![]() Every musical track in this game just pops. All of the music in the original Super Contra was great to begin with, but the XBLA port took those tracks and remixed them, with even better results. A few of the enemies can blend into the background as well, making it difficult to see them before it's too late.įortunately, the sound is good enough to grab your attention and keep you playing. All of the explosions are big and vibrant, but they often cover up bullets that are flying toward you. The updated graphics also cause some other problems. There are plenty of enemy sprites that look good, and the bosses here are some of the best-looking sprites in the game, but it feels a little disjointed to go from a colorful, green jungle to a gray cavern. On all of the top-down levels, you're looking at the floor, which is kind of bland. Unfortunately, that is only true for the side-scrolling levels. Everything from the backgrounds to the sprites looks terrific. This XBLA port also includes updated HD graphics that make the locales even more beautiful. Each of the five levels is different and takes you from a destroyed military base to a lush jungle and into the hideout of the alien threat. For example, the game is gorgeous to look at. Now, not everything in Super Contra fills me with anger. Changing these settings disables Achievements and leaderboard scores, so if you want everything in the game, you'd best get to work. You can change the number of lives you start with, the number of continues you have, and the overall difficulty of the game, but there's a drawback. Thankfully, the developers for the XBLA iteration try to take it easy on you. Unlike most games where the completion is its own reward, Super Contra is so frustrating that when you finally beat it, you aren't happy but upset that you've wasted hours of your life. While Super Contra is certainly not impossible, it just seems to be difficult for difficulty's sake. I played through Ninja Gaiden on the original Xbox multiple times because I was too stubborn to let a game beat me. Sure, it only takes one hit from your gun to kill most of them, but with only one of you and 25 of them, the odds certainly aren't in your favor. There is stuff all over the screen that will kill you with one hit. If it's not bullets coming straight at you, it's soldiers shooting at your six. Whereas the original Contra took practice but was eventually surmountable, Super Contra just seems unforgiving. Super Contra is hard, and I only use the word "hard" because my mind is so boggled by the difficulty level that I simply cannot come up with a more fitting word. Unfortunately, this last line is where the game starts to break down. ![]() This mirrors similar arcade games of the time, like Ikari Warriors, but even with the different perspective, the gameplay remains the same, with hordes of enemies, bullets, and pretty much everything else in the world that might want to kill you. Super Contra, however, decides to shake things up by throwing in some top-down gameplay for the remaining two levels. Of the five levels, three of them maintain this classic Contra-esque gameplay. On top of this, if you collect two of the same power-up, it makes the gun even better, increasing the damage and rate of fire. Your basic gun is kind of weak, but that's okay because Super Contra, like its predecessor, has some of the coolest power-ups of any video game ever. All of the classic formula is present, including the fast-paced action as you move to the right of the screen, mowing down hundreds of enemies that stand in your way. ![]() Arcade games never have good stories, especially the ones that involve you running and gunning.Īnd that's one thing that Super Contra does well. The story seems a bit on the light side, but that's because this is an arcade game. Super Contra takes place a year after the original game, pitting Rambo-esque heroes, Bill and Lance, against an alien invading force that has taken over the bodies of soldiers in South America. While it certainly maintains that great Contra flavor with scores of enemies and great power-ups, the game is so freaking hard that it will make you want to throw your controller through the TV. Unfortunately, that's not quite the case with the Xbox Live Arcade port of its sequel, Super Contra. I sank hours into that game, trying to perfect my skill to the point where I could beat it without the "Konami Code." In my opinion, it's one of the games that nails the perfect balance between difficulty and fun while it was definitely challenging, you could overcome it if you knew what you were doing. ![]() ![]() I have a lot of memories of the original Contra. ![]()
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