Contra III: The Alien Wars

"With this game, Contra started turning into a bossfest."

I like Contra as much as the next man. The original Contra for the NES remains one of my all-time favorite games, and Super C isn't too far behind. But, as we all know, something started to go horribly wrong for the Contra series not long after that.

The thing that made the original game great was the side-scrolling action. The first Contra is still one of the best action-platformers ever made. There is a boss at the end of each level, but to get there, you go through fast-paced, brilliantly designed levels, jumping on platforms and climbing waterfalls. However, by the time Contra: Hard Corps (the next game in the series after Contra III) came out for the Genesis, the series had turned into a bossfest. There was almost no platforming; instead, you just went from one boss fight to the next. The game thus turned into a frustrating and repetitive chore, consisting entirely of memorizing complicated attack patterns and figuring out the one angle at which you could shoot each boss safely.

Although Contra III has a reputation for being the last classic Contra game (probably because it looks much better when you compare it to Hard Corps), in fact, the series really started to devolve right here. The game is actually much less substantial than either Contra or Super C, with much less interesting action.

On the plus side, the first level of Contra III more or less follows the classic design. You run through the city streets shooting aliens left and right. There are minibosses, but also a lot of regular enemies and obstacles that you have to dodge. The "fire field" section in the end of the level looks very impressive the first time you see it.

However, that is all the game has to offer. There are only six levels in the game (down from eight in Contra or Super C). Of those, levels two and five are overhead levels (similar to levels two and six in Super C, except you get the ability to rotate the screen). That leaves four side-scrolling levels. But wait! Level four is actually a long sequence where you ride a hoverbike, dodging obstacles every step of the way. While it sounds cool, and the level is fast-paced, your control over your character is very limited. There is no platforming to speak of; you just move left and right, dodging the obstacles that are thrown at you at regular intervals. There are four minibosses in the level, and few regular enemies. So, again, this is more about memorization than about platforming skill.

Now we're down to three. The third stage starts off with a good run-and-gun section, but it is short. After that, the level devolves into a long sequence of minibosses -- a robot with a drill, the same robot with the ability to climb walls (which it does very slowly, in an especially tedious sequence where you climb along with it to the location of the next boss fight), and a grenade-throwing spaceship. Then there is a brief platforming section similar to level four of Super C, then a long boss fight with two parts. So that's five bosses taking up most of the level.

As bad as that is, the final stage is even worse. It starts with a very brief platforming section with faces in the wall that shoot homing spikes at you, much like the final stage of Super C. But this section is like a miniaturized version of the Super C level, with only a handful of faces and platforms. After that, you have to beat five bosses in a row (six on the hardest setting), each with a different pattern. Again, the vast majority of the level consists of trying to figure out the boss fights. Naturally, this makes for slow progress and a frustrating experience.

The overhead levels are all right, with the best one being level two. You get the ability to duck, which would have really improved the overhead levels in Super C. However, you can only fire in one direction; if you want to change your angle of attack, you need to rotate the entire screen using the shoulder buttons. This is awkward, and especially annoying in stage five, which has much faster enemies.

One good thing about the game is that the power-ups have been revamped, mostly for the better. The spread gun is, unfortunately, much weaker here than in the first two games. But the new crush gun more than makes up for it, and the laser and flamethrower are presented in far superior forms to their original incarnations. Both the laser and flamethrower prove to be a huge help in the overhead stages. Basically, every gun has its strengths, except for maybe the homing missiles. Actually, they work well in level one, where there is a lot of side-scrolling; if there was more platforming in the game, they'd be more useful.

The graphics are quite good, with some impressive effects in the overhead stages. However, most of the game takes place in burning cities and military bases, so there is a similar feel to most stages. I personally enjoyed the jungle setting of the original Contra more, but that's just me. The music is also good, more memorable than the tunes of Super C.

However, these positive aspects really needed to have a much better game built around them. The levels in Contra III are just not well-designed. The emphasis on increasingly cheap boss fights is frustrating, and it would have been so much better to see more classic Contra platforming along the lines of the first stage. In fact, this is one thing that the new Contra 4 for the DS does right; overall, that's actually a more fun game than Contra III.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/09

Game Release: Contra III: The Alien Wars (US, April 1992)