Contras, Probotectors, and the legacy of war

[Tomm Guycot]

In that vein, I always loved how Contra 4 has a (really cool) tune for its jungle stage on Easy and Normal, then when you tackle it on Hard, you get the full-blown original jungle theme remix. I think it was the only stage in the game that did that kind of thing, but it was cool.

Since the Jungle stage in OG has 2 BGM tracks, if you

Spoiler

play with the WayForward Mix you get to

hear both!
And if you play with the

Spoiler

Vania Mix

...?

 

[Regulus]

The latter of those two spoilers... excellent.

My one Very Serious Gaming Complaint on that subject is that the Konamix OST plays Power of Anger instead of, like, Planet Ratis or Burning Heat.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

The latter of those two spoilers... excellent.

My one Very Serious Gaming Complaint on that subject is that the Konamix OST plays Power of Anger instead of, like, Planet Ratis or Burning Heat.

I cannot express to you the gravity with which I approached "the mix tape process" on this title.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

Speaking of which...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1768481316515856623

 

[madhair60]

this game is fucking dope as shit.

 

[ShakeWell]

...I don't like that part. It's been a week. D=

Hard same.

 

[Sarge]

I really gotta give this a try. Hearing that it's more stage than boss rush makes me very happy - it's one of my primary gripes with much of the series, and why I love the NES entries more than anything. (Contra 4 also gets that balance right, but holy hand grenades is it hard!)

 

[R.R. Bigman]

The train level has been infuriating me. It keeps going and going! Why do modern “retro” games continually have stages that last twice as long as ones from the games they’re emulating? This soured me on Shovel Knight, especially.

I’m not having much fun anymore.

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1768709625506070591

https://twitter.com/x/status/1768479687213465945

 

[madhair60]

Stage 6 is really tough! And it's tough in a fun way, and tests skills that the previous stages didn't, having more of a platforming focus. It's also absolutely crucial in my experience that you need to pay goddamn attention to every corner of the screen. Thankfully you are rarely beset by minions from all sides in this one, but I am just not yet good enough to get to the end and past Big Fuzz, consarnit.

 

[madhair60]

I beat the game. Cool shit happens when you do. I think I agree with the above criticism about the bike stage(s) being overlong, but for me it didn't really hurt the experience because I was constantly engaged by the action, constantly forced to think about my positioning, etc.

So I thought it was, overall, dope as hell.

 

[Peklo]

I've also been playing Operation Galuga. Did the story clear first, then moved onto challenges. Couldn't do all of them in one go (if the displayed thirty are indeed all of them) since the last few require unlockable characters, so I started practicing arcade mode until I accrued the funds. Got to that point eventually--Hard 1CC with the usual 1-hit/8-directional aim/no perks modifiers has gotten as far as stage 7 as of now--and mopped up the rest of the challenges, all of which I found very fun, and sure made my thumb feel like in the Contra 4 days. I think from sampling the playable roster, Bill and Lance have been very deliberately set up for having the most immediately adaptable and straightforward playstyles, while the "strongest" character in that light is probably Browny, while the most technically demanding role almost certainly goes to Sheena.

I'm fairly pleased with the game, and its best self is absolutely in the diversity of playable kits to choose from and how to customize the play experience from those starting points. Weapon balance and design is likely the best the series has seen, with no awkward or impractical armaments in the bunch. That carries a lot of it for me in wanting to experiment with things, even in light of the faults, which to me go something like:

• can't really conjure up an angle to appreciate the music from, sadly. It's good all the alternative soundtrack options are present, considering.
• the 3D nature of the presentation on a 2D plane doesn't always play so nicely in a game demanding extreme precision. Hit and hurtboxes can read ambiguously in situations where certainty is a requirement to survive, and the models and effects have a tendency to overlap one another and obscure legibility in chaotic, crowded configurations.
• as a pseudo-remake of a particular game, the framework of the game's environmental narrative is already treading familiar ground, but the overall referentiality of level design concepts, enemy encounters and even isolated single segments is at full force here. Whether that sparks fondness or ire is up to the individual, but it is undeniably familiar to the core in its sensibilities.
• anecdotally, a little too frequent and significant bugs. I've had, for instance, 1) the stage 3 boss's foreground tail activate its hitbox from the moment it begins angling for the strike, making it impossible to avoid 2) the stage 6 boss glitch out, never spawning its arms and ceasing to take damage 3) other minor popcorn enemies become similarly unkillable. It's always fairly funny to behold, but these things keep happening regardless.
• I'm going to amp up the criticism for the hoverbike autoscroller stage and say it's one of the single worst-conceived stages in the series in how it sits in the overall play experience. It's as early as stage 2, and consists of around seven straight minutes of sitting in the middle of the screen, holding down fire and rarely being required to move or do anything of interest for the duration. It's only on hard mode that enemies have a few chances to retaliate before being dealt with upon spawning in, but anything below that difficulty and you're looking at every playthrough of the game descending almost immediately into such severe doldrums that it almost comes off as a jumpscare when one enemy in a hundred manages to fire off that single errant bullet per run. It's the single biggest deterrent that exists for continuing to interact with the game in a sustained and iterative way, taking up enormous space in an already long game loop and having nothing to offer in return. Stage 5, in turn, I don't really have problems with, since it provides a much livelier and challenging experience throughout.

I think it's a "safe" Contra game conceptually while also being creatively thoughtful within those margins, so I think it has the potential to serve multiple niches looking for slightly different things and expressions from the series. Hopefully it finds its audience.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

• anecdotally, a little too frequent and significant bugs. I've had, for instance, 1) the stage 3 boss's foreground tail activate its hitbox from the moment it begins angling for the strike, making it impossible to avoid 2) the stage 6 boss glitch out, never spawning its arms and ceasing to take damage 3) other minor popcorn enemies become similarly unkillable. It's always fairly funny to behold, but these things keep happening regardless.

If you have details on how to get these to happen consistently please pass it along. Or general information like which platform you're playing on

 

[R.R. Bigman]

I got to the final level, and the thing that’s been bothering me this whole time finally clicked in my brain. I believe this game is tuned to multiplayer more than any other Contra. Contra is usually better with a buddy, yet the much larger screen real estate, multiple routes and every enemy taking one to two more hits than they ought to scream Multiplayer Times. How many players does Contra: OG (hey, I get it) support?

 

[LBD_Nytetrayn]

I got to the final level, and the thing that’s been bothering me this whole time finally clicked in my brain. I believe this game is tuned to multiplayer more than any other Contra. Contra is usually better with a buddy, yet the much larger screen real estate, multiple routes and every enemy taking one to two more hits than they ought to scream Multiplayer Times. How many players does Contra: OG (hey, I get it) support?

2 in story, up to 4 in arcade.

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Yeah, that seems right.

 

[Peklo]

If you have details on how to get these to happen consistently please pass it along. Or general information like which platform you're playing on

I'm on PS5. They've fortunately been mostly one-offs. They've occurred in both the challenge and arcade modes, but from my experience more frequently in challenge mode, possibly having something to do with the rapid reloading of the stage/scenario offsetting how the programming behaves. That's my layperson impression anyway--visual bugs would also happen under those circumstances, like skyboxes ceasing to load in, which happened a couple of times for the final boss challenge. The stage 3 boss tail goof-up was the one enduring example for me: it happened every time in challenge mode until I quit out of the challenge entirely and restarted it, which fixed it. At first I thought it was part of the challenge's ruleset!

 

[Peklo]

First hard 1CC down, with Lance. Caveats that I had the health bar turned on, and utilized his personal perk for a higher double jump. Still very satisfying to do, and not getting stuck in a failure loop for the earlier stuff for a chance to learn the later stages is what will help further runs.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

I got to the final level, and the thing that’s been bothering me this whole time finally clicked in my brain. I believe this game is tuned to multiplayer more than any other Contra. Contra is usually better with a buddy, yet the much larger screen real estate, multiple routes and every enemy taking one to two more hits than they ought to scream Multiplayer Times. How many players does Contra: OG (hey, I get it) support?

OOC are you utilizing Overloads and Perks?

I would recommend Overload Heal

(Overload Heal + L2 Overloads does a full heal fwiw)

 

[madhair60]

I had that glitch with the stage 3 boss too, in Challenge Mode, thought I was just missing something!

 

[R.R. Bigman]

OOC are you utilizing Overloads and Perks?

I would recommend Overload Heal

(Overload Heal + L2 Overloads does a full heal fwiw)

I admit that I haven’t used Overloads at all. Stuff is happening on screen so fast that I usually forget it’s an option in the chaos, and I am loathe to give up a fully powered up weapon in the best of times. I’ll give some other Perks a fry when I can afford some.

 

[Regulus]

Overloads seem really essential for dealing with some of the bosses' spam, and probably intentionally since the game is pretty liberal about weapon pod spawns during boss fights. I'm a shmup player and I think I'm pretty ok at tracking things I'm not looking at directly but I found it difficult to remain focused on everything going on for some of them. There's also just a lot of visual noise with certain weapons. I kind of wish you could set an option to use Overload for your non-equipped weapon, because that's how I used them most of the time. Trying to switch and hold long enough for the Overload to go off during the chaos of the fights was sometimes an ordeal.

So far I've cleared story mode and Arcade mode now, both with 1 hit kills. I did mostly 360 aiming for story and fixed 8 way for arcade. I mostly enjoyed it but am a little mixed on a few things. I really can't stand digital movement with an analogue stick (and Contra's very binary jump acceleration are particular clumsy with a stick) but a lot of the level design feels like it really wants you to have 360 degree aiming. Neither really felt "right" to me. 8 way in particular I'm not sure I could have done without Lucia's Spread Wave. Maybe if there were a Valken-style (or Shattered Soldier-style, I think?) "direction lock" available.

I plan to keep playing for at least a bit longer, but I'm not sure I'll have the endurance to unlock all of the Hard Corps characters. They're kind of pricey!

 

[Peklo]

Tomm: comment on this if you want to, but since I'm curious: clearly this game was created by a bunch of Konami nerds, and since Castlevania in specific is represented in it through the soundtrack... was the "Contra Gene" from the story informed by the "Belmont Warlord Chromosomes" from the Dracula's Curse NES box back cover, and was stage 6's crystal formation perspective trickery inspired by a similar segment from Bloodlines's stage 6? That's where my brain went for each, at any rate, and I enjoyed both regardless of the creative origin.

Similarly, I find the final boss pretty similar in presentation and overall concept to Bloodstained's Bael, with both being very good gigantic adversary type climaxes for their respective games.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

Tomm: [various things]

Spoiler

Contra Gene was a Konami inclusion but given this was Japan and the C3 manual

I would guess coincidence.

Crystals were

Spoiler

inspired by Genesis Konami in general, such as RKA, but Bloodlines

is included

Also thanks! I designed Bael as well so this is just my final boss era.

 

[Peklo]

Thanks! Yeah, I remember you mentioning Bael being your work, so it felt like your fingerprints were present in this as well.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

I admit that I haven’t used Overloads at all. Stuff is happening on screen so fast that I usually forget it’s an option in the chaos, and I am loathe to give up a fully powered up weapon in the best of times. I’ll give some other Perks a fry when I can afford some.

I would suggest trying out the defense/strategy overloads, such as Machine Gun (Barrier) or Laser (Time Stop) as I would imagine you might be bypassing those weapons in general.

If you pick up a new weapon while charging an overload, it will fire off immediately and let you pick up the new weapon so for example if you have Spread, and pick up machine gun if you immediately press the Shoulder Trigger and move back, you'll have your Spread again and be invincible.

especially useful for bosses on Easy/Normal where weapons still appear. Don't let that unwanted powerup just blink away!

If this doesn't result in a more fun experience, that's fine, but it's kind of where I'm betting the farm on this entire loop

For anyone else reading who wants a primer:

Spoiler

Machine Gun - Barrier
Laser - Time Stop
Homing - Helper Drones
Flame - Another World / Out of this World style shield
Alt Spread - Bullet Absorb / Counterattack
Alt Homing - portals to multiply your firepower
Alt Crush - bullet black hole

 

[R.R. Bigman]

Thanks for the advice regarding Overloads, Tomm. I replayed some earlier stages to try them out and get credits, and they do make a difference. The machine gun barrier and laser time stop are far and away my favorites. I don’t fully understand the utility of the flame shield since it stays in place, but I like the fire weapon a lot so not losing it isn’t a big deal.

I did end up beating the final level. The final boss was a lot of fun and kind of easy compared to some of the other bosses. This game has been giving me some genuine sensory overload, so I don’t know how much more I’ll play. I am glad I stuck to it and completed Story Mode at least.

 

[Peklo]

I think stage 4's boss is the hardest in the game for me. There's such narrow room to work with, and multiple angles of attack with sometimes really sudden telegraphs, and none of the attacks are to be dealt with individually but overlapping between one another throughout. The green ooze seen here and in a few other places is probably the hardest projectile type for me to discern the hitbox of too. If you lose a life or two there, recovery is pretty rough too, as stage 5 begins with a pretty much perfectly placed mortar that really demands a weapon with a wide attack axis, advanced movement tech, or an Overload to get past safely. Often my runs cascade into mistakes around both.

 

[Tomm Guycot]

I think stage 4's boss is the hardest in the game for me. There's such narrow room to work with, and multiple angles of attack with sometimes really sudden telegraphs, and none of the attacks are to be dealt with individually but overlapping between one another throughout. The green ooze seen here and in a few other places is probably the hardest projectile type for me to discern the hitbox of too. If you lose a life or two there, recovery is pretty rough too, as stage 5 begins with a pretty much perfectly placed mortar that really demands a weapon with a wide attack axis, advanced movement tech, or an Overload to get past safely. Often my runs cascade into mistakes around both.

PROtip: the Acid in Stage 4's boss pumps faster as you attack, so if you lay off for a moment it will decrease.

 

[Peklo]

That's pretty neat. There's quite a lot of strategic holding off in the boss design here: with the stage 3 boss's arms, and both of the person-sized midbosses.