Arcade Archives CONTRA
Switch eShop (Arcade emulated)
Konami / HAMSTER
1987 2020
The absolute titan of Rambo Commando arcade action games. I've never played it in the arcades, and while the Xbox 360 emulation wasn't ideal, Arcade Archives completely nails it here (it's also on the Contra Anniversary Collection).
The story here is blunt, simple, and pure 1980s. An evil "Red Falcon" organization has set up shop within the dense Amazon jungles. It's up to a duo of commandos, mf'ing Bill and mf'ing Lance to wipe out the threat and uncover the extraterrestrial forces behind the invasion. Though of Japanese origin, the game's Western influences are abundantly clear. Bill and Lance are modeled after action heroes Schwarzenegger and Stallone with the alien fiends resembling those aliens from a certain Ridley Scott film (about aliens).
Contra consists of a series of environments (the final "stage" strings several together) with a single playthrough clocking in at a cool fifteen minutes, give or take. There's some pleasant variety to the level design: there are your traditional left-to-right scrollers, one is a vertical scroller complete with a persistent insta-death pit at the bottom (à la Kid Icarus), plus a duo of "bases" where the game instead opts for a "behind the player" type of perspective. The base stages have very strict time limits. What happens when time runs out? I dunno and I'm scared to find out. The secret to the game's monumental success lies within the control scheme. Contra is sublime, an absolute joy to play. Walking and jumping are fluid, with the speed calibrated perfectly. There's ducking and the ability to hop down ledges with the classic A+down button combo. But it's the gunplay that truly shines. The manly men of Contra can shoot in eight directions, sniping enemies from all angles. Likewise, the heroes are assaulted, relentlessly, from every area of the screen. Left, right, up, down, there are even stages showcasing booby traps and bombs that emerge from background to foreground. Despite featuring a wholly different viewpoint, the base stages feel just as natural as all others, but with the player's bullets travelling "into" the screen. This is the prototypical "run and gun" game, deftly mixing sleek platforming mechanics with all the ferocity of a good shmup.
Let's talk about the guns. Yeah, the guns. While the player naturally begins with the white-bullet pea shooter, each stage of Contra features plenty of upgrades. There's an auto-fire machine gun, the wide-range flamethrower, and the slow but powerful laser. But the most precious weapon of all is what became the series staple: the spread gun. This beast does exactly what its namesake implies: fires out multiple projectiles that "spread" all over the screen. Being in possession of this firearm is monumentally satisfying; losing it is a tragedy. The secret to mastering Contra is as follows: 1) get the spread gun, 2) do not lose the spread gun.
The game showcases some of the most memorable settings in retro gaming. Sure, there's no logical consistency to any of it (how do the boys go from the Amazon jungle to a snow field within a matter of minutes?) but everything looks fantastic. That opening "jungle" stage is one of the most iconic in video game history, sporting a brilliant array of deep greens and blues for backgrounds, plus those unforgettable exploding bridges. The complexity and intensity just ramps up from there. I'm especially partial to two of the latter environments: the "energy zone" and hangar environments. Sprawling futuristic mechanical gauntlets, each comes jam-packed with environmental hazards: claws that descend from the ceilings, pop-up spiked walls, periodic flares. For a plot that ostensibly hinges on an alien invasion, there are actually very few alien foes. Instead, most are of the human or robotic variety. Early stages give us the blindingly charging soldiers (who oddly resemble football players), plenty of snipers, wall-mounted turrets, and more. The first instance of extraterrestrial life is something of a tease: that initial "big alien" appears as the stage 3 boss, and no aliens are seen again until the game's final stretch. And that concluding segment of Contra is an absolute stunner. A living, breathing, pulsating alien lair where the scenery comes to life spewing forth freakish arthropod spawn. Boss battles are exceptional throughout the journey. There's a mixture of mechanical defense towers, alien land- and spacecraft, plus the final confrontation with the "heart of the alien" itself. All bosses feature multiple attack patterns, sidekicks, gunfire from every which way.
Some excellent tunes here too. There's a sophisticated techno metal vibe to the whole thing, really excitable and danceable. Things do slow down a bit during those final segments. The alien hideout features an appropriately creepy dirge, and the ending theme is a thumping heroic send-off. A lot of noise has been made about Contra difficulty. This is hard. In the arcade, and on the Xbox 360 (which I believe grants limited credits). But here on the Archives virtual quarters are infinite, continues are respawns, and anyone can brute force their way through this.
Any flaws at all? I kind of hate the jumping animation, and it's possible to jump beyond the screen's top border, which locks gunfire. And why Konami chose to use a vertical display is somewhat baffling. The game's also too short, and is overshadowed by the NES port (more on that in a bit...). I'm just nitpicking though. This is quintessential retro gaming, and Konami at their absolute peak.
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewed: 02/15/26
Contra
NES
Konami
1988
An oft-repeated cliché -- one that dates back to Pac-Man and the disastrous 2600 variant (which actually isn't that bad) -- is the notion that console ports are always cucked and compromised in some way. Granted, this can be true, and often is. But many ports are great and some are so good they outshine the arcade original in every facet. Contra here on NES being the quintessential example.
As stated, the arcade original was already excellent. And this mogs it in every fashion. Animation is smoother, co-op is integrated better, graphics are brighter, the OST sounds richer coming from the NES sound chip, gunfire sound effects are iconic (to the point they were reused, see Yume Penguin Monogatari, for instance). Bosses are more plentiful, fiercer and meaner. Stage three, for instance, now has a giant looming alien with a detailed face, an upgrade from the odd electro-mechanical base entrance. Most critically, some of the later environments have been extended and remixed into full-fledged independent stages. The alien lair is absolutely nasty. I love it.
Quarter-destroyers must be rebalanced for consoles, and much has been said about the difficulty of the "Nintendo Hard" NES Contra. The number of enemies has been greatly reduced, but a single player is now allotted just three lives plus a few continues. With one-hit deaths, many find this a difficult game, and the famous "Konami code" (much more useful in Gradius!) bumps the life total up to 30. All that said... I think the difficulty of this one has been greatly exaggerated over the past few decades. Lemme compare it to, say, Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden. Castlevania is tough because it's so stiff and regimented. Ninja Gaiden has the opposite "issue" -- it's spastic and flickery and capricious. Contra isn't like either game. It's smooth, well-crafted, and logically consistent. One specific enemy spawns in a way that feels a bit cheap, but a touch of memorization negates this. Call me crazy but I think Contra might be easier than the original Super Mario Bros.!!
I would advise people to also take a look at the Famicom version (which contains cut scenes) and the beautiful disaster that is the Commodore 64 port. But this is the one worth playing. Probably the most perfect action game ever conceived.
Rating: 5/5
Reviewed: 02/18/26