Contra III: The Alien Wars

"More HYENAS! YAY!!"

Before starting this review, I should mention that I played the Japanese version of the game, known as Contra Spirits. Not that there's much of a difference, but it should be mentioned.

Graphics (nine out of ten)

Contra Spirits's graphics are detailed and impressive. From shattered cities to alien, um, places (for lack of a better word), the backgrounds are packed with coolness. The sprites are also pretty good. Yes, some of them are rather small (including the main character), so there is less detail. But this allows for better gameplay; it's harder to play a game with a huge protagonist, especially considering Contra's unforgiving gameplay. The larger sprites have plenty of detail, and even the smaller ones look pretty darn good. The aliens often look, well, alien, being a good thing. Weapon effects are excellent; the machine gun bullets are still red dots instead of yellow streaks (like real tracers), but the flamethrower's smooth sweeping effect is not only awesome looking, but useful. Other weapons include a grenade launcher, which has some good explosions, and a homing missile launcher, which looks okay. I have one complaint about the weapons; the super-bomb (or whatever it's supposed to be) looks extemely cheap; an expanding colour changing circle. The screen doesn't even shake. There is one really cheap moment in the first level; when an enemy aircraft napalms the whole area, there is a huge fire on the ground. But when it fades, it seems like little pixels are ripped out of it until it disappears. Hasn't anyone heard of transparancy effects? Overall, the graphics are excellent.

Sound (seven out of ten)

Unfortunately, Contra Spirits has some really pathetic sounds. The spread gun makes a schloosing sound, and the machine gun and explosives just don't have the impact. The gun sounds like more of a putt than a crack or bang, and the explosions are rather forgetable. The game's music is okay though. It's not exactly a tune, it's more like background filler. However, it sets the right atmosphere, even if you can't really remember the melody.

Controls (eight out of ten)

Contra Spirits makes good use of the SNES controller; all the buttons are used except the Select button. The controls make sense most of the time, and are easy to pick up. In side scrolling stages, the D-pad moves the character, and the buttons shoot, switch weapons, activate super-bombs and jump. In the vulture-eye view, the L and R buttons turn, the D-pad move back and forth and sidesteps, and the buttons do the same thing. Unfortunately, the L and R buttons are rather awkward to use. In both modes, as special spin attack can be used by pressing L, R and the fire button. Thankfully, no more than two buttons need to be covered at one time (unless you are excecuting a special spinning attack), reducing the need for one's paw to be pressing three buttons at once and slipping and screwing up.

Gameplay (ten out of ten)

For all its quirks and awful SFX, Contra Spirits is tons of fun. It had non-stop action involving swarms of enemy soldiers and humongous bosses and lots of dodging and fighting, things that any hyena can understand. No boring and confusing puzzles here! There are quite a few levels to blast through, and there are lots of weapons to use. However, the game can be tough at times; there are some attacks that are incredibly hard to dodge, and one hit kills you, even if you just bump into an enemy soldier. My advice is to set the options to Easy mode and seven lives. Oh, and don't be afraid to use continues, they don't run out.

Overall (ten out of ten)

Contra Spirits is a good, solid game that is definately worth playing for quite a while. Just try it.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/02, Updated 12/20/02