A Brainless Journey Through the Jungle

With Contra: Legacy of War, publisher Konami and developer Appaloosa tried to bring the ContraStarted by Konami in 1988 the run-n-gun platform series Contra was, for a time, one of the flagship franchises for the company. series into the third dimension. The goal was to take what worked about the classic Contra series and update it for new consoles as well as the audiences’ new expectations of 3D gameplay. While I don’t think Contra: Legacy of War or its follow-up, C: The Contra Adventure, are wholly without merit, it’s safe to say they were failures both with general audiences and hardcore Contra fans. They strayed too far from the formula that worked all while sacrificing all the fun in the process.

After those two games, control of the series was taken back by Konami and development was shifted in house. Developed by internal Team Kijirushi, and spearheaded by Nobuya Nakazato (who directed by Contra III: The Alien Wars and Contra: Hard Corps), this new title, Contra: Shattered Soldier, marked a true return to the gameplay concepts of all, bringing the action back into the 2D realm (albeit with 3D graphics) and putting the emphasis back on the kind of play that audiences wanted.

On the one hand, Contra: Shattered Soldier does feel more like a true Contra game than anything Appaloosa created. It looks and plays like an expected game in the series, and I’m sure much of that is thanks to the watchful eye of Nakazato. At the same time, though, something feels like it’s missing. No offence meant to Nakazato, as they clearly knew how to make good Contra games, having directed two of the greatest in the series, but there’s something missing in this game, some spark that you want to see that simply isn’t there. It doesn’t feel like a true Contra game but, instead, a kind of copy-of-a-copy. Hell, in some ways it feels like it’s not even trying to copy Contra but, instead, really wants to be Gunstar Heroes and just doesn’t know how. What it isn’t, though, is the true sequel fans needed this whole time.

Taking place in 2642 AD, we find that the Earth has been nearly destroyed due to a biomechanical experiment gone awry. The blame for the devastation is placed at the feet of Bill Rizer, hero of the Alien Wars, as he was in charge of overseeing the project. Additionally he’s charged for the crime of killing his partner, Lance Bean, who died during the incident. Convicted to spend 10,000 years in cryo-prison, Bill only serves five before he’s pulled back out of the freezer. There’s a new threat, from a group called “Blood Falcon”, and they threaten to end all life on the planet. Only one man can handle that job: Bill Rizer.

Set off with a gun, as well as a new ally (the scantily-clad cybernetic girl, Lucia), Bill has to fight his way through to the Blood Falcon headquarters. But what he finds when he gets there shakes him to his core. The Blood Falcon leader is none other than Bill’s old partner, Lance, who apparently went evil after the events of the Alien War. What caused this shift, and while Blood Falcon really wants, is a question Bill and Lucia will have to answer as they race across the globe, chasing Lance, all to try and prevent the final apocalypse that could end all life as we know it.

To call Contra: Shattered Soldier a silly game would be an understatement. It’s hard to know if the developers intended for this to be a very serious story or not, but I have to hope the answer is “not” because, dang, this game is kind of dumb. It has a Nu-Metal edge to it, purposefully acting dark and tough in its opening minutes, only to then score its entire soundtrack with wailing guitar riffs as if programmed by a synth-deranged edgelord. It’s a lot and it doesn’t really get better from there.

And yet, at the same time, it also feels like the game knows it’s silly and is using the edgy, dark design as a facade. Its story is completely bonkers, and many of its levels are the kind of Contra high cheese you’d want. A battle through a city that then switches to the hero snowboarding down a mountain. The heroes flying through the sky holding onto missiles they control. A battle atop a plane against a helicopter that can also transform into a mech. It’s all so weird and over-the-top that it defies the very edgelord aesthetic it projects. And in some of these moments it almost works.

It does take a while to get there, though. The opening acts of the game are dreadfully slow. The stages are meant to evoke the feeling of classic Contra gameplay but, despite the practiced hands at the helm, it never really feels like it quite gets there. The opening stage, with its battle along the streets before the heroes take on a boss that is clearly meant to evoke the giant turtle boss from Contra III: The Alien Wars, feels like a pale riff of something we’ve already seen before. It’s not as frenetic, not as action-packed, just a little quieter and far more dull. This feels permeates many of the levels, with the game feeling like it’s trying to be a greatest hits of stages we liked before, just without the creativity to make them very interesting.

It doesn’t help that the game isn’t challenging. Despite trying to evoke the gameplay of past titles, there just isn’t as much to do in these stages. There are less enemies along with far fewer bullets flying around than you’d expect from a Contra title. I wouldn’t call it a breeze to get through the game but I certainly died a lot less in Contra: Shattered Soldier than I ever did in classic titles. It’s like the game is afraid to be too tough, too mean, to really evoke the challenge of classic Contra games even as it tries to play like them.

Plus, the game makes one really curious decision: it gives you all your guns at the outset and lets you use them freely. You have a machine gun, a grenade launcher, and a flamethrower, and even when you die these weapons don’t go away. They all have secondary functions when charged up, like the grenade launcher shooting homing projectiles, which makes the game even easier, especially in the boss battles. You’re clearly meant to have to think about when to constantly fire and when to charge up attacks, but that would only be difficult if the game constantly threw enemies at you, which it doesn’t. It’s too easy and too empty for most of its runtime.

It does finally begin to get interesting late in the session, almost when it’s run out of steam. The helicopter battle (where it sometimes is a mech instead) leads to a fight in another dimension against a boss that shifts forms from human to frog to jellyfish to parasite, and these moments feel like the game is finally finding some creative juice. Naturally, that’s because it’s also when the game feels like Gunstar Heroes, arguably the best game in this genre to ever come out. It’s not a bad thing to want to take ideas from a superior title, but even here it feels less like drawing inspiration and more like tracing over better designs. This is the best the game has to offer and it’s still a pale imitation.

An imitation is still better than what Appaloosa created in their games, though. While I didn’t love Contra: Shattered Soldier I do have to admit that it’s still a better game, overall, than either Contra: Legacy of War or C: The Contra Adventure. It might not be stunning creatively but it’s more fun to play and more engaging than either of those 3D slogs. This PS2 title can’t hold a candle to the classic entries in the series, especially not the two previous titles Nakazato worked on, but it’s not a complete waste of time. Average is still better than some, and that’s about the best I can call Contra: Shattered Soldier: it’s aggressively average.