THIS IS CONTRA, DUDE (PART III: REINVENTION OF CONTRA)
Contra's back.
Believe it or not. Contra is back on our consoles again, and this time they're here to make things right.
The classic Run N' Gun returns to its basic-yet-legendary roots in Contra: Operation Galuga.
To begin with, there's two options in Story Mode: Health Meter and 1-Hit Kill. 1-Hit Kill is the traditional 1 shot and you're dead rule from the classic Contra series (and Run N' Guns that predated its fame like Metal Slug and GunForce) and Health Meter grants you a lifebar in the style of Contra: The Hard Corps, Hard Corps: Uprising and Spidersaurs. Each character has their own amount of Hit Points, so you can take more or less damage depending on who you're using in your mission.
Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man.
Like Hard Corps, Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra and Contra 4, you can decide who you want to be. At first, your only options are Bill Rizer or Lance Bean. Yeah, "The Contra Guys", the classic duo you knew since elementary school and you probably remember even more than your school books. As you keep progressing in the game you'll be unlocking more characters, and this time, Konami didn't decided to keep characters on the "Cosmetic" aspect of "They're man or woman, but they have the same traits" like Metal Slug or GunForce II. Each character features unique skills and some differences on the weapons. For example, Bill and Lance have a Megaman X2-styled mid-air dash skill, Ariana has a ground sliding, Lucia utilizes a Bionic Commando/Contra 4-like grapple and Stanley can hover in mid-air for a while.
This is NOT your father's Contra.
The gameplay of Operation Galuga is on its majority as classic as Contra III and Shattered Soldier, with the hability of switching weapons, but unlike Shattered Soldier's 3 weapon slot configuration, you can carry two of the like in Contra III. I've saw videos on YouTube where they criticized the "Weapon switching" calling it a cheat. I think this trick is more like a speedrunning tool more than a cheat. Anyone who knows the ins-and-outs of Contra III: The Alien Wars will remember using that trick to quick kill bosses and how handy it was when the game was played on Hard. So, rather than cheat, it was an alternative to play the game. Many games had hidden tricks that gives you an interesting advantage. Super Metroid for example and what an example this game turns to be because of the plethora of techniques you can learn like Walljump, Bomb-jump, "Mockball" and the "Plasma and X-Ray Scope" trick, and they didn't ruined the game, even the game gave you subtle hints to find these techniques and learn them (Dachola and Etecoons in Brinstar), and believe it or not, they enhanced the game experience further and were the pioneers on the concept of sequence breaking allowing you to pick items early. Back to Contra, the "Quick weapon switching" technique is a good idea, so you can decide if you want to play the game on a fast pace or take your time with the boss fights. In Operation Galuga's case, you'll be relying on this trick, especially while having the "Homing-Crush Gun" and "Spread-Crush Gun" combinations, and during the laboratory level, this trick is very helpful with ever spawning insects. Something that I've noticed is that you can carry the same weapon twice like in Contra III and 4. Looks like WayForward learned from their error on Spidersaurs where you can't carry two spread shots, crippling the function a bit. Speaking of Spidersaurs, like in said game, your weapon will be powered down if you take a hit. Yeah, like Super Contra and Spidersaurs, you can power up your weapons by picking the same equipped weapon again, giving you a great advantage as the powered up weapons have side-effects that benefit you such as the black hole generated by the Crush Gun which not just causes more damage, they absorb all bullets in sight. The Laser and the Fire weapons were improved. Rather than the "Wait for the long beam to leave the screen" like in Contra, here we have a more "machine gun" like laser firing and the Fire weapon is now the Flamethrower from Contra III, making both weapons more functional than ever. The Machine Gun makes a return despite the default Rifle (Pea Shooter) is already an automatic firing weapon as well, but to make it differ and more reliable than the pea-shooter, the Machine Gun is stronger and has a faster firing rate. These decisions on the weaponry give players an "All-Time" Contra arsenal of weapons. In terms of control, you can decide if you want to use the basic 8-directional aiming like in the console games or the full 360° aiming like the arcade version of Contra and Super Contra. Konami also learned their lesson about the aim lag that plagued Contra (inherited from Jail Break) and this time they not just addressed it, they perfected it. Now the response time is as fast as you move the Analog Stick, making the 360° aiming completely functional. Combine the full rotation with the lock in-place button and it will let you take control of the battle without moving. I miss the ability of firing both weapons at once by holding L & R and the Helios bomb like in Contra III or the Charged shots in Shattered Soldier as special abilities. But this game isn't done yet with the features.
Have a blast, a bouncing blast from the past.
Speaking of bombs, you have a bomb-like attack and that's the new feature: Overload. You can overload a weapon to unleash an either defensive or offensive special attack. For example, the "M" (Machine Gun) becomes a shield that protects you acting like the "B" item from the first games, while the "S" (Spread Gun) unleashes a bouncing volley of bullets. It ditches the "Lock firing angle while moving" like in Shattered Soldier, but implements a new experimental feature that provides a bomb attack as long as you have a weapon to burn.
Non-stop firing, No overheating, all the fun included.
The most hated and criticized aspect of Contra Rogue Corps was the weapon overheating. Being unable to fire until the gun cools off might be common in 3rd person shooting games, but in a Run N' Gun game like a Contra game it proves to be annoying and sometimes fatal. Operation Galuga gets rid the overheating in favor of a continous firing in order to keep the pace with the action, and you're gonna need to never let go of the firing button, especially if you're playing the game on Hard, because the game will be relentless and pushing you to your limits since there's gonna be situations that will require quick reactions (and using the alternating weapon trick) like the rising stomach acid tide in the final level where having the right weapon will give you either an advantage against the enemy or cause you more trouble.
Walking through fire, fate's in my hands
Waiting for lightning to strike
Man on a wire, bearing the brand
Waiting for lightning to striiiiike! Lightning to strike.
Being true to the original concepts of Contra means one thing: No evaluations. Anyone who played Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra will definitely remember (and hate) the Hit Rate and the Percentage which was penalized when you die and even use a continue, compromising the ending you'd get. Operation Galuga removes that for good in favor of a more fun, fair and tolerant play style. After all, being in a fast reflexes gunfight is already a challenge for everyone at the point that a Hit Rate is something unnecessary as it only adds frustration. Also, the Pause button once again acts like a pause button. If you had the misfortune of playing Contra Rogue Corps, you'd probably remember failing a mission because pressing Start didn't paused the game at all. Here, you can finally pause the game, do whatever you have left and then go back and resume your gameplay.
(Speed Demooooon!) Speedin' on the freeway, gotta get a lead way.
(Speed Demooooon!) Got fire in my pocket, I just lit a rocket.
One of the things that I've missed of the original Contra was the 3rd person base levels where you destroy switches in order to advance to the next blockade. Here its replaced with a hoverbike level in pure Contra III and Shattered Soldier homage, it also lacks of the vertical scrolling stages like Super C and Contra III. That's the only negative aspect of this game since that makes Contra more linear like GunForce and Metal Slug when Konami's classic innovated over its rivals precisely with the 3D mazes.
Same old Gromaides, new attack patterns.
Like in Gradius V, we will be revisiting familiar faces and these are no longer the simpletons we knew back in the 80-90's. A good example is the alien monster Gromaides, which is no longer the static monster that stands there until his head blows up. Now he's gonna fight you with acid blood, fireballs and tentacle strikes. The same can be applied on the Turret wall on Stage 1. There's a couple of boss fights that will involve a "Boss Gauge" of some sorts, and those are the fights against Beowulf and Varanis. If the gauge fills, they will unleash a special attack. It can be avoided, but it is better to know when not to attack in order to slow the gauge (Example: Not shooting when Beowulf uses his shield)
Visit and Revisit any combat zone you want!
Like Contra: Shattered Soldier, you can revisit any stage you've cleared in Story Mode, allowing you to clear it in a much faster time than your previous visits or simply exploit it for credits which are used on the Perk Shop (I'll explain this one later).
Obstacle course.
The classic stages layouts were redesigned to carry new obstacle elements like hanging on support beams like in Contra III, giving a fresh new Contra challenge to oldschoolers. In order to exploit your new dash and double jump skills, there's gonna be new obstacles and stage hazards like crushing ceilings, floor fire traps and one surprise that I'll talk about it in a little while. It was also interesting to see how you're no longer go from left to right like always, and this stage in particular changes the direction to right-to-left kinda like some of the Megaman games.
The Wicked Maze
Like the sewer level in Spidersaurs, there's a large maze-like level which requires camera zoom-outs in the style of shmups like Raiden V and Shienryu because the action is way too big for one screen and having a wide space is the difference between life and death.
ContraVania Bloodlines
There's a part in the Ruins level where the reflection on the crystals will be reversed, leading to disorientation in the style of the section 6-3 of "The Proserpina Castle" from Castlevania Bloodlines, but rather than just turning the action upside down, the direction is also reversed, making you think you're going left. This is the only thing that I've found unnecessary not just for Contra, but for Castlevania as well since they're already challenging enough with the enemy placement and obstacle navigation.
Peace Sells...but Who's Buying?
Why not check the Perk Shop to pursue your Contra adventures?
A feature inherited from the atrocious Contra Rogue Corps, the store format makes a return, but this time is to buy perks that grant your characters more unique features and even allow you to increase you HP for 1 point, start with a specific weapon, or increase your life stock. With the stages giving you between 120 to 180 credits per stage, you will probably think this will require a lot of grinding, being the Extreme Difficulty the worst of all with the obscene price of 15,000 credits makes you ask "Was it really necessary to include an even harder difficulty?" If "Absurdes on difficulty" is what you want, go and play Contra: Shattered Soldier instead, the same goes for those who complain about grinding in this game. At least is not like Sandlot's E.D.F. games where you have to repeat levels hundreds, if not thousands of times to obtain enough HP to survive all the levels on Hardest and Inferno, that was Armor Point grinding hell.
Back to the store. My best recommendation is to buy the Overload Heal and the HP+1/HP+2, that combination gives you a powerful advantage in the game.
Play the game,
Read the story,
Hear both of them.
To make justice to the concept of "Story Mode", the game introduces cutscenes, something that we've already saw on Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra and Contra ReBirth. While there's no cinematic cutscenes like in the PS2, the game follows the in-game cutscenes using the graphics of the game, and sometimes still images in the style of a visual novel. As crazy as it sounds, it is interesting to see how Contra developed a lore of its own, a microcosmos that explains a little of the world within the Run N' Gun game we've grown up with, ditching all what the NES and SNES package blurb told us. Now it is more than clear that Red Falcon is a terrorist group and not an alien war monger, and believe it or not, this game blends Contra and Super Contra/Super C's storylines in one game, being the reference to the possesed GX Army in the Train stage the most obvious nod to Super C.
'Cause yooooouuuuu could be mi-iii-ine.
But you're wayyyyy ooooouuuut of li-iii-ine.
Arcade Mode is a lighter take on the original Story Mode campaign as it removes the plotline and the stage select option in favor of a more linear and "instant action" like pace in the style of the classic arcade games and its NES counterparts, but this time, you can bring 3 more partners to the action in the style of Konami's Sunsetriders, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men and The Simpsons arcade games. While you can originally access Bill, Lance and the Probotectors, you can unlock more characters as you progress in the Story Mode campaign. One of the complaints I've heard in YouTube videos is that the game lacks of a scoring system. Anyone who's familiar with THE WHOLE CONTRA SERIES will remember that the console games didn't had a score display on the HUD, only showing the remaining spare lives as medals (robot icons on the NES Probotector games), and the only way to confirm they've got a one up was when the game plays a chime sound. The arcade games and Hard Corps Uprising were the few exceptions where the score was displayed on the screen. I guess Konami wanted to make sure players get more focus on the action than concerning about their scores and it was an idea that worked pretty well, limiting the score displays to Level Clear, Game Over and Next Stage screens.
Engage in non-stop, pull-no-punches (or bullets) Run N' Gun action.
Just like in the NES days. Contra on its finest.
Overall, in gameplay is classic, traditional Contra on its finest regardless of the mode you're playing: No Hit Rate, no evaluations, no weapon overheating. Its just you, your weapons and some classic tricks against the hordes of Red Falcon. One final thing about both modes is that you can play with alternate soundtracks. While you can buy alternate music in the Perk Shop, there's more unlockable tracks for Arcade Mode. If you've played Castlevania: Anniversary Collection, Contra Anniversary Collection and Anniversary Collection: Arcade Classics, their save data will unlock alternate soundtracks from previous games and remixes. Retro Remix is a series of arrangements done by artists such as Tim McCord from Evanescence and even Harumi Fujita (Spidersaurs, Blazing Star, Pulstar) which marks her return to composing for WayForward. If you've played the demo, you'll be unlocking the WayForward Mix which is basically the music of Contra 4. Too bad the WayForward Mix didn't used Spidersaurs' soundtrack since that was a very close contender to a Contra title. They also didn't took advantage of Castlevania Advance Collection, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection or Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection. It'd be interesting to hear Metal Gear Solid 2's soundtrack or even unlock Solid Snake, Raiden and Solidus Snake as playable characters.
¿Will you accept the Contra challenges?
Keep in mind, some are "Pro's only".
The Challenge Mode from Contra 4 is back. For those who want side-missions with Contra, this is the answer to your prayers. Speedrunning will demand fast movement, less shooting and sometimes learn to find shortcuts and using your dash and grapple skills. Pacifism will require you to navigate a certain distance without shooting and without dying once. But what I consider unnecessary was the "limited ammo" challenges since one of the things that make Contra fun and amazing is precisely shooting around without concerning about ammunition and that challenge pokes that aspect, kinda killing the fun.
A quick sitrep before hell breaks loose.
In terms of graphics, I've heard many comments about "They look like a cheap phone app", "looks like a Malaysian mobile game", but being harsh with the graphics was that necessary? If there's something that Contra focuses more than the graphics is the gameplay and retain a classic look. Just take a look at Contra 4 which looks like a SNES game rather than exploiting the potential of the Nintendo DS. No one complained about it because the game retained the DNA and soul of Contra's gameplay. I know is not as polished as the "dark" Shattered Soldier or Neo Contra, but is way better than Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure altogether. But also, what's the point of greater graphics when the game's a disaster, that's a lesson that Contra: Rogue Corps gave us, so I want to think WayForward wanted it to make this game look "Retro, yet modern" and gave us this classic XBOX/early PlayStation 2 style (or Mainframe-esque CGI animation style) which works pretty damn well on the "Neo-Nostalgia" factor giving us a different approach on retro that doesn't involve 8 or 16-Bit like Super Cyborg and Blazing Chrome.
People of Action: We're all together in this.
While everyone remembers the classic Contra was only "Bill and Lance's Excellent Adventure", when war as a "men's only" job. This remake follows the steps of Contra Evolution and Contra 4 and enlarges them. Not just by adding women to the team, but also including a black man in power armor capable of fly and take more damage than the rest, a latina looking native with Contra-rivaling fighting skills and reinstating the Probotectors. Equality and inclusion, 'cos war involves everyone and won't discriminate race or gender. For some reason they excluded Sally and Erica from Contra Evolution along with Aleta, Riley and Lilia from Contra: Tournament, I don't know why, but they deserved to be part of this remake too.
Mutation: It is the key to our evolution.
One of the most curious aspects of the Contra lore was the "X-Menization" and "Ancient Alienization" of Contra throughout the Contra Gene premise, implying Contras are kinda like Marvel's famous mutants combined with the premise that they existed millenia ago as part of the Sol, an ancient alien race who battled the Zagard empire. Not to mention, Beowulf looks like a reject from the 2002's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe remake mixed with Mortal Kombat 11 with a Castlevania-like level.
It was very interesting to see how they brought some light to the origins of the Hard Corps with the unfortunate origin of Brad Fang and clearly hinting Contra Hard Corps as "Plan B" after all the alien hell broke loose.
While most of the cutscenes are done with the in-game graphics, the ending pulls something a little different by using what the game calls "Motion Comic", while is less animated than the standard cutscenes, the artwork looks quite good and the combination of reading the comic and hearing it adds a nostalgia feel to the old Kid Stuff videocasettes from the 80's, and believe it or not, it still works as cutscene.
The soundtrack is a nostalgia trip to the original Contra with a cinematic styled orchestration in pure Metal Gear Solid 2 style, like in Contra 4, it uses the classic intro fanfare from the first title. And once you've hear the classic Contra fanfare, you know you're in for a Contra in the style of your dad's days on the NES, not the trash from the PS1 or Rogue Corps. The intro fanfare was done in an epic style just like Contra 4 did, and the same thing can be said for the rest of the classic NES soundtrack such as the base theme in Stage 2. Looks like Konami wanted to make a more serious approach on the musicalization and ditched the metal and electronic styles of Motoaki Furukawa and Sota Fujimori that we've got on Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra, and the best part is that it worked pretty damn well. The idea of unlocking and playing with soundtracks of Contra, Super C, Contra 4 along with other Konami titles is very interesting and also very reminiscent of the PlayStation port of Raiden DX and its unlockable Viper Phase 1 soundtrack, giving an unexpected, yet interesting twist to our way to experience a Contra game. Hope they can include the music of Contra III and Spidersaurs in the future.
To complete the sound department all of the characters have voices, and to be honest, they are much better than the cast of Rogue Corps. As a final note of detail, it was interesting to hear the classic "Puchauuung!" when you die, completing the "This is Contra" nostalgia factor of the game.
CONTRA: OPERATION CURIOSITIES
One of the finer moments in the history of Sci-Fi Low-Fi.
- Second reboot of the original Contra, being Contra Evolution the first one.
- Browny's appearance resembles that of Contra: Tournament.
- Second Contra game developed by WayForward.
- The yellow "H" for the Homing puns the Heavy Machine Gun from SNK/Nazca Corp's Metal Slug series which was a yellow "H" icon.
- The achievement title "Demolition Fan" is a wordplay on the title of the film Demolition Man.
- "Caterpiecer" is a pun to the word "Caterpillar".
- "Cheesed It" nods the snack cracker brand Cheez-It.
- "Face, Offed" puns the phrase "Faceoff" (or "Face-Off").
- "Bury Me with my Money" refers the last words of Simon Greedwell, the first boss of Sunset Riders.
- "Vandal Heart" is a reference to the Vandal Hearts series of RPG games.
- Beowulf's fire dragon attack is actually the Dragon Laser from the arcade shmup Trigon/Lightning Fighters.
- If the player's using Ariana before the battle with Varanis she will say "You do not belong here". This might be a reference to Richter Belmont's phrase "You don't belong to this world" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
- In the post-credits scene, a Lorem Ipsum can be seen on Dr. Drake's analysis screen.
CONTRA NODS
- Probotectors codenames "M4D-0G" and "SC0RP1" refer "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion", the american localization names used to refer Bill and Lance (and later used as separate characters in Contra 4).
- The achievement "Ran & Gunned" obviously refers to "Run N' Gun", the genre that Contra built.
- "Locked and Overloaded" puns "Lock & Load", the respawn quote from Contra 4.
- "Contra Rebirth" nods the Nintendo Wii title of the same name.
- "Consider yourself a Hero" is a reference to the ending message from the NES American Contra/European Probotector.
- "Hard Corps" is a clear nod to the Sega Genesis game Contra Hard Corps (Contra: The Hard Corps in Japan) and the XBOX360 & PlayStation 3 game Hard Corps: Uprising.
- "Shattered Soldier" refers to the PlayStation 2 title Contra: Shattered Soldier.
- "Attack Aggressively" nods the quote "Let's attack aggressively" from the Super Nintendo game Contra III: The Alien Wars/Super Probotector: Alien Rebels.
- "It's time for Reverb" is another Contra III nod, refering to Bill's phrase "It's time for revenge".
- "Contra Force" makes a reference to the obscure, crimebuster/counterterrorist NES spin-off title of the same name, formerly meant to be an unrelated game called Arc Hound.
- "Legacy of Score" nods the PlayStation and Sega Saturn game Contra: Legacy of War, considered one of the worst Contra games until Contra: Rogue Corps took over the title of the absolute worst Contra game ever.
- "Gryzor noob" refers Gryzor, the name given to the European release of the arcade version of Contra.
- "Hardcore Uprising" obviously makes a nod to Hard Corps: Uprising.
GRADIUS REFERENCES
Thought the enemy was Bacterion.
- "I could shoot the core?" refers the famous Gradius quote "Shoot the Core" ("Destroy the Core" in Gradius V).
- The Lemris resembles the Mega Crush power capsule from the Gradius series.
- Stanley's Laser weapon is the Ripple Laser from Life Force and Gradius II.
- Despite is not explained, it is possible that the "G-Initiative" might be referring Gradius, mostly the development of the Vic Viper.
Back in Style.
After the giant atrocity that was Contra: Rogue Corps, Konami makes amends with the fanbase giving us the Contra game we all really deserved. The classic gameplay elements are restored and combined with new features to hook newcomers, oldschool and veteran players in a Neo-Classic that will be appreciated by the new generation. If you still have Contra: Rogue Corps, just do yourself a favor and uninstall it for good and pretend that monstrosity never existed. Operation Galuga is the present day Contra game we were finally looking for.
Also, this new lore rises some interesting questions and mysteries that would link this game with other Konami titles. We already noticed the Gradius nods and the possibility that the G-Initiative could be the beginning of the Vic Viper program, but if the Lemris/Mega Crush was creating "Contra" since the dawn of civilization, would that mean Belmonts were not just Vampire Hunters, but Contra as well? Sounds crazy, but with the current "Multiverse" fad going on, this could be a possibility and if that's so, we can only wait what kind of surprises Konami and WayForward got in mind for us.
Need to say more?
Continue the fight,
for the war is not yet over.
Looks like the batte is far from over. Konami and WayForward will reboot the entire Contra continuity and we will face the new Alien Wars.
Whatever Konami is planning, there's a group of oldschoolers waiting for another showdown with the Zagard Empire.