Developed/Published by Konami
Released 1987
The original Contra game was an important release in the history of video games and the classic run 'n gun shooter got its start in the arcade back in 1987. Featuring 8 action-packed stages and allowing 2-player simultaneous co-op gameplay, Contra was an incredible game when it came out. A mysterious meteor has landed in the jungle (presumably somewhere in South America) that has brought with it deadly alien lifeforms called the Red Falcon. So of course the first course of action is to send 1 or 2 commandos to the island to put a stop to the deadly aliens. It's not much of a story, but it's enough to justify some blasting excitement.
The first 4 stages of Contra alternate between side-scroller and behind the back levels, but all stages following these are side-scrollers. There are a total of 8 different areas, though the last 4 are linked together and many consider stage 5 to be 1 level with 4 sections. It feels a bit uneven though there wasn't much more Konami could have done with the base levels and it would have gotten a bit monotonous had there been any more of them. The existing 2 base areas where you play behind the back are quite similar, but there's a solid amount of variety between the side-scrolling stages. The mission begins in the jungle and will take you through the waterfalls, snow and a few others before ending up at the alien base.
The side-scrolling levels feature a nice mix of platforming and shooting. The behind-the-back levels aren't quite as exciting, but are still fun and still feature tons of shooting action. In these levels you'll be restricted to the bottom of the screen via a barrier that will shock you if you press the up button. You can move left, right and duck down. These behind-the-back levels are presented as a sort of maze, progressing room by room. You move forward to the next room after you've destroyed the core-looking thing on the wall. As you get further, they'll mix up the placement of where the core is, sometimes causing you to jump or blow cover out of the way first. You'll spend a lot of your time ducking in these sections, since there are turrets and foot soldiers blasting at you but they can only hit you when you're standing. Once you clear all of the rooms in the base, you'll face off against the boss, which we'll get into the next section.
The enemies in Contra come in a nice variety and the game does a good job introducing new types as you progress. There's lots of grunts and turrets to blast in the start, but by the time you reach the end of the game you'll be fighting with aliens. At the end of each stage, you'll face off against a boss which will start off easy, with the first boss just being a wall with turrets. The bosses vary in coolness, with the first really impressive boss popping up at the end of the waterfall in stage 3. Here you'll face off against a large stationary alien and while it's not really animated, it looked very impressive for the time. The bosses at the end of the behind the back base levels are easily the low-point, as they are just alien shape-things (for lack of a better description) that fire at you. The game goes out on a high-note as you get to blast the heart of the alien base. The heart is surrounded by little egg pods that deposit aliens as you fight it and even pumps faster as it gets closer to defeat. Destroying the heart will reveal a quick cutscene that shows our soldiers escaping from the island as it goes up in an explosion. It's a simple but satisfying ending.
Every now and then you'll see a flying capsule that, when shot, will release a power-up. Most of these are in the form of a new weapon. There's the machine gun, fire ball, laser, rapid fire and the almighty spread gun. There are also a few spots where you can grab a barrier, which will provide temporary invincibility. There's a good variety to the weapons and all can be good in certain scenarios, but there's no doubt that the spread shot is the best all-purpose weapon.
While Contra is not the first run & gun shooter (Konami's own Rush 'N Attack predates Contra by 2 years), it's the first one that many of us older folks remember from back then and the one that really nailed the formula. One thing that sets Contra and its arcade sequel apart from later entries in the 2D run & gun genre is the vertical orientation of the monitor. In a game where you're predominately moving from left to right it would have made more sense to have a horizontal monitor, but there is at least the waterfall stage where you must traverse upwards rather than side to side. So at least one stage made some use of the vertical monitor and there are several areas in other levels that make good use of the verticality by having layers of platforms, offering you some options how wish to traverse the section. The vertical monitor seems like an odd decision at first (and it is), but within a few minutes of playing the game you'll get used to it.
The original Contra is perhaps best remembered these days from the NES port, which saw a North American release in 1988, and many feel that the home port surpasses the arcade original. Konami extended the length of several stages and tightened up the controls. The NES port certainly elevated an already excellent game to another level. Unfortunately the game is plagued with the sprite-flicker many NES games suffered from, but the slowdown isn't as bad as the arcade version and it's still a very enjoyable game if you're able to overlook these issues. Don't dismiss the arcade original, it's still a solid run 'n gun blast from the past and it's cool to go back and see how it differs from the home port. The game would also see ports to the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, mobile devices, MS-DOS, MSX and the Spectrum ZX. Arcade-perfect ports would show up later on the PS2, PS4 and the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 version of Contra is reviewed at Xbox Overview.
Final Verdict: Contra is an important piece of arcade gaming history, being one of the original 2D run 'n gun games and is still fun to replay in modern times.
Purchase Links:
Buy Contra Anniversary Collection (Xbox One Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Contra (Xbox 360 Digital) - Microsoft Store
Buy Konami Arcade Classics Vol. 2 (Xbox 360 Disc) - eBay
Search for Contra Arcade - eBay
Search for Contra NES - eBay
Search for Contra MS-DOS - eBay
Related Links:
Contra (Xbox 360) - Xbox Overview
Contra Anniversary Collection - Xbox Overview
Konami - Official Site
Contra - Killer List of Video Games
Contra - GameFAQs
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