"Classic Contra on the handheld"

Contra is one of those series notorious for being hard. WayForward knows this and takes it to the extreme in this DS installment of the series. There is a massive amount of fan service, and at some points in the game, you wonder whether they made the game just for the sake of making it hard, or whether they actually had enjoyment of the gamers in mind. At any rate, their attitude in the game can be summed up in two quotes. The first one, taken from inside the game itself, while choosing difficulty settings, they give the following description for hard mode: "Think you're the master of 2D action? Not anymore, you're not." Taken from the instruction manual in the multiplayer section: "...you can celebrate the time-honored tradition of taking all the good items and advancing the screen too quickly." At this point, the oldschool Contra gamer that has played the series with a friend is supposed to laugh real hard, and laugh hard I certainly did. The amount of fan service in this game is quite large, and Contra gamers will be able to revisit familiar settings. This game is a fall-back to the 2D days, revisiting what made gaming so great. For those of you who don't know what Contra is all about, Contra features some of the most frantic 2D action you'll ever see. It is a side-scrolling shooting game, where you pick up weapons, dodge bullets and try to kill the enemy before they kill you (good luck with that).

Visuals 7.5/10

The visuals in this game are very beautiful. While the graphics aren't as impressive as some of the other titles on the DS, the environments are still beautiful, the enemy designs are still nice to look at. I can't stress enough over how beautiful the backgrounds are. Despite being 2D and graphically inferior to many other titles, the backgrounds are very detailed and they just look... alive. At the same time, it's not "alive" enough to distract you from the game itself. The animation is slick, and the game does not suffer the same slowdowns that an oldschool Contra gamer is so accustomed to (I guess the one thing they didn't do was purposefully add slowdown to remind players of the good ol' days). The game uses both screens, and very often there is stuff happening on both screens at once. This is quite hard to get used to, but overall it is pretty cool to look at. Everything on the screen is very clear. There is no ambiguity over what each enemy is, whether or not a certain graphic is a bad guy or whether it's just something that blends into the background. Everything is nice and clear. The bosses in this game are absolutely massive and often make use of both screens. They are imposing, and right off the bat, you know that these guys are badasses that you don't wanna mess with them. They did a very good job making the bosses scary, especially toward the end of the game. A nice additional touch was that you were able to choose your character and you could edit the colour to a certain (limited) extent. It didn't affect gameplay in any way, but it is nice going through an adventure with a different sprite each time.

Audio 7/10

The sound in this game is good, but not impressive enough to warrant a score above 7. The sound of the different guns, the sound of aliens dying and stuff blowing up. It's nice and all, but it's nothing beyond what you would expect. The music was mostly new, but it sounded somewhat similar to what you would hear in the NES Contra. The music wasn't bad enough to adversely affect the audio score, but at the same time it wasn't good enough for me to really talk much about.

Challenge 10/10

This is a tricky thing to rate. Do I give hard games high ratings, or should I gave games with the "right" amount of difficulty a high rating. Well, either way, Contra 4 wins. There's something for everyone. The game is split into 3 difficulties. Easy, Normal, Hard. Easy mode isn't too hard and it can be beat even by the non-hardcore crowd. Normal is quite an adventure, giving even experienced gamers a run for their money. As for hard mode... I haven't really played much of it yet, as I still have trouble with some parts of normal difficulty. At any rate, Contra 4's difficulty is just right. It's got a satisfying and beatable easy mode for the casual gamer, a difficult normal mode for the non-hardcore gamer looking for a challenge, and an insane hard mode for the suicidal.

On easy difficulty, you don't get to play all of the levels. The last two levels are not available to you. In normal difficulty, however, you have access to the entire game. The game is 9 levels long (I believe 7 on easy). It sounds like a lot, but don't be intimidated. A playthrough shouldn't take any more than 70 minutes (though you'll be playing many many playthroughs before finally beating the game)

Add to this the challenge mode, which will be talked about later, and you truly have a complete Contra experience for all to enjoy.

Gameplay 9.5/10

The game plays great. It plays like a Contra game should. The controls are very fluid, and your character does exactly what you tell it to do. Much like previous Contra games, this is a typical side scrolling shooter, where you can pick up weapons to help you along. You have two slots to carry your guns. You can switch between these two slots as you pick up powerups. What this means is that you can carry 2 guns and you can switch between the two depending on what the situation calls for. Fans of Contra III will feel right at home with this setup. There are two notable differences between this game and previous Contra's. First is the grappling hook. If you press X, your character will shoot his/her grappling hook upward, and if the hook touches anything that it can latch onto, it'll latch on and your character will make his/her way up. Often times, you'll be grappling from screen to screen, so you need to pay attention to both screens at the same time. The second difference is the ability to power up your weapons. In easy mode, your weapon is always in its powered up form. However, in normal and hard mode, your weapon starts off in its wimpy state, and only by collecting the same item again are you able to unleash its full power. For example, if you grab your first spread gun of the game, your spread gun will only fire 3 shots at a time. But if you see another spread powerup, you can collect that powerup to upgrade your spread into a 5 shot spread.

The game is 9 levels long. The levels include side scrolling action, as well as some base-levels that were featured in the first Contra game. In these levels, your character is facing forward into the screen (instead of sideways), almost like you're looking into the action. Aside from that, the game still plays like your typical Contra game of shoot dodge and die. May Clispaeth protect you from all the evils and bullets you will encounter.

The bosses are massive and fun. They typically fill up both screens, and their attacks follow a predictable pattern. The bosses in this game make good use of the dual screen, and often you'll find yourself jumping up and down between your two screens.

Creativity 7/10

Normally, a game like this should get a 3-4/10 in creativity, simply because the game isn't supposed to be creative. But Contra 4 adds enough to the series that I can actually justifiably give it a good score. While the game itself isn't terribly innovative, there are a myriad of unlockables that add to the overall experience. One such unlockable that's worthy of mention is the challenge mode.

If you beat the game on any difficulty (Easy difficulty is gonna be the first one that you beat. Trust me on this one), you will unlock challenge mode. Challenge mode contains a number (I believe 40) of short challenges, where you need to perform a certain task in a certain way. These challenges range from rather easy to impossibly frustrating. The number of varying missions is quite impressive. Beating a level with limited ammo, beating a level with very high accuracy or beating a boss with a mediocre gun are just a few of the different things that will be asked of you during these challenges. It's quite amazing how many different tasks there are, and it's the innovation involved in designing these levels that gets the creativity score so high.

Overall 9/10 (not an average)

Fun game with lots of fan service. Good, yet unimpressive graphics. Really nice unlockables. It's overall a great game. And while it's packaged and advertised as an oldschool style game, it's a complete gaming experience, meaning that they're not short changing you of a new game. For those that are not accustomed to stomaching extremely difficult adventures, I would still recommend checking this game out. Maybe borrow it from a friend if possible, but I really can't recommend a buy. Otherwise, I recommend this for any DS owners that enjoys a nice challenge. It's worth the buy.

Visuals 7.5/10
Audio 7/10
Challenge 10/10
Gameplay 9.5/10
Creativity 7/10
Overall 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/06/08

Game Release: Contra 4 (US, 11/13/07)