Contra

The two mumbling beefcakes of 80s Hollywood are together at last! With the mission to storm straight into Nicaragua and violently usurp their current socialist government on the behalf of Ronald Reagan and initiate an entire massacre on civilians kick some alien ass in New Zeland in the year 2633, this arcade shooting cornerstone completely embodies Dukie's credo of being a badass, shooting everything in sight, and chewing bubble gum.

It has to be said this is an evolution of Konami's many shooter games(evolving straight from "Scramble [スクランブル]" up through "Gradius"), that sticks to the principle that you need the power-ups and that once you die once, you lose them all and are pretty much a gonner. It's a requirement to have power-ons all of the time, and it is damning every time you get something that is not the spread gun or machine gun. Often these swaps get irreplaceable, and you need them especially for the later-game bosses, although they're so hard they'll reduce you to using pea shooters anyway.

Like "OutRun [アウトラン]", I think "Contra" can be credited for managing to invigorate the 16-bit artstyle. The jungles are pretty and lush, the sprites of the heroes are wonderfuly recognisable, crisp, realistic, and you can imagine the whole package being seamlessly translated for the Mega Drive. And also the alien designs can get really yucky and disturbingly organic. It's so funny and artful how this pastiche on "Commando" so seamlessly blends into the finale of "Alien", and just couple it with early forerunners of gaping stone faces shooting fireballs that are so obviously an inspiration for Sega's "Altered Beast [獣王記]".

"Contra" officially has 7 stages but with the change of landscapes it really feels more like 10. As a casual player it is perfectly achievable to reach(or even beat) about half the game, but then it just starts being very brazen and uneven with its difficulty spikes. Some segments are obviously breather portions meant for relaxation, just so that some insurmountable, bullet-spamming boss is waiting around the corner. But it was an arcade game, what can I say, and people must have been compelled to get to memorise all of these patterns, using only the advantage of your high platforming flexibility in tow. I know I certainly was, and every single time I took it on the hand, I always felt I could reach a step forward, and that excercising that excitement is certainly a mark of good game design.

Contra is one of the most famous run and gunners out there, known primarly for its difficulty. That much i can say its true, being a 1 hit kill game in which you are given 3 lives to get through the whole thing makes it a feat to beat it. There are quite a lot of enemies and projectiles on screen as well, and on top of it the actual projectiles are prety small and can be hard to spot agains the background. I have no problem in admiting i havent got very far. Its a game that controls well, its action packed, but the constant death makes it frustrating to play. There are a lot of powerups to help you on you way, but to be fair i found some of the weapons worst than the basic weapon. I do understand what made it such an iconic title at the time, but i havent had much fun playing it nowadays.