"Despite its greatness, I will tell you exactly why it gets a 7/10"

Despite its greatness, I will tell you exactly why it gets a 7/10……

Contra has always been the type of game to throw you to the wolves from the get-go. You hit the ground running (literally)- that's the way it's always been, and dog gone it, that's the way true Contra fans like it! I have played this game by myself, and have played it in 2-player co-op mode with my brother—rest assured this game is fantastic either way, but to truly experience Contra, 2-player is the way to go. Now on to the detailed review…

STORYLINE:

You can choose between Bill Rizer and a cyborg-chick (don't worry, she looks human). If you play 2 player co-op mode, then obviously both characters will be playing. From my experience, which player you pick has no bearing on the story-line. But the difficult is about 10% harder in 2P mode. The story is nothing special, but then again, it is just another one of Konami's filler story lines to go along with the same ol song and dance: Aliens are threatening to change our way of life and we don't like that kind of thing! So we strap up and git er done!

GRAPHICS:

This is a “side scroller” that occasionally gives you a head-on view. Don't panic, you will feel right at home. If you can imagine everything from SNES Contra III getting a PS2 massage, that's what it looks like. The characters are pretty impressively detailed and the weapons have a sense of realism, as well. Backgrounds are above average for the PS2, but your main focus will be on the action, not the background. Enemies have a decent amount of detail, but most of them are fairly large, so again, you will just be focused on their attacks more than how pretty or ugly they are.

GAMEPLAY:

You run at a very acceptable contra speed from left to right on the screen. Sometimes the camera will try to shake things up and give you a different view of the action. In either case, the camera is fixed at all times and always shows you 100% of the action you need to see to stay alive. You do a pretty standard flip when you press the jump button, this is feels very natural. When you fire your weapons (which has infinite ammo, as always) you can either run & shoot at the same time, or hold down the shoulder buttons to shoot from a fixed position. Again, this will be key to defeating some of the games bosses.

Konami has changed the objective for this contra. In past contra games, your goal was to just get from point A to point B, kill anything that tried to stop you, and then unload on the boss. However, in Shattered Soldier, your objective has been widened. You are graded at the conclusion of each level, C meaning you need practice, B meaning you're on the right track, A being superior and S being perfect. Trust me, getting an S ranking is VERY VERY VERY DIFFICULT!!!! This game will really hurt your feelings, I mean you have a better chance of getting an A+ on a final exam at M.I.T. than you do getting an S in this game.

To get the A ranking, you will have to kill EVERY enemy in the entire level, in addition to blowing up any parts of your surroundings, such as bunker bags and explosive barrels. To get an S ranking, you will have to do as I just mentioned, but do so WITHOUT being killed once. Like I said, this will require a lot of dedication, focus, and most importantly, strategy.

“Strategy??” you ask. That's right partner, Konami has made Shattered Soldier in such a way that you actually have to use your brain cells instead of mindless shooting. Your weapon choice will be essential to succeed in this game. Konami has done away with the good ol footballs (more on this later) and instead given you 3 permanent weapons, each with a charge shot. Machine gun is standard, with a spiral-shot when charged. Flame thrower is standard, with a bazooka-like burst when charged. And land mine is standard, with a couple homing missiles fired when charged.

You can toggle between any weapon of your choice by pressing the shoulder buttons. If you really, really like machine gun- you can use it for the entire game if you want… but that will surely hurt your chances of getting any S rankings. You see, some weapons are more handy is certain situations. In Shattered Soldier's levels, it's all about eliminating enemies as quickly as you see them. In some cases, machine gun will do the trick. However, in other cases, you will have a couple enemies with shields that machine gun will take 3 seconds to get through… but flame thrower will get through in 1 second and toast em. I like this system, but I still miss the desperation of risking your life trying to shoot down a football when you were stuck with a sucky gun.

SOUND:

Weapons sound great. The explosions sound perfect. The music is absolutely fantastic and always provides you with the right amount of adrenaline for what's going on. You will have no problems listening to this on low volumes, or turning it up. It sounds good both ways.

BOSSES:

The bosses take a lickin and keep on tickin. There are LOTS of boss encounters in this game. Most times just when you think a boss is toast, they have something in store to keep you on your toes. The difficulty of the bosses ranges from pretty easy to frustratingly hard. As with most Contra bosses, the way to beat them is to figure out their pattern, and sneak in hits when you can. Depending on what type of player you are, you may go all out offensive, and put your life at risk all willy nilly just to sneak in a couple extra hits. My advice is to go 50/50. Use defensive strategies, such as shooting homing missiles while you dodge… and mix in a couple of well timed flame-thrower charge shots to deal heavy damage.

BAD DECISION:

To not have the Spread Gun. Or the laser for that matter. I am a firm believer in the football system… but this system works as well. Perhaps they could have a system like Batman Forever where you pick a stockpile of weapons before you enter a level. I just don't like being force-fed 3 weapons after Konami gave us all the freedom in the world for the past 15 years.

RE-PLAY ABILITY:

I highly recommend the BradyGames strategy guide. In it, you will realize how important all those S rankings are. If you earn the right, Shattered Soldier tosses 5 additional bosses at you, consecutively at the conclusion of the game. Personally, I have not been able to get an S ranking enough to experience this. However, the game itself (with the “regular” ending) is still great and immensely satisfying. The bosses toward the end are still pretty darn difficult. I am pretty sure at least 2 of the bosses in the alien lair will make you throw your remotes across the room in frustration.

CONCLUSION:

Shattered Soldier is a fantastic game. I LOVE IT!!! The mold and layout of the game earn an A+ in my book. However, I had to doink this game 3 points for three major holes in its armor.

1) No spread shot… yes, technically the machine-gun's charge shot is kind of a “spread” but it is not good enough to replace the highly acclaimed 5 red balls.

2) Too difficult to get an S ranking. I mean COME ON!!! Killing every enemy is one thing, but to do so without a scratch on you is darn near impossible!!! I wish there was a sort of “check point” half way through each level where you can save your progress. That would make it a little more reasonable. I can't even tell you how many time I made it 90% through a level and got killed by a cheap shot and had to start all over to go for the S ranking.

3) There aren't enough levels. Even if you include the final 5 hidden bosses, that still doesn't change the amount of levels. If this game had 2 more levels, it would've been fantastic. As it is, the levels are great. But it leaves you hungry for more, and no way to satisfy it once it's over.

Konami, I give you two thumbs way up for this game! It was a huge step in the right direction for this great franchise, unfortunately their next step with Neo-Contra was like unexpectedly stepping in a huge pile of horse crap. Neo-Contra is nothing like Shattered Soldier, they are like night and day.

Should you buy this game? YES, I firmly believe this game will be seen less and less on store shelves until one day you finally decide to buy it and it's selling for $50 bucks on ebay. Do yourself a favor, go to the store, buy this game for $15-16 bucks used, and hold onto it! The BradyGames strategy guide is more rare than the game itself, so if you can score one of those while you're at it, more power to you.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/06