Contra Review

By Kristan Reed Published 14 December, 2006

Back to the old school.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Xbox Live Arcade is such an exciting lucky dip. It's like Microsoft has this big machine (probably called Guinievere) and spins it around once a week in front of excited retro gamers. Out plops a little ball with a game name and up steps a grizzled-looking Dominik Diamond to pluck the next lucky winner to be released into the masses.

Well it might as well be that arbitrary for all the logic behind the weekly release schedule for its casual game download service. In certain parts of the world, Contra's regarded with reverence, but ageing European gamers (like, er, me) probably have a less rose-tinted association with how the series started, being one of many slapdash Ocean-published (hi Gary!) ports for the various 8-bit platforms back in 1987. One thing that caught my eye from the Wikipedia entry (god bless it), I nearly spat my cornflakes out at the suggestion that it, "essentially defined the run and gun computer game genre". You what?

Seriously. Who writes this stuff? Did this author actually play any of the five-bugillion 8-bit games with side-scrolling platform-shooting elements that came before Contra, or is dementia really setting in prematurely? I can dig out the 49 side-scrolling platform shooters from my bulging games cupboard from the era if you really want me to prove the point. But anyway, let's move on to the here and now...

Still rocking after all these years

'Contra' Screenshot runandgun

When run and gun was new and Rambo was king.

Thanks to Konami being one of a mere handful of games companies to still be around from that hallowed era, we get games like Contra showing up to the XBLA party 19 years later, positioned as if it were one of the real innovators of platform shooting. Which is a bit like listening to a Status Quo fan claiming they were the inventors of psychedelic pop, but now I'm really showing my age.

Ok, so the slightly revisionist not-taking-into -account-all-those -other-games-that -everyone's-forgotten-about -that-came-out -well-before-it view is that Contra is a super-important and fondly cherished example of the genre. Well, it's certainly the last bit of the sentence. But does it stand the test of time? More importantly, is it worth buying again?

To answer the first question, no, not on your nelly. Like most things that came out of 1987 (like Bros, or Brother Beyond) it's actually a bit rubbish when you try and commit serious time to deconstructing its merits today. In fact, it's one of those retro games that you dread showing to anyone of a younger generation, because all it does is reinforce the infuriating myth that all old games were terrible, garish looking abominations with clunky controls and unforgiving play mechanics.

All apologies

'Contra' Screenshot graphics

Wow man, look at the graphics!

Ok, that's bound to rile the legion of sympathisers for Contra (and let me apologise in advance), but let's take a reality check for a second. I take no pleasure in saying this, but even looked upon with retro fondness and a love for that stylistic chunkiness (which I love, by the way), it came out during what can only be described as videogaming's post infancy. It's bit like that point where young children start developing their front adult teeth and lose their effortless cuteness.

To a large degree, gaming tried way too hard to act all grown up back then. Blessed with the ability to throw more colours and more sprites on the screen at once than ever, games were awash with bigger characters, bright scenery, scrolling, attempts at animation and brain-numbing MIDI tunes. So, even to an ardent retro sympathiser such as myself, this just looks bad. Baaaad. The enhanced visual sheen (which you can, as ever, switch) added over the top of this Xbox Live Arcade version can't really do a great deal but smooth out the pixels, and nothing can disguise the fact that this has exceptionally limited controls and unforgiving design elements that existed purely to get you to throw more coins into the machine to continue. Playing it now doesn't inspire nostalgia - just a lot of sighing.

Double the fun

What it did have, though, to its eternal credit, was two-player simultaneous co-op play, which, at the time, was still a relatively novel invention, and something which will no doubt make this an instant must-play for those who fell in love with it back in the day. And if you loved it then, and got good at it, the chances are you'll still love it now - and hence won't particularly appreciate me telling you that it's not very good.

'Contra' Screenshot snow

Snow levels were still a novelty in 1987.

For the record, the premise for the game places you as Bill Rizer (and Lance Bean) on a mission set in the year 2633 to wipe out the Red Falcon terrorist gang invading a fictional group of islands off New Zealand. But all you really needed to know is that you must shoot everything that's busy rushing towards you - as with Green Beret, Cobra or any other run and gun side-scroller of the era. Able to spray your gun (with a bit of persuasion) in various different directions and jump between platforms (as well as duck down into a prone position to avoid bullets), your mission is no more complicated than to run from left to right (or ascend to the top via a series of platforms), take out the spawning bad guys, watch out for the mounted security cannons and eventually destroy the entrance to a tunnel complex.

On this pseudo 3D section, you then have to continue to blast away at security panels to disable electric fence traps in order to move through the tunnel to the next set of traps, and so on until you reach the start of the next level. It's classic arcade action - trying to memorise where and when new enemies arrive as you go.

And so on, again, dealing with a procession of leaping, firing bad guys, collecting different, higher powered weaponry (some able to spray further and faster than your default gun), taking out yet more mounted guns, before moving onto a typical boss face-off, where you have to learn their attack patterns to dodge the hail of firepower unleashed on top of you. And then more - increasingly difficult - tunnel sections which test you with ever-more fiendish electrified traps that require jumping and crouching and firing in order to disable. Evil. Pure evil.

In simple terms, Contra is still just about playable enough for real die-hard fans to plough through again and enjoy, but for outsiders who missed out the first time, the chances are you won't get what the fuss is about. Contra is a fairly typical example of one of those games from the period that's too unforgiving to be truly enjoyable, and suffers from too many annoying design conventions that were taken for granted back then. Definitely one to try before you consider buying, then

5 / 10

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Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • peterfll #1 5 years ago

    I'd rather play this then Defender or Mortal Kombat 3.

  • Muddtallica #2 5 years ago

    Which system was this one on? Because I used to play the SNES one loads with my brother when we were round my uncle's house, and it was top...even to play again recently. If it's that one, then five is in no way a reasonable score...but if it's an earlier one that I've not played, then maybe it is, in which case I'll shut up and go away.

  • petebritish #3 5 years ago

    The problem with these older games,the same on the Virtual console on Wii, is that they tarnish the memory you had as a child. Of these amazing games the likes of which you had never seen b4. Now they seem pants..

    Like seeing your old school girlfriend 20 years on,who everyone thought was hot, and now looks like Vicky Pollards granny..

  • andrewwd #4 5 years ago

    Probotector was the Euro version of Super Contra, rather than arcade Contra. I think
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/06 @ 09:25

  • Sid-Nice #5 5 years ago

    Just because the Wii is popular; Microsoft shouldn't try and emulate Wii graphics.

  • woodnotes #6 5 years ago

    Uh, why review this and not Assault Heroes?

  • Universal_Hamster #7 5 years ago

    Super Probotector was Contra III, the third game in the series, and one of the best shmups ever.

  • krudster #8 5 years ago

    Obviously an Assault Heroes review is coming as well.
    Edited by 1 at 14/12/06 @ 10:21

  • AcidSnake #9 5 years ago

    Wikipedia is free!
    Go! Change it!
    Let's make it more historically accurate!

  • haowan #10 5 years ago

    Assault Heroes you mean ;)

  • Lagto_Soa #11 5 years ago

    So this is the game I know as Gryzor?

    one of many slapdash Ocean-published ports

    Spectrum version was tops. At the time. And probably still is today, curse you, Reed (although I wouldn't go so far as to play it to verify that).

  • Mordum #12 5 years ago

    "essentially defined the run and gun computer game genre", defined does'nt mean 'invented' so why is the reviewer getting annoyed about that quote from Wikipedia?
    I too would laugh if Wikipedia suggested that Contra invented the genre, but that not what that qoute is saying.

  • Obscured #13 5 years ago

    But does it have the code!?

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #14 5 years ago

    I thought this had aged fairly well when I played the demo. Though apparently not well enough to make me buy it, so perhaps Kristan has a point.

    Although, I was surprised there was no mention of the single most annoying thing about it (to me) was that on a widescreen TV, it takes up only about a third of the bloody screen! The NES version ('Probotector' in the UK, the one I played through to the end 20 years or so ago) at least had 4:3 support.

    Rather than piss about with 'Enhanced graphics' they should have widened the bloody play area, that might have been worth something.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #15 5 years ago

    Holy shit, you can actually play Probotector in a web page:

    [link url=http://www.1980-games.com/us/old-games/nin tendo/p/Probotector/game.php
    ]http://ww w.1980-games.com/us/old-games/n...[/link]

    That certainly puts 400 points in perspective.

  • Spydez #16 5 years ago

    The SNES game was Super Contra III, the Mode 7 enhanced two player romp. That was indeed a fine game and IMO the best in the Contra series. I loved the level where you were hanging from the missiles. This is the original arcade version of Contra which comes from a time when games were far more unforgiving.

  • RuudVanPistolrooy #17 5 years ago

    Do us an XBLA version of Turrican and I'll pay you 400pts. But for Contra? No ta, it was mediocre then and worse now.

  • Phreedh #18 5 years ago

    Ooooh, Turrican would be sweet! And Silkworm / SWIV / Whatever it was called. And Project X, I thought that was ace! Those would even work well with the analog stick!

    How about Gods? Would love to see that! Black Tiger would be cool too, but most of all, I want Rick Dangerous! Unplayable on the 360 controller though.

    Instead, I'm sure we'll get some other arcade crap designed to steal our money. =(

  • playgen #19 5 years ago

    I was playing Turrican 3 on my Amiga last night. Fecking awesome game, its like Metroid, but without all the boring bits!

  • haowan #20 5 years ago

    I found this game to be unplayable rubbish, but then I never played the original so...

  • LittleVoice #21 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:03:32 01-02-2012

  • Retroid #22 5 years ago

    I remember being bored on holiday in Spain and they had a cab of this in one of the hotel arcades.

    I thought it was a bit bobbins back then so bollocks to bothering with it now!

  • Waldo #23 5 years ago

    Nothing like paying good money to play glorified 20-year-old ROMs of dusty "classic" games on your state-of-the-art console. ;)

  • glaeken #24 5 years ago

    I used to play the original alot in the arcades. After downloading it though I gave it one go and realised how much things have changed. You can never go back.

  • krudster #25 5 years ago

    Not true. Some retro games hold up amazingly well.

  • spongebob #26 5 years ago

    Yeah, but most of them are pure crap now. Save the stardusted memories, don't play the games.

  • glaeken #27 5 years ago

    Not for me they don't. I have yet to play any game I used to like and not come away thinking age had not been kind.

    Still each to their own.

  • Muddtallica #28 5 years ago

    glaeken: I agree with that...I can't think of a single game that I have revisited and thought "actually, this is rubbish, I regret replaying this". It might be something to do with the fact that a lot of the time when you play an older game, especially one you have fond memories of, your brain switches back to the mindset you had when you first played it, so there's no problem. Playing a twenty-year-old game for the first time now, though, might be a different story...

    Though I still maintain that there are a very healthy number of retro games that are still top-drawer by any standards. Super Metroid for one...

  • playgen #29 5 years ago

    The true great games will always be great

    Games that relied on graphics, or a gameplay gimmick that has quickly became standard, naturally loose a lot of their charm over time.

    People who dismiss any games that are old as rubbish are fools. How old does a game have to be before it suddenly becomes rubbish?, are all ps2 and xbox titles now crap because their last gen?

  • MrFlintBlackman #30 5 years ago

    It took you guys long enough to review a 15 min game.........just saying.

    Lazy gits.

  • mortykun #31 5 years ago

    I must of finished Contra a hundred times on my NES, actually feeling the urge to do it again...

  • Lorka #32 5 years ago

    There is no full stop on this article. I am outraged and mortally insulted.

  • NthSimulachum #33 5 years ago

    I lost interest in the article after "bulging games wardrobe".

  • Makkuro #34 5 years ago

    Contra is shit and always will be. Why couldn't they release Probotector instead? Awesome robots > bare-chested macho men.

  • LaundroMat #35 5 years ago

    Lagto_Soa : So this is the game I know as Gryzor?

    Yes, it was called Gryzor on my Amstrad back in the days as well.

  • haowan #36 5 years ago

    glaeken:

    Rainbow Islands.

  • Muddtallica #37 5 years ago

    haowan: Man, I'm saving that GIF. Thanks! :D

  • SomaticSense #38 5 years ago

    Contra is still just about playable enough for real die-hard fans to plough through again and enjoy, but for outsiders who missed out the first time, the chances are you won't get what the fuss is about.

    I suppose I'm one that falls into the latter catergory.

    Never had pocket money to spend on it in the arcades and was a Sega boy back in the day, so I missed out on playing it way back when. But now I have, I just don't get it. I thought it was plain shit, even compared to the myraid of other early side-scrolling shooters. IMO, Alien 3 (I know it came out after....) on the Mega Drive pisses all over it.

    I'm just hoping that MS pull their finger out of their arse and get around to convincing Treasure to release their back catalogue on XBLA. Their shooters shit on the likes of this from a great height.

    Also, note to MS and Sega (if they are reading this) - I will be willing to pay around full retail price for an XBLA release of the Streets of Rage trilogy. PLEASE!!!!
    Way better than this guff.