For most of you, you’re probably asking why I’m re-reviewing Contra? Well, it’s mostly because I reviewed the NES port, but it was my early years and I want to do a much better review. But I also want to take a look at the Arcade version and see what’s different from the NES port, heck, I may also take a look at the MSX2 port as well because why not? I’ll do the same with Super Contra until I can do a first review of Contra III: The Alien Wars and the rest of the games.
The Contra series was birthed in the 80’s, a time when action movies were over-the-top. The likes of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Commando and whatnot had action scenes involving gunning down all the enemies, no questions asked. Nowadays, action movies tend to be slower-paced and the action is a bit more realistic and the heroes are given deeper characters. But sometimes that’s no fun, I can go back to Rambo and just enjoy the gun fights since the hero doesn’t get hit once, I know it’s silly but sometimes those action movies are perfect. Oh, and they’re MANLY AS FUCK!
So when you translate that fast-paced gunning action to video games, it’s surely a no-brainer, so long as it’s done right and Konami did it right at the time and it’s a series, especially on the NES, that raised you as a child, especially if you were an American…FUCK YEAH?
Contra (魂斗羅 Kontora), developed and published by Konami, the Arcade original was released in 1987 worldwide. Though in Europe and Oceania areas, it was known as Gryzor. So why the name change? Well…we don’t exactly know, but it may have to do with a political scandal, known as the Iran-Contra affair when Ronald Reagan was still the President of the US at that time, and let’s just say, it wasn’t anything positive and quite controversial, meaning that the name Contra may have been questionable, which would not only explain the name change outside of Japan and the US, but would explain why the sequel was known as Super C for the NES.
It’s 2633, the Red Ribbon Army…I mean the Red Falcon Organisation have set a base near New Zealand and are planning on world domination. Now the smarter strategy, especially nowadays would be to send in an army to gun down everyone strategically and the characters would have different personalities and you may find them relatable…but this story was made in the 80’s so instead, only a measly two commandos are enlisted to take down an entire organisation, Pfc. Bill Rizer and Pfc. Lance Bean, specialising in guerrilla tactics, they are part of the Contra unit. But what if there’s something mysterious about the Red Falcon Organisation?
So yeah, a simple story for a simple arcade game and this is what the game consist of.
You play as Bill Rizer (Or Lance Bean if you’re the second player), as you simply gun down everyone whilst avoiding death and I’ll explain that later. Enemy soldiers? Gun them. Turrets? Gun them. Weapon collection? Gun them. You shoot everything and you’re given eight directions to shoot so you’re given freedom to shoot enemies, but it’s how you use that freedom. OK, let me say this, this game is hard, very hard. Since this is an arcade game, welcome one and all to one-hit deaths, where something will hit you…and you die. And if you’re the first-timer, you will die a lot and you only get a few continues until you get a complete Game Over even when you roll in the pennies.
But to help you, the types of weapons are plentiful. I mean you can upgrade your default weapons, your Rifle, to Rapid Fire and then a barrier, which can help you when you can collect it…the word being ‘can’. But there are other weapons like a Machine Gun, instant rapid fire. A Laser Gun, where you shoot a crap laser beam…please don’t pick the Laser Gun. A Fireball Gun, where you shoot fireballs and they go SWIRLY, SWIRLY WEEEEEE! But the most iconic gun and the one that trumps all weapons in the game is the Spread Gun, where you’re able to shoot bullets in five directions, when you have this gun, everything in front of you dies…and it’s absolutely gut-wrenching, especially in the Arcades, you die and go back to the weak Rifle.
For a game known for running and gunning, there’s a ton of variety in terms of levels, since by the second level, it turns into a pseudo-3D base, where you need to shoot sensors to get pass parts of the base. After that, you reach the centre of the base where you shoot boxed sensors to expose the real target. The next level consist of running and gunning again…in vertical-scrolling level design. So with people criticising Crash Bandicoot 3 for having too many game changes, how come Contra did the same thing and gets away scot-free? Well you’re still shooting everyone but whatever.
The gameplay is very fast-paced, everything for the most part flies everywhere and you dodge and weave enemy fire and it’s quite exhilarating, it’s one of those games where the more you play, the more you get good at. But this is the arcade version, there’s no Konami code, just a few continues and DONE! The graphics are pretty good; it has that distinct Konami design of being quite grainy but kind of a cool kind of grainy. The music is cool as well; it’s catchy and action-packed.
Now it’s on to the one of the most famous ports, the NES/Famicom. This version is the one I grew up with on my Game Boy Advance Multicart but one a lot of people grew up with on the NES. It was released in 1989 in Japan and in the US and in 1990 in Europe as Probotector…I’ll explain later.
The game is very similar to the original arcade game, but I feel the game is much faster but it’s actually for the better. As well as that, the level set-up is quite different, maybe to make it a more like a home console game. Stages are a bit longer, the base and core battles are meshed into one concise level, some bosses have been altered to be quite intense, most particularly the Waterfall boss, and the final level in the arcade original have been split and became their own levels entirely.
And yes, this game popularised the Konami Code, all together now…
↑↑↓↓←→←→BA START
…fantastic!
In this game, you get 30 lives and if you’re the filthy casual you’re going to need this, it’s the stabilisers on your bike, but once you’re good at the game, you will never need the code.
However, whilst I’ve had experience with the NES version, for this review, I’m playing the Famicom version with an English patch. You’re probably asking why a Japanese version needed an English patch when the game barely had a story? This is because the Famicom version does in fact have a story in-game, it has cutscenes and such. The reason why this was never implemented into the NES version was because the Famicom version has a VRC2, a custom-made Multi-Memory Controller developed by Konami. I think the NES version should do you well, the cutscenes aren’t really needed, the action tells the story.
And…since I live in the UK, we got a heavy alteration. Whilst the arcade original here was called Gryzor and the game remained the same, the NES port was known as Probotector, and all the characters have been replaced with robots because Germany didn’t quite like gamers shooting down humans so robots were fine. The game is the same as the NES port, but with robots fighting aliens. Yeah, blame Germany for that screw-up…then again; the NES wasn’t as massive as the Sega Master System in the UK so we were none the wiser.
The graphics and level design is lesser than the arcade port, but…how could I criticise it? The NES graphics have been sewed into the minds of gamers, even seeing a different version would be jarring, that’s how powerful the game’s graphics are…or the fact that more people played the NES port.
And finally, there was an MSX2 port, released in 1989 exclusive to Japan. The game is quite different to both Arcade and NES versions as due to the limitations of the computer, the screen didn’t scroll, instead, you go through the game one screen at a time, this is known as flip-screens and Konami used this for both Metal Gear and Vampire Killer (Castlevania).
You got two power-ups in this version like Falcon, where you can move and shoot faster and the weapon power-up will bring up a menu to choose which weapon to use if you collected it. You can choose which weapon to use…except for the Spread Gun, which isn’t in this game. I guess the Spread Gun would have been too much for the ol’ MSX2. This version is also much harder, sure you get a health bar and a small chunk of lives but if you lose those lives, it’s Game Over with no Continues, making this one much harder by default. The graphics are OK for the system but it doesn’t’ beat the NES port.
Overall, Contra is quite timeless in its gameplay, its difficulty and the fact that it’s still fun, especially with multiplayer. Question, have we ever got a 3D shooter like this, where you gun down everything non-stop…minus the one-hit deaths, I won’t miss that. Let me know! I believe this game captures the best of 80’s action movies, with guns, aliens and the scent of shameless masculinity, what’s not to love?
As well as the Arcade, NES and MSX2, you can also get it on the PlayChoice-10, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS, PlayStation 2 and Xbox Live Arcade.
Next Time! It’s Super Contra!