Contra (1988)

When games hit the arcade, players are only given a handful of lives with each quarter they put in a machine. To make up for this meager amount of lives, the games themselves get progressively harder and faster, usually pitting the player against a screen full of enemies and limited resources to fight them. While this can be fairly frustrating, the point is to make a quick turnover of players; they will keep pumping in quarters until either they are satisfied with their score or they're done banging against the console and leave.

Ah, look! Another satisfied gamer!

Contra was an example of one of these arcade games that made it over to the Nintendo Entertainment System but while making a few aesthetic changes to accommodate the smaller memory and hardware, was still just as challenging. Is it as bad as Ninja Gaiden? Short answer: No. Long answer: Yes but knowing the infamous Konami Code makes it less so.

Get ready to shoot any and everything that moves!

You start out with four lives and a rifle that will practically require the use of a turbo button if you're to survive. The initial platforming is simple enough, running from left to right while shooting everything. If you can make it to the first base, however, the game takes a perspective from behind as you shoot down a hallway in an attempt at reaching the boss battle at the end, again taking the side-scrolling perspective again. After this stage you then go on to a vertical traveling stage. Most of these stages would be very difficult if not for the ability to point your gun in seven different directions.

Nobody is safe while I can shoot in every direction!

While these concepts were somewhat new and original to the NES, what made the game so popular especially in the arcades was the two player co-op. The game was incredibly difficult with the number of randomly appearing enemies so having additional help was sublime. But another player wasn't the only assistance available; what also became essential in surviving Contra especially when tackling the game alone were twelve buttons.

The Konami Code, otherwise known as the Contra Code, was one of the earlier instances where a code was intentionally put in the game in order to make the gameplay easier. In this instance, putting in the Konami Code at the title screen would entitle you to thirty lives at the start of the game and every time you continued after losing all of them. In my opinion this was almost necessary in order to survive long enough to reach a continue point, a feet that usually took me eight lives just to reach the first base.

While many of the original NES games could easily put me on the edge of sanity, Contra just happens to be one of the few that really push that line. It has one of the harder difficulties where one hit will kill you, an interesting reality in this game considering the amount of bullets you inevitably send and alien foes. That said, Contra does provide the means to beat it; once I figured out the enemy patterns and utilize the code and power ups, I was able to start chug through the game and manage to have some fun along the way.


Final Judgment: 7/10