Contra: Shattered Soldier

"It's a worth Contra game"

Contra Shattered Soldier was a true reason of excitement for old school gamers. Not only because the brilliant Nobuya Nakazato (in charge of the unforgettable Aliens War and part of Castlevania SOTN staff) was behind the project, but also because he was decided to respect the tradition of the saga. How? Shattered Soldier feels like the old games (accompanied with wonderful polygonal graphics and beautiful scenarios). The playability is almost the same as the classic shooter you knew and loved from NES, SNES and GENESIS, and your modus operandi is the classic ''destroy everything that dares to breath on the screen''.

But even when the tradition factor is strong, some things changed (perhaps for worse) you don't have the classic ''mega-bombs'', and you only have 3 weapons: The classic super machine gun, walking grenades, and the flame thrower, every one of them with a special-charge attack (press the O button for 3 seconds and release).
Even when this might look like a poor warlike equipment(compared to old Contra's) the truth is that you have everything you need to whipe out the entire alien and mecha zoo.

Make no mistakes: Even when this game is still 2D, the Staff did a tremendous job with every monster and (of course) every epic boss battle.

STORY: Diehard fans of Contra expected something very interesting here, and oh boy, Shattered Soldier has plenty of surprises for you after you finish the game in NORMAL mode. Programmers knew how to introduce the basic plot without much words, you will understand everything watching the spectacular intro.

PLAYABILITY: Does this needs explanation? The playability is the same; fun and simple... shoot, charge, jump, select your weapons with R and walk. Use the stick if you want more precision.

People complains about the difficulty... but we need to remember Contra was also popular for being one of the hardest action games back in the NES days, and SS, being a traditional game, is no exception... remember that.

However, this ''difficulty'' issue is (IMHO) very subjective; once you memorize the appropriate weapon and the appropiate tactic for each monster and situation, you won't have much problems. Patience is the key.

SOUND: The FX sound is wonderful, an excellent repertory of shoots, explosions, impacts, missiles, war devices, juicy noises and screams courtesy of our beloved super monsters, and much more. The music disappointed me since I'm not fan of metal (but that's just my humble opinion, it's a matter of tastes). Since you won't probably be listening to the music in the middle of a endless packs of disturbing monsters, the music itself will be buried with FX sounds.

GOODIES: Watch to see, Shattered Soldier has a decent replay value, plus training mode and some nice secrets (and levels) to unlock. Enjoy

TOTAL: 8

Even when this game had some defects (you can't save your advance through the game, something that should have been optional and not obligatory, and sometimes you think they could have done a bigger game) Contra SS is a fabulous action piece. They did an splendid job and I applaud their decision to keep the old formula, because that's what most of us wanted.

It's fun, it's addictive, and it's truly apocalyptic.

Buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/02, Updated 10/28/02