Contra III: The Alien Wars

"Contra 3 for the Wii: A Hardcore Gamer's Game....like Ikaruga and F-Zero GX"

Contra 3: The Alien Wars for the Wii Virtual Console is a 'pixel-perfect' port of the original SNES game with the same name. Though the technical hardware specs of the game only require you to have a Gamecube controller, a Classic controller is a must if you intend to actually *play* the game at all effectively. With that small detail taken care of, this game plays and feels a lot like the SNES original, except that the slowdown from bombs and a few tighter spots in some boss explosions is a bit more noticeable......nothing that will affect your gameplay.

There's only one *major* improvement, and that's the 'temp-save' feature. When you shutdown the Wii (or exit the virtual console), a 'save-state' is generated for your exact position. And when you re-open the game, you are restored to that position (or can reset the game). This way, there's an option to stop playing for a while and come back to it later rather than having to beat the whole game in one sitting, but it's kept as an OPTION, so that those of you hardcore oldie gamers who don't like the idea of savestates don't need to use it!

So that's all good for those of you who already know what Contra 3 was, but what about those of you who want to know what it is:

Gameplay + Difficulty: 9
Put simply, Contra 3 is a left-to-right 'sidescrolling' shooter, with two 'top-down' perspective levels just to switch things up. If you've ever played the original NES Contra, or Genesis' Gunstar Heroes, then you already have a fair idea of what to expect here. If you haven't played a Contra game, then think Megaman, except instead of having a health bar you have only one hit. And instead of an elaborate arsenal you are limited to carrying two weapons and using only one at a time. This is the core of the game from which the almost legendary difficulty stems.

But I digress, so you move from left to right, avoiding enemies and enemy fire while dishing out a fair deal of punishment on your own. Various powerups can give you one of six weapons (Spreader, Homing, Laser, Crush, Fire, or the default "RapidFire"). You can hold up to two weapons at once (switching between them by the 'x' button) and use only one at a time. Since there's no health bar in this game, any hit at all from just about any enemy or weapon will result in your immediate death. Dying also makes you lose the weapon that you were using at the time. Since the truly powerful weapon powerups aren't exactly frequent, the difficulty curve of the game is somewhat (very) high.

Controls: 10

I'll keep this short and to the point. You need a classic controller. If you have that, then the controls are golden. But with the Gamecube controller it's extremely awkward to shoot and jump....and since both of these actions are *vital* to your second-to-second survival, you're basically out of luck without a classic controller for the Wii. With the classic controller, there are times you'll wish you had an extra thumb - one to toggle the weapons with 'x', one to hold down the fire button 'y', the other to hover over the jump button to avoid missiles, and the last to tap the 'a' button for a bomb.

But not *once* have I felt that the controls weren't fair. The more you can coordinate and do rapidly at once, the better. And if you need to take your thumb off the jump button to use both your crush-missiles at max efficiency it feels like a tradeoff - not an error in production.

Length and Replayability: 7

Many people have fallen into some patterns of expectations for videogames nowadays. They expect their platformers to be like Mario World, 94 easy-to-beat levels with tons of powerups. And if it's not like that, then they expect their videogames to have long cut-scenes, loads of secrets or unlockables, and a tremendous amount of multiplayer possibilities to keep them coming back to the game that they beat so easily. None of that is present in this game.

This game has only six stages. I beat the first stage on my second try, the second stage on about my 6th. The 3rd and 4th stage were significantly harder and I had a hell of a time getting through them until I set the game to "start at 7 lives for each continue". Now, just yesterday, after having played this game for about 20~ hours, I managed to get to the 2nd-to-last boss on Stage 6.

There's four ways to make a game long-lived. 1) Great Multiplayer. 2) Lots of unlockables and secrets 3) An 'engine' that's addictive (like tetris) 4) Make it almost-too-hard to beat. I'm a fan of all of these kinds of games, and Contra fits neatly into category four and partially into category 3 as well.

Unfortunately, the lack of alternate modes means that when you finally tire of the 'main' mode, that'll be the end of Contra 3 for that gaming session. This hurts the score.

Wrapup/BottomLine:
I personally am a fan of Ikaruga and F-Zero GX, ... I love me my hard games. Contra's longevity ultimately comes because once you beat it - several hours, days, or possibly even a month after you've first played it - you still will want to try it on 'medium' or 'hard', or with the standard number of lives instead of 8. If that kind of "keeps me coming back to try harder" does not appeal to you, then this is definitely a game to steer clear of. If, however, you like the idea of training yourself at the game till you're basically godly at every aspect of it and 'instinctively know' where every enemy is going to come out and where they'll shoot - then this is the game for you.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/26/07