Glutton for Punishment
The game starts off easy enough, but by the time you manage to make your way through the first level, it’s not an unusual thing to find yourself down a few lives. The problem is you only have a few to begin with. And by a few I mean– you can only die three times before you are forced to restart the level.
Contra can become quite difficult when the enemies constantly respawn – they pop out nowhere. There is no shortage of things trying to murder you. Of course, you can gain another life bar by defeating enough enemies. Depending on how good you are at the game, it is possible to make it through all the levels with the original life bar.
If a player gets hit three times, (without gaining any extra life) he or she is sent to a game over screen. This wouldn’t be so bad if players were given unlimited continues, but they are given a very small amount. If there are no more continues, players have to start back up at the very beginning.
The Konami Code: What’s The Password?
How was it possible to even beat this game back in the day? Well, if players managed multiple attempts, eventually they could master a game like this. On the other hand, anyone could just use the legendary Konami Code. Yes – Contra is one of the first games ever to feature this hidden treasure. If a player enters the code as the starting screen scrolled across, instead of starting with three lives, players would have 30. In addition to extra lives, if gamers still found the stages too difficult, they could retry the stage rather than starting over from the beginning.
Contra: A Game Worth Dying For
No matter how simple the design or the plot is for Contra, it is still one the most enjoyable games to pick up again and again. There have been re-releases and sequels, but this one is still the best. While not revolutionary in any way, Contra reminds us that games don’t need fancy graphics or a deep plot to be a whole lot of fun.
Oh yah! Click here to watch some kids have fun and fail at Contra.
