GB Review: Contra 4 (DS)

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GB Review: Contra 4 (DS)Posted 9:22pm Thu Nov 15, 2007 by Eric Jonathan Smith Tags: Contra 4, Buy Contra 4, Nintendo DS, Konami, eric jonathan smith, review, 4 stars

The same macho brutality and challenging gameplay you love.

Contra 4 delivers the classic tough-as-nails gaming experience that children of the 80's look back on fondly but will probably be too unforgiving for those weaned on more contemporary titles. Relentlessly challenging but immensely satisfying, Contra 4 will reward those willing to undertake its masochistic demands.

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One look at the box art for Contra 4 sums up the entire experience: explosions, two guys (presumably) causing this mayhem, menacing alien eyes staring at the bare-chested duo, and above all of it, a banner declaring the series' 20th anniversary. Contra 4 is all of those things - one or two-player 2D side-scrolling, alien-blasting action that hearkens back to its two-decade old roots. Contra 4 is certainly a balls-to-the-walls experience and Konami would lead you to believe from reading the box that its appeal is largely due to the Contra series' moniker as the video game equivalent of S&M: testosterone manifested as a DS game card.

But a closer look reveals a different story. From the explosively cheesy cover art, to the back of the box bulleting the famous Contra "spread shot" as one of the game's features, to the intentionally pun-tastic throwback to old Konami instruction manuals from the 80's, one thing becomes clear: Contra 4's appeal comes not from its manhood-grabbing nature but because it pulls at those emotional strings that reside within the recesses of your nostalgia.

That said, this game was made for a very specific audience by members of that same group - players who grew up with Contra during its heyday in the late 80's/early 90's. From its explosions, spread shot, manly men, and ugly aliens, Contra 4 delivers that sadistic double punch to the gut that will cause some to reminisce and others to give up in frustration.

The premise of Contra is simple: shoot everything that moves and get out of the way of anything that doesn't; if you don't, one hit will kill you. This is the way it has been since the beginning and Contra 4 does little to mess with this basic formula. Contra 4 feels like a Contra game from the moment you pick it up. This may be a sigh of relief to some, as when it was announced that American developers WayForward were picking up the historically Japanese-developed franchise, longtime fans drew a cause for concern. It was all for naught. The game controls great (with the exception of the DS being perhaps a bit too confining during the game's intense combat for the more "grown-up" hands of its intended audience, though this hardware kink is no fault of WayForward's), looks great with its colorful 2D graphics and huge setpiece bosses, and even sounds great with throwbacks to days of old with familiar sound effects and musical cues. There is no doubt: WayForward has imbued the soul of Contra in Contra 4.

Not everything is the same. For one, the game is on DS, so that means two screens. The action happens on both the top and bottom screens of the DS, which is a lot of real estate to get used to. A grappling hook feature has been added that allows quick and easy transportation to the upper screen when necessary. However, when the initially unnatural screen layout is combined with the gap between the DS's two screens (the distance between of which the game actually compensates for) it can add to some cheap deaths.

And lives don't come cheap - the game varies them between 3 selectable difficulty levels: Easy with 10 extra, Normal with 5, and Hard with 3. Playing on Easy is tantamount to practice, since in that difficulty you are only able to access 7 of the game's 9 levels. Practice and memorization of enemy patterns will see the most dedicated players to the end of the Normal and Hard modes. No, the game is not forgiving and doesn't pretend to be. When you run out of lives you have a limited number of continues to try again. When you run out of those - you guessed it, you have to start again from the first stage. Players not versed in the mechanics of the age of Contra and its peers will likely not find this type of punishment the least bit rewarding. Those twenty-or-older-somethings that do recall this system are likely to smile at the same time they curse the enemy that just expired their last life.

Being the series' twentieth anniversary, Contra 4 packs in some sizeable bonus content. An unlockable Challenge mode will allow you to earn the NES versions of the original Contra and its sequel Super C, additional player characters, and more. A Contra Museum feature detailing the series' history is available from the outset.

The game's greatest asset is its unwillingness to change. It will never hold the player's hand with tutorials or allow 10 minutes to explain some overly melodramatic narrative. You will likely have to continue in the first stage; but with every death you will remember the alien scumbag that did it and blast him into oblivion your next attempt. That is how we used to do it in the old days and those who can relate will interpret this punishment as a lost pleasure.

Won runner up for GameBump's Best Portable Game of 2007