Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX

"Contra Advance? Yeah, Pro Progress would sound stupid and was downright a lie."

Characters? Oh, you mean cannon fodder!? No? What? Conversation? Never heard of it!

Today's games often boast interesting story lines, RPG elements, loads of NPCs, but does a game really have to be “deep” to be indulging? I dare say: No. Sometimes all you want is to enjoy a simple, yet addicting action experience and Contra Advance definitely delivers.

Contra Advance mainly is a port of a true classic: Contra III on the SNES or also known as Super Probotector in Europe. When the original was released in 1992 it did not only surpass its NES-predecessors but it also blew many gamers' minds for various reasons. The graphics were all so sweet, the framerate was constantly high and the gameplay took everything that was good about action and melted it into a semi-holy grail of perfection.

Contra games have always been about jumping over hazards and shooting lots of bad guys and so does Contra Advance. You control a brave mercenary defending the world against invading alien hordes and while you're at it you might also try to get a new high score. That's old-school motivation as it should be. While manoeuvring Bill Rizer through six levels crammed with aliens, machines and mutants, you will probably lay down your finger on the fire button all the time, since there is absolutely nothing you might not want to destroy or kill. Having a talk with an NPC would slow down the whole pace of the shooting action dramatically, so this isn't really something to mourn about. Some other Jump ‘n Shoots like Mega Man or Metal Slug feature (invincible) friendly characters within the levels, but the overall speed of Contra Advance is higher than in those games, hence it was a smart decision to do without them. On the other hand a short cutscene between two levels or a briefing prior to the first stage would have been nice. The complete lack of frame set seems a bit outdated nowadays.

Fighting anything that moves definitely is fun, though. On your quest through the six levels you encounter lots of interesting and well-designed enemies that fit into the different settings and make use of various attack patterns. Some cyborgs move slowly until they need to jump over an obstacle, making them jump swiftly and slashing with a sword, flying aliens try to grab you and let you fall into an abyss, bikers throw grenades or fire off a machine gun, etc..

The real meat, though, are the bosses. Every level contains at least two mini-bosses plus an end boss; some stages even consist basically only of bosses. Of course not every boss can deliver adrenaline rushes and ingenious design (imagine a robotic frog, with only one lame attack, that can be killed with zero effort), but overall you'll see lots of big bad guys that make you want more. Face a gigantic mutant turtle, a heart, a brain or even a jetpack-ninja while hanging on a rocket attached to a helicopter. Every boss has its weak spots and its limited amount of techniques, so you might get killed the first few times you meet them, but then eventually you get the hang of it and deal with them like the saviour of our beloved planet should do. You'll dodge any attack, hit hard and relentlessly and don't waste the slightest bit of time. Too bad you can't tighten your tie like Bond does.

Luckily the programmers at Konami eased your job by implementing five special weapons, each with interesting characteristics and fields of use. Besides the flame thrower every weapon has its big moments and figuring out where to use which gun gives the game a neat little touch of tactics. If you don't fall for thinking at all, you can “easily” do without, though. Figuring out how to get through the different levels without dying, allows you to keep the homing missiles throughout the game and believe me: They rock! The homing missiles take care of enemies and bosses both alike, no matter where they are or how many of them you encounter.

The main aspect of the game besides fighting hordes of enemies (or actually the only other aspect) is the jumping in the term Jump ‘n Shoot. Don't get me wrong: Nearly all of your dexterity capacities ought to be reserved for shooting and for dodging attacks, but the scarce passages of crossing abysses, dodging fire balls and climbing walls deliver a nice diversion from the gun fighting.

Fortunately the controls are always on spot, may it be in a jumping passage or while kicking alien butts. Contra Advance makes perfect use of the GBA's four action buttons as it doesn't only allow for the crucial moves but also for two nifty techniques that seem rather useless to the novice, yet prove themselves to be highly effective when used correctly. Pressing R enables you to stand still while aiming at the same time and holding the L button locks your aim in the current position giving you the possibility to keep firing at a certain spot while moving around. The whole game is beatable without ever touching either one of these two buttons but just like the extra weapons they provide a great task of developing strategies and of finding out how to act in the various environments the game offers.

So why doesn't Contra Advance deserve a nine or even a ten out of ten? And why did I say that it's mainly a port of Contra III? Both questions actually can be answered the same for a big part: There are some inexplicable differences between the games. For one, Konami canned the smart bombs from the original. It might not seem like much, but saving bombs and figuring out when to use them had a tactical touch to it which and I can't think of a reason for the programmers to remove them. Another minor, yet tactic-diminishing change is the removal of the second weapon slot. In the SNES-Contra the player was able to carry two guns at a time and switch between them as he desired. Again, I have no clue as of why Konami removed that. Furthermore Konami left out the medium difficulty setting so you either play the way to easy difficulty that misses two levels or you try the hard difficulty that beats the crap out of any novice.

The biggest change from the original, though, doesn't provoke a lack of tactics but of variety. Anybody who played The Alien Wars (the subtitle of the original game) probably remembers the second and fifth level. These showed off the SNES' capabilities by being played from a bird's eyes view in Mode 7 graphics. You could run around relatively freely and find your own way to a bunch of hot spots that needed to be destroyed prior to facing the boss. I don't know if Konami thought the GBA wasn't able to deal with these graphics, but fact is: They substituted these levels for two stages from the Genesis Contra. Generally I don't think this is a bad idea, unfortunately, though, the two old levels offered a good change of pace and made the game look less repetitive, whereas the two “new” levels are just more of the old stuff. In addition the two newcomers are worse than any other stage in the game. The first one takes place on a moving train (which is a nice idea), nearly only offering three boss fights. And lame ones at that. The first boss is too easy, the second one requires luck not to lose a life and the third one will always kill you at least once unless you face him with a correct weapon. ‘Nuff said I guess. The other level also features a nice setting but suffers from four incredibly easy normal enemies (yes, only four of them in the whole level) in combination with two blatantly easy mini bosses. Luckily the end boss of this stage is well designed, somewhat defending Contra Hard Corps' honor.

Nevertheless, there's definitely still a bad feeling to be had regarding this change. Imagine carrying a tasty, unhealthy, cream-loaded cake from one room to another. When picking it up there are a few cherries scattered on the cake and when setting it down again the cherries have mysteriously been exchanged for some more whipped cream that's been in the sun for some hours.

Another down-side of Contra Advance is its general “arcady” structure. Once you know what to do and how to make your fingers do within a split-second what your head wants you'll rush through the six levels in thirty minutes without any real replay value. Don't expect any alternative paths, any unlockables or another difficulty setting besides the easy and hard one.

On the other hand, you will have loads of fun until you become good enough to rush through the game. You will either get frustrated early on and will want to destroy your GBA or you will realize and appreciate that Contra Advance is an infuriatingly hard game, yet also nearly always fair. In this case you probably die often, but think to yourself that you did something wrong. Thoughts like “Darn, if I had kept the Laser and didn't jump there, but rather would have kneeled down, I might have made it.” make you want to try again and again until you have perfected one level after another. One creates new strategies and eventually even comes up with alternative tactics for certain passages, finally leading to a (nearly) perfect run. In the end you will move around flawlessly, feeling like the coolest guy on the planet when aiming at an enemy even before it appears on the screen and when reaching the final boss without losing a single life. Contra Advance certainly is a somewhat elitist gaming experience with its old-school premise and its high difficulty setting and those you dare mastering it can feel like having achieved something.

An extremely nice feature, though, that has been carried over from the SNES original, proves to be fun for everybody, no matter if they are gaming pros or casual gamers: The coop-mode. Grab yourself another player and a second GBA with another copy of the game and you can kick alien butts cooperatively in the same levels as in single player. Double the fire power means less difficulty and more fun at the same time: Both players aim for the higher score and they have to share weapons, so coop doesn't only mean to help out your buddy, but also to reach your own goals by hindering him. It's a great combination of give and take that adds some more hours of great run and gun action to an already great game.

Contra Advance can be recommended to anybody in search of a challenge, who is willing to delve into gaming as it used to be in the heydays of 2D-gaming. The main motivation comes from analyzing the levels and thinking of ways to beat them perfectly and then enjoying your skills both in memorizing but, of course, also in reacting quickly. Unfortunately, the game lacks in variation and length. If you can, choose Contra III over this; the classic might also be too short, but at least it offers a tad bit more tactical possibilities and two better levels. If you can't, Contra Advance is a great choice for a week of adrenaline kicks.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/06