Before angering the gaming community as a whole and relegati෴ng themselves to re-releases and pachinko machines, Konami was once a respected company. In the 80s and 90s, they were one of the top tier developers, bringing out classic games and creating entire genres.
In 1987, Konami created an arcade game named Contra, and, with it, the classic run and gun genre came into existence. Today, the genre isn’t as popular as it once was, but the indie screen does on occasion bring us some great run and guns like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Cuphead and Blazing Chrome. To show some love to the grandfather of all run and guns, here are 10 of the best Contra games of all time.
10 ♍ Neo Contra
Neo Contra is the second Contra game to be released on the Playstation 2. Rather than a side-scrolling perspective most other games in the series have, Neo Contra has an overhead perspective similar to games like Smash T.V. and Robotron, though some levels offer different perspectives.
You are given three different types of weapons, two made to take out ground-level enemies, and a thir🐼d for airborne enemies. You have the choice between three different weapons sets at the beginning of the game which brings some customization a🐭nd replayability.
9 𒀰 Hard Corps: Uprising
Released digitally to the Xbox Marketplace and the Playstation Network, Hard Corps: Uprising takes the familiar Contra formula and a♋dds some RPG elements and mixes in hand-drawn spriteꦛs with 3D environments.
There are two different modes, the rising mode which has you collecting points to spend on weapons, armorౠ, and abilities, and the classic arcade mode which is more difficult and removes power-ups shops. Unlike previous entries in the series, your character has the ability to dash, both on the ground and in the air, 𒊎double jump, and deflect enemy projectiles.
8 ♒Contra: Shattered Sol💧dier
Contra: Shattered Soldier plays more like a boss rush instead of the typical long run and gun stages found in other games in the s﷽eries. It was the first game in the series to be released on the Playstation 2 and is a side-scrolling game but with 3D character models and environments.
Introduced in Contra: Shatter Soldier is a hit rate system that measures the frequency of enemies you hit and destroy. The hit rate system determines which ending you will see, and the higher your hit rate, the 💦better of an ending you will receive.
7 ﷽ Contra ReBirth 🐻
Konami took three of its classic franchises and rebooted them exclusively on WiiWare, the Wii’s online marketplace, those games being Gradius ReBirth, Castlevania Adventure: ReBirth, and Contra: ReBirth. Contra Rebirth retains the same classic gameplay found꧟ in previous games in the series.
You can play as Bill Rizer, who is the protagonist of the original Contra games, or Genbei Yagyu, who is the protagonist in Neo Contra. There are also two extra characters: Brown, who is an ༒android, and Plissken, who is a reptilian alien, both of whom can be unlocked after beating the game.
6 ⭕ Operation C ꦉ
Operation C was released exclusively for the Game Boy in 1991 and was the first-ever portable Contra game. Unlike most Contra games that are loosely connected, Operation C is a direct sequel to Super Contra which 𒆙was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
There are five stages in the game, three are the classic side-scrolling perspective, while the other two have a top-down perspective with most of the stages being very similar to those found in Super C. Many of the guns from previous games make a return, but new to Operation C is a homing gun which fires heat-seeking bullets.
5 Super🔯 Contra ⛎
Super Contra is the second game in the series and the second Contra game to be released on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Most of the gameplay from the first game stays intact, but, instead of the behind the back perspective levels found in the original game, Super Contra has top-down levels.
Many of the same guns found in the first game make a return, but, when you collect two of the same weapons, your weapon’s power will increase. There are five levels in total, two of which have the classic side-scrolling 👍perspective, and two have the neᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚw overhead perspective.
4 Contra
Contra was released to arcades in 1987 and was later brought home to the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Entertainment System, MSX2, and other home computers in 1988. This was the world’s first introduction to run and gun shooters which later brought many great games like Sunset Riders, Metal Slug, and Gunstar Heroes.
Most of Contra has the classic side-scrolling perspective, but some levels have a pseudo-3D perspective where you must run along the bottom of the screen to dodge enemy bullets. This was also one of the earliest games to use the famous 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Konami code, which, if 🦹entered, will give the player 30 lives.
3 Contra 4
The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo DS was an odd console. While many used the bottom screen for gimmicky touch controls, there were some games that made great use of the second screen, and Contra 4 is one of those titles.
Rather than making the second screen just an inventory or map screen, it uses it as a gameplay screen, allowing you to traverse from one screen to the other to take out enemies. This can be a little confusing at the start, but, once you get the hang of it, you s💞tart to wonder why more DS games didn&rs𒆙quo;t have similar inventive ways of using the second screen.
2 🍷 Contꦆra: Hard Corps
Thanks to Nintendo’s strict rules for developers back in the 80s and 90s, there was only a single Contra game released on 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sega’s hardware. Luckily, the one Contra gam✃e Sega fans did get is one of the best withi꧃n the entire series.
A much darker game than the rest of the games in the series, Contra: Hard Corps provides a very difficult experience, even among Contra games. Contra: Hard Corps also allows you to choose from a few different characters, all with different skills and attributeಞs, something that later games in the seജries would also employ.
1 ꦰ Contra 3: ไThe Alien Wars
Contra 3: The Alien Wars is debatably the best game in the series and possibly one of the greatest run and guns of all time. The jump from 8-bit to 16-bit hardware was a dramatic one, and this ⛄is a great example of that.
No longer would you start the game with a gun that only fired a single slow shot. Instead, you were equipped with a machine gun as soon as the game began. Contra 3: The Alien Wars also introduced the ability to carry more🐎 than one gun at💯 a time, among many other great additions.