Finally - here it is!!!!!!!!!!
Back in the late 80s, I can remember my first "Contra" experience. It was in a poky amusement arcade in France on a campsite we used to stay on each year. They had a Super Hang On cab, a Wonderboy, a Ghosts & Goblins, and a Nintendo Playchoice unit, which involved spending several thousand francs for around three minutes on a choice of 10 NES games. You had your Marios, your Golf, your Tetris - but my favourite was the superb run and gun rock-hardness of Contra. I was hooked.
Now at the time I didn't have any consoles, only a humble C64, but I was delighted when I discovered a home port in the form of the strangely-named Gryzor. Even so - it was brilliant having this bad boy at home, and it was only recently I discovered that the unfamiliar Gryzor moniker was the original Japanese name for the arcade release. A NES-owning friend had been lucky enough to get his hands on the lumpenly named PAL port (with all humans changed to robots - curse us westerners and our lack of tolerance to realistic videogame violence!) and it's follow up - Probotector and Probotector 2 respectively, and many a day was passed kicking some 2-player ass on those bad boys. The second installment was originally released as Super Contra in the arcades, then as Super C on the NES.
I now own a NES and both the aforementioned games, albeit in their Probo-incarnations. They have aged well, and both are extremely playable and absolutely nails, difficulty wise. I am not (un)fortunate enough to have played the other NES installment - the apparently awful Contra Force, nor have I managed to play a decent version of the Contra 7 pirate game released for a dodgy bootleg Famicom machine. Even so, 8-bit gamers can be happy with their C-related stuff. Even Gryzor on C64 was a decent game - although the Amstrad is said to have recieved the superior port.
I was briefly re-acquainted with Contra when I discovered an arcade cab with the 1987 original, in a chinese takeaway near where I lived. The vastly more popular Double Dragon was right beside it, but it was Contra that I annoyed the patrons of the establishment by spending my pocket money in their shop. There were then a barren few years, in which the Game Boy recieved the superb, monochrome Operation C - so people could belt some alien ass on the road. Not owning a handheld myself, I had to wait until I got my hands on a SNES.......
Contra III - The Alien Wars was, and still is - one of the finest games released on the SNES/SFC. Another bastard hard, classily designed shooter, it features some stunning graphics and sound, awesome mode 7 effects, disturbingly rendered alien nasties, and interesting overhead levels. I can remember being utterly stunned when this one dropped. And I am sure that 99% of SNES owners on these forums will agree.
Unfortunately, there were to be no further Contra shenanigans on Ninty's 16 bit wonder - so it was left for Konami to stun Genesis/MD owners in a similar way with their own version of the classic franchise. Contra: Hard Corps/Core is, next to Gunstar Heroes, the best 2D run and gun on the system. Those of you lucky enough to won it would probably go as far as to claim it is amongst the best games on the system. I have discovered it through emulation, and concur that it is an awesome game. A choice of characters, and a seemingly endless number of boss encounters, it is little wonder that to this day it is rumoured to have recieved the midas touch of the Treasure team.
That year, Gameboy owners recieved a port of the aforementioned SNES classic, and whilst playble, hardware limitations meant it was not as good as it could have been.
Thus followed the dark period in Contra history. The pig awful PS1 and Saturn game, Contra:Legacy Of War still sends shudders down my spine. I can remember picking this up recently at a car boot sale (suprise suprise) on the PS1, for a couple of quid. I was actually really looking forward to playing it - but not prepared for the disappointment to come. Viewed from an overhead perspective, such is my trauma at recalling it's crapness, I do not wish to discuss it any further (shudder).
An N64 Contra was binned, so it was up to another PS1 effort to keep the series afloat. Unfortunately, C: the Contra Adventure was another out and out shocker. Horrible, 3D graphics, **** controls and all round nastiness meant Konami had reached an all-time low with our beloved Hard Corps. Shame on them!
Still - better stuff followed. We have since had a GBA port of Contra III, which is pretty much excellent. The was also the tough as old boots, classily done PS2 number - Contra:Shattered Soldier, a return to form for the series with some super graphics, gritty atmosphere, and a new weapons system.
More recently we have had another dodgy pseudo 3D effort, Neo Contra - which has garnered some decidedly average reviews, surely telling Konami to stick to 2D in future.
So there you go folks - a potted history of one of the best franchises in videogame history. I have included all sorts of assorted photos, in no particular order, so you can figure out for yourselves which are which!
It was a long time coming, but your Seany has (hastily) delivered teh goods!!
CONTRA roXXOrS!!! XXIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back in the late 80s, I can remember my first "Contra" experience. It was in a poky amusement arcade in France on a campsite we used to stay on each year. They had a Super Hang On cab, a Wonderboy, a Ghosts & Goblins, and a Nintendo Playchoice unit, which involved spending several thousand francs for around three minutes on a choice of 10 NES games. You had your Marios, your Golf, your Tetris - but my favourite was the superb run and gun rock-hardness of Contra. I was hooked.
Now at the time I didn't have any consoles, only a humble C64, but I was delighted when I discovered a home port in the form of the strangely-named Gryzor. Even so - it was brilliant having this bad boy at home, and it was only recently I discovered that the unfamiliar Gryzor moniker was the original Japanese name for the arcade release. A NES-owning friend had been lucky enough to get his hands on the lumpenly named PAL port (with all humans changed to robots - curse us westerners and our lack of tolerance to realistic videogame violence!) and it's follow up - Probotector and Probotector 2 respectively, and many a day was passed kicking some 2-player ass on those bad boys. The second installment was originally released as Super Contra in the arcades, then as Super C on the NES.
I now own a NES and both the aforementioned games, albeit in their Probo-incarnations. They have aged well, and both are extremely playable and absolutely nails, difficulty wise. I am not (un)fortunate enough to have played the other NES installment - the apparently awful Contra Force, nor have I managed to play a decent version of the Contra 7 pirate game released for a dodgy bootleg Famicom machine. Even so, 8-bit gamers can be happy with their C-related stuff. Even Gryzor on C64 was a decent game - although the Amstrad is said to have recieved the superior port.
I was briefly re-acquainted with Contra when I discovered an arcade cab with the 1987 original, in a chinese takeaway near where I lived. The vastly more popular Double Dragon was right beside it, but it was Contra that I annoyed the patrons of the establishment by spending my pocket money in their shop. There were then a barren few years, in which the Game Boy recieved the superb, monochrome Operation C - so people could belt some alien ass on the road. Not owning a handheld myself, I had to wait until I got my hands on a SNES.......
Contra III - The Alien Wars was, and still is - one of the finest games released on the SNES/SFC. Another bastard hard, classily designed shooter, it features some stunning graphics and sound, awesome mode 7 effects, disturbingly rendered alien nasties, and interesting overhead levels. I can remember being utterly stunned when this one dropped. And I am sure that 99% of SNES owners on these forums will agree.
Unfortunately, there were to be no further Contra shenanigans on Ninty's 16 bit wonder - so it was left for Konami to stun Genesis/MD owners in a similar way with their own version of the classic franchise. Contra: Hard Corps/Core is, next to Gunstar Heroes, the best 2D run and gun on the system. Those of you lucky enough to won it would probably go as far as to claim it is amongst the best games on the system. I have discovered it through emulation, and concur that it is an awesome game. A choice of characters, and a seemingly endless number of boss encounters, it is little wonder that to this day it is rumoured to have recieved the midas touch of the Treasure team.
That year, Gameboy owners recieved a port of the aforementioned SNES classic, and whilst playble, hardware limitations meant it was not as good as it could have been.
Thus followed the dark period in Contra history. The pig awful PS1 and Saturn game, Contra:Legacy Of War still sends shudders down my spine. I can remember picking this up recently at a car boot sale (suprise suprise) on the PS1, for a couple of quid. I was actually really looking forward to playing it - but not prepared for the disappointment to come. Viewed from an overhead perspective, such is my trauma at recalling it's crapness, I do not wish to discuss it any further (shudder).
An N64 Contra was binned, so it was up to another PS1 effort to keep the series afloat. Unfortunately, C: the Contra Adventure was another out and out shocker. Horrible, 3D graphics, **** controls and all round nastiness meant Konami had reached an all-time low with our beloved Hard Corps. Shame on them!
Still - better stuff followed. We have since had a GBA port of Contra III, which is pretty much excellent. The was also the tough as old boots, classily done PS2 number - Contra:Shattered Soldier, a return to form for the series with some super graphics, gritty atmosphere, and a new weapons system.
More recently we have had another dodgy pseudo 3D effort, Neo Contra - which has garnered some decidedly average reviews, surely telling Konami to stick to 2D in future.
So there you go folks - a potted history of one of the best franchises in videogame history. I have included all sorts of assorted photos, in no particular order, so you can figure out for yourselves which are which!
It was a long time coming, but your Seany has (hastily) delivered teh goods!!
CONTRA roXXOrS!!! XXIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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