Contra: Shattered Soldier

"Fans of all things Contra rejoice!"

Fans of all things Contra rejoice! The Contra series is reborn, and with all the classic gameplay intact, not to mention a fresh new coat of paint... Blasting alien scum has never been this good looking!

Story 5/10: What I take from it is that the two guys from the 1st contra were frozen and have been thawed out amidst yet another alien invasion. Lance has apparently turned evil but the other one (name escapes me) is still good and is fighting the scourge with a hot looking female second player. Lock and load!

Graphics 6/10:The graphics look WAY much like they were done on the PS1. Not bad but not decent either. Could have been much better looking at the PS2’s power. Anyway it doesn’t really matter the action is so fast paced that the so-so graphics give way to the action shoot ‘em up atmosphere.

Sound/Music 7/10:The tracks are pretty much Metal/Rock creating a fast paced atmosphere. Sound effects are the usual grunts and argh!’s when something hits you. The loudness does distract a bit from the game though and could make you miss a crucial jump. I just turn the volume down most of the time.

Gameplay 8/10: Shoot everything that moves. On the way you’ll encounter soldiers, giant fish heads, Metal Snakes trains, and whatever else is aiming to take a life from you. Shoot them. They will flash white with each connected shot and eventually explode and die. Now that you understand the complicated spectrum of multitasking that is required to play, lets talk about the problems with the game in general. I really despise the archaic system in which you are required to play this game. You must play through each individual level excluding the last 2 before you can save which negates any real point to saving at all. Now this would have been okay in the pick up and play NES days but now it just really doesn’t fit. It does add to the massive surge of old school feel that pervades the entire game but in the end I wish I could at least save before a level I am sure to lose 50 lives on so I don’t have to go through the ones before it all over again. That said, this game is a blast from the past that even new gamers will love.

Control 5/10: My biggest and most validated argument about this game is a major control flaw that makes me very angry in the fact that is could have been extremely easily corrected. You have to hold L2 to hold a position of fire after already aiming ok? The reason that is bugs me so much is that with the PS2 controller it seems to be hard to get that position correct which leads to a lot of unneeded deaths during firefights while trying to change directions. There are enough unused buttons so that each one could be dedicated to a single direction of fire simply at a press but it seems to have gone overlooked. An oversight and a costly one too.

Replay Value:Replay is more or less tied into how many times you want to play. There are no extras for you to unlock that will intrigue you into playing again I’m sorry to say, except for trying to get higher kill percentages for each stage. This is the type of game that most people will want to play once a week for an hour memorizing every stage and such. In few words: What you see is what you get.

Overall 7/10l: Overall this game is an enjoyable and entertaining game, but I’m going to have to recommend that you not buy it at full price. In my experience it plays too much like an NES game for its own good, No saving throughout 75% of the game control issues and length.

Rent or buy? $25 and down buy. $25 and up, rent.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/18/03, Updated 02/18/03