"CONTRA (VIDEO GAME)"
Retro Game Review
FACTS ABOUT CONTRA
In 1987, Contra was renamed Gryzor and released in Oceania and Europe. It's a shoot-em-up game with a run-and-gun style. In February 1987, Konami Holdings Corporation, or simply Konami, developed and released this game as a coin-based arcade game. Because of the game's widespread popularity, the Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as the NES, released a home game version of it in 1988. Contra is a game about two Rambo-like characters who shoot down any alien soldiers who get in their way. Although the NES version is a success, there are a few minor issues, such as the two guys who had shirts in the Konami version but did not have them in the Nintendo version. Because Bill and Lance have lost their original character designs, they can only be identified by the color of their pants, which are blue for the first player and red for the second.
Obviously, over the course of the Contra game series' illustrious career, a slew of reviews, analyses, and facts we didn't know about the game have been compiled since its initial release. One thing I've read about is that the Contra series is one of the most insanely difficult game or video game ever to be accurate. You can't just rest your hands or fingers while playing this game, because enemies surround you in different directions. You need to be ready to avoid multiple enemy gun shots at all times, because one hit will make you live.
Another fact about this is that it bears a striking resemblance to Sylvester Stalone's Rambo film. Even the bandana and macho look, as well as the structure of the face and signature movement of always holding machine guns. Just add some glasses to the blonde-haired one, and he'll look exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator franchise. As a result, combining Arnold and Sylvester in their prime in the game will undoubtedly be a hit.
What I really like about this game is that it showcase different perspective of gameplay like the standard side view game but also employs a pseudo something 3D or three dimensional view. Well not the usual 3D we know today but the frontal view where the players can shoot while running forward. Two players can play at the same time with the first player controlling Bill in Konami's original design the blonde-haired one with white tank top and also wearing a blue bandana. And the other player controlling Lance, the black-haired shirtless commando also wearing a bandana but is colored red. Although others might argue that the pseudo 3D view is cool but for me nothing beats the old school standard side view. The cool part for me is that when you use the jump button the characters will not do the usual or common jump but instead they will do a multiple spin like summersault movement. And another crazy part is that you can still control the multi directional aims of the gun while running or even jumping. This is because the joysticks have eight way direction with two basic key controls for shooting and jumping.
I think the pseudo 3D view's advantage is that it is very relaxing movement of controller. Because unlike in the standard side view you need to avoid alien soldier's movements and gun shots. And also during those times very few or sorry for not doing deeper research this is just a hunch, but by simply estimating maybe Contra is the only game that employs the 3D like gameplay. For me the frontal perspective view movement suits the tunnel invading part where you destroys each mechanical doors for you to proceed in the game. The game mechanics of the front view revolves around destroying the door while defeating aliens that shoots guns at you and stopping you. Unless you destroy the door, the lazer barrier in front of you will not disappear. The funny part is that even you jump forward the animation still shows side view summersault jump. But overall this different or unique variety of game perspective that contra popularized was insanely good during its prime.
GAME WEAPONRY
In this part of the article let us review the different crazy weapons of Bill and Lance. Unlike the usual shooting games where there are only limited ammos per magazine or should I simply say that there are limits. Contra offers unlimited gun ammos and this is why a lot of gamers during it's peak really love it and avoiding real world challenges of having limited ammos. Furthermore, the cooler part is that you can acquire different ammos inside the game as you progress. And these so called power up weapons can be obtained most of the time by shooting flying objects that gives you different firing output based on what letters it gives. What I also love is that you can be somewhat cool by getting the powerup gift in mid-air although I think I am the only one that is thinking that it's cool. If you can see the letter R that is not stands for riffle it is actually the rapid fire function that increases the speed of ammos. Actually riffle is the default weapon in Contra. Just like the usual gaming pattern where you started just some novice with no powers then it is just the same with contra. Riffle deals low damage to enemies and fires at a semi-automatic sequence so you will hate it for this. The next letter is M, which stands for machine gun it is usually the first available weapon upgrade or power up. Although machine gun has the only the same damage just like riffle was, the difference is that this fires at continuous automatic mode with faster rate that riffle. Then the F stands for flame gun where it shoots spinning fireballs with the higher chance of hitting enemies. Then there is also the Laser gun obviously deals a lot of damage to enemies with it producing longer lines. Then the S stands for the spread shot power-up where it gives multi direction ammos at the same time. So again I will end here my short game review hope you liked it.
IMAGE/VIDEO SOURCES: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5