The first time I’ve played the Contra series, was when the very first game came out in 1987. It was a revolutionary-cult hit, one of the best 2-d side-scrollers at the time that featured two-player gameplay, a riveting soundtrack, huge bosses and difficulty so hard and frustrating that gamers growing up in these times will always remember the legendary cheat code, Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A.

Contra 4 is a satisfying tribute to the original games on the DS while making a few minor adjustments to the series. To start off, the music:

Original Cheesy 80s Video Game Music Makes a Comeback

The original Contra had an amazing soundtrack. The opening title music and the game over music became ingrained in your head because the game’s difficulty had you dying over and over. The music I’ll say, partly kept you going. The simple explosive theme that starts of the game has you ready for action, and the rock-like level music accompanies the endless enemy spawn rather well. Contra 4 is the kind of music appropriate for battling off alien invasion. Yes.

Back to 2D! No Story at All and Full Use of Dual Screens.

Contra 4 is like playing the original Contra series with an extra upper screen. They make use of this especially in boss battles and the vertical scrolling levels that often have you scaling up jungle cliffs or giant missiles. Unfortunately I have one major gripe with the DS format. You cannot see the action that goes on between the dual screens. That means as the missile gets fired from the top screen and heads down to the bottom screen you'll lose track of it for a very brief moment and unfortunately in a game like Contra where the difficulty is off the charts this brief moment can/will kill you.

Gripes aside, the 2-D sprites are sharp and vibrant and the game looks freaking amazing. Some of the bosses use a pseudo-3-D-ish polygon mode and most of them are ridiculously huge and take up 60-70% of the screens. Also unlike the original Contra there is no frame rate slow down ever even when there are lots of enemies on the screen. Levels vary a lot, from jungles to laboratories, dock levels and missile bases.

Finally while some folks might consider this a con, I’m happy to say that this game has no bloody plot whatsoever. It simply leaps you into the action, and all you know is that you’re some kind of commando trying to stop an alien invasion. The levels tell the story (if one can justify any)- but there’s absolutely no dialog to separate you from playing the game, an approach I think game producers these days should use more.

Difficulty – Hand Cramp Inducing, Abnormally Death-inducing Gameplay.

Contra 4 is not a game for the weak. Folks with low-attention spans and/or get hand cramps easily should probably not play this game. It is a bit unfortunate too that the Nintendo DS has such a tiny directional pad. You’ll notice the pain after you’ve gotten through a few Contra 4 stages.

So as for the difficulty, I’ll have to say, Contra 4 is one of the evilest games I’ve ever played. It’s a sheer endurance fest. If you run too far ahead, you’ll find yourself with no place to dodge the bullets and you’ll die. It’s actually pretty important to play this game with another partner, as it’ll make the experience much easier. Still if you are masochist enough to take it on yourself, then, do yourself a favor and start on Easy mode. I did. The game is a whopping 9 stages of alien mayhem, and on easy mode you get 10 lives and 4 continues, for a nice total of 40 lives (you’ll earn some from points). If you play it on normal, you’ll get a paltry 16 lives, which you’ll soon find nearly impossible to budget a measly 2 lives per level against vicious bosses, deadly off-screen deaths and annoying sparkly slow-moving bullets.

After you've beaten the game one time through, you'll be able to unlock challenge mode, where the game will have a complete a number of tasks for you to complete in the different levels. If you complete these tasks you can unlock new characters, comics, interviews, a sound gallery, and the classic original Contra and Super C games.

The difficulty of this game is a nice tribute to the original, which like the devilish Ghosts n’ Goblins, was obscenely hard and controller-tossing inducing. The difficulty is mostly justified, in the sense that the controls are sharp enough that you have only yourself to blame when you get hit by a stray bullet. The one annoying complaint I have with the game is when you’re on a rotating missile and you have to jump from handle to handle on the missile as other missiles are being fired toward you (go figure, it’s Contra). The jumping is simply not accurate enough in this scene and you might lose a few lives even though you’ve made what appeared to be a successful leap.

Still despite the jumping bit, for the most part the game’s difficulty is justified and there is a way to get through levels perfectly. If anyone can beat this game on Hard, so please post a comment and tell me how long it took you.

Weapon Upgrades and Grappling

The new gameplay mechanic to Contras simple run, shoot, jump, shoot mechanics is probably use of the grappling hook. In some parts of the game you’ll have to grapple upwards to get to the second screen, and then drop down again. This gameplay feature is okay but I do wish they had done without it because when you grapple upwards you simply zip up uncontrollably without any control of your character.

The weapon upgrades are all the same as they were in the original, meaning the Flamethrower, Machine Gun, etc, all make their return. You can upgrade your weapons with a Gold-emblem, which makes them a lot stronger. It’s important you try to keep your weapons as long as you can as they are almost essential against the bosses and can make a difference between a prolonged life-costing 5-6 minute battle to a quick 1-2 minute massacre.

There is one additional element that I found kind of interesting. You can hold two weapon upgrades and switch back and forth between them. When you die the weapon you are carrying is lost, but if you switch to an empty slow prior to your death you can keep your weapon. This is pretty critical in getting through the game, in my opinion. If you manage to hold onto the homing missile upgrade, you’ll find some of the levels much easier later on.

Conclusion

Contra 4 is one of the best side-scrollers on the market that are still fully 2-d and feature all of the fun elements in the original. There’s also multiplayer that can be played over wireless (but you’ll both need cartridges), which preserves the 2-player gameplay that this series is famous for. The unlocked Contra and Super C NES games though do not have 2-player mode.

Most folks will find the difficulty of this game too much to stand, especially in our ADD video-game generation. There is no ability to start on Stage # in Contra 4 (but you can resume your last game), so you'll probably find themselves really familiar with the first few stages, because the last few will take a long trek to get to.

For those that do, pat yourself on the back because you deserve a reward. Contra 4 is one of the hardest 2-d scrollers out there, and only the diehard commandos need to apply. If you can live without the hand-coddling that most games have these days, I’d highly recommend heading over to your video game shop to pick this one up.

PS There is no Konami code in this game = no cheating.

Recommended: Yes