This is the third installment in my SNES MINI Journey. In our last installment we went over our game-play in Star Fox One and Star Fox Two. I intend on giving each game on the mini SNES a play and recording my experience here on the Hive Blockchain. Some games I will complete in full, others I will just play a stage or two. All the games we played thus far are: Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox and Star Fox 2. For this installment we decided to play the all time classic Contra 3. I say we because I once again had my partner in crime playing with me (my daughter). Before we get into the Contra 3 game play and "first reactions" of such let me give you the list of games found on SNES MINI (Super Nintendo Entertainment System MINI). Release Date: September, 2017 (North America).
List Of Games On Mini SNES CLASSIC
Contra III: The Alien Wars
Donkey Kong Country
Kirby Super Star
Kirby's Dream Course
Secret of Mana
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario World
Final Fantasy III
Super Castlevania IV
EarthBound
F-ZERO
Mega Man X
Star Fox
Star Fox 2
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Metroid
Super Punch-Out!!
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Yoshi's Island
Contra 3 Wiki
Contra III: The Alien Wars[b] is a 1992 run and gun video game developed and published by Konami for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It is the third home console entry in the Contra series after Contra (1988) and Super C (1990) for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). In PAL regions, it was retitled Super Probotector: Alien Rebels and the player characters were replaced with robots. The player is tasked with fighting off an alien invasion of Earth across six stages. Four stages feature side-scrolling action traditional to the series while two are presented from an overhead perspective. It is the first Contra title to have been directed by Nobuya Nakazato who later directed other games in the series. He designed Contra III to feature more comical elements, a more cinematic soundtrack, and tighter stage design than its predecessors.
Image Source: Wiki
Game Start:
Upon starting the game my daughter seen there was a two player option and was excited we could play together. I remembered this game from playing it years prior and I knew it was going to be fast paced. I didn't think she would enjoy it but boy was I wrong. We started and we made the classic mistake of one of us moving forward in game-play faster than the other. This caused many deaths but eventually we got the hang of it. After testing some of the different types of weapons offered in the game we both agreed the Homing Gun was the best one for us newbies to use.
- Machine gun: You start with this weapon
- Fire Gun: short range, powerful attack
- Spread Gun: on-screen capacity of ten bullets
- Crush Gun: slow fire rate, limited range, on-screen capacity of three missiles
- Homing Gun: fast firing rate, on-screen capacity of five bullets, tracks enemies
- Laser Gun: long range, slow firing rate and can only shoot one beam on-screen
Image Source: Wiki
First Reactions:
The game was as fast paced and fun as I remembered it. My daughter (to my surprise) liked playing Contra 3 to great lengths. I thought the fast pace action would mean many failed attempts thus her wanting to quit but she insisted we continue on. Personally I think she liked the fact my character fell to enemies before hers did (she carried us in game-play). She was fairly excited and immersed in game-play and so was I. Once we got to the part that allowed her to drive a tank for a little while she was hooked. Of course she did the driving while I hung out on the back of the tank. Side note: in the first stage the first mini-boss we face is also a tank. Beating it is rather easy as all one needs to do is run to the far corner of the screen. The enemies tank can't shoot in the back direction and is unable to fully drive in the direction you are standing (defeating this tank is one of the easiest parts of the game).
Fire Rains Down
As we continue on-wards we get to the part where a plane drops a couple nukes on us and the world we are fighting in turns to flames. Allot of timed jumping is needed to get past this portion of the game but we did so will little trouble and quickly made it to the final boss of stage one, an Alien Tortoise . We died a couple times here before we defeated this boss and turned it into Turtle Soup. To defeat this enemy, shots fired must hit a specific part of the monster (big red target on the body, its hard to miss and easy to figure out when playing). Stage one complete now its on to the next stage. Well, I completely forgot how the game play changed from Stage One to Stage Two. At the start of Stage Two we get to pick our starting points but it did little good to keep my daughters interest. After a few deaths she was done and considering at this point we been playing the MINI SNES for a couple hours I was also done. We decided we would come back to this game another time to see if we can defeat it but for now, that sums up our Contra 3 play experience.
Other Notes:
You can have two different weapons at once in this game and can easily switch between them with a click of a button. Interestingly , if you lose a life, you only lose the weapon you have equipped. However when you re-spawn you do so with the default weapon. It took me a minute to figure this "trick" out as its a somewhat hidden gem that can help greatly with game play when used correctly. There is also a "Super Bomb" that you are equipped with and can collect on your journey. This "Super Bomb" is very powerful and will defeat most enemies but is meant to be used sparingly as you don't get many and collecting them in-game isn't always easy.
Contra 3 Trailer
(Wii U Version: Its the same game-play as on the SNES MINI)
