Even this isn’t very hard, as they are also much more lenient. Once again, the real challenge is getting a good ranking so you can unlock the better endings, and once again this is accomplished by (A) blowing up as much stuff as possible and (B) not dying.

This time around, they are far more generous with lives, credits and even checkpoints. Actually, it’s far easier than almost any Contra game. You also can’t change your weapons at any point once you start the game, so once you pick one set, you’re stuck with it.Īs mentioned before, Neo Contra is far easier than Shattered Soldier. There are only three configurations of these at the beginning of the game, and while more open up later on (the Gradius V weapon set, featuring the Ripple Laser and G V Laser, is one of the coolest), you never get to mix and match what you want. Aiming this can be slightly difficult, as the trying to get the enemies into the targeting cone is a little awkward, but it’s never too hard.īesides the airborne lock-on weapon, you have two regular weapons to take into battles, ranging from the usual machine guns, flamethrowers, grenades and (thankfully) the spread gun. There are several bad guys that are out of reach of your main guy - you have a lock-on to take care of these. You cannot jump, which thankfully means no awkward platforming elements, or trying to hit airborne enemies with your weapons. While this control scheme will be familiar for arcade gamers, you have to wonder why they didn’t implement a dual analog control scheme a la Robotron or Smash TV. You can strafe and stand in place and rotate fire, as well as perform rolls and a spinning maneuver that makes you temporarily invincible. It really plays a lot like an overhead arcade game - like Ikari Warriors, Heavy Barrel, Thunder Zone or the overhead level of Super Contra. This might sound like a bad idea, especially with the screenshots looking a mighty lot like Legacy of War, but thankfully the controls are much better. Oddly enough, it also completely ditches the side-scrolling aspect in favor of a more dynamic overhead camera. Neo Contra is much easier than Shattered Soldier, which will come as a disappointment to those of us who like our games to punch us in the teeth and spit on our broken, bloodied faces.

And that is, undoubtedly, how Neo Contra came to be. Konami, happy to give delicious treats to its fans but also wanting more sales, decided to give us a Contra for the masses, a game that anyone could at least settle into. Said gamers were very happy with this game - however, those who grew up with the NES Contra (and there are a lot of us) and just wanted to blow up stuff were annoyed at the overt deaths and relentless boss battles, as opposed to the regular run-and-gun of the old days. Shattered Soldier was a love letter to gamers who loved their games hard and tough.

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