Defunct Games vs. Contra

Give Konami credit -- they almost got The Alien Wars right on the Game Boy. Unfortunately, to do that they had to drastically change the look, feel and game mechanics of the Super NES original. It's not just the visuals that took a hit, it's also how the levels are laid out and the pacing of the game. It's also sad to see so much trimmed from the Game Boy port. Certain levels, weapons and boss battles are all missing. In fact, just about everything that made the Super NES game great has been stripped out of this 8-bit game. On the other hand, you can plug it into your Super Game Boy and play it in color. Or better yet, you can leave it on your shelf and not play it at all.

There's no question that I had high hopes for Contra: Legacy of War. This was the first new Contra game in two years and the franchise's first 32-bit outing. We saw what Konami could do with the Super NES and Genesis; we couldn't wait to see what the future held for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Sadly, the future was a bleak, bleak place. Legacy of War ditched everything you loved about Contra, opting for an overhead perspective that drastically changed the feel of the series. This wasn't a Contra sequel; this was more like a mediocre version of Commando. And while Contra III proved to be a great looking first-generation Super NES game, this 32-bit game couldn't look worse.

After getting my hopes up for Konami's first 32-bit Contra game, my level of excitement for the sequel was at an all time low. And yet, somehow C: The Contra Adventure still managed to disappoint. Maybe it's the way the developers stubbornly stuck with the 3D gameplay and the terrible graphics. Perhaps it's the fact that this game sucks all of the fun out of the original series and doesn't even fake nostalgia. It's so bad that it nearly killed the Contra franchise, forcing Konami to sideline the series for four years. Looking back at it now, it's hard to believe that anybody thought this was worth releasing. Hands down, C: The Contra Adventure is the single worst game in the franchise; Contra's lowest moment. The good news? Konami still has plenty of time to make an even bigger bomb.

After The Contra Adventure and Legacy of War, it was easy to feel disenchanted by the Contra franchise. It's as if Konami had completely forgotten how to make a good shoot-em-up. But there was hope on the horizon. Touted as the rebirth of the classic Contra gameplay, Shattered Soldier did a good job of mixing retro game mechanics with fancy new polygonal graphics. The result was a mostly great action game that turned out to be the best Contra title in eight long years. Unfortunately the game is far from perfect. The fun is marred by a lack of weapons and short campaign. Some fans were happy that Konami kept the steep difficulty settings, but others found it distracting in a world that has shied away from frustratingly difficult action games. Shattered Soldier is nowhere near as good as The Alien War or Hard Corps, but it did an excellent job of recapturing what was good about the series in the first place.

You would think that simply porting the greatest Contra game of all time to a portable game system would be enough, but Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX goes against conventional wisdom. This Game Boy Advance title does a great job at mimicking the original's side scrolling 2D levels, which is the meat and potatoes of The Alien Wars. However, Konami inexplicably dropped the overhead levels in order to add levels from ... Contra: Hard Corps? It's true - two of the levels found in this game come from the Genesis installment, which is a bit jarring for longtime Contra junkies. While there's nothing wrong with this port, Contra Advance is simply not the version to play. Nothing beats the Super NES original; it's still the one Contra to play. But if you can't play the Super NES game, this portable version will do.

I'm not afraid to admit that I dug the first PlayStation 2 Contra game, Shattered Soldier. It was the return to form that many Contra fanatics had been clamoring for. So what did Konami do? They followed up a competent rebirth with Neo Contra -- a mediocre action game. Traditional side scrolling action has been replaced by the overhead Contra levels I suffered through nearly twenty years earlier. The good news is that the classic Contra structure has been retained. Sadly, that's about the only thing gamers will recognize when playing Neo Contra. Still, the game manages to succeed as a fun shooter. Despite it not being anything like the original Contra games, I had a fun time playing this PS2 title. It's not one of the best Contra games, but it's certainly not one of the worst.

It took Konami only fifteen years to count to "four". When I first played the game at E3 the Konami rep suggested that I "forget" the last 15 years of Contra. He wanted me to step back into, say, 1994 and get all excited about some 2D shooter for the Nintendo DS. And from the moment I put my hands on the system, I was sold. Using both screens, Contra 4 somehow manages to marry the best elements from the arcade and console games into one truly inspired package. The bosses are inventive, the levels are full of exciting details and there's enough nostalgia here to remind you why you loved the Contra series in the first place. Best of all, Contra 4 comes packaged with a healthy dose of bonus content. You'll find emulated versions of Contra 1 and 2 for the NES, suggesting that even Konami views the 8-bit Nintendo games as the definitive version. But the truth is, even without these cool bonuses, Contra 4 would still be one of the best titles in the franchise.

If it weren't for Contra 4, this WiiWare-exclusive might have earned a higher score. With the exception of Konami's 2007 Nintendo DS game, Contra had started to slip back into its late-90s doldrums. But then came Contra 4, a game that breathed fresh air into the tired franchise and gave us all hope that Konami had found that special ingredient again. Contra ReBirth isn't a bad game, but it doesn't even come close to hitting the high notes of Contra 4. One could argue that this download-only game was a fraction of the price, but the truth is that you can buy better Contra games on the Wii for even cheaper (such as Contra III: The Alien Wars and Contra: Hard Corps). As a first shot at this new digital distribution frontier, ReBirth is definitely a shaky start. Hopefully Konami will have better luck when they serve up Hard Corps: Uprising this fall.