Before arcades were dominated by the fighting games, the action genre was the undefeated king of these places. This created a fierce competition that forced many companies to innovate in order to capture the attention of players. This was how Konami came up with the idea of a new project called Contra.
The inspiration came from many successful action films, like Rambo, Commando, Predator, Alien, but also the geo-political conflict of the 80s. The Contras, who were several military groups financed by the US, were talked about in the news all around the globe, and that’s how Konami took all these elements to create a curious mix that resulted in the arcade version of the game.
Under the direction of Koji Hiroshita, the development team came up with the idea about two experienced soldiers, who traveled to a remote island. Their objective is to stop the plans of an evil organization. The two protagonists were the typical action heroes that were so popular in movies during that era, but as these two continue their adventure, they discover that their enemies are actually aliens.
The dynamic of the game focuses on the constant action. With many enemies and projectiles that come from everywhere, forcing us to shoot without stopping and testing our reflexes. Fortunately, the development team used a very intuitive control system: with the stick we move the characters, but we also aim our weapons, and with only two more buttons, we shoot and jump. Besides, from time to time we can obtain better weapons and objects that allow us to shoot faster or temporal invulnerability.
It’s important to point out that the difficulty of this game is quite high, only one hit or attack from the enemies will take away one of our lives. To compensate this harshness, is better to play in company of a friend. This way, the experience is easier and also more entertaining.
A curious detail was the novelty of the cooperative mode that Contra brought into the Amusement Arcade scene of the time; the title also offered levels with different view perspectives. The lateral scroll levels created “pseudo 3D” halls, vertical sceneries and encounters with giant bosses that took almost all of the space in the still screen.
It’s worth mentioning that when this game came out in 1987, it was very well received in Amusement Arcades. Nonetheless, its biggest success came a year later, with the adaptation for NES and home computers.
In conclusion, without this action game that marked a time in which the difficultly of videogames was not a walk in the park, titles like Metal Slug or Cuphead wouldn’t exist. The creators behind this project were true artists with the graphical sprites. If you are looking for a challenge with a classic flavor, I totally recommend this game.