Contra Tries to Go Over the Top

Another two years pass, and that gives us another ContraStarted by Konami in 1988 the run-n-gun platform series Contra was, for a time, one of the flagship franchises for the company. game. In this case, though, while it is a Contra game, it doesn’t have the Contra name. Developed by Arc System Works, this game is another reinvention of the series, this time acting as a prequel for the whole of the series, as well as Contra: Hard Corps specifically. That’s the reason why it drops the Contra title and goes for “Hard Corps” in its name instead. But it also means the game doesn’t have to stick to all the conventions of the formula for the series it’s part of.

The thing here is that the game wants to be Contra but it doesn’t want to be completely held down by expectations. It gives the same run-and-gun formula that players are familiar with, but it does it with a different art style, different enemies, and a whole lot of over-the-top, over sized bosses. It’s like Contra but filtered through a bit of Gunstar Heroes, and while I criticized Contra ReBirth for doing the same thing, that game had the Contra name, while this title knowingly drops the Contra, which really does feel like the right choice. A spin-off can experiment; a mainline game should not.

But as a spin-off, does this game really hold a candle to the original titles for the series. We’ve already seen one spin-off before, the ill-fated Contra Force, and that game was marred by a rushed production schedule and some game breaking bugs that really held it back. The thought of another game in that vein would give any Contra fan pause. Thankfully, this title is a much more assured, and interesting, kind of spin-off, and though not perfect, it does have enough hardcore (and Hard Corps) action to keep most Contra fans happy.

The game focuses on Bahamut and his team of other soldiers – the speedy Krystal, the powerhouse pompadour-wearing Harley, and the sword-wielding Sayuri – as they work for the Commonwealth government of Earth. However, when they witness the brutal dictatorship that the Commonwealth has become, they turn against their allies and fight for the resistance against Tiberius, the leader of the Commonwealth. Only with their combined combat experience, and a lot of luck, can they bring down the Commonwealth once and for all.

Hard Corps: Uprising borrows a number of elements from previous Contra games. It’s a sidescrolling adventure featuring run-and-gun, as well as vehicle stages, not unlike Contra: Hard Corps. It also featured four playable characters, each with their strengths and weaknesses. Krystal, for instance, isn’t very strong, but she is quite fast, while Harkey is strong but slower. Each will suit a specific kind of play style, depending on what the player prefers.

Matching Contra: Hard Corps in another way, Hard Corps: Uprising also brings back the health bar from that game, giving players plenty of chances to avoid death. That meter, plus liberal 1-Ups sprinkled throughout the game, means that players could potentially have an easier time here than in other Contra titles, especially if they’re playing in Rising mode and not the more difficult (and unforgiving) Arcade mode (for that classic Contra feel).

The key difference is that Arcade drops you into the action and plays like any classic game you might know from the series. Rising mode, though, provides a shop where you can spend your points, purchasing upgrades, such as health and special abilities. Even without these, though, there’s a lot that your player can do. There’s dodges, feints, blocks, jumps, double-jumps, air-dashes, and more. These are very maneuverable characters who certainly have a leg up on the battlefields, even before we get to the weapons.

Hard Corps: Uprising features a wide selection of weapons to gain. There’s the usual fare in Machine Guns and Spread Shots, plus Chain Lasers, Heat shots, Reflect shields, and Charge Grenades. Each of these can be upgraded by collecting their power-up a second, and then third time, giving you more range, power, and shots on screen. You can carry two different shot types at a time, although if you take too much damage (even with healing from the plethora of health kits scattered around) you will lose one of your weapons. Death, naturally, will also force you to drop one as well.

And then there’s the bosses, of which there are many. These all feel ripped from Gunstar Heroes, with huge designs featuring plenty of damage points, multiple-phases, and a number of attack modes. They’re the kinds of bosses you have to learn so you can anticipate and adapt to what they’re doing. Most are kind enough to telegraph their attacks, but even then you’ll still likely get caught off guard, by some attack of move they do that you didn’t anticipate quite right. It’s a lot to keep track of, and in skilled hands can make for a rewarding experience.

All of this, honestly, works in the game’s favor and gives players a lot to work with. And, for the first few levels, it really does feel like the game is assured, knowing exactly what it’s doing. The issues for me come late in the game, during its hour-long run time. For all its skill in stage design and boss creation, multiple power-ups and ways to improve the experience even for newer players, the game feels like it loses steam in its back half. At a certain point you feel like you’ve seen all the tricks the game has to offer, and while the stages continue to give you all the action you could crave, it feels like a bit more variety would have been nice.

Consider the fact that this is one of the rare games in the series (like Contra ReBirth before it) that doesn’t feature fortress stages. There’s run-and-gun side scrolling and auto-scrolling vehicles stages, but that’s really it as the game goes back and forth between them. Both are skillfully crafted, but once you’ve played these enough times it begins to all feel the same. I would have really liked some wacky, out there stages, something overhead, or behind the back, or just something that felt different to keep me engaged. Variety is needed in games like this where you can get burned out all too quickly in the action you’re seeing. And while an hour long game (if you’re good at it) is speedy in most genres, that puts it at the long end for a Contra title, and you really start to feel it as the game drags on.

Maybe not every Contra fan will feel the same. Plenty of reviewers liked the game, and it got decent scores from fans. For me, though, there’s a little something missing that takes this from a B-Rank game up to S-Rank. It’s still good, for sure, but it could have hit it out of the park for me and the game just… didn’t. That right mix of ingredients, the special sauce that really makes the game sing, is almost there but it stops just short of greatness.

For many fans, Hard Corps: Uprising will be a solid title. Even for me, with all my qualms, I had a pretty decent experience playing through the game. But when there are even better games in the series out there (like Contra 4) it’s hard to say when I’ll go back to this title again. It was good… but it wasn’t that good.