Contra 4 / Eurogamer
“It’s nostalgia that binds me to the Contra series. Since I first played ‘Gryzor’ in a caravan park’s amusement arcade in the late ’80s I’ve been a fan of the series, enjoying a great Amstrad CPC port, the brilliant 16-bit Probotector titles and then gritted my teeth through 13 years of terrible Contra games.Thankfully, Contra 4 has been produced by California-based Wayforward Technologies (developer of Sigma Star Saga and, er, Ping Pals) with an eye on faithfully recreating the feel of the original Contra titles. They’ve succeeded in doing so, but whether that’s truly a good thing or not is debatable.”
I wish I liked Contra 4 more than I do, but once I wrote the review I put it down and haven’t picked it back up again. On normal difficulty it just feels unfairly hard rather than a rewarding challenge, which (for me) is a stark difference from previous Contra titles.
I came a bit late to Contra. I first played it on Xbox Live and was thoroughly underwhelmed.
The best classic shooter I ever played was Ikari Warriors on a mate’s old Atari ST. Brilliant vertical scrolling shooter.
With the exception of the Metal Slug series I’ve never been all that excited by platform shooters.
Comment by Ewan Aiton — January 15, 2008 @ 5:42 am