Contra - Review
Added February 6th, 2007 by Dakota Grabowski
Before Halo made co-op cool once again, Contra wore the crown as one of the best multiplayer games in the ‘80s to play with a buddy. Released in 1987, it has been twenty years since the debut of Contra in the arcades. Perhaps the most notorious aspect of Contra was its infamous code -- “Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A”. This code provided players 30 lives to battle their way through the levels if they deemed the game too hard to complete.
It’s easy to recognize the legacy that Contra has left on video games. Konami hoped to capture all those college kids’ attention with the release of Contra on the Xbox Live Arcade. It’s not the same game anymore. Sure, gamers nationwide are now able to take the thrilling duo of Lance & Bill through their conquests of mutants, robots and aliens, but it doesn’t play as smooth as I remember on the NES.
I shouldn’t have to explain the story in depth; Contra isn’t written as if the game designers were creating a novel. Based in 1988, aliens are attacking South America and it’s up to you to rid Earth of these creatures. Of course, there is also a terrorist group looking to take over the world and they have robots to boot that you’ll encounter along the way.
Many will ask how the multiplayer for Contra is… well, it is iffy at best. I have experienced a considerable amount of lag playing online. Offline, there are a few hiccups I encountered for co-op. Often times I would have to press endlessly on the start button to continue after dying. This delay of time would cost my friend a life or two waiting for me to respawn.
As for the achievements, there are a few tough ones. Beating the game without ever dying is a hard task since within the game, if you are hit once, you die. For those speedy gamers that beat Super Mario World 3 in a few minutes, if you happen to beat Contra in less than 12 minutes, you’ll receive an achievement. The achievements are gladly welcome since it helps with bringing some meaning to completing the game a few times over.
The graphics and sound have some shine on them, but it will all fade in time. They are still dated, even with the upgrades of smoke effects. The sound has been modified to sound modern and current. There isn’t a whole lot here that Konami improved on. Konami knows that gamers aren’t looking for a whole new experienced with Contra. They know what they are paying for and that’s the purpose of putting it on the Xbox Live Arcade.
The “price-tag” of Contra is 400 Microsoft points. If you are still catching onto the Microsoft points system, 400 Microsoft points converts into five dollars. It’s an attractive and affordable price, but Contra is clearly not the same game anymore. After playing coop with a few of my friends, we all were left disappointed expecting the same excitement we had on the NES. I guess nostalgia does wear off over time. It’s a shame that Contra didn’t grab a hold of my attention like I thought it would. Hopefully Konami is able to successfully port Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game to the Xbox Live Arcade later this year. That may be able to strike my fancy for some co-op entertainment.
It’s easy to recognize the legacy that Contra has left on video games. Konami hoped to capture all those college kids’ attention with the release of Contra on the Xbox Live Arcade. It’s not the same game anymore. Sure, gamers nationwide are now able to take the thrilling duo of Lance & Bill through their conquests of mutants, robots and aliens, but it doesn’t play as smooth as I remember on the NES.
I shouldn’t have to explain the story in depth; Contra isn’t written as if the game designers were creating a novel. Based in 1988, aliens are attacking South America and it’s up to you to rid Earth of these creatures. Of course, there is also a terrorist group looking to take over the world and they have robots to boot that you’ll encounter along the way.
Many will ask how the multiplayer for Contra is… well, it is iffy at best. I have experienced a considerable amount of lag playing online. Offline, there are a few hiccups I encountered for co-op. Often times I would have to press endlessly on the start button to continue after dying. This delay of time would cost my friend a life or two waiting for me to respawn.
As for the achievements, there are a few tough ones. Beating the game without ever dying is a hard task since within the game, if you are hit once, you die. For those speedy gamers that beat Super Mario World 3 in a few minutes, if you happen to beat Contra in less than 12 minutes, you’ll receive an achievement. The achievements are gladly welcome since it helps with bringing some meaning to completing the game a few times over.
The graphics and sound have some shine on them, but it will all fade in time. They are still dated, even with the upgrades of smoke effects. The sound has been modified to sound modern and current. There isn’t a whole lot here that Konami improved on. Konami knows that gamers aren’t looking for a whole new experienced with Contra. They know what they are paying for and that’s the purpose of putting it on the Xbox Live Arcade.
Summary:
The “price-tag” of Contra is 400 Microsoft points. If you are still catching onto the Microsoft points system, 400 Microsoft points converts into five dollars. It’s an attractive and affordable price, but Contra is clearly not the same game anymore. After playing coop with a few of my friends, we all were left disappointed expecting the same excitement we had on the NES. I guess nostalgia does wear off over time. It’s a shame that Contra didn’t grab a hold of my attention like I thought it would. Hopefully Konami is able to successfully port Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game to the Xbox Live Arcade later this year. That may be able to strike my fancy for some co-op entertainment.
