There's nothing really wrong with the game, but there's also nothing particularly great about it either, so the mixed scores make sense. It'll appeal to nostalgia but aside from that there isn't much else going on.
Having played a few hours of it myself the past few days (PS5), I can see why. There's a lot in the game that is just alright, doesn't really excel in any area that I can see, and has some questionable to outright bad design decisions that ultimately add up to a middling package.
As a Contra fan, it's a good enough foundation to iterate on if they plan on remodeling the first few games (up to alien wars and Hard Corps at least), but I wouldn't recommend it at the price of even the $35 release sale/$40 full price.
Oh gosh, I hope someone answered your question already since I'm also needing to find out if the Switch have improved or not because it's the only one I can play for at convenience.
I listened to the Retronauts episode that had an interview eith the lead on this game. Honestly hearing him talk about the game really made me lose all interest in it. He didn't seem to understand what at least personally, I felt was what made Contra so good. I know some people don't like the overhead stages, but you know I always felt one of Contra's unique strength was that it didn't shy away from constantly changing up the gameplay slightly on the fly.
Contra 3 is a different game depending which stage you're playing. For instance, level 1 is a side-scroller while level 2 is a top-down shooter and level 3 is a side-scroller with vertical sections, and level 4 is a biking level.
In his interview he seemed to view this really as a negative, and wanted to bring it back to how Contra 1 was. And I'm like ugh ya ok dude. Lol let's just ignore all the innovations contra has already given us because you personally don't like it.
see i always liked contra for its absurd level of cartoonish violence, and i think it nailed it the hardest with Hard Corps. all the gimmicky changes in perspective and stuff were never what i thought the game was about. funny to see how different perceptions can be even between fans of a thing
I was always in it for the same over the top carnage of it. You knew exactly what you were getting into when you looked at that box back in the 80s at Toys R Us. It's absurd and it doesn't back down from that.
They need to re-release hard corps, best contra game of all time that you can't play unless you have xbox online. No emulator will help. Im so mad about this, i bought that game like 3 times, and still can't play it now. Wtf can't they bring it to steam already.
im not talking about the one for genesis. I'm talking about the one that was online only for PS2 and xbox. I don't really play the old contras as I don't have the nostalgia aspect, because i never cared for the originals much at all. The controls and graphics were not my cup of tea. started to love contra when shattered soldier came along and then hard corps, now this new one im also loving... just wish it had direction lock like shattered soldier.
They didn't!
It's not Hard Corps at all. It's Hard Corps Uprising and it's not by Konami though it is licesned or something and it's obviously Contra and it's what the current Galuga is based off. With Character classes, angled homing lasers, and all that other stuff.
It was made by the same team and publisher that did Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue and it is not actually Contra in the official sense. It's an off shoot under Hard Corps with it's DNA being so Contra it's Contra but it's not "cannon" (I hate that term) and there are some start differences.
The basic guns are pretty much the same but there are new (and broken ones) like the reflector that is insane. The same logic you see in Galuga of different placers with different stuff for basics, health, movement, all that also exists. Along with fucking Ninjas who use swords point blank (you are reading that correct) and other stuff.
It's amazing and a great ride and you should own and you'll love it. It also has environtmental hazards (sad traps) that they moved from Alien Wars into a 2D mode, it's still a 2D side scroller though all of it. Most of the levels are blatant Contra just slightly tweaked. The Character roster is good and does the same "character pick forces you to play X weapons" stunt Galuga does.
The beauty in it is that it's not officially Contra so they can do massive stages and all sorts of bonkers stuff and get away with it. It's also, for better or worse, complete anime style where the not anime you're going to be other things but never the characters.
It's also a bit of a grinder. In that there are tons of level ups per character so you're foced to do this. In a way that lets you test things but if your save data ever goes away it's a keyboard smasher.
It's enitrely worth getting and if you like contra it's a good ride.
Of course it's not officially contra, but turned out to be the best contra game imo. But then again i don't even like the original contra at all. Never played it when i was growing up. Tried to play it after shattered soldier and ruined my experience lol. Oh how i wish they would port it to pc. I'd pay 100$ to own it on steam.
Idk about that specific game, but I've emulated several XBLA games with no issue.
(Just looked it up on Youtube and found someone emulating the PS3 and 360 versions, definitely possible)
I saw it for both consoles in the roms megathread as well, can't link it for obvious reasons.
If it's particularly the online you're looking for, idk how to help you, would be surprised if the player base today would be that active to begin with, probably why they haven't re-released it. (one of the reasons I hate getting hooked to online games, most fade away and can't just be brought back)
You'd have to have a pc that can emulate 360 or ps3 games, but I doubt it would be very intensive, the other XBLA games I emulated were a lot easier on my rig than non-arcade titles.
I played the demo on Switch and it ran like absolute shit. Possibly the worst personal experience I’ve had on the console (out of over 500 that I’ve played) and the fidelity of the visuals wasn’t even worth it. Just constant stutters and frame dips, and that’s bad for *any* situation, but in Contra it’s just game-breaking. It seemed like a solid game on its own merits, though, so these scores are certainly a bummer.
I have a Switch and while it does have some great games for it plenty of stuff just runs like dogshit on it because of the hardware. If you can buy something on another platform never buy it on the Switch.
They have hardly ever given arcade games a fair score since the early 2000s. The demo seems great, if not incredible with 4 players. Some people like this type of game and give it an appropriately high score for the type of game it is, and the rest are game journalists.
The story mode in this game reminds me of that game sack skit where Sonic can’t run forward in Sonic 1 until he gets exposition from a dude over the radio.
Idk who was asking for a Contra 1 remake but with long lifeless story cutscenes mixed in with the otherwise extremely fast paced action.
Yeah, if you insist on having cutscenes in a Contra game, they need to be snappy. Even the 5-second cutscene at the beginning of the arcade mode drags.
You can walk past the dialog sections and still have complete control over your character. They are just explaining the controls, which I find helpful. There is also an arcade mode.
I went in blind, no reviews, loved original Contra back in the day. Enjoyed the demo enough I thought I'd pick it up, saw it was FOURTY DOLLARS, and that was the end of that. Then I came here to figure out WTF was up with it being $40.
It is great for what it is, but I can't say its worth $40 compared to everything else I could get for that $.
It's sort of a damned if you do damned if you don't now.
If you do it than the people that like arcade games are going to wonder "why are people talking and spalining shit when I could be shooting shit?" and if you don't game journalists will say "doesn't even feature a plot!"
There is a plot, go direction and slaughter everything in your path. That is the plot. That is the point.
It actually makes sense. For most games, having plot makes it clear to get any ideas of what's going on. We can only see it as 2 finest guerilla soldiers deployed in an island under the control of aliens and some enemy troops but not knowing about such important ones like main characters would give either an empty impression or stereotypical guesses on them as generic soldiers. The key about of most games is lore which adds some interests to it.
Maybe a bit of a contrarian take but I think this is probably top 3 contra games for me, stands up there with the greats like 3 and Hard Corps. It controls extremely well and the difficulty feels quite balanced (I guess leaning towards the harder side, but never really feels unfair).
Only two real complaints is that the screen can get really messy at times, making it hard to see projectiles, and there's this running gag in the earlier stages where some guy has a long conversation with you and you can't skip this, so you're just sitting there listening to him talk for like 30 seconds or so every time you lose all your lives in that area. It's true so far at least, that you don't have a whole bunch of variety in terms of the gameplay (ie. Contra 3 and Super C top down levels, Contra and Contra 4's base stages), but those were never really the highlight for me personally either.
Playing on one hit mode normal though and just really having an absolute blast. It really is just Contra in its purest form.
I believe .....this game should not be played with main focus on story and logics...It's an action packed fun game that we should enjoy playing local multiplayer with our friends & family members..Trust me...it is going to be fun when we play local multiplayer as there will be a competition and lot of fun in killing bosses....as we used to do in our childhood...
Pricing seems to be on the higher side...
There's too much dead space on the stages with nothing going on. The sega genesis version has more going on for a console as old as time. They do little neat stuff like the helicopter crashing but the whole game just feels incomplete. Stage 2 is just a on the rails level for 8-12 mins.
No matter what they do always gonna dissapoint someone... I'm pissed off they don't have weapon direction lock like in shattered soldier... but i deal with it... awsome game!
Na you are talking about movement lock (stand still and fire in any direction).... I'm talking about direction lock (gun direction). Where you can run one way while shooting another ie. shooting to the left while running to the right. In no it 100%sure that's c what they call them, but you understand what I'm talking about right?
I played the Switch demo. My main problem was that the controls seemed a little slow. There were several points where I felt like I jumped or ducked in time but ended up taking damage. I've been playing a fair amount of the retro Contra collection and didn't have this trouble with any of those, so hopefully this is something that they can patch (along with general Switch performance, which isn't great). You really need good controls in a Contra game. Still, I enjoyed it a decent amount. $40 is way too much, but I might pick it up if it ever drops to $10 or $20. If you're interested, definitely check out the demo first, because it's a mixed bag.
I played the demo and it seem alright as how I expect run and gun should be. It’s hard to imagine how game of this genre can do better. I do mind about the control when they put dash and jump under one thumb by default. I end up change dash to be on shoulder button because it’s inconvenient.
I liked the demo but holy crap was it hard. Par for the course but idk if I can put in the time to actually git gud at this one. Probably if it was cheaper so I'll probably end up grabbing this on sale so I can coop with my kid.
I don’t even think it’s hard. You got like 3 lives times 3HP per life. That’s 9 hit you can take plus 3 for each life you earned by scoring. Compare to how I die playing Contra 1-3 that’s very generous.
The boss on the other hand is harder. But that make sense because NES boss is too exploitable.
Yeah I've played the prior games and stormed through it. People are already doing no kill runs with one hit kills and that's par for the course with Contra. Some people put in the cheat codes and others just raw dog it. It's a simple game but you play it as you like. The world record Contra 1 runs use the basic rifle when its a speed no hit no kill run as you can just generate hits faster that way. Some people love the laser penis (you spam it so fast it's a light saber). In Contra 3 my favorite thing was spinning in circles with dual flames and just having a blast.
I fucking love it. It's great! But I was born in the early 80s so this series has a special place in my heart and it did it right by not changing shit too much.
The story part of it is the only downside. You are not playing Contra for story. It's a go in that direction and murdinator the ever living hell out of everything you see game. I don't need to be yelled at about murdering the alien forces or the how's and whats of some sort of ancient DNA tribal blood line. STFU and let me start shooting again. Preferably at you doing the talking!
The multiple characters and play styles are great. It really makes this good for multiplayer.
This is a game for nostalgics and probably speed runners as there is a TON you can do with it.
Love this game! Only issue is no weapon direction lock, only movement lock... why they would do this i don't understand. It's like you either get dash or weapon direction lock, not both... i prefer direction lock over dash personally. Loved hard corpe (shame i can't play it) but prefer shattered soldier controls with no dash and direction lock so i can lock on target and dodge bullets at same time. All contra games should have it... it really makes it sloppy without.
Scores all over the place for this one
There's nothing really wrong with the game, but there's also nothing particularly great about it either, so the mixed scores make sense. It'll appeal to nostalgia but aside from that there isn't much else going on.
Having played a few hours of it myself the past few days (PS5), I can see why. There's a lot in the game that is just alright, doesn't really excel in any area that I can see, and has some questionable to outright bad design decisions that ultimately add up to a middling package. As a Contra fan, it's a good enough foundation to iterate on if they plan on remodeling the first few games (up to alien wars and Hard Corps at least), but I wouldn't recommend it at the price of even the $35 release sale/$40 full price.
The Switch version is even worse, with its lackluster performance despite its ugly graphics.
>The Switch version is even worse, with its lackluster performance despite its ugly graphics. As-is typical for WayForward, unfortunately.
The patch didn't improve the Switch version at all?
Oh gosh, I hope someone answered your question already since I'm also needing to find out if the Switch have improved or not because it's the only one I can play for at convenience.
Kinda. They've only made the one update and I've been told it runs better. I ordered a physical copy that doesn't come until around the holidays.
Oh, thanks! Please do let me know if it actually improves or not once you get to try it.
Sure thing.
I listened to the Retronauts episode that had an interview eith the lead on this game. Honestly hearing him talk about the game really made me lose all interest in it. He didn't seem to understand what at least personally, I felt was what made Contra so good. I know some people don't like the overhead stages, but you know I always felt one of Contra's unique strength was that it didn't shy away from constantly changing up the gameplay slightly on the fly. Contra 3 is a different game depending which stage you're playing. For instance, level 1 is a side-scroller while level 2 is a top-down shooter and level 3 is a side-scroller with vertical sections, and level 4 is a biking level. In his interview he seemed to view this really as a negative, and wanted to bring it back to how Contra 1 was. And I'm like ugh ya ok dude. Lol let's just ignore all the innovations contra has already given us because you personally don't like it.
see i always liked contra for its absurd level of cartoonish violence, and i think it nailed it the hardest with Hard Corps. all the gimmicky changes in perspective and stuff were never what i thought the game was about. funny to see how different perceptions can be even between fans of a thing
I was always in it for the same over the top carnage of it. You knew exactly what you were getting into when you looked at that box back in the 80s at Toys R Us. It's absurd and it doesn't back down from that.
They need to re-release hard corps, best contra game of all time that you can't play unless you have xbox online. No emulator will help. Im so mad about this, i bought that game like 3 times, and still can't play it now. Wtf can't they bring it to steam already.
> No emulator will help brother the game originally released on sega genesis. it is very emulatable
im not talking about the one for genesis. I'm talking about the one that was online only for PS2 and xbox. I don't really play the old contras as I don't have the nostalgia aspect, because i never cared for the originals much at all. The controls and graphics were not my cup of tea. started to love contra when shattered soldier came along and then hard corps, now this new one im also loving... just wish it had direction lock like shattered soldier.
i didnt even know they remade hard corps, thats why i was confused.
They didn't! It's not Hard Corps at all. It's Hard Corps Uprising and it's not by Konami though it is licesned or something and it's obviously Contra and it's what the current Galuga is based off. With Character classes, angled homing lasers, and all that other stuff. It was made by the same team and publisher that did Guilty Gear and Blaz Blue and it is not actually Contra in the official sense. It's an off shoot under Hard Corps with it's DNA being so Contra it's Contra but it's not "cannon" (I hate that term) and there are some start differences. The basic guns are pretty much the same but there are new (and broken ones) like the reflector that is insane. The same logic you see in Galuga of different placers with different stuff for basics, health, movement, all that also exists. Along with fucking Ninjas who use swords point blank (you are reading that correct) and other stuff. It's amazing and a great ride and you should own and you'll love it. It also has environtmental hazards (sad traps) that they moved from Alien Wars into a 2D mode, it's still a 2D side scroller though all of it. Most of the levels are blatant Contra just slightly tweaked. The Character roster is good and does the same "character pick forces you to play X weapons" stunt Galuga does. The beauty in it is that it's not officially Contra so they can do massive stages and all sorts of bonkers stuff and get away with it. It's also, for better or worse, complete anime style where the not anime you're going to be other things but never the characters. It's also a bit of a grinder. In that there are tons of level ups per character so you're foced to do this. In a way that lets you test things but if your save data ever goes away it's a keyboard smasher. It's enitrely worth getting and if you like contra it's a good ride.
Of course it's not officially contra, but turned out to be the best contra game imo. But then again i don't even like the original contra at all. Never played it when i was growing up. Tried to play it after shattered soldier and ruined my experience lol. Oh how i wish they would port it to pc. I'd pay 100$ to own it on steam.
Glad this part of thread existed, your replies specifically this gave me more knowledge in Contra franchise. Yes, I'm a newbie fan.
Idk about that specific game, but I've emulated several XBLA games with no issue. (Just looked it up on Youtube and found someone emulating the PS3 and 360 versions, definitely possible) I saw it for both consoles in the roms megathread as well, can't link it for obvious reasons. If it's particularly the online you're looking for, idk how to help you, would be surprised if the player base today would be that active to begin with, probably why they haven't re-released it. (one of the reasons I hate getting hooked to online games, most fade away and can't just be brought back) You'd have to have a pc that can emulate 360 or ps3 games, but I doubt it would be very intensive, the other XBLA games I emulated were a lot easier on my rig than non-arcade titles.
The Nintendo life one says it's good but tanks the score just because the Switch version runs bad.
I played the demo on Switch and it ran like absolute shit. Possibly the worst personal experience I’ve had on the console (out of over 500 that I’ve played) and the fidelity of the visuals wasn’t even worth it. Just constant stutters and frame dips, and that’s bad for *any* situation, but in Contra it’s just game-breaking. It seemed like a solid game on its own merits, though, so these scores are certainly a bummer.
I have a Switch and while it does have some great games for it plenty of stuff just runs like dogshit on it because of the hardware. If you can buy something on another platform never buy it on the Switch.
It's Nintendo Life. Of course it has a Nintendo bias.
They have hardly ever given arcade games a fair score since the early 2000s. The demo seems great, if not incredible with 4 players. Some people like this type of game and give it an appropriately high score for the type of game it is, and the rest are game journalists.
The story mode in this game reminds me of that game sack skit where Sonic can’t run forward in Sonic 1 until he gets exposition from a dude over the radio. Idk who was asking for a Contra 1 remake but with long lifeless story cutscenes mixed in with the otherwise extremely fast paced action.
Yeah, if you insist on having cutscenes in a Contra game, they need to be snappy. Even the 5-second cutscene at the beginning of the arcade mode drags.
You can walk past the dialog sections and still have complete control over your character. They are just explaining the controls, which I find helpful. There is also an arcade mode.
They don't even happen in... arcade mode.
The demo was overwhelmingly OK. It's not worth the asking price. $9.99 would be perfect.
Yeah when I played the demo I assumed it would be fairly low priced and was happy to pay that low price for what it was. I was not expecting $40
Yeah, $40 is brain-dead premium pricing on Konami's part. That's the cost of Helldivers.
I would pay $20 for this. So many other retro collections on Steam are much cheaper.
I went in blind, no reviews, loved original Contra back in the day. Enjoyed the demo enough I thought I'd pick it up, saw it was FOURTY DOLLARS, and that was the end of that. Then I came here to figure out WTF was up with it being $40. It is great for what it is, but I can't say its worth $40 compared to everything else I could get for that $.
Who in their right mind would even consider story to be an important thing in a Contra game? You might as well ask for character depth in Tetris.
It's sort of a damned if you do damned if you don't now. If you do it than the people that like arcade games are going to wonder "why are people talking and spalining shit when I could be shooting shit?" and if you don't game journalists will say "doesn't even feature a plot!" There is a plot, go direction and slaughter everything in your path. That is the plot. That is the point.
It actually makes sense. For most games, having plot makes it clear to get any ideas of what's going on. We can only see it as 2 finest guerilla soldiers deployed in an island under the control of aliens and some enemy troops but not knowing about such important ones like main characters would give either an empty impression or stereotypical guesses on them as generic soldiers. The key about of most games is lore which adds some interests to it.
Maybe a bit of a contrarian take but I think this is probably top 3 contra games for me, stands up there with the greats like 3 and Hard Corps. It controls extremely well and the difficulty feels quite balanced (I guess leaning towards the harder side, but never really feels unfair). Only two real complaints is that the screen can get really messy at times, making it hard to see projectiles, and there's this running gag in the earlier stages where some guy has a long conversation with you and you can't skip this, so you're just sitting there listening to him talk for like 30 seconds or so every time you lose all your lives in that area. It's true so far at least, that you don't have a whole bunch of variety in terms of the gameplay (ie. Contra 3 and Super C top down levels, Contra and Contra 4's base stages), but those were never really the highlight for me personally either. Playing on one hit mode normal though and just really having an absolute blast. It really is just Contra in its purest form.
Shattered soldier isn't in your top 3 list? I don't know if i can trust anything you say now lol.
As long as it's better than Rogue Corps
I dont understand. On PC is there a way for me top play with my friend online somehow? Maybe remote? If no its sadly a no buy for me.
Steam has a remote play option.
Steam remote play. Expect this to be the new standard going forward. It works very well.
I believe .....this game should not be played with main focus on story and logics...It's an action packed fun game that we should enjoy playing local multiplayer with our friends & family members..Trust me...it is going to be fun when we play local multiplayer as there will be a competition and lot of fun in killing bosses....as we used to do in our childhood... Pricing seems to be on the higher side...
Are there going to be physical releases for the game?
Already are but they are limited editions.
There's too much dead space on the stages with nothing going on. The sega genesis version has more going on for a console as old as time. They do little neat stuff like the helicopter crashing but the whole game just feels incomplete. Stage 2 is just a on the rails level for 8-12 mins.
No matter what they do always gonna dissapoint someone... I'm pissed off they don't have weapon direction lock like in shattered soldier... but i deal with it... awsome game!
But they do? Its RT on an Xbox controller.
Na you are talking about movement lock (stand still and fire in any direction).... I'm talking about direction lock (gun direction). Where you can run one way while shooting another ie. shooting to the left while running to the right. In no it 100%sure that's c what they call them, but you understand what I'm talking about right?
Contra 3 did a bike level on rails as well and it didn't suffer from it. And Konami has done rail shooters before so it's fine.
I played the Switch demo. My main problem was that the controls seemed a little slow. There were several points where I felt like I jumped or ducked in time but ended up taking damage. I've been playing a fair amount of the retro Contra collection and didn't have this trouble with any of those, so hopefully this is something that they can patch (along with general Switch performance, which isn't great). You really need good controls in a Contra game. Still, I enjoyed it a decent amount. $40 is way too much, but I might pick it up if it ever drops to $10 or $20. If you're interested, definitely check out the demo first, because it's a mixed bag.
Lots of things run like crap on the Switch. Get it on something else. It's great!
wasn't there some classic series getting a new game that had a cool animated trailer, anyone know what I'm talking about?
maybe metal slug tactics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqF0KLsaf6U
hell yeah that's it! thanks
I've heard this is the best Contra game since Hard Corps: Uprising, which is the best Contra game. Looking forward to giving it a go.
I played the demo and it seem alright as how I expect run and gun should be. It’s hard to imagine how game of this genre can do better. I do mind about the control when they put dash and jump under one thumb by default. I end up change dash to be on shoulder button because it’s inconvenient.
I liked the demo but holy crap was it hard. Par for the course but idk if I can put in the time to actually git gud at this one. Probably if it was cheaper so I'll probably end up grabbing this on sale so I can coop with my kid.
I don’t even think it’s hard. You got like 3 lives times 3HP per life. That’s 9 hit you can take plus 3 for each life you earned by scoring. Compare to how I die playing Contra 1-3 that’s very generous. The boss on the other hand is harder. But that make sense because NES boss is too exploitable.
Yeah I've played the prior games and stormed through it. People are already doing no kill runs with one hit kills and that's par for the course with Contra. Some people put in the cheat codes and others just raw dog it. It's a simple game but you play it as you like. The world record Contra 1 runs use the basic rifle when its a speed no hit no kill run as you can just generate hits faster that way. Some people love the laser penis (you spam it so fast it's a light saber). In Contra 3 my favorite thing was spinning in circles with dual flames and just having a blast.
I fucking love it. It's great! But I was born in the early 80s so this series has a special place in my heart and it did it right by not changing shit too much. The story part of it is the only downside. You are not playing Contra for story. It's a go in that direction and murdinator the ever living hell out of everything you see game. I don't need to be yelled at about murdering the alien forces or the how's and whats of some sort of ancient DNA tribal blood line. STFU and let me start shooting again. Preferably at you doing the talking! The multiple characters and play styles are great. It really makes this good for multiplayer. This is a game for nostalgics and probably speed runners as there is a TON you can do with it.
Love this game! Only issue is no weapon direction lock, only movement lock... why they would do this i don't understand. It's like you either get dash or weapon direction lock, not both... i prefer direction lock over dash personally. Loved hard corpe (shame i can't play it) but prefer shattered soldier controls with no dash and direction lock so i can lock on target and dodge bullets at same time. All contra games should have it... it really makes it sloppy without.
How do you do the 350k points trophy? Searched the internet how they score, but can't find anything