Contra 4 DS Review

20 years the Contra series has spanned making its way across multiple platforms and handhelds with a total of 13 games including this one.
Many older gamers would remember this game from 8 and 16 bit era, and I bet the arcade version ate up many fist fulls of your silver coins, yes “silver coins” games were cheap to play then.
Chronologically Contra 4 is set 2 years after Contra 3 the Alien Wars on the Super Nintendo, and follows the same game play style.
It seems that Kanami and WayForward Technology took the ”If isn’t broken don’t fix it approach” when designing this game, as mention in one of their interviews the development team drew influences from Nintendo’s approach to The New Super Mario Brothers game, keeping the classic gameplay style many of us grew up on.
Criticized by some as taking a step backwards in game development but cherished by many that miss the old school gameplay style where skill is your weapon of choice.

Story

Two years have passed since the Alien Wars. All seemed well until, without warning Black Viper descended from space and tuned earth into a living hell. Peace became a distant memory, and previous efforts to save the planet were quickly forgotten. Now, strange readings have been detected in Galuga Archipelago off the course of New Zealand. Earth’s four finest soldiers are being dispatched on a final strike mission and one that might be mankind’s last hope of survival.

Game Play

No touch screen controls nothing new and extraordinary just a good old fashion side scrolling 2D shoot’em up that would have new gamers focusing 100 percent on every enemy, projectile and cliff to get through this game, and make older games dig deep down drawing from existing skills developed a decade ago.
This rates high on my ”Tough as shit o meter” even when set on easy it’s hard, I guarantee first time round playing you’ll chew through all you lives trying to get past the first level. I suggest you go though the game on easy first to get a feel of the game, trying to remember enemy locations and boss week points.
The one DS feature that is utilized is the dual screens, with action spread right across both screens at all times, having the game set this way does make the stages feel massive allowing multiple choices on which path you can travel along, some stage sections even have you traveling vertically up the screen, then there’s the bosses that take up both screens and then some.
Even though it’s tough as nails, the challenge of something that seems so simple by today’s standard keeps you coming back for more; there are six 2D levels and three 3D base stages to tackle with four characters to choose from, even though there’s no difference between them apart from skin and clothes colour.
There is a two player co-op feature, but requires two game packs, I never got a chance to try this feature, but I’m sure it will be heaps of fun just like it was in the arcade, the only down side to co-op is the arguments caused by who wanted the spread gun first.

Control

Controls are simple with B for jump, Y to fire currently selected weapon, X to use the new grappling hook, the L & R buttons are used to toggle between weapons. Use the D-Pad to move your character around, and in which direction you want to fire. Basically the controls are simple enough to grasp if you’re a Contra veteran or not, it’s all about timing and hand eye coordination.

Graphics

With bright and colourful pseudo 3D backdrops spanning across both of screens, the graphics do look good with a huge improvement over its predecessor but still retaining it’s original feel. When the screen is loaded up with enemies and bullets the DS handles the large quantity of sprites with ease.
Now by today’s standard this is nothing special but could you imagine the reaction if this was released 20 years ago.

Sound

The sound track is made up of original Contra tracks and some new ones, by playing on hard mode you can listen to the originals, the soundtrack just screams videogame music and gets you pumped up about saving the planet. Sound effects are your run of the mill gun and laser beam sounds with some classic one liners coming from your chosen character like “Lets party” each time your re spawned.

Value

This game is worth a purchase with easy to use controls and classic gameplay, this game won’t be finished first time in a few hours, so the challenge it’s self will have you coming back for more, in addition to this is unlockable items when completed on various difficulties:

• Original NES versions of Contra and Super C


• A 20th Anniversary Virtual Museum (box art, screenshots, and info on every Contra title from all territories)


• Two digital comics from Contra artist Atsushi Tsujimoto


• An interview with Contra Producer Nobuya Nakazato


• Five hidden characters, including a Probotector model

Overall Rating 8/10
This review is also posted on MyDS.com.au