Thursday, February 5, 2009
Contra III: Old School Shoot 'em Up
Contra III: The Alien Wars is the third installment of the popular Contra series and was the first to be released on the SNES. Like it's predecessors, Contra III is a side-scrolling shooter that relies heavily on its addictive, fast-paced game-play to keep the player entertained. The issues of a storyline and character development take a backseat to the thrills provided by rampaging through each level with your automatic machine gun and its unlimited supply of ammunition, blowing away anything unlucky enough to cross your path.
I loved this game as a kid because you could pop the catridge into your SNES and be blasting away at aliens in less than 30 seconds. There was no load time, no cut scenes, no tutorials; nothing that attempted to cut down on the action. You pressed start and immediately found yourself in the middle of a war of the worlds.
Sort of like this, but with machine guns.Like I said, Contra III is a side-scrolling shooter, which basically means you move your character to the right until there are no more bad guys to kill. If you want to get technical about it, you could argue that you are in fact fighting to save humanity from the invading alien forces who, it would be safe to assume, are here to enslave mankind, destroy our cities, and generally be huge pains in the neck. In my opinion this storyline simply gets in the way of what the kids who are playing the game really want to do: Shoot guns and see things explode. That's it. They really don't need to be told why they must launch all these missiles, toss all these grenades, and set so many things on fire. They just want to be handed a bazooka and be told, "Go get 'em."
"Billy, we're shooting those guys because th-- Oh, nevermind. Have fun."Now, the one strike that Contra III has against it (and this is true for the entire Contra franchise) is the game's insane level of difficulty. I have honestly never played a more entertaining and addictive, yet more mind-numbingly frustrating game in my entire life.
You start with three lives. That's it. And if you are hit just one time, in any part of your body, you die. Get hit three times and you have to start the level all over again. Now, I don't know if the game's creators intentionally made it so incredibly hard to beat, or if they simply underestimated the skill level of the game's target audience, but I have never even come close to beating this game. There are rumors out there that the game only has six levels, but I doubt anyone has ever seen them all. Personally, I usually run out of lives somewhere between the end of the level 1 and the middle of level 2. In fact, I have only seen pictures of the bosses for levels 2-6. The only boss I have ever faced and beaten is the turtle/alien/skeleton boss from level 1, and even he was no cake walk.
You start with three lives. That's it. And if you are hit just one time, in any part of your body, you die. Get hit three times and you have to start the level all over again. Now, I don't know if the game's creators intentionally made it so incredibly hard to beat, or if they simply underestimated the skill level of the game's target audience, but I have never even come close to beating this game. There are rumors out there that the game only has six levels, but I doubt anyone has ever seen them all. Personally, I usually run out of lives somewhere between the end of the level 1 and the middle of level 2. In fact, I have only seen pictures of the bosses for levels 2-6. The only boss I have ever faced and beaten is the turtle/alien/skeleton boss from level 1, and even he was no cake walk.
"If you think I'm tough, wait til you see the next boss. . .not like you ever will."
At one point during the first level the gamer is forced to climb over a flaming abyss, using what appears to be a set of monkey bars (like I said, the storyline is insignificant), while simultaneously fighting off an oncoming hoard of winged aliens. As a kid I always had a hard time timing my jumps to kill the invaders, avoid the leaping fireballs, and land unharmed on the small patch of safe ground. The idea that the game's creators expected us to be able to do all that, fight a few more waves of enemies, and then destroy a tank - which practically takes up the entire screen - with only a single machine gun, and all in just three lives, is laughable. And remember, that's just the first level.
Here's an example of what I mean:
As far as shooters go, Contra III is as good as it gets if you're simply looking to disengage yourself from reality and have some fun. This shoot 'em up presents its players with non-stop action to go along with some pretty impressive visuals and sounds (for its time anyway). It offers exactly what kids are looking for in a game, or at least what I was looking for.
Simply put, even though the game lacks any real storyline, is unbelievably frustrating, and even sometimes downright infuriating, it keeps people coming back for more. If you are looking for a game that will allow you to take a mental vacation while also guaranteeing to keep your pulse racing, this is definitely one you should check out.
At one point during the first level the gamer is forced to climb over a flaming abyss, using what appears to be a set of monkey bars (like I said, the storyline is insignificant), while simultaneously fighting off an oncoming hoard of winged aliens. As a kid I always had a hard time timing my jumps to kill the invaders, avoid the leaping fireballs, and land unharmed on the small patch of safe ground. The idea that the game's creators expected us to be able to do all that, fight a few more waves of enemies, and then destroy a tank - which practically takes up the entire screen - with only a single machine gun, and all in just three lives, is laughable. And remember, that's just the first level.
Here's an example of what I mean:
As far as shooters go, Contra III is as good as it gets if you're simply looking to disengage yourself from reality and have some fun. This shoot 'em up presents its players with non-stop action to go along with some pretty impressive visuals and sounds (for its time anyway). It offers exactly what kids are looking for in a game, or at least what I was looking for.
Simply put, even though the game lacks any real storyline, is unbelievably frustrating, and even sometimes downright infuriating, it keeps people coming back for more. If you are looking for a game that will allow you to take a mental vacation while also guaranteeing to keep your pulse racing, this is definitely one you should check out.
Contra III's final boss . . . or so they say. No one knows for sure.
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