Neo Contra

Konami's classic run n' gun shooting series returns, but does Neo Contra further derail Contra's good name? Some new videos included in this very late review.

	Version PS2	Developer Konami	Publisher Konami	Genre Shooter

By Joseph Jackson

First impressions aren't always the best ones to go by, despite the old adage. When we first took a close look at Neo Contra back at E3 2004 I admit I was disappointed. Gone were the familiar side-scrolling play mechanics of its non 32-bit predecessors, replaced by action viewed from an overhead, isometric-like perspective. To make matters worse, the shooting mechanics of the game took some getting used to as it felt hampered by the angular viewing perspective. However, after giving the final retail version the proper playthrough [some time ago - we just didn't publish this review in time - Ed] I've managed to come away with a much better feeling about the game. While it may not be the high water mark game that its side-scrolling predecessors (Contra, Super Contra, Contra III: Alien Wars, and to a lesser extent, Contra: Shattered Soldier) were, Neo Contra is still a fun, highly addictive game.

The original Contra burst onto the arcade scene in 1987, inspired by the movie, Aliens. The game featured sidescrolling two player co-op action that put players in the roles of two elite Contra Soldiers, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, both tough as nails and charged with the task of defeating an alien menace that posed a significant threat to mankind. Players had to maneuver the two commandos through a series of side-scrolling and forward scrolling shooting missions where they could blast their way through enemy forces and obtain more powerful weapons while making their way to the enemy base of operations. Contra was both fast paced and challenging, and featured frenetic 2-player shooting action.

The 1988 follow-up, Super Contra saw Bill and Lance return to action once again to finish what they started against Red Falcon, the alien menace who managed to survive their previous encounter and returned a year later, taking over an entire military base. In true Contra fashion the gameplay remained as solid as the original, thrusting players in a series of side-scrolling and newly added overhead shooting missions, where they continued running n' gunning down all types of enemies and collecting power-ups to improve their odds against Red Falcon and his minions. Super Contra was no doubt an exciting update that maintained the quick paced action of its predecessor while improving on the graphics and sound. The coin-op version of Super Contra was in a word, awesome - and till this day, still remains my personal favorite of the entire Contra series.

By the time console gaming had entered the 16-bit era full-swing the Contra series had unfortunately abandoned arcades in favor of consoles. To Konami's credit they did manage to release a few classics along the way, namely Contra III: Alien Wars for the Super Nintendo and Contra: Hard Corps for the Sega Genesis. Unfortunately that's where the series peaked as it took a complete nosedive during the 32-bit era that followed with outside developers attempting to take the series into 3D - with disastrous results in the form of Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure. Konami's Contra: Shattered Soldier, which was developed in-house and released nearly two years ago on the PS2, was sort of a return to form for the series as it brought back the side scrolling shooting action of the earlier classics and also marked the return of the original two Contra soldiers, Bill and Lance - this time on opposite sides of the battlefield from each other. To say that I was a bit peeved with Konami for pitting them against each other would be an understatement, but still, it was nice having them both together in the same game again. And now with Neo Contra, Konami brings us a follow-up to its PS2 gunner.

Developed by the good folks behind Shattered Soldier and Hard Corps, Neo Contra features frenzied shooting action in which players take control of veteran Contra soldier, Bill Rizer, who is now teamed up with yet another new partner - this time the mysterious Samurai warrior Yagyu Jaguar Genbei, who's armed with both a powerful gun and a Samurai blade he uses to slice his problems in half. Together, these two are Earth's last hope of stopping the evil Neo Contra organization from achieving world domination. Textbook.

Neo Contra is your standard arcade styled action-shooter that plays similarly to games like Expendable for the Dreamcast where you basically run, gun, and blow shit up all around you while barreling your way through densely populated enemy terrains. However, unlike Shattered Soldier, which went a long way in steering the Contra franchise back to its familiar side scrolling roots, Neo Contra veers it right back into the danger zone Konami found itself in with the 32-bit Contra games by once again doing away with the traditional side-scrolling jumping and shooting mechanics of its predecessors and replacing them with action viewed mostly from an angular perspective, as a result aiming tends to be a tad bit tricky with many of the weapons.

Fortunately, Konami thought the control scheme through well enough to implement a directional lock button that locks players facing the same direction while moving around and shooting, allowing for some evasive strafing to counter enemy attacks. There's also a movement lock button that locks players in place, allowing them to continuously pivot and fire in all directions, taking out a swarms of enemies when surrounded.

While the implementation of control lock features - which were first implemented in Contra 3: Alien Wars - makes a world of difference to how well the game controls, one aspect of the game I'm not too crazy about is the weapons system which works quite differently than the power-up system used in the classic Contras.

Instead of having to shoot down power-up pods/drones in order to obtain power-ups, Neo Contra requires players to select their weapon set from a weapon select screen before starting their mission. Each weapon set contains a trio of useful weapon types that consist of standard projectile weapons (machine gun, spread shot, charge shot) and flamethrower-type weapons (grenade bomb, fire whip, classic fireball), all of which are best suited against ground-based enemies.

Aside from the aforementioned weapon types you're also equipped with lock-on weapons that work similarly to the lock-on weapon system of games like Panzer Dragoon and are well suited for bringing down aerial enemies and other targets that are out of reach.

Unfortunately, Neo Contra's weapon setup limits players to switching between just the three weapon types in their weapon set, with no chance of upgrading or augmenting their arsenal with more firepower along the way - so basically you're stuck with your weapon choices until either starting your game over or continuing your mission after losing all of your lives.

The gameplay is pretty simple to pick-up, and a veritable throwback to the one-hit-kill days of classic arcade styled action-shooting games. Controlling Bill and Jaguar's directional movements is easily accomplished with the analog stick or d-pad, allowing players to navigate their characters and evade enemy fire.

While lacking the ability to jump means your characters will remain grounded all throughout the game, the absence of a jump button isn't such a bad thing considering how it probably wouldn't have worked too well with the game's angular perspective. Instead players are provided with a better trade-off in the form of an evasion move that renders them momentarily invincible as they spin in place in a timely manner to avoid enemy fire. Along with being able to evade attacks a dash move can also be performed with the same button, unfortunately your characters are still vulnerable to attacks while in mid-dash so it's a move better served for quickly zipping from one point to another when the coast is clear.

Neo Contra's gameplay for the most part retains the quick paced running n' gunning action of its predecessors, allowing two-players to team up and engage in some intense firefights across seven short levels consisting of post-apocalyptic landscapes overrun by swarms of enemy soldiers, bizarre creatures, and various kinds of automated weapons.

For the most part, the levels are pretty simple in design but to Neo Contra's credit you'll experience a variety of different types of levels including ones where the Contra soldiers are riding dinosaurs into battle, classic Contra climbing & shooting portions, missile surfing, and a flying segment just to name a few.

Despite the majority of the levels being display from an isometric viewpoint, the game does frequently shift perspectives, providing some dynamic viewpoints and cool action sequences without interrupting the flow of the game. While the game's simplistic level designs are a little underwhelming and most of the enemies encountered throughout the game pose very little challenge, the action is accentuated by intense boss fights against some freakish mini-bosses you'll encounter frequently throughout the game as well as The Four Hell Warriors of Neo Contra that'll aim to test your combat skills.

At the end of each mission players are evaluated and ranked based on various criteria including hit rate percentage, number of continues, and number of lives lost, with the latter two greatly affecting the former and in turn affecting both your individual and overall ranking.

While Neo Contra is ostensibly a game that's light on challenge to the point where shooter veterans can more than likely one-life their way through the entire game with very little practice, the real challenge comes in completing each mission with a high enough ranking in order to unlock the hidden gems in this game.

That in itself not only provides players with a bit more of a challenge to overcome but also provides a significant amount of replay value, giving players enough incentive to keep playing and shooting for an overall S or A ranking in order to unlock some cool extras such as additional missions, secret characters, newer more powerful weapon sets (including the Gradius laser), a sound test mode, image gallery, training mode, and a movie mode where the game's cutscenes can be viewed.

Despite all of the unlockable content, Neo Contra doesn't really provide much in the way of depth or longevity for a console exclusive action-shooter. In single player mode, those with adequate shooting skills can complete the game in under an hour. If your skills aren't as sharp, not to worry as continue points are pretty generous throughout the game and the 2-player mode pretty much halves the single player times.

Graphically Neo Contra isn't the type of game that's going to impress much with its moderately detailed backgrounds and, for the most part, generic looking enemies. The dark, post-apocalyptic settings look average at best with the highlight of the graphical package being some of the transitional sequences as well as the cool boss designs and animations, which are by far the most memorable aspects of the game's visual design & presentation. While there isn't alot of onscreen activity Neo Contra does experience some slowdown, but fortunately it only seems to happens certain spots making it a non-issue.

The audio portion of Neo Contra certainly fares better than the graphics as my man Sota Fujimori provided an energetic and upbeat electronic soundtrack that fits the game's fast paced action quite well. While none of the tracks are on par with some of his previously remixed/arranged Castlevania, Gradius, and miscellaneous works, Neo Contra's highly energetic techno tracks are pretty solid and are accompanied by sharp sound effects with lots of explosion sounds to help drive the intense action. The only negative mark I'd give the audio portion of the game is in the voice-acting department, which unfortunately is of laughable quality at times. I'm sure the voice actors probably cringed after hearing it and won't want to show their faces again after this!

Overall Neo Contra is a solid addition to the Contra series despite being incredibly short for a console exclusive game. Fans of run n' gun shooters like Expendable will probably take more of a liking to Neo Contra than many of the series' hardcore fans will. The lack of side-scrolling missions will more than likely turn some hardcore fans off as it did to me at first, but I think once players stop dwelling on the Contra name that appears on the surface and just play the darn thing for what it is, they'll find a pretty solid action-shooter underneath.

Improving your hit rates, mission rankings, and completion times are some of the key elements that make Neo Contra so addicting and why I find the game more enjoyable every time I give it another play through, always striving for a better performance record as well as unlocking any remaining goodies.

Through it all I enjoyed Neo Contra a great deal despite some of the minor issues I have with certain aspects of the game, such as the lack of power-ups and the sometimes, troublesome angular perspective. But when it comes down to it, there were more than enough winning elements to keep Neo Contra from falling into the same rut as the PlayStation & Saturn Contra games.

Depending on your skill you're likely to blast your way through and unlock everything the game has to offer after a few plays. So if you're an old school Contra fan looking to experience more, Neo Contra is definitely worth a rental - just don't be too surprised at the lack of decent challenge.