Contra: Shattered Soldier

"Classic Contra or Rip Off?"

Contra has always been one of my favorite games to play because of the fast paced action and alien bashing mayhem. It is fun to play a game where your character dies in one hit (just like in real life) and there are thousands of baddies to eliminate. The bosses are always some of the most creative creations I have seen in any shooter game, and the music really revs you up.

Like any reviewer, I would only review a game if I know a lot about not only the game itself, but the entire series as well. I am by no means the Contra "master" because I usually die a few times or use a continue from time to time to beat most Contra games, but I would say that I'm a proficient Contra player who loves the series.

Gameplay: 6

The gameplay is fun. You control a character who can shoot one of three different weapons that can be charged up to unleash a super shot. Unfortunately, you can't shoot your gun in 360 degrees of fire. You have move into a position were your character has the correct angle (takes a little bit of practice to perfect). This is not necessarily a bad thing because classic Contra games do not allow you a full range of firing either, so it depend on how old school you are. What irked me the most was that you only get three weapons to use the entire game. There are no power up blimps (from earlier Contra 's) to shoot at in order to get new cool power ups. Charging up different weapons can be fun, especially to shoot down multiple enemies or find a boss's weak point. The weapons you get are: your machine gun, a grenade launcher, and a flame thrower. The flame thrower can be fun to use to melt bullets with, which can come in handy when the screen in filled with them.

The difficulty is...insane. My friend and I played this game for hours and died probably a hundred times. We would laugh at how bad we were getting our hind ends served to us. The difficulty stared out as a running joke about how hard it was, but then we got bored. You get three lives and three continues, but I would recommend starting the game with a cheat just so you can get a feel for the levels and memorize important patterns. The game is hard enough so that getting an extra 30 lives won't spoil anything for newcomers. But hard-core gamers will want to play levels over and over again instead of hurting their pride. The amount of time you will spend re-playing levels instead of opting for more lives, will make you very frustrated if you are an average person. It would have more fun if the levels were longer and had more baddies to shoot at, but this game seemed like it should be called: "Contra: Tournament Edition", because there was a mini boss every few steps your player makes and they take forever to destroy. Finding a boss's weakness can be tough because a lot of them take so many hits to destroy that you can't tell if a weapon is softening them up or not. Some mini-bosses are harder then the level bosses are. In level 4, there is a huge monster with a jet pack and a machine gun and each part of him takes a million bazillion shots to blow up. He's not that hard, but beating him alone, takes like ten minuets or something, which is ridiculous. There are so many mini-bosses that the gameplay is set to a crawl because your standing in one area blasting away at a huge creature that will take a great beating and has attacks that you MUST memorize in order to stand a chance. Then you will stroll a long a little ways, and then hey!, there's another mini-boss. If you are an expert Contra gamer who loves a sceen filled with projectiles, and you love having to memorize and a hunk load of patterns, then this game if for you and disregard my warning that this game is insanely hard. Some people are just great at these games and would also prefer short levels with tons and tons of bosses instead of broad level with a couple of bosses in them.

There are seven levels and you get rated at the end of each. Sadly, you won't be able to play the final two levels unless you have received a high enough ranking in the first five levels. This will take LOTS of time and patience. Some mini-bosses get more and more difficult to defeat as you blow parts of them up (thus earning you more points), but if you leave them alone, or only blow up the area that kills them, you still proceed with the level (depending on the boss) but you will lose point toward your level ranking (and won't be allowed to finish the game). I would have liked it better if the ranking system was only to earn more lives or continues or something other than to finishing the game. Don't get me wrong, you can still earn some really cool things, but finishing the game is wrongfully one of them. Previous Contra 's have made it so you have to beat the game on hard mode in order to beat the entire game, but that was fun because the games played better and were more easy to clear. The levels should have been longer and with more regular enemies and backgrounds. Playing trillions of mini-bosses get boring after awhile (especially if you have already played the level before). Some people may like this, and that is their rightful opinion.

A lot of the game relies on it' nostalgia effect by adding a bunch of elements from previous Contra games into this one. I like seeing a familiar face or tentacle from time to time, but this was the best part of the game. The rest of the game was all about playing those darn mini bosses. It's sad when the best element of your new game, is ripping off stuff from your older games. I wish I could say that this game was full of classic elements from previous Contra games, mixed with loads of new enemies and long adventuresome levels full of origonality and creativity. Unfortunately, I CAN'T SAY THAT, because it wouldn't be true.

Story: 8

I'm being nice here because most 2D shooting games have had a tendency to have terrible plots but no one cares because, shooting games don't need great plots to be fun. Compared to the average 2D shooting game, the plot is great. Bill Rizer (hero from the Alien Wars) is released from prison to assist a government reploid to destroy a new alien threat. The plot turns out to be a bit more complicated than this, and nobody can be trusted. The first thing that got my attention was, "why would Paul Rizer kill hundreds of innocent people?" You find out the answer to this and much more.

Graphics and Sound: 8

I really enjoyed the hard metal rifts and fast paced techno music, it really got me in the mood to kill lots of baddies. The graphics were a bit too dark because it became difficult at times to distinguish between player 1 and player 2 in big shoot outs. When your focusing on a bunch of different things, it can be tempting to keep an eye on your player with your peripheral vision so you can blast many different enemies on the screen. In a one player game, this is easy, but in a two player game, you may get your players mixed up this way since they are both so darkly shaded. The bosses look great and the backgrounds are wonderfully detailed. The most annoying part of this game is the cut scenes. While they are wonderfully detailed, they are long and impossible to skip. I'm not subtracting points for the graphics because of this, but it's really annoying, especially if you die a lot (and you probably will).

Play Time/ Replayability: 6

This section was difficult to score for a couple of reasons. First off, can you really say a game has good replay value because it is hard? I say no. I found replaying levels boring after I memorized them because they are short and full of boss battles that are way to long. The second thing that made me ponder about what score to give was the ranking system. If you actually care about unlocking everything in the game than this game has a great replay value (probably about an eight or so), but I just don't have the motivation to do this. This is because I just don't care, and I usually do care with most shooting games. I unlocked everything in Neo Contra and that was tons of fun, but I don't like the levels in this game.

The game is short. Once you find a way to stop dieing all the time, you will find that other than the time you spend with certain bosses, the game is really short. There are only seven levels. This is about normal for a Contra game, but still not long enough. Less bosses and more beautifully rendered levels full of creativity would be much more appreciated.

Final Recommendation:

This game can be fun if you have the time and patience. Some people swear by this game and call it a great game. I would recommend that you rent this game or play it at a friend's house who already owns it before you buy it. It is a really tough game that lack originality or creativity in my opinion, but I am only one person, not you. Any Contra fans out there who haven't played this game should at least give it a try, but I'm not going to hype this thing up. It is a game that is mainly praised because it is a Contra game that returned to its 2D roots and has classic Contra elements. I just can't forgive it for having so many bosses that the levels consist of little else.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/02/05