen didn’t improve the waterfall? The one vertical-scrolling stage? Well, it did even less for the bases. They’re much smaller in scope and scale on the arcade version, with the only exception being the illusion of moving left and right at the end of them.

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Some people really don’t like Arcade Contra, but it’s fine. It’s not amazing. It’s alright. If it seems like a bad game, it’s only by virtue of how amazing the NES game was. The arcade port has less personality and none of the charm. It has fewer levels. But, it’s still an okay game. Harder for sure, and there’s limited continues (the NES has this too, but the arcade has no 30 lives code). Except the laser is especially valuable now, and probably crosses the line into overpowered territory. It cuts through enemies like butter, but admittedly in a fun way. But, otherwise, it’s just a lesser game. I once said the SNES version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time was perhaps the first coin-op action game outclassed by the home version, but I was clearly wrong. Contra on the NES completely blasts its arcade counterpart. And yet, what has the arcade version done so wrong? It controls fine. The action is good. Bosses are fun. Co-op is decent. The finale is memorable. It is Contra, only if Contra was okay instead of phenomenal. I’ve played hundreds of bad versions of great games. This isn’t bad. It’s just not as good.

Golly, this review sounded like a eulogy.

Don’t get me wrong. Even if the NES game didn’t happen, Contra would not be an elite arcade game. It would be a B-lister Konami coin-op, and there’s a lot more of those than I realized when I started my retro adventures. Yet, none of those are vilified to the degree Contra is. I kind of feel sorry for it. History will continue to look back more and more kindly on NES Contra. Its reputation is not done growing. Ironically, that’s why the arcade game’s fate is sealed. There will be no historic reevaluation. Contra Arcade is what it is: an okay game, and nothing more. Except, it does get credit for being a proof of concept for a superior game. The blueprints to one of the greatest video games EVER made. That has to count for something.
Verdict: YES!

PART OF THE CONTRA REVIEW SERIES!
IGC Review of Contra (NES)
IGC Review of Contra (MSX)
IGC Review of Super Contra (Arcade)
IGC Review of Super C (NES)

Filed under Retro Reviews Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

Contra (NES Review)

October 20, 2024 by 19 Comments

Contra
aka Probotector
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Released February 9, 1988
Directed by Shigeharu Umezaki & Shinji Kitamoto
Developed by Konami
Included in Contra Anniversary Collection

I imagine the Konami NES NO! streak is about to end.

Ever shut down an account with 18,600 followers? It doesn’t feel great. I need something to cheer me up. I think it speaks volumes that, when I was asking myself “what classic game can I play that I know is guaranteed to be a good time no matter how many times I play it?” Contra sprang to mind. Come on, it’s Contra! What can I possibly say that hasn’t been said by everyone who loves games? “It’s a very fun game, but when do we get to the part where we trade arms to Iran?” Thanks, Dad. I’m sure nobody has ever made THAT joke before. So, I did something a little different with this review. In addition to playing through it, I watched my father and niece Sasha play a round. I just wanted to see if they had fun. No help from me, except I told them the Konami Code, which Dad had heard of but Sasha, all of age 9, hadn’t. Took them a couple tries but they got it right. Dad had played this a little bit before with me, but we’d never really finished it. And, they had a great time! They really liked Contra a lot, both declaring it one of the best games they’ve ever played, and that made me feel awesome. That could be the whole review there, but WHY is Contra fun? Why is it so beloved? Has any game that’s so small and unassuming left a bigger footprint? Arguably, it’s more famous for the Konami Code than the game itself. Plenty of people can’t recite their own driver’s license number by heart, but they can recite how to get 30 lives in Contra, even if they haven’t played it in decades. I HAVE to know: what makes Contra.. well, Contra?

This is arguably the game that introduced the concept of “epic” to gaming.

The obvious answer is “everything.” The music. The sound effects. The guns. The bosses. The two gameplay styles, side scrolling stages and third-person stages, being completely compatible in a way that changes the pace in a fun and inventive way? Something a different Contra game proved matters a great deal, by the way. Super C’s top-down sections are nowhere near as fun as Contra’s third-person stages. Top down? Pssh, what is this? Ikari Warriors? Commando? Top-down is far too common-place on the NES, unlike the third-person stuff. Even the mythology around Contra elevates it above other games. I’m not just talking about the most famous cheat code in gaming history. It certainly played a big role, but it’s not even really Contra’s code. It’s Konami’s code, and it started in the game Gradius because play testers weren’t able to finish the game and needed help. It was a series of inputs nobody could do by accident. Then, they just forgot to delete it before publication, and the code became an icon of gaming. Hell, it’s in the Tengen version of Tetris. Sort of. The “UP UP” part isn’t, but if you pause that game and press “DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A” it changes any block into the Tetris-making long block.

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And that’s just the start of Contra’s mythology. How about the fact that, in Europe, they replaced humans with robots? That’s one of those things that’s just so weird, but in a charming way. There’s no doubt about it: Contra for the NES is in the discussion for the greatest video game of all-time, but I suspect the secret to its success goes deeper. I think Contra is one of the most interesting games ever made. On the surface, it doesn’t really seem like it would make for an interesting review, either. Well, at least my style of review, because Contra doesn’t do very much wrong. What can I possibly complain about? There’s no cheap shots. There’s no gotchas. The jumping is damn near perfect. The levels are flawlessly paced. There’s not one placement of platforms I would consider to be an unfair or bad jump. There’s no trollish enemy placement. If anything, Contra handles all those elements so precisely and thoughtfully that you’d swear a super computer chose their locations based on some kind of scientific formula. The one sort of “dirty pool” part are these hooks, which don’t use a timed interval like previous ones had:

And.. you can just jump over them. There’s enough clearance. Took me a while to figure that one out. Even the weapons are equally fun. While I know what gun *I* like (the spread gun), there’s practical arguments that the flamethrower, laser, and even the machine gun are equally balanced. Hell, did Contra even make a mistake at all, or is this that rare game that’s absolutely perfect?

In Japan, there’s some special effects that don’t happen in the US. There’s also a Ghosts ‘n Goblins-like Map Screen and “cut scenes” like the one above.

It might actually be perfect. Except the co-op, which has scrolling that can double-kill you or worse if you die and then respawn right over a pit without your partner moving the screen far enough over. You can also scroll-kill on the Waterfall stage too. Except, that sort of feels like the type of communication-based challenge that co-op SHOULD have, doesn’t it? So, great, back to “is it perfect?” And the answer to that is “no.” There’s one flaw that I would come down on like a ton of bricks if it were any other game, and fair is fair. So, here is the one and only genuine problem with Contra: visibility issues. And it’s not nothing. Assuming you have a non-standard gun, your bullets are big and highly visible. But, basic grunt enemies and the turrets shoot white dots at you, and sometimes they vanish in the fog of war. Depending on your screen, it can be very easy to lose track of the enemy shots. As a precaution I have to take with my photosensitivity, I have to play my games in a room that’s brightly lit. It sucks, but it beats having a seizure, a headache, or whatever else might happen. Some games it’s not even a big deal, but it absolutely is with Contra. I’m good enough now that, when I die, it’s usually a total surprise because of a stray bullet that blended a little too perfectly with the rest of the screen. Once I was absolutely certain that there was nothing about the graphics or effects of Contra that was dangerous for my photosensitivity, I turned the lighting down a little bit. Visibility was still an issue. So, it’s a thing.

The visibility thing is especially annoying in the third-person levels. The little electric beam that keeps you from running forward is white and bounces up and down. It’s visually noisy and white, while the bullets are visually small, subtle, and white. There’s also white lines to create the illusion of depth, and enemies have white shoes. Hell, the seams of your pants are white. It’s not a coincidence most of my deaths in this feature came during these base stages.

That one flaw is certainly not enough to take Contra out of the contention for the title of best NES game. I obviously don’t think it is (that honor goes to another Konami game: Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse), but it’s no-doubt-about-it in the discussion. Even people not inclined to enjoy pew-pew beefy dudes shooting guns type of games love Contra. I think a big part of that is it’s one of the most clockable games of this type out there. In recent years, one of my proudest gaming achievements was successfully beating the original Castlevania without dying. But, a no-hit run seems so far out of my league that it’s practically off the table. When I had that no-death run, a few people mentioned trying a no-death run on Contra. HAH. That feels well out of reach. Then I played it for this review. Actually, I played it multiple times, but that wasn’t my intention. I was going to play it once single, and once co-op. In the first game, I put the 30 lives code in as a precaution, but I didn’t need it. I ended up making it over half-way through the game on my first attempt before I lost my first life. WTF? Really? In fact, yea, I made it to the “energy zone” before I died right here:

This prickish fire beam that behaves differently than other fire beams is where my no-death streak ended in my first game in this review.

Am I just fantastic at games? Nah. If you want to completely trivialize Contra’s difficulty, all you need is a controller with autofire, the spread gun, and enough experience playing Contra that you know what to expect. It’s not even that much experience, either. I hadn’t played Contra in a long time when I made that first run during this review, and I finished the entire game with only two deaths thanks to cautious gameplay and the autofire. On its own, with a regular controller, Contra is genuinely pretty tough, right? Maybe the first time, but if you know what to expect, it’s really not that hard. I know this because I just created a challenge for myself: Contra, with no thirty lives code and no autofire. Can I beat the game without needing a continue?

That was a warm-up, everyone. Warm-up.

Let’s try that again.

Oh for f*ck’s sake, Cathy.

Alright, seriously, starting over, and this time I’m going to remind my brain there’s no autofire and I can’t just barge through the game like I want to talk to the game’s manager. No BS, how far can I make it in Contra with zero extra help? No thirty lives code. No autofire, no rewinding, no save states. Go!

Death #1 happened during the last room before the boss of the second level. I tried to get too many shots off at the primary target before smartening-up and taking out at least one of the turrets. The worst part was losing my spread gun. I basically traded it and one of my lives for the flamethrower, which is my least favorite of the four non-basic weapons. I didn’t get the spread gun back until over halfway through level three, which is where I also scored my first free life (CORRECTION – IT WAS MY SECOND FREE LIFE).

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Death #2 happened during the third boss, which is one of the few bosses that shoots large projectiles you can’t blow-up with your own bullets. I think I just died from a bullet that spawned in the same space I was occupying. Death #3 happened in the first room of level four. Yep, I’m in trouble. I got a flamethrower (sigh, why do the third-person things give me that POS first?), then ended up with the laser, and soon after, another free life. Made it to the final room which has three turrets, tons of barrels that come at you, and enemies that never stop shooting. Death #4, but I got a machine gun for the first time since the start of the game and got out of the boss fight with two lives left. Without any third-person levels left, for a moment, I thought I had a shot at it. I got ANOTHER free life soon into the next stage, and I got my spread gun back. And then I remembered the big f’n tanks in the next level.. which I defeated easily. In fact, I had my first level since level one where I didn’t die! I also didn’t die in the 6th level and got ANOTHER free life.

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This was my Homer Simpson moment. “I’M GONNA MAKE IT! I’M GONNA MAKE IT! THIS IS THE GREATEST THRILL OF MY LIFE! I’M QUEEN OF THE WORLD AND..”

Death #5

Are you kidding me? A pack of three guys had been running to the edge of the platform below me and then turning around. I shot two of them, but one jumped and got me. Goddammit so much. Except.. uh.. that was my last death. Holy crap, I just beat Contra without gaming-over, without the 30 lives code, without cheating, AND without autofire!

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Granted, I had a two-death game with autofire already in the making of this review, but I literally squealed with joy. It just feels like it matters for some reason. So, now that I’m really warmed up, how far can I make it with autofire? How much does that completely neutralize the difficulty of Contra?

Warm up. WHAT? WARM UP! (I didn’t make my jumps across the exploding bridges).

After that false start, I did it. No death run on Contra. With autofire, but no cheating. The game continues afterwards with another cycle. I couldn’t find anything on if the second cycle is supposed to be harder. I didn’t think it was, but I wanted to see how far I could make it without dying. I wasn’t as cautious this time. The first cycle, I paced myself, especially with the turrets. I made sure to take them out as soon as I could to lessen the chances of a stray bullet. I didn’t the second time around and I made it..

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Contra, like Castlevania, has a overstated difficulty. It’s tough, but not unclockable. Random elements are kept to a minimum, and enemies are predictable. Your bullets travel the full length of the screen, and it’s not like enemy fire is blanketing the playfield. This isn’t a bullet hell, or even remotely close to that. On top of all that, if you die, there’s never too much distance between you and the next opportunity to upgrade your gun. How many video games with a reputation for being difficult are there where the difficulty is based on the fact that you’re absolutely f*cked the very first time you lose your current loadout? That’s not the case at all with Contra. In my no autofire run, I only finished one boss without the default gun. Enemies are never too spongy. Bosses aren’t, even with your basic gun, but the odds are you won’t have your basic gun for long anyway. That was my revelation about Contra: as far as this type of game goes, it’s almost unprecedented in how generous it is with power-ups and extra lives. Mind you, there’s no extra life pick-up. Extra lives come from points only, yet, I was constantly hearing the pleasant chime of a +1 to my stockpile. I’ve played a lot of NES run & gun games way more intense than this. Compare Contra to something like Capcom titles Gun.Smoke or Commando. Contra is downright kind.

In Europe, the franchise is called Probotector. It sounds like a satire of a game name, doesn’t it? But, it’s the same game. Oddly enough, I didn’t find the difficulty better or worse on any of the three versions (including the Famicom). That’s rare. If there was any difference, it was so subtle that I didn’t feel it.

And I think I know now why Contra is so universally loved: challenge isn’t the point. Fun is. It’s generous with the special guns because they’re more fun than the basic gun. It’s not spongy with the bosses because that would make the novelty of fighting them wear off quickly. The developers have nothing to prove or gain by demoralizing players. Contra is tough to start, but it’s easy to memorize where enemies are going to be. It doesn’t even slow gameplay down that much to play conservatively. It’s the most doable of any “hard” game on the NES. It was A LOT harder for me to beat Castlevania without dying than it was to beat Contra without continuing or, with autofire, without losing a life.

It helps that not one single level qualifies as “the bad one” or even the “not as good one.” Contra is a masterpiece of level design. They’re all a lot of fun.

When people talk about “Nintendo Hard” it’s usually about games like Battletoads which are so prohibitively difficult that they just become boring after the first couple stages. Then there’s Contra, which thanks to the 30 lives code, anyone can finish with a continue or two. It’s a cinch. But, without that code, it’s a game hard enough that beating it without continuing is an accomplishment I’m proud of. At the same time, it wasn’t that hard. It just took a lot of replays over the years. And that’s where Contra’s credentials as a bonafide gaming legend are revealed. Hell, I could probably brute-force memorize any game and get myself to the point where I can beat it in a way that feels like a big deal. Some would just take longer than others. But, for 99.9% of all games, the process for getting to that point would be so boring. Not Contra. No matter how many replays, it’s as fun the last time as it was the first time. It might not be anyone’s #1 game of all-time, but it’s up there for EVERYONE, and there’s not a lot of games you can say that about. And THAT’S why Contra is one of the all-time greats. But, certainly not THE greatest.. right? RIGHT?! I don’t even know.
Verdict: YES
“What about the coin-op? What about Super C? What about..”

Contra SplashPART OF THE CONTRA REVIEW SERIES!
IGC Review of Contra (Arcade)
IGC Review of Contra (MSX)
IGC Review of Super Contra (Arcade)
IGC Review of Super C (NES)

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