Born for Wii: Contra

by Wesley Fenlon { Nov 11th 2008 at 12:41PM }

As gaming moves forward, the perpetual improvement of technology naturally leads to the Gears of War 2 creed: "Bigger, Better, and More Badass." Unfortunately, the trend of increasingly film-like 3D games leads to fewer and fewer 2D titles finding their way to home consoles. Many series, such as Zelda and Mario, have successfully transitioned to 3D. But others never quite recovered after the jump, and were always in their prime in the 2D era.

Take Contra, for example. This weekend, upon curling up with my DS -- a handy shield against things such as responsibility and obligation -- and spending a few hours being brutalized by Contra 4, I realized two things. The first was that I suck at Contra. But the second was that, in spite of suffering several emasculating deaths every ~~minute~~ 10 seconds, I was still having a blast. The game perfectly captures the feel of the series and is a worthy successor to the incredible Contra III, which is now 16 years old (so I guess it's about time, eh?). But the experience isn't quite perfect -- the DS's tiny screens only makes a difficult game harder, and the divide between them compounds the problem. It's been six years since the last sidescrolling Contra made an appearance on a console, and if Capcom's Mega Man 9 is any indication, a classic series like Contra has a home on the Wii. This week Born for Wii attacks aggressively with Bill and Lance.

NEXT >>

Gallery: Contra 4 DS

Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Grim Fandango, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

Tags: born-for-wii, contra, contra-4, contra4, joystiqfeatures, konami, retro, wayforward, wiiware

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

CJLopez @ Nov 11th 2008 2:17PM

I must be honest.

I there was a Contra for Wii, i'd rather have a Contra using the Gears of War Engine. I mean, an over the should with cover system like Gears of War or the recent Quantum of Solace have would be the most awesome thing to see.

Now that i think about it, the Quantum of Solace Engine (i think its the CoD4 engine) for an over the should shooter would be perfect. Why i wouldn't like it FPS? Well, i don't know, first person and third person shooter are quite alike, but seing my fearless warrior battle an horde of aliens and human-aliens (like happened in shattered soldier) would be pretty awesome, and with GoW, we know Co-Op like that is quite amazing!!

Please Konami, you got a million seller right there!!!!!

Mickey @ Nov 11th 2008 3:14PM

just asking, not trying to be a jerk, but what would the difference be between the game you want and Gears of War (or The Conduit for that matter)? Dudes shooting aliens with over the shoulder or first person view? I actually have never played Gears of War so maybe I'm wrong.

CJLopez @ Nov 11th 2008 3:27PM

Then whats the difference between Army of Two and Contra???

The thing between the conduit and Gears of War is that on GoW there is a Cover System, which I find quite awesome, while in The Conduit is just face to face combat and a cover system on Contra is like a ring made to match perfectly the size of a finger (like we say here in Mexico "Como anillo al dedo"), which, on a First Person Shooter can be achieved, while in a third person shooter (over the should camera) fits perfectly (as projected by Gears of War)

CJLopez @ Nov 11th 2008 3:29PM

a few correction to my previous post

"First Person Shooter can be achieved" change it to "First Person Shooter can't be achieved" and "(over the should camera) " has to be "(over the shoulder camera)"

We need an edit button for those whose english is not their primary language!!!

SoshiKitai @ Nov 12th 2008 12:55PM

I suppose the real question is...
If Contra had the same system as Gears of War (of which I have played), would you wish it to feel EXACTLY like GoW? Or tweaked for a "Contra-feel"?

Because if it's EXACTLY like GoW, then it's not much more different (other than enemies and storyline... but the only genre that can really get away with that is JRPGs).

The over-the-shoulder + cover system is great and awesome... but I wouldn't count on it being PERFECT for Contra.
Afterall, a lot of GoW cover system's appeal is from the cog uniforms... those huge metal bulking things smashing up against chewed-down cement while gunfire is coming from all directions makes your mouth taste like metal and gunk - the sort of "RAAAHHHH!!!"-kind that makes 14 year olds think they're the king of the world.

However, something like that for Contra would be great - but being exactly like GoW would make it kind of "meh"... it's like if you had a cat that killed rats the same way that lions killed water buffalos, the majesty and grace would be gone - and it'd just look amusingly kinda' cool.

Make it faster, a tad bit lighter, and change the total atmosphere into something that can almost make you feel like you really are playing Contra (aka: Stick to the original feel as much as you can... adding too much can make it gimmicky) - and you've got yourself a deal.

Afterall, we can't ask all games to follow the same system as other games. Otherwise, we'd just be changing the skins, voice-overs, and texts in every game and releasing it the next month.

Abscissa @ Nov 11th 2008 6:14PM

"But the experience isn't quite perfect -- the DS's tiny screens only makes a difficult game harder, and the divide between them compounds the problem."

Yes! Exactly what I've been saying ever since Contra 4 was announced as a DS game. It's been annoying the crap out of me ever since.

Also, I second the request for an edit button. English is my native language, and I still constantly find the need for an edit ability. And the nearly-invisible text in the edit box (due to my light-on-dark system color scheme) only makes it that much worse. (If you're going to insist on hardcoding the text box background color to a light color, why the hell won't you people hardcode the text color to black?!?!? It takes all of about what, two minutes and one line of CSS?)