Contra 4: Returning to Its Roots But Still as Difficult, Punishing, and Unforgiving as Ever

Those who played video games in the late 80's will undoubtedly remember the game Contra. The purpose of the game was simple. Shoot your way through the alien invasion to destroy Red Falcon and his heart. Contra was notorious for its punishing and unforgivable difficulty. Death was frequent and quick as enemies and hazards constantly ambushed you and your character.

However, Contra appealed to gamers with its wide variety of weapons, the satisfaction of blasting endless alien hordes, and most importantly, two-player cooperative action (at the time, a rarity for a horizontal shooter). Made even more famous with the Nintendo console port and the related Konami code, Contra would spawn many sequels over the years. Now, on the 20^th anniversary of the series, Konami and WayForward Technologies takes Contra back to its roots with the release of Contra 4 for the Nintendo DS.

Contra 4 continues the alien invasion storyline of previous Contra titles. Two years after the failure of Red Falcon's alien invasion in Contra III, another alien, Black Viper, has brought yet another alien army to invade Earth and it is up to four soldiers, Bill Rizer, Lance Bean, Mad Dog, and Scorpion, to stop Black Viper from succeeding.

Starting the game for the first time, you'll immediately notice Contra 4 plays just like the original Contra games...with one addition. You have a new grappling hook which allows you to climb up to certain ceilings and ledges.

You will also notice you start out with the infamous semi-automatic rifle, or the "pea-shooter" as your default weapon. And within the first few seconds of play...you'll see the weapon pods. That's right, the weapon pods make a comeback and you are reliant on destroying them to upgrade your weapons. No more fixed weapon loadouts (as in Contra Shattered Soldier or Neo Contra.

Feel free to change your weapon as the pods come by. You can also carry two weapons at any time, allowing you to pick and choose which weapon you want to keep or use as you progress through a stage. All of the traditional favorites are here, the machine gun, spread cannon, laser, flame thrower, hunter, and crush missiles. Each also has a second level of power, meaning if you come across the same weapon later in the game, you can upgrade its power. However, just like the old Contra games, the second you die, you lose your current weapon and default back to the "pea-shooter".

Of course, in the first few seconds of playing, you will also notice Contra 4 is very, very hard. Continuing the Contra tradition, Contra 4 does not skimp on the difficulty factor and you will likely die within a few seconds of starting the game. If you are skilled, you may hear the background music repeat at least once before you see the dreaded "Game Over" screen. Contra 4 harks back to the old 8-bit era of horizontal shooters. One-hit kills are the norm. Enemies and hazards appear out of nowhere to kill you as well as having an uncanny accuracy to hit your character.

Focused on the bottom screen and not watching the top? Well...the sound of the falling grenade will be the last thing you hear because you sure didn't see it coming. Think you made a jump and you're safe...for some reason the enemy shots have an uncanny ability to hit you right when you land. Boulders come out of nowhere to crash into your character, missiles hit you at inopportune times, and enemies run right into your when you think you have out run his buddies.

All of these factors contribute to the immense difficulty of this game. Hardcore Contra fans will feel right at home but casual gamers may become frustrated and turned off. While you will learn where the locations of the enemies and hazards are, as they are placed in the same position every time you play, the shear amount of time to learn these positions compounded with the limited number of continues the game provides can lead to an immense amount of frustration and anger.

Furthermore, boss battles are large and challenging, further increasing the difficulty. Boss battles in Contra 4 involve both screens, exceptions being made for the three pseudo-3D stages in the game. And when you play these bosses for the first time...you will die...many times. Like each stage in Contra 4, each boss follows a specific pattern. This means you will expend many lives in order to determine a method to defeat the boss.

Die-hard Contra fans will love this as this is a hallmark of the series, to figure out how to defeat each boss losing as few lives (preferably none) as possible. But casual gamers may become further frustrated with the game. As if simply surviving a stage to get to a boss is not frustrating enough, now you have to figure out how to defeat the boss, wasting lives, times, and valuable continues. Then you have to repeat the process over and over again. And if you run out of continues mid-game, you have to start all over again...

In light of the punishing and unforgiving difficulty, the developer, WayForward Technologies, did place an Easy Mode into Contra 4. Easy Mode gives you 10x lives and 5x continues instead of the 5x lives and 4x continues in Normal Mode or 3x lives and 3x continues in Hard Mode. Even for experienced Contra fans I recommend going through Easy Mode because enemies and bosses are easier to kill, your weapons are maxed out, and most enemies and hazards are in the same places in Easy as in Normal and Hard modes.

There are some exceptions, but going through Easy Mode will definitely make your experience much more enjoyable when you attempt Normal and Hard modes. Unfortunately, Easy Mode only plays through 7 of the 9 stages although it does unlock the Challenge Mode, allowing you access to additional Contra 4 extras.

Running through the game is nostalgic, reminiscent of the times when shooters dominated the video game market. Blasting through hordes of enemy soldiers and aliens with the spread cannon, firing away at aliens while dodging their fire on a jet ski, scaling tricky platform jumps atop a giant missile, or simply trying to figure out how to defeat the massive stage boss, WayForward Technologies simply looked at what made Contra fun and stuck with it.

By no means is Contra 4 a revolutionary game on the Nintendo DS. Aside from the title and option screens, Contra 4 does not use any of the touch screen capability of the Nintendo DS. The dual screen use is more or less used as an expansion of the game area rather than anything extraordinary. Instead, Way Forward Technologies simply looked at what made the best Contra games fun and used the same formula for Contra 4.

Contra 4 also includes a few extras. The game ships with a digital museum of the history of Contra filled with screenshots and box art of every game in the series. As stated before, Challenge Mode is unlocked once you have completed the game in Easy Mode. This allows you to test your skills in a series of Contra challenges. Completing these challenges further unlocks extras such as additional characters, comics, the original Nintendo versions of Contra and Super C, and more.

But the biggest disappointment is the lack a DS download play option for Contra 4. Many gamers will remember the times when they and a buddy would run through Contra games and although it may not be any easier, Contra is more fun with two players. In order to play Contra 4 with two players, you and a buddy both have to have the game. This limits the availability of playing Contra 4 with a friend and to this extent, Contra 4 disappoints.

Fans of the Contra series will feel right at home. Contra 4 brings back the old school, unforgiving, punishing, difficulty of the original games. Casual gamers be warned, Contra 4 is very difficult and unforgiving, but very rewarding if you take the time to learn how to get through each stage of the game. If you are in the market for a challenging horizontal shooter, look no further. Contra 4 will offer you hours of play, albeit laced with some frustration, as you learn to adapt and beat the game.