Contra 4 vs Castlevania PoR

[Jorpho]

Decisions, decisions... I am struggling to decide between these two in a trade at the moment. I'd kind of like to play both of them eventually, but neither of them are particularly easy to find in my area.

I suppose there's always the possibility that Konami will re-release Portrait of Ruin on a budget label like they did with Dawn of Sorrow. Despite already having Dawn of Sorrow and the Castlevania Double Pack, I've never actually gotten around to playing any of them for some reason.

Suggestions?

[Sotenga]

My personal bid goes for Contra 4. Although PoR is the greatest original CV on handheld at the moment, I will admit that the constant release of "Metroidvania" style titles before it may have diminished its flavor a bit. C4 not only feels like something entirely new, but it's also a welcome return to form that we haven't seen since the early 90's. Hey, I think Hard Corps and Shattered Soldier are totally great games (the jury's still out on Neo Contra on the premises of being a "great" title), but C4 is the direct sequel to C3 for a reason: Because IT IS. :D

[calthaer]

Reach back into the demesnes of your distant past, to that day when you first experienced Contra. Recall the visceral thrill of the arcade (or NES), where you furiously tried to dodge the enemies and bullets while trying to dish out copious amounts of your own lead / lasers / fire / etc.

Now imagine that, after years have gone by and the thrill of that original game was lessened because no matter how hard you try you cannot efface from your memory the position of each and every enemy in the original classic, someone came along and did a remix. If it were music, it would be like imagining U2 doing a cover of Beethoven. It could also be like what Frank Miller did with the reinvention of Batman in "The Dark Knight Returns."

Everything you ever loved about Contra is there, only better. All you have to do is get to the end of the first level, and you will believe.

Portrait of Ruin is pretty good. I don't know if it tops Symphony of the Night in my book. But it's pretty awesome. But like Sotenga said, it has a sort of "been there, done that" feeling nowadays. If they had allowed true coop play that would have been cool.

[swlovinist]

The question is...what type of gameplay are you looking for? Contra 4 is a TOUGH arcade side scroller that will be played in short bursts. PoR is more of a castle exploring action RPG that will take many hours to beat. I personally like short bursts of playing(15 or so minutes), so I go with Contra 4. Did I mention that it is tough?

[Icarus Moonsight]

That's a rock and a hard place if I ever seen one. I guess the best part is either way you go, you win. I think I'd give PoR the nod at this time because it is becoming harder to come by and Contra 4 has at least a few months before evaporation kicks in. Eventually you're gonna have 'em both anyways right? ;)

[NE146]

The question is...what type of gameplay are you looking for? Contra 4 is a TOUGH arcade side scroller that will be played in short bursts.

Well if you're trying to finish the entire game (and use the 99 lives trick to do so) it kinda takes a while to get through all the stages. If you turn off the game to continue it later, it'll pop you back down to the regular amount of lives :(

[le geek]

Bah Portrait of Ruin is really average compared to Dawn of Sorrow, go for Contra if you don't already have Dawn.

[Ed Oscuro]

I bought PoR due to the hype surrounding the preorder bundle. Still haven't opened the game or played it, so I can't draw any conclusions on that except that I love my clear plastic.

Contra 4 is the game that forced me to buy a DS (I'd had PoR and forgotten about it, essentially). I really didn't like it for a long time, and I'm still not sure I don't like Operation C better (aside from the now-lame levels)...in fact, I think I do.

But C4 has a lot going for it. If you don't mind having enemies that take a lot of shots to kill running about levels, and the sub-optimal DS pad (I actually don't like playing Contra games on a standard NES controller), it has quite a bit to offer. The main selling point, I think, is this:

The most interesting platforming on a Contra title to date (excluding any 3D stuff), and even more, at least as interesting as anything I can think of from any NES or SNES game.

It also has the biggest screen resolution and sprites of any 2D Contra I know of.

Although the high difficulty makes it harder for me to get into a game and just start playing (besides Easy, which you'll need to complete to get the Challenge mode), it's a game I would feel fine coming back to on and off for years. I would've liked some kind of level select to get past the first level; as good as that one is it's causing me a fit of "already played this one too many times" syndrome. However, the game fully supports sleep mode (naturally), and if you run out of continues or quit on any level but the first you'll be able to select a "resume game" option and get right back into it (just without any weapons).

tl;dr: Want an easy game that you'll probably play relentlessly for a month or so? PoRn is the stuff.

Want a game that will probably last you months if not years? Contra 4.

That's not to say that one model is better for games than another; some people will love PoR and absolutely not be able to get into Contra 4. You'll really need to ask yourself whether you're good enough (ARE YOU GREAT?) to be able to get through Contra 4, or patient enough to deal with lots of restarts and getting very rarely to the later levels.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Well, if you have Dawn of Sorrow, Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Whatever and haven't played any of them yet, I'd definitely say go for Contra 4. Portrait of Ruin will just be another Castlevania game on the pile, but Contra 4 will be something different at least.

Portrait of Ruin is a good game, but really it's *EXACTLY* like Dawn of Sorrow. They're basically the same game, so just play Dawn of Sorrow if you want to know what Portrait of Ruin will be like. Or, for that matter, just play Dawn of Sorrow and *PRETEND* it's Portrait of Ruin.


...word is bondage...

[roushimsx]

I really did not like Portrait of Ruin. I'd have to look back on my notes I took while playing it and my blog posts after beating it, but I absolutely do not recommend it over Contra 4. As far as Castlevania games go, it's my least favorite since Harmony of Dissonance (itself being one of the worst entires in the series yet).

[Ed Oscuro]

What's so off about it? I remember being excited about the character-switching-realtime-crab-battle things it supposedly had going on.

[le geek]

What's so off about it? I remember being excited about the character-switching-realtime-crab-battle things it supposedly had going on.

I can only speak for myself, but...

The story loses the Gothic feel of it's predecessors and feels more like Kids WB.

The rooms lack attention to detail and feel more cookie cutter.

[Jorpho]

It seems the consensus is resoundingly in favor of Contra 4. It actually turns out that Contra 4 was not on the table, but perhaps I shall nonetheless attempt to procure it this week while I still can.

The game I am about to trade is Yoshi's Island DS, a remix which is most certainly not a resounding improvement on the original. ;)