Contra for the NES

[TheRetroVideoGameAddict]

Contra, you've got to love it. Seriously, it's an age old game that is really much more fun with a second player and a game that has supplied us retro gaming fans with hours upon hour of joy. Do you guys love this game as much as I do, and if so what are your thoughts on Contra? For me, Contra was an extremely hard one player game that was easier with two but still incredibly difficult, but featured fast and fun gameplay that was pretty addicting and music that was highly enjoyable. I've recently written a blog about the game and figured I'd add a little piece of it here to spark discussion on the game...


Ah yes, many of you may remember countless late nights on the couch or early mornings in your bedrooms navigating the fierce jungles or other intense locations within Contra, but I know that all of you surely remember just how fucking hard this game actually was. This game wasn't just hard, it was a god damn ball buster, but it was also fun as hell once you've entered in the “Konami Code” and settled down with a second player to proceed into what sometimes felt like a long, slow, ass raping. It's difficulty aside, I would say that this game was truly one of the most prolific 2-player games on the NES and certainly one of the most popular. I didn't know anyone who didn't own this game back in the heyday of the Nintendo Entertainment System, or at least I didn't know anyone who hadn't at least played it. Contra was seemingly everywhere and the game was so popular it spawned some sequels on the NES and eventually quite a few other platforms like the Gameboy, Super Nintendo, Genesis, and even the Playstation, but none of them quite captured the awe-inspiring greatness of the original classic.

I knew so many people who had this game back in the day, and even more who have rented it or played it at a friends house, and the acclaim for this game is universally outstanding. I just wish that it wasn't so expensive on eBay and in small retro video game retail stores, Contra should be no more than $10 at max because it's a pretty common game unlike something like Dragon Warrior IV that didn't see a widespread release. Anyhow, let's discuss Contra!

[XYXZYZ]

I know a lot of people from the NES era whose first game they ever finished was Contra with the 30 lives code, myself included. It was like a rite of passage thing. I can finish it in one credit without the code now, Contra is a great game to sit down and play all the way through for some quick "save the world from aliens" satisfaction.

It's also one of those games where the home port is better than the original arcade game.

[TheRetroVideoGameAddict]

I know a lot of people from the NES era whose first game they ever finished was Contra with the 30 lives code, myself included. It was like a rite of passage thing. I can finish it in one credit without the code now, Contra is a great game to sit down and play all the way through for some quick "save the world from aliens" satisfaction.

It's also one of those games where the home port is better than the original arcade game.

I've never played the original arcade game, heck, I didn't even know it was an arcade game! With that said, I still can't beat it without using the Konami Code but I use Game Genie on most of my games anyway. *GASP*

Here is a direct link to the blog I wrote on Contra.
http://theretrovideogameaddict.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-retro-video-game-addict-reviews.html

[bigbacon]

I sadly don't own this game :(

[Gentlegamer]

Contra taught me the concept of 'griefing' before there was a formal term for it. When playing the waterfall level, when one player scrolls the screen up, the other player caught at the bottom of the screen is killed.

The NES ended up banned at my aunt's home after I introduced this tactic to my younger cousins at a family get together.

[MeTmKnice]

One of my favorite games of all time. Felt incomplete when I did not own the game for a period of time. Haha. Definitely agree on NES port vs arcade. The Simpson's arcade game is probably my favorite arcade cab.
Haven't played C in a while. Most of my games are in my storage unit for meow.

[FoxNtd]

Where is this alleged difficulty? I counterstopped this game on the fourth day of playing. Not exactly a lot of hours spent learning the game by any means.

Definitely one of the easier Konami titles, particularly with subsequent loops having minor difficulty increases (oh they're there but easy to handle. Hardest thing with this game was the 1UP system which puts the pressure on but you don't notice or care unless you're trying to counterstop.)

There are probably several games everyone says are easy but I think are hard. :)

I heard Super Contra was easier but I thought it might be harder than the first one. Haven't played it yet but do want to buy a copy. :)

[The 1 2 P]

Contra was the first great co-op game of it's era, atleast based on games I played. But without that 30 lives code I don't think I would have ever beat it, specifically because of the last 2 or 3 levels. They were super hard. But overall this game is tons of fun and the music is catchy as well.

[Darkwing]

Contra's great and all, but Super C is far better. Everyone forgets Super C.

I love the overhead stages rather than the "3D" ones from the first game, and the sloping terrain in the levels is a great addition. I think it's tougher than the first game....I enjoy a challenge.

[treismac]

Contra for the NES is iconic and easily one of the best platformers for the system. Throw in the 30 lives code and you have the stuff of legends. Like so many, Contra was the first game I owned for my Nintendo, and beating it with a friend is just what you did when I was a kid.

Interesting how the Famicom version is all souped up with cut scenes and moving background animation.


I just wish that it wasn't so expensive on eBay and in small retro video game retail stores, Contra should be no more than $10 at max because it's a pretty common game unlike something like Dragon Warrior IV that didn't see a widespread release.

I agree. It's a shame that the price tag is so high on this very non-rare classic.


Contra's great and all, but Super C is far better. Everyone forgets Super C.

I love the overhead stages rather than the "3D" ones from the first game, and the sloping terrain in the levels is a great addition. I think it's tougher than the first game....I enjoy a challenge.

Super C is indeed tougher and a great game to boot, but I'm not a fan of the overhead stages of Super C butting into the usual left to right affair, though they are still fun in their own right. The "3D" stages, while by no means show stoppers, are uniquely Contra and are interesting intervals in the game, giving us the nifty boss battles they did.

[Tron 2.0]

Where is this alleged difficulty? I counterstopped this game on the fourth day of playing. Not exactly a lot of hours spent learning the game by any means.

Definitely one of the easier Konami titles, particularly with subsequent loops having minor difficulty increases (oh they're there but easy to handle. Hardest thing with this game was the 1UP system which puts the pressure on but you don't notice or care unless you're trying to counterstop.)

There are probably several games everyone says are easy but I think are hard. :)

I heard Super Contra was easier but I thought it might be harder than the first one. Haven't played it yet but do want to buy a copy. :)
Agreed i still don't see how any one can say contra is hard.It's mostly trail and error for that game and once you get each level down it's easy.The only time contra get's hard,is trying for that high score in beating the game multiple times.

[Darkwing]

Super C is indeed tougher and a great game to boot, but I'm not a fan of the overhead stages of Super C butting into the usual left to right affair, though they are still fun in their own right. The "3D" stages, while by no means show stoppers, are uniquely Contra and are interesting intervals in the game, giving us the nifty boss battles they did.


I'm biased towards top-down shooters, so that's probably why I like those levels more than the "3D" levels.

[Captain_N77]

It's true, everyone back in the day played or owned Contra. Whenever someone brings up games to me, I inevitably skew toward classic games and people who haven't even uttered "NES" in 20 years will get a big grin on their face and say "Remember Contra?!?!" It's one of those.

I actually just got Contra last Friday. It's one of the very few "essential" games I didn't yet have for my NES collection. Not a bad price either, $17.

[SpaceHarrier]

I'll be the weird one then, who never played this game as a kid. I used to play Super C (arcade cab) at a local pizza place quite often though. I did finally buy Contra for the NES back around 2005 but I haven't seen my copy in years. Not 100% sure where it disappeared to...

[Tanooki]

What no love for Contra Force? :) I have it, it's a fun game and yeah I know it's not 'official.' I've got all 3 and Super C I think is harder than the first one, just more going on and more angles and AI to work with. Contra Force is the nastiest of the lot though.

[Polygon]

What no love for Contra Force? :) I have it, it's a fun game and yeah I know it's not 'official.' I've got all 3 and Super C I think is harder than the first one, just more going on and more angles and AI to work with. Contra Force is the nastiest of the lot though.

Being that I never had an NES as a kid I missed out on Super C and Contra Force. I didn't even know they existed until recent years. I love the original Contra, and while it isn't what I'd call easy, I wouldn't call it incredibly hard either. I recently picked up Super C and Contra Force is on my ever long NES wish list. I can't wait to give it a try.

[Ed Oscuro]

Lotsa love for Contra. Been thinking about doing my own take on the Contra HQ concept soon-ish. It's a great series, though it seems a bit "thin" in content compared to something like Castlevania or Gradius (the other two "big three" Konami franchises) in that there's not so much to keep fans interested in the way of backstory and the like. The gameplay's solid through almost all the iterations of the series, though, which is what counts. In fact, even some "Hong Kong originals" remixing various games do very well.

I haven't played the Saturn/PSX games yet, so no comment on those. The worst - but perhaps not truly "bad" - game in the series I've seen so far is Contra III for Game Boy Color. I don't remember enough specifics to really say what went wrong, other than that it seemed underwhelming.

One of the more interesting releases is a Game n' Watch, or Tiger Electronics style really, handheld game. These were released in at least both US and Japanese markets, and used the same long surfboard-like plastic shell as some other games (Top Gun, Gradius, a TMNT game I think, some others), and actually was fun to play.

I think I favor the original arcade release a bit more than the NES/Famicom versions, and I'm waiting on the arcade board to show up any day now. I hadn't realized it but for a long time that has been probably the #1 game I wanted to pick up.

[Zing]

My local YMCA had the Contra arcade game when I was a teenager. It was damn hard.

I also have memories of the NES version being very difficult. However, when I played through it again last year, it wasn't that difficult. Super C was even easier.

[ProjectCamaro]

Easily one of the best games every made.

[Superman]

I've always liked Contra, but it wasn't a game I owned so I either played it at a friends house or the arcade.

I don't know if it was because I didn't own it or it's not my particular type of game, but I was never was particularly good at it. I don't think I could even beat it with the 30 lives code.

I did like the change up of levels. I thought the 3D levels added character to the game. I think that is one of the things that makes it a classic today. Just as people remember the name Contra, they tend to remember the 'barrel' level as well.

[bb_hood]

Whenever I think of Contra I think of Jackal. I used to play NES at a friend's house when I was little before I had my own system, and we would always play Contra and Jackal.

[CelticJobber]

I'll be the weird one then, who never played this game as a kid. I used to play Super C (arcade cab) at a local pizza place quite often though. I did finally buy Contra for the NES back around 2005 but I haven't seen my copy in years. Not 100% sure where it disappeared to...

Same here. I never played it until just over a decade ago. I don't remember Contra even being brought up within my circle of friends back in the day (granted, I was in lower elementary school at the height of it's popularity). We were all more interested in NES games like Super Mario Bros, Double Dragon, TMNT, and Castlevania...

[treismac]

Whenever I think of Contra I think of Jackal. I used to play NES at a friend's house when I was little before I had my own system, and we would always play Contra and Jackal.

Yeah. Jackal and Contra are linked together for me as well. My younger brother got Jackal on that magical NES Christmas of 1988 and I got Contra.

[FoxNtd]

I blame this thread for my playing the game again. Dammit fell short of the max score by 300k. All I had to do was wrap up Loop 9 but lost the final life in the snow stage. Damn snow making bullets hard to see. Well that's not bad for no practice since my maxed out run XD

[treismac]

I blame this thread for my playing the game again. Dammit fell short of the max score by 300k. All I had to do was wrap up Loop 9 but lost the final life in the snow stage. Damn snow making bullets hard to see. Well that's not bad for no practice since my maxed out run XD

Soooooo... how much time is invested into a 9 loop run?

[FoxNtd]

Soooooo... how much time is invested into a 9 loop run?

3 hours

[StealthLurker]

Speaking of the original Contra... have any of you guys played/seen the HD remake of the original Contra? It was actually officially released by Konami for the arcade platform in China. However it was ported to iOS and Android (in China also). I installed it on my iPad (needs to be jailbroken), output the video to my TV and used a bluetooth pad/joystick (via Blutrol App).

Looks and plays great. A quick video I made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceBnsKleLfA

.

[ProjectCamaro]

Because of this thread I think I'm going to go play some Super C.

[brainerdrainer]

Contra of course is a classic and I believe everyone should have played it

[JakeM]

I was playing some Contra, and my girl friend called me, and she told me to pause the games since the bullets she said sounded like dead bodies wailing over the phone, I have no idea what carrier she has.

[Daniel Thomas]

Contra was one of my all-time favorite NES games, and possibly the favorite. It had that perfect blend of exciting, fast action, memorably catchy music, and endless thrills. The game never became repetitious or boring, always surprising you with something new every level. And the two-player co-op was perfect. Remember "local" multiplayer in video games?

It's true that NES Contra is very easy, especially compared to most 1980s video games (Ninja Gaiden 6-2, anyone?), but it's never a problem. Skilled players are rewarded for spotting the patterns and finding the magic spot where the bosses can't hit you. And I've always believed that the ability to replay the game again, after the ending, should be the gold standard for all home arcade games.

I never really cared for the arcade Contra. The graphics were too brown and dulled out (much like the games of the PS360 era), the characters too tall and lanky. This is one of those times where the technically "inferior" home version is better than the arcades. Hmm...I miss the arcades, don't you? Ah, well.

Like many NES classics, Contra works best with a NES Advantage joystick, not necessarily because of the rapid-fire, but the joystick offers more precise control than the d-pad. At least, that's been my experience. Joysticks are another lost artifact that should come back, don'tcha think? Anyway, those are my quick thoughts on Contra.

[wesofthedead]

i never head contra growing up so i was always terrible at it, a few friends of mine would always insist on playing co op everyday so i picked up a copy played only that game for about month and memorized everything, i was able to beat it without dying pretty much everytime i picked it up, now ill die like 2-3 times before i beat it, its one of those games that you can really play whenever and always have a fun time