Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:
Super Contra - Alien no Gyakushuu (c) 1988 Konami.
The sequel to "Contra" - released a year earlier - is set in the year 2634 and begins with the disturbing news that the alien invaders from the first game - a race known as the Red Falcon - have renewed their attack on Earth and have infiltrated military bases and possessed most of the federation forces troops.
The heroes of the first games - Bill Rizer and Lance Bean - are once again called upon to defend the Earth and defeat the alien invaders.
Super Contra plays identically to its predecessor, with the usual mix of run-and-gun gameplay. The main difference is that the into-the-screen stages of the original Contra have been replaced with overhead stages. In addition, power-up icons are now represented as the actual weapons wielded by the characters, instead of the traditional letter-based falcon icons and players can now upgrade their weapon by picking it up twice in a row.
Another new gameplay addition is that players can now control the height of their jump; holding the joystick up and pressing the jump button allows for a higher jump; likewise the player can perform low jumps by holding down-right or down-left while pressing the jump button.
The available weapons are as follows:
* Machine Gun - Fires bullets at auto-fire. The upgraded version increases the firing rate to a near-ridiculous speed.
* Bomb Launcher - Fires bombs that spread fire when they hit their target. The upgraded version causes bigger explosions.
* Laser Rifle - Fires a powerful laser beam once per shot. The upgraded version fires a larger beam.
* Spread Shot - Fires a three-way shot. Increases to a five-way spread after the upgrade.
* Mega Shell - Available only in the top-view stages. After picking it up, players can launch it by pressing the jump button and kill all on-screen enemies.
Super Contra's five stages are:
* Area 1 - Outer Base (side-view) - A military base overrun by possessed soldiers. Bosses include a manned tank and a possessed helicopter. At the end of the level, players must destroy a core protected by a pair of snipers and a grenade thrower to gain entrance to the next area.
* Area 2 - Inner Base (top-view) - A tank hanger filled with manned tanks and cannons, in addition to enemy soldiers. The end-of-level boss is the Hyper Electric Magnetic Tank Magnus, which is manned by three gunners.
* Area 3 - Jungle (side-view) - Enemies come from trees as players progress through the level. The heroes will sometimes have to cross a lake, and players can duck into it to avoid enemy fire. Towards the end of the level, the heroes are faced with alien eggs that produce facehugger-like creatures (the same ones featured in the original game). The end-of-level boss is an alien shrine with a skull.
* Area 4 - 1st Alien Lair (side-view) - This takes place inside an alien nest. The enemies are now xenomorph-like creatures and mutant mouths that shoot alien spawns. The sub-boss is an alien hovercraft composed of skulls, while the end-of-level boss is a flying alien.
* Area 5 - 2nd Alien Lair (top-view) - The final stage, filled with mouths emerging from the ground, flying heads and spider-like creatures. The final boss is Gaver, a giant alien head with snake-like arms.
- TECHNICAL -
Game ID : GX775
Main CPU : Konami (@ 3 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), Konami K007232 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Fire, Jump
- TRIVIA -
Super Contra was released in January 1988 in Japan
The subtitle of this game, Alien no Gyakushuu, translates from Japanese as 'Alien's Counterattack'.
Export releases:
"Super Contra [Model GX775]".
Note: The kanji on the title screen actually reads 'Kon To Ra', meaning 'Soul Big Dipper Gauze'. This is an example of 'gikun', where Japanese artists use the phonetic value of a character to determine the game's name and not the meaning of the character itself.
King Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Music From Super Contra & Ajax - K30X-7702) on March 21, 1988.
- SERIES -
1. Contra (1987)
2. Super Contra - Alien no Gyakushuu (1988)
3. Contra III - The Alien Wars (1992, Nintendo Super Famicom)
4. Contra - Hard Cops (1994, Sega Mega Drive)
5. Contra - Legacy of War (1996, Sony PlayStation)
6. C: The Contra Adventure (1998, Sony PlayStation)
7. Shin Contra (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
8. Neo Contra (2004, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Contra - Dual Spirits (2008, Nintendo DS)
- STAFF -
Written & Directed By : Hideyuki Tsujimoto (H. Tsujimoto)
Assistant Director : K. Wada
Associate To Directors : S. Fujiwara, T. Koudo
Production Sound Mixer : Yousuke Uno
Music Editors : Kazuki Muraoka, Motoaki Furukawa
Art Director : Kengo Nakamura
Set Director : N. Sugita
Titles : H. Takatani, N. Ishii
Makeup Supervisor : M. Moriyama
Conceptual Artist : T. Jinbo
Electronics Designer : K. Hashima
Publicity Supervisor : F. Shibuya
Still Photographer : J. Tanaka
Translator : K. Hayashi
Produced By : Koji Hiroshita
- PORTS -
* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (feb.2, 1990) [Model KDS-UE]
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [JP] (jul.25, 2007) "Xbox Live Arcade"
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (feb.12, 2008) Famicom version
[JP] Nintendo DS (mar.13, 2008) "Contra: Dual Spirits [Model NTR-P-YCTJ (RY079-J1]"
[JP] Nintendo DS (mar.12, 2009) "Contra: Dual Spirits [Konami the Best] [Model NTR-P-YCTJ (RY079-J2)]"
NOTE: The game is featured as unlockable bonus content on the Nintendo DS.
- CONTRIBUTE -
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