#20 - Contra


Technically, there are far superior games in the series like Contra 3, Hard Corps (the Genesis one) and Shattered Soldier, but I've always loved this game more than I ever will any of the rest. Contra, for the two or three people who know nothing about it, is a series where two guys run through cities or through an island base to destroy the alien race known as the Red Falcon. So expect plenty of running and gunning. Oh, and expect to die often your first time playing, because Contra is best known for bombarding you with enemies. Even the original, which is tame compared to 3 and Hard Corps, can sometimes get overkill with its barrage of soldiers.

Why do I like this more? Because it has just the perfect difficulty. I've always felt that the other games get suffocating at times, requiring quite a lot of association and reaction. Here though, it's perfect. You're not forced to constantly look around for like 500 soldiers rushing in at the speed of the mother*bleep*ing Flash to *bleep* you up - it's just about looking around to find some soldiers. Really though, this is what separates this from its sequels (the PS1 games don't exist) - that, and it doesn't have as many different weapons and only one path (Hard Corps has four selectable characters and Shattered Soldier has multiple endings). But even then, this is the go-to Contra game for me, simply because while the others appear more exciting, this has the right difficulty for me. The rest are if I feel like playing harder and more intense games, although they're more of a mood thing for me. Well, 3, I can also play any time, but I prefer the first game.

By the way, *bleep* Super C, that game is literally just "oh hey here's ten thousand soldiers with no rhyme or reason, *bleep* actual difficulty!"

Summary - One of the finest action movies on the NES.
Rating - 9/10

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