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A great addition to the Contra series

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Publisher Konami and developer WayForward did a great job of making this game feel like a natural sequel to Contra III. From familiar sound effects and familiar weapons to bosses and level design reminiscent of previous Contra games, Contra 4 will put you right back the Contra mindset.

The game comes packed with a ton of content. In addition to Arcade Mode, which is the standard Contra game, there are 40 challenges (unlockable by beating arcade mode on any difficulty setting) where a player must do things like maintain a certain accuracy or fire no shots for a portion of a level. Finishing a certain number of challenges unlocks the original NES Contra and Super C for play as well, although the emulation quality of these isn't so great. There are several other additional unlockable features like an interview with the series creator and additional characters to play as.

The game feels most like Contra III, in that the levels are very detailed and there are several great "set pieces." It also borrows Contra III's weapon switching system. It adds weapon upgrading, where obtaining the same weapon twice makes it stronger. It also adds two screen play. Action takes place on both screens, so a player must pay attention to both at once. This can be annoying as the spot where the hinge on the DS is creates a blind spot, though doing that is certainly better than ignoring the hinge area entirely and having players be unable to correctly judge how projectiles will move between the screens.

The game also borrows from Contra III in its difficulty. Contra III was significantly more difficult than Contra and Super C and Contra 4 follows that trend. Additionally, there is no 30-life code. This difficulty means that many people will be frustrated with the game, even on its easiest difficutly.

Contra 4 is a worthwhile purchase for anyone with nostalgia for the Contra games of old, or for any who want a challenging action game.

What is happening to video games these days?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm only 24 years old, and to the video game world I must be a senior citizen at this point. This is just a fair warning to those looking for a cool DS game...

Now I was so happy to see a side-scrolling action game for the DS (Especially Contra!!) as 3D games tend to get me a little frustrated... But any 3D game out there has not made me NEARLY as frustrated as this game made me (with the exception of Metroid Prime for GameCube). It is unbelievably, painstakingly difficult, even on EASY. I sometimes wonder who these people are who can actually sit down and complete a game like this while having a good time. Kudos to you talented gamers, but I guess shame on me for being an average gamer... And not only is this game darn near impossible, if you want to save and play it later you end up having to use 1 of your very precious continue's... What were the developers thinking? "hmmmm, how can we seriously irritate the gamer even more so... I have an idea! Let's punish them for not sitting through the entire game from start to finish!"

But hey... Maybe it's just me... I'm just glad they made cheat codes for this one (the same code as for the NES also!) otherwise I would have been very upset with this purchase

Good luck with this game it's a tough one!

Classic game, dressed up...a little

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Contra stuck pretty close to early games. If you can remember play the old nintendo games you will know that they are not "easy" like many of the games today. For instance, get hit once or touched once in this game, you die. I thought the dual screen might help expand the game, but found is was more distracting than helpful. If you risk a glance up at the top screen looking for the weapon upgrades flying by, something will pop out from somewhere and kill you. It does have some neat extras and bonuses and If you are not looking for some long involved adventure quest; then this is a great game to have in your library.

it too difficult

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've played it for 2 hours and I still can't beat the first level. The new guns are cool but spready is still the best, especailly double spready. Could someone post the code for 30 lives? That would be a big help.

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