Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX

"A great contra game......not really"

Konami makes their first contra game for the gameboy advance. is it the best? no, is it the worst? no, is it average? yes.Its a remake of Contra 3: The Alien Wars.I wished they added at least something new. IT was really bad when they said there are going to be two new levels and it ended not being two new levels. A lot of things were removed from Contra Advance, it makes no sense why Konami had to do this, there was no reason for it. But it does give a chance to those who never had the opprtunity to buy or get a super nintendo and play the original.

Graphics 10/10:Colorful,eye catching,huge monsters Perfect

Sound 6/10 :the sound was not that great it was too cheap and choppy. All the music is from Contra 3.

Diffuculty 10/10: This game was too hard at first because you get only 3 lives for the hardest difficulty level.

Story 1/10: Absolutley no story...dont bother waiting for it to show up.Its all about guns and shooting down aliens

Controls 10/10:it was very easy to move around and shoot at the same time. you can shoot in a direction and stay in it while moving forward. All though the jumping was a little off.You cant use two guns or bombs in here.Flare gun seems to be weaker because i used it on a weak boss such as...the turtle monster in the first level. i beat him in 1 minute using a regular gun. It looks like the C gun is the strongest.

Gameplay 8/10:Okay this area needed a lot more work in areas. First off they should of put new levels.by the way those two new levels konami was braging about are from Contra:Hard Cops for genesis.im glad they tooh off those two overhead levels and replaced them.All bosses were hard and there were many cheap deaths but there are ways to avoid them.The game was all side scrolling shooting.Once you remember what the enemy does in each level, you should be closer and closer to beat this game.

Replayability 7/10: This really pissed me off. THERE IS NO HARD MODE. But to cover up for that they have ranks.the ranks range from E-A.It looks like its impossible to beat the game without losing one life.

Buy/Rent/Dont Buy: I think you should first rent it and then buy it.But it all depends, if you havent played the Contra 3 youll probally love this. If you have you might dislike this game or like it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/05/03, Updated 05/05/03