Contra: Hard Corps Review

Konami pulls out all the stops with the series' Sega Genesis entry, making it one of the best Contra games in existence.

The Contra series has always been about fast-paced action, a constant stream of gunfire, explosive weapon upgrades, and monstrous alien and mechanical enemies. So how does this classic formula stack up in the last 16-bit entry of the franchise? Contra: Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis takes everything that made the earlier entries so amazing and adds some tricks of its own to make it an incredible Contra experience.

A few years after the ‘Alien Wars’ of Contra 3 (for the SNES), an out-of-control robot goes on a rampage through the city. A new team of super-soldiers, the Hard Corps, leaps into action, guns blazing. Battling the rogue robot, the team quickly realizes that it’s in fact manned by a mysterious mercenary called Deadeye Joe, who hints that something much bigger and more sinister is going on. This foreshadowing is quickly affirmed when a distress call reveals that terrorists have invaded the research facility containing the ‘alien cell,’ a powerful DNA sample from the mother alien of Contra 3. Will the heroes pursue Deadeye Joe to get more answers? Or will they rush to the aid of the research facility to stop the cell from falling into evil hands? At this point and others the player can choose the course of action, resulting in drastically different levels, story plotlines, and boss encounters. Depending on the player’s choices, there are a whopping SIX different endings (including a hilariously bizarre ‘funny ending’). This branching-story feature, moved along by amusing ‘tough-guy’ dialogue and mission briefs, is just one of the multiple features that make Hard Corps such a fantastic game.

There are four playable characters to choose from: Ray, a typical square-jawed commando; Sheena, a female soldier; Brownie, a robot; and Fang, a mutant wolf man with cybernetic arms. The characters all control roughly the same with the exception of Brownie, whose short stature and double-jump ability make him arguably the easiest hero to beat the game with. The true differences lie in weapon pick-ups. Following Contra ritual, weapon capsules will fly by at certain points and must be shot out of the air. But breaking from tradition, the capsules are labeled A, B, C, and D. Each hero’s version of each letter is completely different. For instance, Ray can pick up the standard Spread Gun and Homing Missiles, while Fang’s weapons include a flame punch and devastating charge beam. The player can have all four weapons at once and cycle between them at any time, but upon death (one hit as always) will lose whichever one was active at the time. The huge variety of weapons and those on hand at any given moment (you’ll die constantly and often have to decide which weapon is least valuable when entering an especially dangerous situation) will drastically alter the way you’ll handle each enemy-filled gauntlet and boss encounter. This combined with the aforementioned branching level structure results in a ton of replayability. Be aware, however, that picking up a new weapon will automatically switch you over to it; this can be deadly if you’re neck-deep in foes and it’s the wrong weapon for the job.

Hard Corps is all about non-stop action. From the first few seconds of the game you are deluged with scores of foes, explosions and mayhem. You must keep your finger on the fire button at all times just to survive – it will likely take you several tries just to reach the midpoint of the first level. The game is filled with bosses; in fact, the game can be summed up as nothing but boss encounters peppered with run-n-gun and platforming sequences. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Each boss fight, from enormous robotic monstrosities to hideous mutant aliens, is amazingly creative, the visuals colorful and mind-blowing. Each will require extreme skill, reflexes and pattern memorization. Make no mistake – Hard Corps lives up to its name by being one of the most bone-crushingly difficult games ever. The entire experience is driven by fear, a desperate drive to stay alive and kill your foes before they kill you. The action is so relentlessly intense that you will literally be on the edge of your seat the entire time, palms sweaty and heart pumping. But perseverance yields and drives you deeper and deeper into fantastically cool level design and enemies. You never know, you might actually see all the awesome endings one day, each with their own visuals and theme music.