[DS] Contra 4

[Ryon]

Gameplay

aah konami...ur franchise of contra games hasn't failed us in terms on delivering fun gameplay while giving us a descent challenge difficulty wise. well this is twilightknight here's my review on the ds game contra 4

The Story

The story is set in 2638, two years after the events of Contra III and three years before the events of Contra: Hard Corps. With the Red Falcon alien threat defeated and Alien Wars finished, the Earth is peaceful once again. However, a similar alien entity calling itself Black Viper begins launching attacks against the human race, causing mass destruction over the planet. After strange readings are detected at the Galuga archipelago (the setting of the original Contra), the Earth Federation sends their four strongest Contra Force commandos on a final strike mission to destroy the Black Viper and its army of aliens, robots, and mutants.

Gameplay

Well if ur familiar with contra then you should pretty much the gameplay. get to the end of the stage while fighting through waves of aliens,robots mutants, parasites and whole mess of other things coming at you defeat the boss at the end of the level and move on to the next stage. but now in contra 4 its much much harder since the stage now takes up both screens and the enemies from the screen above can shoot you so yeah its gonna be hard for you while dodging enemy fire from bottom screen as well as top screen so you will pretty much need your gaming sense in high gear. now as a new feature in contra 4 you have a grappling hook in which you can hook on grapple pipes on the top screen and zip your way up this can be pretty useful on boss battles, and now you can toss away a power-up you don't want by pressing B.

as for the types of levels in contra well get to that well contra 4 has 2 types of levels the 2d levels in which where we usually have our contra fun and the 3d levels from the NES Contra. the 3d levels haven't changed much you can pretty much dodge enemy fire by ducking but they now added some turrets on the floor to take you by surprise. Now for the weapons

the normal gun: went back to its single fire pea shooter so yeah if you want rapid fire you better have some rapid button pressing skills ''kinda makes you wish you had the normal gun from contra 3''

the machine gun: pretty much the normal gun from contra 3 and trust me when you get this you will be glad cause at least your fingers wont suffer from fast button pressing, just hold the button down and there you go rapid fire without much hassle.

Laser Gun: this weapon was pretty useless on most conta games but now the laser is now useful since the fire rate has been improved and so has its damage

Cannon Gun: This weapon will be your boss weapon since this once fires a short round burst of missiles that explode on contact and deliver damage out of all the weapons on contra 4 this one does the most damage

Missile launcher: for large number of enemies this weapon is the best since it fires missiles that home in on your enemy but the fire rate has been reduced to single fire so yeah if you want this to work do some rapid button pressing.

Shotgun: yeah we all know the shotgun from the contra series it fires a 3 way shot in which its pretty useful to clear front enemies.

Barrier: this power up is a rare find in the game if you find it get it since it will give you minutes of invisibility and you kill enemies just by touching yeah nintendo just gave you the star power http://mugenfreeforall.com/public/style_emoticons//tongue.png

The Bosses in this game don't mess around some have a certain pattern some don't but they will pretty much do anything in their power to kill you as many times as possible. as for the co-op I only have one complaint it doesn't have online co op it only has wireless multiplayer.

Graphics:

Compared to the arcade versions and Contra 3 in terms of 2d the graphics have improved as the stages are more detailed and so are the characters

Sound:

Most of the sounds of the game are remixes or remakes of old contra soundtracks so you wont find much new sounds in this game

Extra:

if you somehow managed to pass this game on normal mode and you think ur done think again because you will have challenge mode in which the game will test your contra skills to the very limit each challenge will test you in terms of reaction and thinking

now for certain amount of challenges you clear you get tons of unlockables like

-Contra (NES game)

-Super Contra (arcade version)

-Contra 3 and 4 comics

-Sound Gallery

-Extra museum (here ull find most of contras history it provides with pictures, info, cover art (for each region) on each contra game

-unlockable characters like Probotector (if you have seen the Cover art for the europe version of contra instead of 2 soldiers you see 2 gundam like robots fighting aliens)

games ups and downs:

Up:

-It delivers the classic contra gameplay we all know and love

-Improved graphics

-Tons of unlockables and extras

-brings a descent challenge to the contra franchise

Down:

-No online co op online only wireless multiplayer

-players may get confuse while trying to avoid enemy fire coming from both screens

-The normal gun makes you wish you had a turbo controller

Verdict:

for those who thought contra 3 and shattered soldier where hard well their dead wrong cause this game beats them difficulty wise hands down, you may die a lot but you try harder and harder as you wan to beat this beast and playing it with a friend can be a blast I strongly recommend this to contra fans and those who are looking for a descent challenge for their DS.