Contra (series)

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The Contra logo, which adorns every game of the series

The Contra series (魂斗羅 in Japanese, spelled as Kon-To-Ra) is a well-known line of run and gun shoot 'em up games created by Konami from 1987 through 2004. While originally arcade games, the series gained its immense popularity base from its console releases, especially the titles created for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES video game consoles. The Contra games, particularly Contra and Contra III: The Alien Wars have almost entirely defined the run and gun genre of Shoot 'em up games. The Metal Slug series and Gunstar Heroes are well-known examples of games that directly base their gameplay on the original Contra titles.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

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Contra, NES version1988
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Contra, NES version
1988

The English title of Contra comes from the way the title is phonetically displayed in Japanese, using the characters "Kon-To-Ra". The literal meaning behind these characters seems unimportant: "Kon" means "spirit", "To" means "battle" and "Ra", means some sort of cloth. Literally this would translate to something similar to "Battle Spirit Cloth". An alternate source of translation claims that the title translated is "Soul Big Dipper Gauze".

Regardless of the literal meaning, the title seems to have been written as ateji. What that means is that the phonetics of the title are more important than the actual meaning itself.

It has been suggested by some that the intent behind the name is even more complicated than that. "Kon-To-Ra" purposely chosen to sound like "Contra", a term popularly used to describe armed guerrilla forces in Central America during the 1980s.

The most likely source of the name "Contra" is from the Iran-Contra affair, which occurred during the second term of President Ronald Reagan. Subsequently, when the controversy was reaching its apex, it likely resulted in the renaming of the console ports of Super Contra that became known in the west as Super C.

The in-game use of the term "Contra" is explained in the manual of both Contra: Shattered Soldier and the Famicom port of Contra as "a title awarded to a superior soldier possessing almost super human drive and ability, while excelling in guerrilla tactics".

[edit] Gameplay

The Contra series essentially defined the run and gun computer and video game genre. The games, which are a combination of platform games and shoot 'em ups consist of a player-controlled human protagonist who employs rapid-fire rifles to destroy enemies. While there is more emphasis put on shooting than jumping, the player must be able to use jump to gain the right angle to destroy certain enemies and avoid getting shot. Avoidance is essential, as it only takes one hit to kill the player.

The majority of the games in the series are presented strictly in a side-view perspective, with some of the levels scrolling vertically. However, different titles have experimented with different replication of the same basic gameplay. Super Contra and Contra III: The Alien Wars had overhead levels, similar to titles like Commando; the player could not jump in this perspective but could strafe instead. The original Contra had two "shooting gallery" type levels, similar to NAM-1975; the player could still perform all the same dodging moves. The games created by Appaloosa interactive, while not well-received, experimented with third-person shooter perspectives. The final game in the series, thus far, Neo Contra, uses a 3D rendered isometric perspective.

[edit] Difficulty

The Contra series has a reputation for being exceptionally fast-paced and difficult. It is thought to take an extremely skilled player to progress through the game using only the three lives and continues provided. The Konami Code, made famous in the first NES version of Contra and featured in many of its sequels, increases the initial number of lives to 30. This allows players of average skill level to coast through the game. Contra III: The Alien Wars, by contrast, allows players to choose the number of lives with which they start the game, as well as difficulty (which modifies both the amount of enemies and hits they can endure).

This series is well known for its frequent battles against large bosses, who often occupy most of the screen, and consist of multiple body parts and/or phases. Like most Konami games, the bosses have weak points that blink yellow or red when receiving damage.

[edit] Common gameplay elements

Two-player simultaneous play – One of the hallmarks of the Contra series (excluding Operation C and C: The Contra Adventure) has been the ability for two players to play cooperatively in a simultaneous fashion. Even the most recent title Neo Contra, although many gameplay changes have been made, keeps the two player simultaneous mode intact.

Red Falcon – The terrorist organization that served as the antagonists of the first game. The alien entity that appears in each is erroneously referred as Red Falcon, when in reality they appeared only in the first game. The terrorist group in Shattered Soldier is known as Blood Falcon.

Bill Rizer – One of the recurring protagonists of the Contra series. Nicknamed Sergeant Bill Ko, Mad Dog, and Jimbo in early North American localizations of the series. In the early Contra games, he served as a hero of the Alien Wars, but is imprisoned for treason prior to the events of Shattered Soldier for causing an act of terrorism that resulted in the destruction of 80% of the Earth's population, as well as being charged for the apparent murder of his comrade, Lance Bean. In Neo Contra, he is revived to combat the corrupt Neo Contra task force.

Lance Bean – The other recurring protagonist of the Contra series. Nicknamed Corporal Lance, Scorpion, and Sully in early North American localizations of the series. In the early Contra games, he fought alongside Bill during the Alien Wars. But afterwards, he was apparently killed while trying to stop Bill from causing an act of terrorism. In reality, Lance was murdered under orders from the Triumvirate, but survived due to the Alien organism. In Shattered Soldier, he leads the Blood Falcon organization against the Federation.

Spread gun – The most famous weapon, and considered by many players the best overall, is the spread gun. This weapon fires five, usually red, bullets within a 90 degree arc. It allows for a dense concentration of firepower up close (a la shotgun), while having the ability to cover a large area when firing from a distance. Other weapons in the series have come and gone, but the spread gun has remained (almost) constant.

Powerup blimps – Most of the games, except Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra, have kept the process of acquisistioning additional weapons and powerups exclusive to shooting down powerup blimps that screech across the screen in an undulating fashion.

[edit] Contra games

Here is the list of the Contra games that are part of the official (original) Contra continuity, and the years the game is set in:

Here is the list of the Contra games that are retconned from the official Contra continuity:

[edit] Games and ports

[edit] Primary releases and ports

[edit] Other ports

[edit] Pirated games

These titles feature different levels and modified gameplay.

  • Famiclone: Super Contra 2(Contra:Hard Corps), Super Contra 3(Contra 3), Super Contra 6, Super Contra 7/8, Super Contra X, Contra '93, Contra Fighter, Kaita Contra, Contra 2, Contra 6
  • Nintendo Gameboy: Contra Force 6
  • Nintendo GameBoy Advance: Super Contra, Contra
  • Arcade: There is an 118-in-1 arcade machine that has the following titles: Fighter Contra, Power Contra, Space Contra, Burhter Contra

[edit] Online Spin-Offs/Rips

There are some free games playable onine which resemble Contra a lot. One example is Pathos. It uses the traditional summersault jump, ducking, aiming and visible fire. The player sprite resembles that of Contra 3: The Alien Wars (SNES). But some gameplay elements were changed: Instead of lives, there is a life bar, which depletes very quickly and there are no continues. Like Contra force, the enemies are humans, humans with armor and robots. There are no bosses at the end of each level. The default weapon has unlimited ammo, but pick-ups have ammo limits. This is no problem due to the absence of end-of-level bosses. Health pick-ups are either yogurts or full-health gain medikits. The main flaw with this online Contra spin-off is its difficulty. It is almost impossible to bypass the middle of the third level due to too many enemies on screen. Some moving enemies take lots of shots to die, which adds to the difficulty. To add even more, the player doesn't become temporarily invincible after each hit, therefore losing more health. Some enemies can pull really fast attacks on the player, and it is impossible to dodge these during the first playthrough. Pathos is one of those side-scrolling Contra-like games that require very good memory of everything in the levels. Without knowing what's coming next, the player cannot survive. There is no actual story to this online game. Pathos can be found at the freearcade.com website and some other online arcade sites.

Contra Game Workshop is an online Contra re-design program. This program basically allows the user to customize some levels of Contra. The user has the ability to place enemies, objects, etc. where desired in the level. Also, many objects, enemies and backgrounds can have their color changed. There is a very big variety of things the user can do, other than the ones mentioned. One example of a custom Contra game is one that is found on the Newgrounds website, created by JHunour.

An online flash version of the NES Contra exists, called Contra World Challenge. This online Contra has remixed music, and only limited amount of levels. The latest version has only three: Jungle, Snow Field and Alien's Lair. The point is to rack up the highest score possible. Losing lesser lives, harder difficulty, etc. helps gain score. Using any of the in-game cheats implemented result in the score being cut down. Gameplay and most other aspects remain true to the original NES Contra, except for four difficulties, quality adjustment, sound and controls.

[edit] Storyline

The original Contra was released at a time when video games were still lacking any in-depth storyline or actual narrative within them. As a result, the companies that localized the games in the US would often have a different interpretation of the game's plot than the original Japanese publishers. Konami's US branch was very notorious for this practice, writing their own versions of the games' story, sometimes in a humorous (and arguably condescending) fashion within their instruction manuals.

The original Japanese storyline was set in the 27th century, in which a mysterious meteorite falls into the fictional Galuga archipelago near New Zealand two years prior to the beginning of the game. The player (as Bill Rizer or Lance Bean, members of the elite "Contra" task force) must neutralize a terrorist group known as "Red Falcon" that is staging an alien invasion on the islands. The logo of "Red Falcon" was prominately featured on various shipping crates. Coincidently, the logo is very similar to shipping company APL's logo.

The premise is more or less the same in the US version of the story, but the setting has been changed from the 27th century to the present, with the location being moved from Galuga to the Mayan temples in Central America. The arrival of the meteorite also occurs thirty years earlier (instead of two), and the main characters are nicknamed Mad Dog and Scorpion. The change was presumably a result of the discrepancy between the game's modern guerilla warfare theme and actual setting according to the Japanese plot.

The change of setting caused trouble with the localization of later installments, which were clearly set in futuristic environments. To remedy this, Konami of America explained that the characters in The Alien Wars were actually Jimbo and Sully, the descendants of Mad Dog and Scorpion respectively from the previous games.

The European NES version of the game, Probotector, kept the original Japanese storyline, with the only differences being the replacement of Bill, Lance and some of the enemies with robotic counterparts.

Beginning with Contra: Shattered Soldier, the old North American continuity, along with the PlayStation games, Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure, was discarded and the Japanese continuity (from the original Contra to Contra: Hard Corps, as well as the inclusion of Operation C [now the third game in the series] into the continuity) was adapted for all subsequent North American releases.

[edit] Probotector and censoring

The box art for the European version of Contra III: The Alien Wars, modified as Super Probetector: Alien Rebels
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The box art for the European version of Contra III: The Alien Wars, modified as Super Probetector: Alien Rebels

The early console versions of Contra (and sequels to the console versions) were released as Probotector in Europe and Australia. In this version the two main characters (and many humanoid looking enemies in the NES versions) were changed to robots - despite the fact the original arcade version and computer ports were released uncensored under the Gryzor title in those territories. One reason may be that Konami was concerned about worry over violent games in Europe; another theory is that they feared Germany's so-called "Bundesprüfstelle", an institution that watches newly released media to possibly forbid the selling of a game. In the 1980s and 1990s, dozens of games in which people are killed in order to progress (e.g. Rambo III), were added to an index that meant they were not allowed to be advertised or displayed in stores, and they could be only bought on request by people over 18 years old. Relegation to this index would have meant commercial disaster. Contra: Hard Corps for Mega Drive (known merely as Probotector) was the last Contra to be released under the Probotector label, while the next one in the series, Contra: Legacy of War, became the first one to remain as a Contra game in these terrotories.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

v • d • e
Contra video games
Contra  • Super Contra • Operation C • The Alien Wars • Hard Corps • Shattered Soldier • Neo Contra

Contra Force • Legacy of War • The Contra Adventure
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