Contra IV on Nintendo DS: OUT NOW!

[Captain Wrong]

I think the game suffers quite a bit due to the interface, unfortunately. The dual screens make it hard to follow all the action at once and successfully avoid all the projectiles. The DS's buttons also seem ill suited for the precision timing required for this game. I am struggling with the game because of this, and it's a shame because I can tell that behind the interface is a really good game.

Agreed. I'm not a big fan of the DS buttons anyway. I'd be first in line for a DS XL though.

[Oobgarm]

I think the game suffers quite a bit due to the interface, unfortunately. The dual screens make it hard to follow all the action at once and successfully avoid all the projectiles. The DS's buttons also seem ill suited for the precision timing required for this game. I am struggling with the game because of this, and it's a shame because I can tell that behind the interface is a really good game. Maybe a DS Lite would work better. This is the sort of game that makes me wish for a "DS player", even if it lacked touch screen support.

I'm also really digging the game, but have noticed the setbacks that arise from the DS interface. I'm doing my best to keep those frustrations at bay, and the excellence of the overall package aids me in that.

[heybtbm]

I agree with the posters above. The DS buttons are ill-suited for a game like this. The D-pad is just too damn tiny. Don't even get me started on the dual screen cheapness. The concessions they had to make to get this thing workable on the DS is sad. You simply cannot spread fast paced 2-D Contra action across two screens. It's like playing Contra III on your TV with a big piece of tape right across the middle of the screen. It just doesn't work.

I love the fact that this game exists though. Obviously the developers were true fans of the 2-D Contra's...and it shows. Unfortunately, the hardware ends up taking some of the fun away.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I agree that having two screens to keep track of certainly alters the way you play the game, but I don't think it's any kind of detriment. Remember that the original Contra in the arcades used a vertical screen orientation, so in some ways this is closer to the original. Granted, two separate screens is different than one vertical screen, but so is one horizontal screen. Each one requires some adjustments and I don't find that two screens are unmanageable at all. Yeah, I've been hit on the lower screen when my attention is on the upper screen a few times, but that sort of thing happens in any action game when a lot of stuff is going on onscreen.

Ultimately, Contra is a platform shooter in the same vein as Gradius as a shoot'em up. The gameplay is all about memorizing enemy locations and patterns, so if you get hit by an unexpected enemy or bullet on the bottom screen while you're looking at the top screen, it just means you need more practice.


...word is bondage...

[Icarus Moonsight]

I guess two screens of awesome is too much for some people. The plus-pad I will agree with though. Both the brick and the lite have their problems. Clicky vs squishy, they both lack the proper responce and slickness that the NES and SNES pads had.

[theoakwoody]

It'd be nice if Nintendo found away to eliminate the space between the two screens in their next update of the DS or next handheld system. Like when you open the system the screens slide and click into place with as little space between the two as possible. I understand that this would cause wear and tear on the system but I think it could be done.

[Ed Oscuro]

It'd be nice if Nintendo found away to eliminate the space between the two screens in their next update of the DS or next handheld system.

That'd be good, but they'd first better come up with better screens. I heard nothing but praise for the DS Lite's screens, and they're absolute crap (compared with a real PC monitor, anyway). Played some CotM and it doesn't do high contrast and motion together; on Contra 4, spread shot + blue sky = bluish spread!

Of course, Contra 4 has some issues which may or may not be related to the screens; on the DSL they don't match up perfectly, and I noticed some weird effects like the bottom rows of pixels jerking along when you're on that moving platform at the end of the waterfall stage (along with other graphical oddities I'll go into if anybody wants to hear about them).

More pressing for me is the horrible design of the Lite. Sure, it looks nice, but try using the R-button in Contra 4 and hammer away on the fire button (i.e. Rematch 4). Very uncomfortable. Nintendo also needs to scrap that infernal patented d-pad they're so proud of - it sucks for gaming, period. I don't like the fact that characters in C4 keep moving all thorugh a jump when you jump and hit a direction, but it's not a huge problem for the game (in fact you can use it to your advantage, as you can shoot up or down in midair without missing your landing). The real issue is that there's a learning curve just for the d-pad - I can use it pretty well now, but it took a while.

I know I haven't talked much about the game, but I like it. It's just doing not enough to compete with the current-gen titles for a perfect score; given what other games offer today I have to say that a score of 8 isn't stingy at all.

It's certainly much better on the whole than many of Konami's other recent 2D action offerings (Super Contra on XBLA looks like crap, and don't get me started on Contra 4 for mobile phones).

I'm sounding really negative, while I shouldn't. The main game is excellent, and a few of the set pieces I'd say are in contention for being considered among the best in gaming. Regardless, there are too many things that aren't excellent here, especially the challenge mode - it was fun for the first 15 or so, but it's gotten repetitive, even with new types of challenges. I'm only up to 28 and the puzzle aspect is completely undone by the "oh, I am NOT doing this &$ challenge" and "NOT THIS LEVEL AGAIN" and also "NOT THE SUB AGAIN"

I could go on about good and bad things, but I'll stop here for now. I'm still thinking about how I can bring all these issues up in a review for the Contra HQ while keeping the positives in focused and balanced.

I'm also wondering if I'll ever finish the challenges (28/40 done) so I can do a guide for them all. They are going to catch it hard for Contra 4 mobile, which I paid maybe $8 for and which is quite simply the worst game I've played in some time. The perverse thing is that they did an alright job matching the level design and even some of the specific movements to those in the game; it's just too slow, ugly, and the controls are a complete mess in general (infinite hover time by mashing the grappling hook button, for instance). Quite a departure from the previous Contra arcade game remake for phones which I played for a long time and eventually got to enjoy quite a bit.

[calthaer]

You know, I haven't been playing much in the way of video games lately. At all. Real life has just been taking its toll.

But I was in Best Buy last week and I saw this, and I remembered the things that I had read about it. And I said to myself: I have to get it.

Boy, am I glad I did. Sure, I could quibble about this or that, but the bottom line is that this is one of the best reimaginations of a classic game that I've seen. Those base-type levels are awesome, and the way they changed that classic Contra III boss to make it fit in that different perspective was great. The super-wall boss of the first level...it's like they took the original and put it on steroids.

Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, I play it sometimes and I'm kind of like "why am I going back to memorizing enemy locations and all this other crap on static game level designs?" But the bottom line that it is a new Contra, and it reinvigorates the Contra game experience for me in a way that all the recent sequels and remakes don't, really.

I like it, and I'd love to see more things like this with other classic games.