Contra 4 Review

Story
The plot is set in 2638, two years after the events of Contra III and three years before the events of Contra: Hard Corps. With the Red Falcon lost to foreign threats and Alien War is completed, the earth is peaceful once again. However, the same alien entity who calls himself the Black Viper began launching attacks against humanity, causing mass destruction on the planet. After the strange readings were detected in the archipelago Galuga (setting the original Contra), the Federation of Earth send their strongest four Contra Force Command at the end of the strike mission to destroy the Black Viper and his army of aliens, robots, and mutants.

Contra 4 is based on the continuity of the Japanese canon, adapted to the English localization series with the release of Contra: Shattered Soldier. However, game producers took some liberties with the canon established by integrating the elements of the American localization of the older games, so combining the two versions together. Alien Black Viper was originally only mentioned in the manual of North American Operations C, while the original plot of the game (released only as the "Contras" in Japan) is about an unnamed superpower create new weapons using foreign cells. In the timeline presented in the manual and the official sites, events are interpreted as C Operating previous mission "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion" - two new characters created specifically for Contra 4, against Black Viper. In fact, "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion" is the name used for the Bill and Lance to the North American NES game (see section playable characters for details). In addition, Operation C was originally a solo mission Bill Rizer (because the game is the only player).


Gameplay
Contra 4 is based on the same 2D gameplay system featured in the series through Contra III: Alien Wars, ignoring the many game mechanics introduced in the next game as a weapon configuration remained in the Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra, back to the old method of taking power-up icons to get a new weapon. Control plays similar to Contra III, including the ability to hold two guns in stock. This action covers both screens of the Nintendo DS system and the hook can be used by the player character to latch onto the fence, which allows the player character to move from one screen to another. Similarly to the arcade version of Super Contra, players can take the same power-up twice, giving them an improved version of the same weapon. Players can also throw power-ups, allowing them to try new weapons without losing previously.

In addition to the standard view of the stage, there is also a tunnel similar to the two-stage phase "3D view" of the original Contra, where the perspective shifts back behind the character. Actions in this stage is shown only on the top screen, while the bottom screen used to display the map stage and location of power-ups. In addition to using both screens, Contra 4 does not make use of DS specific features' such as a touch screen (in addition to navigating the main menu), microphone, or multiplayer mode.


Music

Music and sound effects are handled by well-known videogame music remixer Jake Kaufman, who also arranged for Shantae and established gaming music remixed VGMix site. The soundtrack consists of several musical settings of the previous Contra games as well as many new materials. When the Arcade Mode is played on hard settings, set the version of the Jungle theme of the original Contra music is played instead of the standard stage. Jungle theme standard is actually an enhanced version of the song "Contra style" chiptune Kaufman previously posted on the website, called "Vile Red Falcon".