Contra 4
By Dr. Dominic Florence and Mark Peters / March 22, 2009
This is the story of how,
just over a year ago, Contra commemorated its 20th anniversary. So just how did Konami go about celebrating two decades of 2D action shooting legacy? The same way every
other Japanese publisher seems to celebrate their most iconic franchises nowadays: by entrusting an American shovelware company to develop the latest episode.
This isn't much of a shock since the Contra series has been outsourced to unknown Westerners before; the shock lies in the fact Konami hasn't really learned much
from doing so in the past. So this time it would be the turn of WayForward Technologies to take the helm of the latest Contra.
Let's run a brief little history lesson about the company. Their most popular game is Shantae, outside of which their reach has barely extended beyond edutainment and shitty cartoon/comic book licensed platformers for handhelds. But hey, you know, let's cut them some slack, Shantae was pretty decent for a couple hours (did anyone really stick around and complete this?) and showed promise, so who knows, perhaps there was a 2D action shooting developer in them just dying to get out, just itching to break free!
Here we go then, forgetting everything we just told you -- this is Contra 4 we're talking about. We slide the game card into the DS, switch on the handheld with eyes firmly fixed on both screens. The title screen comes up, a big fiery 'C' is emblazoned on the screen as a familiar piece of music is played, then we are greeted with the in-game menu; we see a 'Character select' option so we head for it. We then find ourselves laughing at the lame 'Mad Dog' and 'Scorpion' additions since all four characters are just palette swaps. We choose Bill Rizer and then proceed to start the game. We were about to experience the manliest game ever; it would turn us from young males into hulking manbeasts and all other kinds of stuff about clefts and chins etc.
Everyone has played a Contra game by now, so you know what to expect from a 2D action platformer. Contra 4 doesn't add a lot to the proceedings; you have the "carry two weapons and switch between them when you like" system from Spirits, though the game lacks a smartbomb power-up as seen in Spirits and Hard Corps. The new features include a double-screen setup (think of the original's tate setup but with a 3-inch wide horizontal black bar in the middle of the screen) and a grappling hook used to fire straight up onto rails above you.
Fast forward to two days later, where we find ourselves sick of the game. Oh, we've completed it and done most of the challenges, but the real problem is this: it looks, sounds and plays like a corny, embarrassing fan-made tribute. You have the remixed music from the first Contra, the first stage is pretty much a remixed version of Contra's first stage, and the latter levels share many similarities with the original as well. It even has those crappy corridor levels! It's as if Nobuya Nakazato's Contra Spirits, The Hard Corps and Shin Contra never happened.
And this is wherein the problem lies: Contra 4 fancies itself as a beefed up version of the original Contra, it prides itself in being mentioned in the same breath. It feels like the development time was spent seeing how much they could make it look and feel like Contra but with enough "new content" to pass off as something new. Instead you end up with Contra given a rub of 21st century boot polish, which is of course fine with the target audience: the nostalgic gamer recalling the videogame industry's heyday on gaming forums. Repackaging and re-bundling old games onto new consoles these days is big business. Contra 4 has the look which screams "Hey! Remember me? I kicked your ass as a kid and you used to love it! Buy me and we can re-experience old times again" but fails to even deliver that, due to it being pretty easy to be honest, with a much slower pacing and more forgiving than its other kin.
But lack of difficulty aside, other major and minor problems abound. The gap between screens, for one thing, damn near breaks the game. The angle and position of enemy bullets are extremely difficult to judge as they pass through the gap. Since they are not particularly fast-moving, it is not uncommon to glance ahead and see nothing impeding your path... only to have a bullet burst forth from the gap as you climb into its trajectory. The second stage even has the occasional enemy completely hidden in the hinge as they crawl in and remain motionless there. (We would be willing to hear arguments that this was done intentionally.)
Another problem is poor respawn placement. There are a couple of areas (the hanging parts in The City being the worst offender) where, when you die, you are brought back to life in a position to the left of your point of death. In those parts of The City stage, there are ropes over pits of fire. If you die and the screen has scrolled slightly to the right during your death animation, the rope from which you might hang will disappear to the left, leaving you to reappear over a pit of fire. Several times in a row, in fact. You will die through no fault of your own, nor any test of difficulty. We have been through there numerous times (surely more than two hundred) and this has happened over a dozen times. Not a certainty, but an unforgivable death trap nonetheless.
And then also, and unfortunately, the weapon system has resurrected the original Contra's preferential treatment of the spread gun. With this weapon fully powered, the game becomes almost a walk in the park. Since the spread gun is the best weapon for nearly the entire game (both scrolling and corridor levels), there is little reason to consider using other guns or going ahead with your credit after losing it.
There are many other things to go on about at length. The pros and cons of the weapon power-up system, enemy placement and questionable level design (the Factory is terrible), and several others. What rankles above all though is the lackluster pacing; the game never achieves a great sense of constant flow: stretches of boredom are interrupted by moments of frustrating difficulty. The result is not enjoyable, even after mastering the game. And surely the lack of interesting bosses save one or two is unforgivable... why do they only have two attacks that merely repeat over and over?
An exception to this litany of mistakes is the hook mechanic, which, although borne out of necessity (jumping across the gap between screens would become intolerable without it), and not as versatile as that of Bionic Commando (which surely inspired it), is actually quite good. It provides the exciting opportunity for last-minute saves while falling toward certain death, the large-scale upward movement it enables helps make the entire playfield an option for escape, and it feels downright manly! It fits perfectly in the Contra universe and deserves to be in future games.
But overall, Contra 4 feels like a fan-made game that only exists to arouse nostalgia. There is nothing wrong with that as long as the game itself is tight and polished, but this is not. Instead it actually comes across as being almost light-hearted; a spoof of Contra. "Ha ha, we made a game that looks like Contra; killing lots of aliens is good 1980s action fun, ho ho ho, remember when we thought this was cool?!" It still is cool, jerks.
And this is what it comes down to, the problem with hiring American developers who are quite possibly just a bunch of frat boys. Their tone is not serious enough; it does not match the original Japanese sensibility. Of course, this is a much bigger issue that requires a separate book, but what's interesting is that when the Japanese make a game with obvious references to American action movies, the result is not satire or parody. Somehow, other people perceive irony that does not exist.
What Contra 4 should have done is expand on the increasing amount of Treasure-ness (for lack of a better term) from the older games. Insane multi-part bosses, screen-shaking explosions and a general sense of "Holy shit, I've never played anything like this," are all missing. True, they may have been trying to capture the feel of the first Contra (that is, less emphasis on bosses), but in Contra 4 these huge bosses rise up out of the ground and bore the hell out of us. You might think they were going to do something awesome, but then the boss just swings his arms.
It must be said that there are some excellent extras outside the main game. The challenges are fun and addictive (limited ammo, no ammo, don't kill the hostages) and there are lots of things to unlock. Other character sprites, a museum containing art and descriptions of previous games, an interview, and the NES versions of Contra and single-player-only Super C (we didn't bother playing much of them though, so we don't know if they are accurate).
But the extras are beside the point; they can't prevent this game from leaving a bitter taste in our mouths. The raging nostalgics might be happy with a new numerical installment in the series, but for us it's just another Contra game missing the mark. It must be said it's not a terrible game: it's all just a little too average for our tastes, and we lack any real reason to ever pick it up again. Except maybe for a few minutes on the crapper.