Hard Corps: Uprising(successor to Contra HC)- XBLA

[cj iwakura]

It looks pretty and fun, but it's got a long way to go to top the best Contra(4).

[Ghegs]

Few new screenshots and price confirmed at 1200 MS points.

[antares]

New gameplay trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89LXNVMW9x4

16th Feb. can't come soon enough!

[TVG]

Judging from that short footage, it looks more like a sequel than most nostalgia cash ins. And will probably be exempt from the bullshit of contra 4. The worst flaw of C4 was bringing back the most boring and lames mid stages ever. The tube stages fucking suck no matter how you put it.

Anyway it looks as it controls like a contra game+extra movements, which is how it should be.

[Skykid]

Ipod quality camera. Looks better (much better) in reality.



Haven't had enough time with it to offer an informed opinion. I already know most of what I don't like about it though.

[Skykid]

Bloody hell, this game makes Shattered Soldier feel like a walk in the park.
Talk about hardcore...

[drauch]

I can never play any of the Contra games with a stick. It seems like every time when I duck I accidentally stand back up from moving the stick slightly...Probably the only arcade style game series I prefer with a pad.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

My review is up over here: http://www.pwnem.com/t-hard-corps-uprising-review

Really good, but a number of improvements could be made.

[Skykid]

I can never play any of the Contra games with a stick. It seems like every time when I duck I accidentally stand back up from moving the stick slightly...Probably the only arcade style game series I prefer with a pad.

Uprising is impossible to play with a stick - absolutely impossible.

Frankly, it's impossible to play with a pad too, but that's another story.

EDIT:

My review is up over here: http://www.pwnem.com/t-hard-corps-uprising-review

Really good, but a number of improvements could be made.

Ah amazing! I'm so glad someone broke their silence on this, now we can talk!

Right then. I read your review, I agree with all of your highlighted flaws, I disagree with you not emphasising the detriment they have on the playability of the game. Most of all, in light of these flaws, I disagree with your score of 8 out of 10. For me, there is a clear lack of genre experience from Arcsys that no amount of pretty graphics can disguise. The underpowered main weapon is useless, yet you have to rely on it because a good 80% of available weaponry lacks range to the point where you have to avoid everything except the machine gun, spread gun, or laser (which rarely turns up.) It's nail-bitingly annoying.

Most of all, this isn't a contra game whatsoever. It's an Arc System run and gun that bears little to no relation to Contra at all, and I mean that from a graphical, aural, design and level structure perspective. It's the most painful experience to find that they have applied Guilty Gear complexity to a game that should be fluid and fast, instead rendering it static and slow. The dash, air dash, double jump - all fine. The clusterfuck of the stages however means that they're usefulness is devoid until you play the game ad-infinitum to become so well versed in the layout that you can finally start to be creative. Being good at the game is rewarding, but the perseverance they ask of the player is frankly stupid. And Bahamut's mobility on foot is just terrible. If he's not dashing, he's far too slow in the later (and some earlier) stages. Unfortunately dashing rarely helps when you don't know what lies just off screen.

It looks superb and it has a lot of good ideas, but so much of it is ill judged. When I cleared the first stage without taking a hit, I felt like I'd conquered a mountain... for all the wrong reasons. The first time I hit stage two, I was in WTF is going on land.
When I hit the first mid-boss of stage three?! Holy fucking shit, it's difficulty level is like something you'd find toward the end of Shattered Soldier, letalone the sections of the game that are meant to ease you in.

I've got no problem with difficult games (see signature), but Contra is a game that allows your reflexes to work, starting tough but never letting go of a reasonable learning curve. This is what makes Contra so easy to keep coming back to.
Uprising is more of a glossy facade, where true stage variety is replaced with an onslaught of... stuff, thrown at you constantly, uncomfortably. The combo scoring system is a truly pointless extra too, not least because of the flaws you identified, but just because it's a superfluous addition in a game that should be concentrating on balls to the wall fun, rather than sluggish point extraction.

Taking a hit and losing a valuable weapon in this game reveals the worst flaw of all though - you're just far too weak. It's unfortunate the Rising Mode offers more fun than the default arcade mode, as character levelling to see the whole of the game feels like a cop out to me. But god damn, if you want to bust through these eight ridiculously long stages in arcade mode, if you ain't a masochist at the beginning, you will be by the end.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

The game gets better/easier on subsequent replays as you'll know the patterns for everything inside and out. There are ways around every attack in the game but on first play none of them are obvious. Unfortunately it can also get worse because the more I play it the more flaws I find in every little aspect of the game.

I've already been able to 1CC the game but it doesn't really mean anything because I used Rising mode. Sure the extra lives and health are obvious bonuses but the #1 reason why I was able to cruise through that mode without trouble was due to the increased rate of fire upgrade on the main weapon(in terms of lives I had maybe 8 or 9 more than I started with in the beginning of the game when I reached the end). The main weapon needs at least a 1.5 increase in fire-rate without upgrades. Furthermore a couple levels like 7 are almost too easy with the homing laser. And yeah the crash missiles have no range(they are awesome for killing the first form of the final boss though as it stun-loops him). If you pick up the automatic fire upgrade the heat weapon at least continues to fire while you charge, instead of leaving you vulnerable...but yeah it's no good in arcade mode. Sad part is I'm still dying on clumsy sections like the part at the end of level 1 where I have to jump from the bike to the helicopter, as well as the very end of the game where again I have to jump onto a helicopter.

There's really too much randomness for all the added abilities to be much use either. It'd be one thing if enemy placement was set up in a certain fashion and/or the abilities could be used in different ways or even if a handful of changes were made in the mechanics like increased vulnerability. As it stands though it's just a bunch of abilities that help you get killed faster.

I'm expecting there to be a patch either when the game is released or sometime soon because all of the flaws on top of the busted scoring system leads me to believe something will have to be done about it all. If nothing changes I expect that sometime in the future I will come back and be forced to eviscerate this game. In fact if you take out a couple words and maybe a sentence or two out of my review of Uprising reads almost like a 6/10 instead of an 8/10. If things don't start improving by Wednesday I think I may have to change the score.

And yeah the game really misses the visceral feel of Contra. I watch the Neo Contra intro and it makes me want to play Neo Contra. I watch the Uprising intro and it makes me want to play something else.

[Skykid]

The game gets better/easier on subsequent replays as you'll know the patterns for everything inside and out. There are ways around every attack in the game but on first play none of them are obvious. Unfortunately it can also get worse because the more I play it the more flaws I find in every little aspect of the game.

I've already been able to 1CC the game but it doesn't really mean anything because I used Rising mode. Sure the extra lives and health are obvious bonuses but the #1 reason why I was able to cruise through that mode without trouble was due to the increased rate of fire upgrade on the main weapon(in terms of lives I had maybe 8 or 9 more than I started with in the beginning of the game when I reached the end). The main weapon needs at least a 1.5 increase in fire-rate without upgrades. Furthermore a couple levels like 7 are almost too easy with the homing laser. And yeah the crash missiles have no range(they are awesome for killing the first form of the final boss though as it stun-loops him). If you pick up the automatic fire upgrade the heat weapon at least continues to fire while you charge, instead of leaving you vulnerable...but yeah it's no good in arcade mode. Sad part is I'm still dying on clumsy sections like the part at the end of level 1 where I have to jump from the bike to the helicopter, as well as the very end of the game where again I have to jump onto a helicopter.

There's really too much randomness for all the added abilities to be much use either. It'd be one thing if enemy placement was set up in a certain fashion and/or the abilities could be used in different ways or even if a handful of changes were made in the mechanics like increased vulnerability. As it stands though it's just a bunch of abilities that help you get killed faster.

I'm expecting there to be a patch either when the game is released or sometime soon because all of the flaws on top of the busted scoring system leads me to believe something will have to be done about it all. If nothing changes I expect that sometime in the future I will come back and be forced to eviscerate this game. In fact if you take out a couple words and maybe a sentence or two out of my review of Uprising reads almost like a 6/10 instead of an 8/10. If things don't start improving by Wednesday I think I may have to change the score.

And yeah the game really misses the visceral feel of Contra. I watch the Neo Contra intro and it makes me want to play Neo Contra. I watch the Uprising intro and it makes me want to play something else.

Dude, we're in complete agreement, so why the 8/10?

Fuck what everyone is expecting you to put, you're the reviewer, you know what you're talking about - tell it how it is!

Everything you just mentioned is true. Arcade mode is actually redundant - do you know how it makes me feel to know I need to play Rising Mode just to get some satisfaction from the game? A bit like settling for Arrange A over 1.5 in DFK! I don't like it.

Arcade mode should be the default, not some semi-RPG mode whereby powering up and replaying levels for points, I can actually get to the stage where my character has enough firepower to actually make headway. That isn't Contra. In fact, that really sucks.

However, after submitting myself to the utter punishment that is Arcade, I concede Rising Mode is the only real option if you want to have a decent time. You do have to slog through the same level countless times to power up, but it does make the game more bearable/playable.

The scoring is just dumb, I noticed the croc regeneration straight away too (not that I could care less about score in such games anyway) and the thing with missing the helicoptor in stage one, I feel your anguish. It's terribly thought out and sometimes goes wrong without you even knowing why.

I can get through stages one and two on a life now in Arcade, but after witnessing Stage 3, I turned to Rising to see the rest of the game. I won't go back to Arcade now, it's a waste of life.

For me, this game has shown potential still. As a sign of the future, perhaps we can look forward to a successor which will be more relaxed and properly remoulded into a game that benefits from the fancy and powerful overhaul. I'll look forward to that.
As it stands, for all its good ideas, I still see Uprising as a bit of a failure and that's a shame, and I'm afraid it's entirely Arcsys's fault. They just don't really know the genre, and the inexperience has taken its toll.

As it stands, it's a definite 6/10 in my book.

[evil_ash_xero]

What time does MS put these games up?

[PepsimanVsJoe]

As it stands, it's a definite 6/10 in my book.

I'm waiting for the online coop and leaderboards to flick on before I "complete" the review. If there's a patch as well that'd be gravy.
Unfortunately I'm not the admin at pwnem.com so I'll have to discuss the finer points with him.

I just got this writing gig about a month ago though, I'm not quite sure if I'm ready to ruffle that many feathers just yet.

[GaijinPunch]

It's out? Must buy.

[Skykid]

I just got this writing gig about a month ago though, I'm not quite sure if I'm ready to ruffle that many feathers just yet.

Lol, don't man, I'm just messin' with you. If you called it as an 8, then stick by it and defend it viciously (I want some argumentative debate here. )

It's out? Must buy.

You may have to wait a couple of days yet, please post here and let us know what you think. I've been sitting on on this like a kettle wanting to pop for about a week. evil_ash_xero has been helping me let off steam via PM, but I'm really curious to know how Contra fans find it. For me, I was really expecting something quite different in some ways, and yet it delivered in other (perhaps less important) areas.

[DrTrouserPlank]

Don't know if this has been covered but the game is 1200 points and there are 2 extra characters you can buy for 200 points each :/

Edit: It's a bit "meh". Feels pretty clunky to me, doesn't have much flow. It also has the most irritating sound effects I've heard for quite a while. The artstyle will sell it though.

Seems pricey at 1200 points. Seems extortionate that they removed 2 characters and charge you 400 points for them.

[antares]

It's online.
I only had the time for one quick credit in Arcade mode but it's already amazing. Looking forward to sink my teeth into it later today

[Skykid]

It's online.
I only had the time for one quick credit in Arcade mode but it's already amazing. Looking forward to sink my teeth into it later today

Lol, you'll see my friend, you'll see.
Let us know when you've had your second credit, and your third, fourth, fifth (etc etc)

Don't know if this has been covered but the game is 1200 points and there are 2 extra characters you can buy for 200 points each :/

Edit: It's a bit "meh". Feels pretty clunky to me, doesn't have much flow. It also has the most irritating sound effects I've heard for quite a while. The artstyle will sell it though.

Seems pricey at 1200 points. Seems extortionate that they removed 2 characters and charge you 400 points for them.

I disagree it's pricey at 1200 points, but I completely understand the 'clunkiness' you feel. That will be Bahamut's extreme lack of mobility - very frustrating when in a tight situation (which is most of the time.)

As for the voices: yes, awful. Arcsys obviously thought they should bring elements from their popular games and stick them in this, even the 'Let's Rock' made it over too. Thankfully they're less abominable when turned off, so go to the options menu and you can turn all voices down to zero volume. It helps a lot.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Sayuri is actually kind of fun to use.

COOP is a pain in the fucking ass by the way.

[GaijinPunch]

Ah, no rush. I have no time anyway.

[Elixir]

Downloaded the demo. Interesting opening, I like the sprites as well. The 3D isn't so great.

Scoring system seems to encourage you to rush through the game as fast as possible though. No thanks.

[Skykid]

Downloaded the demo. Interesting opening, I like the sprites as well. The 3D isn't so great.

Scoring system seems to encourage you to rush through the game as fast as possible though. No thanks.

You can barely rush through it if you wanted to. This isn't a run and gun, it's a start stop and gun.

Does anyone know the rule to the extra lives dropping out of the sky carriers? They seem totally random sometimes?

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Does anyone know the rule to the extra lives dropping out of the sky carriers? They seem totally random sometimes?

Some of the sky carriers that hold 1ups are triggered by finding secret spots. I can't tell exactly where but I know stages 1, 2, and I think 3 have at least three lives a piece.

Oh and this game can go fuck itself.

I got the hang of Sayuri and managed to get to Stage 8 in arcade mode on one credit. Turns out however that Sayuri can't beat the game.
The second to last boss(that engine-orb) has the final form where it rolls from one end of the screen to the other to smash the player. Turns out even if Sayuri lands a hit before the orb connects it's 99.99% likely it'll count as a hit on her anyway and she'll go flying.

Pretty much wasted an hour and a half so the game could completely break on me. What a fucking disaster.

[Skykid]

Does anyone know the rule to the extra lives dropping out of the sky carriers? They seem totally random sometimes?

Some of the sky carriers that hold 1ups are triggered by finding secret spots. I can't tell exactly where but I know stages 1, 2, and I think 3 have at least three lives a piece.

Oh and this game can go fuck itself.

I got the hang of Sayuri and managed to get to Stage 8 in arcade mode on one credit. Turns out however that Sayuri can't beat the game.
The second to last boss(that engine-orb) has the final form where it rolls from one end of the screen to the other to smash the player. Turns out even if Sayuri lands a hit before the orb connects it's 99.99% likely it'll count as a hit on her anyway and she'll go flying.

Pretty much wasted an hour and a half so the game could completely break on me. What a fucking disaster.

May I just put my hands together and say well done for getting through 8 stages on a credit on Arcade mode. That's a seriously admirable achievement!
Is Sayuri much more powerful than the other guys, or do you just have mad skills? Also, is she time unlocked? I've given the game some hours already and haven't got her. I've spent little to no time with Rising Mode yet, although my stubbornness to bend Arcade Mode to my whims is becoming futile.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

May I just put my hands together and say well done for getting through 8 stages on a credit on Arcade mode. That's a seriously admirable achievement!
Is Sayuri much more powerful than the other guys, or do you just have mad skills? Also, is she time unlocked? I've given the game some hours already and haven't got her. I've spent little to no time with Rising Mode yet, although my stubbornness to bend Arcade Mode to my whims is becoming futile.

Well I'm up to 10 hours now in the game. Like I said there are a ton of extra lives if you know where to find them.

The deal with Sayuri is this.

-Her sword is short-range but it's slightly more powerful than the regular gun and if you can button-mash you can chew through bosses in seconds.
-She has a charge-up shot that works like the HEAT gun as it cuts through everything.

That's pretty much all she needs really. There are some other tricks she can do like palm-strikes and some kind of combo-attack but like most other abilities in this game they're useless.
Of course she also can't beat the game because the second to last boss is a glitched piece of shit.

She's DLC but I read somewhere that she can be unlocked by beating the game. HOWEVER I guess the game has to be beaten in arcade mode? I've beaten the game twice with both Bahamut and Krystal but since that was Rising mode either what I read was a lie or I have no idea. Aside from a handful of achievements that would require you to be part of the Arc Systems Don't Work development team there's literally no reason to play arcade mode. The leaderboards/scoring are still busted and you don't get any credit towards Rising mode, and while Rising pisses all over what great arcade games stand for it's at least fun to unlock cool new abilities(some of which should have been in the arcade mode, like the triple-jump and ability to do a second air-dash).

I have also lost way too many fucking lives to the freaking double-tap air-dash. I hate double-tapping to dash and I wish I could just turn it off entirely, instead in tense moments I get fucked over.
That's it I'm going to play some RPGs or something, I'm surrounded by too much expensive stuff to start raging.

[Skykid]

May I just put my hands together and say well done for getting through 8 stages on a credit on Arcade mode. That's a seriously admirable achievement!
Is Sayuri much more powerful than the other guys, or do you just have mad skills? Also, is she time unlocked? I've given the game some hours already and haven't got her. I've spent little to no time with Rising Mode yet, although my stubbornness to bend Arcade Mode to my whims is becoming futile.

Well I'm up to 10 hours now in the game. Like I said there are a ton of extra lives if you know where to find them.

The deal with Sayuri is this.

-Her sword is short-range but it's slightly more powerful than the regular gun and if you can button-mash you can chew through bosses in seconds.
-She has a charge-up shot that works like the HEAT gun as it cuts through everything.

That's pretty much all she needs really. There are some other tricks she can do like palm-strikes and some kind of combo-attack but like most other abilities in this game they're useless.
Of course she also can't beat the game because the second to last boss is a glitched piece of shit.

She's DLC but I read somewhere that she can be unlocked by beating the game. HOWEVER I guess the game has to be beaten in arcade mode? I've beaten the game twice with both Bahamut and Krystal but since that was Rising mode either what I read was a lie or I have no idea. Aside from a handful of achievements that would require you to be part of the Arc Systems Don't Work development team there's literally no reason to play arcade mode. The leaderboards/scoring are still busted and you don't get any credit towards Rising mode, and while Rising pisses all over what great arcade games stand for it's at least fun to unlock cool new abilities.

I think I'm closer to four hours just with Arcade at the moment. I'm sure once I dabble with Rising that figure will add up.
I'm not coughing up more money for Sayuri unless she's exceptionally more powerful (i.e. as powerful as the default characters should have been from the outset. )

I hear you regarding Rising being a concession. I just wish that Arcsys could keep things simpler instead of being so OTT all the time - if Arcade just had better and more powerful weaponry, and Bahamut was a bit more nimble, it could have been a different game altogether. But yeah, it's pretty broke atm.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Now that I think about it, it's more likely that Sayuri/Harley are DLC only.

If they could be unlocked in the game their download size wouldn't be around 12 megs each, they'd be 108 kb or something similar.

[emphatic]

That's it I'm going to play some RPGs or something, I'm surrounded by too much expensive stuff to start raging.

I feel your pain.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Of course this doesn't actually mean anything since I used Rising mode but I was able to get past the bullshit second to last boss by using Sayuri's palm strike.
The palm strike has some stupid leaping combo attached to it but it's really useful for dodging attacks(more useful than the actual dodge in the game).
You can tell the hit detection is wonky as fuck with this boss though, the actual spot where the boss takes damage is I think in the center, yet everything around him just has to tickle you and you die.. Even when the strike connects I tend to get smacked when it comes back around due to being stuck in recovery. All told I still took a few deaths.

I say beating this game without dying is not impossible but when so many tiny things can go wrong I can't imagine why anyone would bother. Especially for a game that's an hour and a half! I still miss the last jump at the tail end of the game.

Fuck the helicopter, fuck it.

[Skykid]

I say beating this game without dying is not impossible but when so many tiny things can go wrong I can't imagine why anyone would bother. Especially for a game that's an hour and a half! I still miss the last jump at the tail end of the game.

Fuck the helicopter, fuck it.

Lol.

This is exactly what I've been saying. Why does Arc System expect hardcore gamers to be hardcore enough to suffer abject punishment before they get a sense of reward. Playing Shattered Soldier today is like a comparative dream game, and feels endlessly more inventive and modern than this reboot.

Whatever though. This isn't really a Contra game is it?