Contra

Contra

Arcade - USA.

Developer Konami Industry Publisher Konami Industry Published 1987-02-20 Platforms Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Commodore 64, DoJa, DOS, ZX Spectrum Genres Action, Platform shooter, Platformer, Shooter Themes Action, Science Fiction Series Contra Multiplayer Simultaneous co-op Distribution Commercial

Contra is a ratchet scrolling run and gun video game developed and published by Konami for the Arcade on 1987-02-20 and is the first in the Contra series. It was later ported to various home computers. More expanded ports were made for the NES and MSX2. As the players progress through the stages, the game alternates between a side view and an over the shoulder view.

The game is set on future Earth where a terrorist organization called Red Falcon plans to destroy humanity. Two commandos specializing in guerrilla warfare, Bill and Lance, are sent to infiltrate Red Falcon's base on an archipelago near New Zealand. The players control Bill and Lance and must collect allied weapon drops as they fight the terrorists in the jungle, through underground tunnels, up mountains, and into to the heart of their underground base.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. 1 credit completion.
Finished	2021-12-24.

I have never actually played or even seen Contra in the arcade. My first experience was with the NES game. When I found out about MAME, I wanted to see what Contra was like for the arcade, assuming it would be like a 16-bit version of the NES game, but I was quite disappointed by the poor controls. Wanting to add the game to my list of beaten games, I started grinding through it, assuming it would be a pretty easy victory because of my familiarity with the NES port, however, it took me about 50 tries to memorize the different maps and become comfortable with the controls.

Review

4	3	4	5	5

Best Version: Arcade

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The game is a pioneer of the run-and-gun genre and, for 1987, pretty impressive.
• Using H. R. Giger's art style as adapted from the movie Alien was a great idea. It gives the game an over all creepy vibe.
• The game has really nice music composed by Kazuki Muraoka.
• There is a lot of variety through the game. Excluding the second base, each section is unique featuring new enemies, bosses, and environments.
• I like the boss trick as you enter the alien's lair. You see a giant alien head and assume this is the final boss, only to have to continue the level and face the heart.

Bad

• The guns aren't evenly balanced. The flame thrower is terrible while the spread gun is amazing. Although, the laser is pretty decent in the arcade original because it travels fast and does a lot of damage.
• The contrast in the graphics vary greatly from background to foreground objects. I presume this was done so the players would know where to concentrate their bullets, but the washed out colors of the backgrounds looks awful.
• If you already have a weapon, flying weapon capsules won't spawn. This is a bit annoying because, if you accidentally got a weapon you don't want, you're less likely to get a replacement.
• For some reason, enemies focus most of their attention on the right corner in the bases.
• The football player robot boss is lame.
• Excluding the NES, the various ports are much worse than the arcade game.

Ugly

• Player control leaves a lot to be desired. The jump feels floaty and looks ridiculous, shooting at an angle is slow to do, and you can't shoot when your player is too high off the screen.
• Mistakes are punished severely because, if you die, you return with the weak default rifle which leaves very little margin of error on minibosses like the spiked vehicles in the snowfield. Also, you get few weapon upgrades late in the game, so, if you die near the end of the snowfield, you're going to have an extremely difficult time reaching the final bosses.
• Survival comes less from skill, and more from level memorization. This requires you to spend a lot of quarters to git gud. While this is typical for an 1980s arcade game, it's not very fun. For example, level 3 starts you directly below two snipers who immediately shoot at you. As long as you remember to start the level shooting upward, you'll be safe, but you'll probably take hits until you commit it to memory.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The North American arcade cabinet was pretty sparsely designed. It lacked a bezel and cabinet art, but did have a marquee, control panel, and side sticker.

• 

  The marquee is a well-taken photo of two buff dudes in the jungle, one sporting a sexy mullet! Great logo art.

• 

  A drawn version of the photo marquee. Not sure, but maybe created because of censorship?

• 

  The side art features the same dudes in the jungle.

• 

  Arcade instructions.

• 

  This box was used for the North American Commodore 64 and DOS releases. It uses the same art and logo as the NES box, but reveals a bit more of the background.

• 

  This box was used in Europe and the UK for the C64, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. It uses the full art, but the title is altered to "Gryzor."

Documentation

• 

  Game manual.

• 

  Advertisement featuring a camouflaged cabinet and pointy boobs.

• 

  European home computer advert. Features more of the box art.

Maps

• 

  Jungle.

• 

  Base 1.

• 

  Waterfall.

• 

  Base 2.

• 

  Snowfield, Energy Zone, Hangar, Alien's Lair.

Graphics

• 

  Arcade logo.

• spriters-resource.com/arcade/contra - Arcade graphics.

Screenshots

• 

  Title screen.

• 

  Level 1.

Videos

Longplay - Amstrad CPC.

Longplay - Arcade.

Longplay - Arcade - 2 player.

Longplay - Commodore 64.

Longplay - ZX Spectrum.

Play Online

Arcade (Japan), Arcade (USA), MS-DOS

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There are no people of color.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Credits

Arcade

Role	Staff
Director	Koji Hiroshita
Programmers	Satoru Okamoto, Hideyuki Tsujimoto, Koichi Cobra
Graphic Designer	Kengo Nakamura
Special Designers	Takashi Jinbo, Passionate Norio
Music and Sound	Kazuki Muraoka
Engineer	Rom Yamamoto

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English (America)	Contra
English (Europe)	Gryzor
Japanese	魂斗羅	Kontora	Contra

Links