Need some Contra opinions

[Edmond Dantes]

Thanks everyone!

I'll check out the Famicom Contras as soon as I get a Famicom. Due to money troubles tho that might not be any time soon. In the meantime, the Contra game I'm playing the most is Operation C due to it being on a portable system (thus I can play it while away from home or while my DVD Recorder is busy with something else).

I've also been checking out a few Contra clones, namely Irem's Gunforce series which I own thanks to DotEmu's Irem collection. For some reason, everyone regards the first one as a terrible game, but I don't see much wrong with it except that the controls are a little weird (you know how in Contra you just point in a direction and they're just magically pointing there? The Gunforce dudes need to swing their arms into that position, which means you can fire in an arc but also means you're a little slower than you would actually like to be in this kind of game). IMO, these games are also hurt by their almost total lack of any sort of plot or premise--particularly the second game (called Geostorm in Japan), where I'd really like to know what's going on.

The Gunforce team apparently went on to found the company that made the Metal Slug games, of which I've played the first one. I do have one criticism--only being able to shoot in the cardinal directions. Its like the AVGN said: "it seems like only Contra got it right."

[davidbrit2]

The Gunforce team apparently went on to found the company that made the Metal Slug games, of which I've played the first one. I do have one criticism--only being able to shoot in the cardinal directions. Its like the AVGN said: "it seems like only Contra got it right."

As did Sunset Riders (also made by Konami, as it so happens).

[jperryss]

This thread prompted me to play through the original NES Contra and Super C again. I'd always used the extra-men codes but figured I could clear them without it. Now it's official.

Does either game have a significantly different 2nd loop? I didn't notice a drastic difference, maybe slightly more bullets flying around, but on both games I actually lost fewer men on the 2nd loop.

[FoxNtd]

Does either game have a significantly different 2nd loop? I didn't notice a drastic difference, maybe slightly more bullets flying around, but on both games I actually lost fewer men on the 2nd loop.

A bunch of the old Konami titles have a harder 2nd loop at the least. Contra does get harder; you will see more enemies spawn, particularly on level 1 in some spots where it's most evident, and boss HP seems to go up. At the very least, that big alien head mini-boss near the start of the final stage has much more HP and begins to expel three of those flying shrimp-like enemies instead of two, which also have more HP.

In my playing I estimate the difficulty cap is reached at Loop 5. The 1UP system changes at 3 million points; the value of the next 1UP goes up to 1 million, meaning you can earn only 3 more extra lives, then you cannot get any more.

[E Nice]

Thanks everyone!

I'll check out the Famicom Contras as soon as I get a Famicom. Due to money troubles tho that might not be any time soon. In the meantime, the Contra game I'm playing the most is Operation C due to it being on a portable system (thus I can play it while away from home or while my DVD Recorder is busy with something else).

I've also been checking out a few Contra clones, namely Irem's Gunforce series which I own thanks to DotEmu's Irem collection. For some reason, everyone regards the first one as a terrible game, but I don't see much wrong with it except that the controls are a little weird (you know how in Contra you just point in a direction and they're just magically pointing there? The Gunforce dudes need to swing their arms into that position, which means you can fire in an arc but also means you're a little slower than you would actually like to be in this kind of game). ....

That kinda sounds like how the Contra arcade game handled the bullet trajectory, which people disliked. The bullets arced into that 45 degree angle slowly.

Operation C was a great Super C style game. Only real tough part was the fight with the very last boss, the one that actually fights, not that thing in a jar.

[jperryss]

A bunch of the old Konami titles have a harder 2nd loop at the least. Contra does get harder; you will see more enemies spawn, particularly on level 1 in some spots where it's most evident, and boss HP seems to go up. At the very least, that big alien head mini-boss near the start of the final stage has much more HP and begins to expel three of those flying shrimp-like enemies instead of two, which also have more HP.

In my playing I estimate the difficulty cap is reached at Loop 5. The 1UP system changes at 3 million points; the value of the next 1UP goes up to 1 million, meaning you can earn only 3 more extra lives, then you cannot get any more.

Ah, see I always have the spread gun at that part, but on that 2nd loop I had the basic pea shooter, so I attributed the "extra HP" to the weak gun.

[Jorpho]

Operation C was a great Super C style game. Only real tough part was the fight with the very last boss, the one that actually fights, not that thing in a jar.

It's all about the pattern memorization, as with the rest of the game.

[NE146]

I'll check out the Famicom Contras as soon as I get a Famicom. Due to money troubles tho that might not be any time soon.

Why? Just snag the rom and play it on an emulator on your pc/wii/xbox or something.

Unless of course you really want a physical cart for your collection. But the point is to just check out the differences.

[Edmond Dantes]

I just really don't like emulators, to tell ya the truth. My main problem with them is that when I download one, its hard to concentrate on just the one game and instead you want to get on and download more, and soon its more about downloading than playing. With a physical cart, because you layed down money for it there's incentive to actually play it.

I also find that when I download something, I'm prone to forget I have it, whereas a cart is, by nature, a physical reminder of itself... especially if its a nice, juicy CIB (hey, where the hell does Pat the NES Punk get those protective cases for his CIB games anyway?)

With Operation C, I actually find the hardest part is... making jumps. I don't know what it is but it seems like I always just narrowly make jumps. There's this waterfall in Area 3 that I usually wind up losing a lot of lives on because I either stand too close to the edge and walk right off, or else I'm not as close as I need to be and my jump misses. Though, I AM getting better at this. I've gotten to the last level, but the second elevator that has those laser traps keeps killing me (I imagine there's a trick I simply have not discovered yet, as I've only been there once).

Tried Super C today. Got my ass handed to me. I'm thinking of giving Ghosts n' Goblins another run, possibly some R-Type or X-Multiply (god I love Giger aliens) and then coming back to Super C. Yeah, that's right, practice an already difficult game by playing games that are even more difficult. It could make me the Super Saiyan of Gaming!

[NE146]

I just really don't like emulators, to tell ya the truth. My main problem with them is that when I download one, its hard to concentrate on just the one game and instead you want to get on and download more, and soon its more about downloading than playing.

If that's what's stopping you from trying out the Jap version of Contra that's more a personal issue than anything But yes I hear ya. It's the ol' discussion we've seen countless times, and some people just simply are more diehard about their preferences when it comes to emulators vs. the real deal. I have zero such problems however. I can just easily play Namco Star Wars or Kid Icarus on a DS via an emulator, just as easily as I can pop it into my Famicom or NES as needed. Whatever happens to be the more attractive or convenient option at the moment. Same game.

That being said.. no one downloads single roms anymore. You click once and you get entire sets of thousands of roms in one swoop. Maybe that would stop your desire to get on and "download more", as there would be nothing else to download.

[MarioMania]

Well, you wouldn't. That sort of thing is strictly limited to those using an emulator or a flash cart of some sort. (Apparently the relevant code was completely removed from the US version, so there's no chance a simple Game Genie hack could fix it.)

That sucks, Do you have the Patch..PM me if you do

[Jorpho]

Why would I PM you regarding something publicly available..?

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/797/

In theory it also works with http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/450/ .