Contra: Operation Galuga

[BrianC]

Looks like one of those classic TV show remakes that recast a character with an ill fitting actor and got the personality of the character completely wrong.

[XoPachi]

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Lmao
One nitpick that I'm sure I'm "supposed" to like is that the game is on a board. I get the reference with that but something about it takes me out and REALLY pushes the whole "everything just looks like toys" vibe that I don't like.

Advance wars machines are adorable but they still looked metallic. Scrunchy, fat little tanks but it was just a style choice of the world. WayForward went suuuper far into the toy look and I dont care for it.

[Gamer707b]

I don't know. I understand people complaining about the look. I did a double take the first time I saw the trailer too, but at the same time, I've learned not to quickly discount a game based on just looks. I remember back in the day, seeing Zelda Wind Waker and HATING the look. Once I started playing, I fell in love with it. Now it's easily top 3 Zelda games for me. Same with the Remake they did for Links Awakening and more recent games like Advance Wars Remake. I say, as long as the new Contra feels good in my hands and the controls are top notch, I'll be on board. My old man self would always kill for some good old fashioned sprite work, but I am also starting to open up to new art style, alas Metroid Dread.

[Sumez]

I don't know. I understand people complaining about the look. I did a double take the first time I saw the trailer too, but at the same time, I've learned not to quickly discount a game based on just looks. I remember back in the day, seeing Zelda Wind Waker and HATING the look. Once I started playing, I fell in love with it.

Commenting on the look and expectations of how it plays are two separate things. How it plays is pure speculation, based more on everything else WayForward has made recently.
What it looks like is something we know already know, and honestly I don't think it looks too bad, but it does look incredibly bland and cheap. Doubly so when compared to the lush Henk Nieborg backgrounds of their previous Contra game.
I don't think the comparison to Wind Waker is fair. That game has a very distinct, if polarizing visual style with a lot of character. Contra Galuga has no style, and no character.

[XoPachi]

the lush Henk Nieborg backgrounds

I'm glad I have a name for this now. I was playing Shantae 2 recently after talking in this forum and as much as I already loved the way it looked growing up, as an adult it's even more striking. His foliage especially is just a treat.

[Sumez]

[xxx1993]

Sorry, nothing's showing up in your comment.

[Gamer707b]

I don't know. I understand people complaining about the look. I did a double take the first time I saw the trailer too, but at the same time, I've learned not to quickly discount a game based on just looks. I remember back in the day, seeing Zelda Wind Waker and HATING the look. Once I started playing, I fell in love with it.

Commenting on the look and expectations of how it plays are two separate things. How it plays is pure speculation, based more on everything else WayForward has made recently.
What it looks like is something we know already know, and honestly I don't think it looks too bad, but it does look incredibly bland and cheap. Doubly so when compared to the lush Henk Nieborg backgrounds of their previous Contra game.
I don't think the comparison to Wind Waker is fair. That game has a very distinct, if polarizing visual style with a lot of character. Contra Galuga has no style, and no character.

That's a fair comment you make. I felt the same way about the look of the Advance Wars Remake fairly recently, but the more I played that game, the more the look grew on me. So, we'll see with this one.

[XoPachi]

Yeah, it came out when I was in high school.
We are going to die.

[xxx1993]

Funny, Saving Private Ryan is a military/war movie also.

[xxx1993]

https://www.gonintendo.com/contents/290 ... ion-galuga
https://www.destructoid.com/wayforwards ... th-konami/

Some interesting articles.

[HELLEPHANT]

One nitpick that I'm sure I'm "supposed" to like is that the game is on a board. I get the reference with that but something about it takes me out and REALLY pushes the whole "everything just looks like toys" vibe that I don't like.

tbh, characters modern games often have such a "plasticine" look to them - something I noticed back when the Doom reboot was first revealed - that I wouldn't have recognized it as an artistic choice if it weren't pointed out

[Sumez]

Wow, I just tried Spidersaurs, and it really does not bode well for a Contra game from the same developers.

Although on the surface it seems to mimick Contra style gameplay quite well, it also does all the worst mistakes you don't want from a game of this type. The biggest of which is nearly every single enemy, right down to minor pests, being insane bullet sponges. I'm playing on the harder difficuly - not sure if that makes a difference, but it defnitely shouldn't.

[BrianC]

Wow, I just tried Spidersaurs, and it really does not bode well for a Contra game from the same developers.

Although on the surface it seems to mimick Contra style gameplay quite well, it also does all the worst mistakes you don't want from a game of this type. The biggest of which is nearly every single enemy, right down to minor pests, being insane bullet sponges. I'm playing on the harder difficuly - not sure if that makes a difference, but it defnitely shouldn't.

The GB port of Contra III made that mistake. The harder modes don't work like on SNES and make enemies into bullet sponges.

[velo]

Wow, I just tried [game of Type X], and it really does not bode well for a [X] game from the same developers.

Although on the surface it seems to mimick [X] style gameplay quite well, it also does all the worst mistakes you don't want from a game of this type.

I think you nailed Wayforward's house style. I thought Contra 4 was pretty good, though.

[cj iwakura]

Looks ugly as sin, but the gameplay seems on point.

Hard Corps Uprising is the pinnacle in my book, or Contra 4 for the more classic style.

[Sumez]

I think Contra 4 is very very good. Easily up there with the best of the series, which is high praise for sure!
Spidersaurs, a mechanically very similar game, from the same developers, made much more recently, and probably by the same people who are working on Operation Galuga, is not even close to that ballpark.

I still won't judge this game until it comes out, but hopefully my fears are unfounded.

[xxx1993]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWr_uipRW-I

New gameplay trailer. And wow, new characters?

[Udderdude]

They added the robots from the euro version, lol. Doesn't look too bad.

[Steven]

Adding Probotector isn't as awesome as the & Knuckles mode in Sonic Mania, which of course lets you play as everyone's favourite character combination of Knuckles & Knuckles, but it's pretty unexpected. I wonder if any PAL people actually like or miss the robots.

[NYN]

New trailer states "early 2024" as release.

The lines of dialoque go real Saturday Morning; if there is any "storytell", I'll think this operation fails for me.
Though the action shown, it looks "better" somehow, maybe even fun. Remains to be played.

I wonder if any PAL people actually like or miss the robots.

I'd say PAL people (nice moniker! ) love it. Imagine being a '90s boy-kid, playing some faux Anime Terminator goons to blow stuff up. Just creeps like me feel betrayed of the muscle things that were original. (I hated it that they didn't have names like peeps, just serial numbers! Duh!) Clearly, a manly merc and a killer machine are paper-thin as protagonists, yet a 10-year-old wouldn't know it, going boom.

[Sumez]

The Probotector robots are awesome. Though European I don't remember ever actually playing any robot versions at the time.

Probotector 2 also has one of the coolest box arts on NES.

[xxx1993]

https://thekoalition.com/2024/an-interv ... ion-galuga

Bumping this for another interview.

[xxx1993]

Nintendo Direct is tomorrow morning, so we should get something soon.

[Sumez]

Get what? They've already shown all they could from this game

[Mortificator]

https://thekoalition.com/2024/an-interv ... ion-galuga

Tomm, as a huge fan of WayForward, I’ve covered many of your company’s games on this site... What an exciting time for fans of the Contra franchise! It’s been a long wait for a truly promising game in the series and Contra: Operation Galuga looks to cure that itch... It features 30 action-packed missions... Some of my favorite gaming soundtracks of all time come from both KONAMI and WayForward. Having the two companies come together to make a game seems like a musical marriage made in heaven.

I know these interviewers are really just promotional appendages but boy is GARGLING those nuts.

[Sumez]

Interviewer should be asking the real questions, such as "what guarantee do we have that this won't just be yet another lazy and soulless wayforward dayjob operation and about as fun to play as Spidersaurs?"

[xxx1993]

Get what? They've already shown all they could from this game

I mean a release date... And unfortunately, there was nothing for Contra on the Nintendo Direct today.

[miwa]

They actually did mention the release date. It's March 12th 2024

Also, there's a Demo available now on the eshop.

[XoPachi]

Oh....
Oh this is bad.

Runs like COMPLETE shit.