Virtual Console Review: Contra III

System: SNES
Genre: Run & Gun
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Virtual Console Release: January 29, 2007 (USA)  / January 19, 2007 (EU) / January 16, 2007 (JPN)
Original Release: April 6, 1992 (USA) / November 19, 1992 (EU) / February 28, 1992 (JPN)
Cost: 800 points
Players: 1-2
Rated: E (Everyone)

What is it with aliens in Contra games? Humans never seem to be able to sip tea and crumpets with these extra terrestrials. They always gotta come down to planet Earth with an attitude. Their first order of business in Contra III: The Alien Wars is nuking an entire city. As Bill Rizer and Lance Bean said, "It's time for revenge," and we will most definitely be attacking those guys "aggressively."

After blowing up a city this guy shows up to troll about it. Jerk.

As is the case with other Contra games, your ultimate goal is to take back Earth from the alien invaders. The first level drops you in the ruins of a destroyed city, shooting your way through ground soldiers, alien dogs and even has you manning a tank! It really gets your blood pumping and is a fantastic way to start out the game.

"Welcome to Earth!"

Four of the game's six stages are 2D side scrollers with the other two being played and viewed from a top down perspective, a bit similar to that of Super C. In the side scrolling stages, you shoot your way through the stage to face off against the stage boss. In the top down levels you have to eliminate five targets before gaining access to the stage boss. You're also given the option of choosing your starting point on these stages. If you're playing a 2 player game and choose game A, these top down levels will be played in split screen mode, which is great for covering more ground. 2 player game B keeps both players together. For extra added freedom, you can use the L and R buttons to rotate your character and even fire both guns at once. Huzzah!

Remember this guy? He was the final boss in the original Contra.
That whole take-over-Earth business didn't go down so well so
he was regulated to sub-boss status here.

No matter whether you're playing the side scrolling levels or the top down stages, the action in Contra III is relentless. You face danger at every turn, are attacked from all sides and every stages is packed with several sub bosses, some big enough to be the level boss. You need quick reflexes to survive in the world of Contra III. On easy the game isn't too tough but you'll probably lose some lives in the later stages. Playing on normal and hard gives the sub bosses and stage bosses more attacks and throws even more waves of enemies at you. If you want any type of true ending to this game, finishing it on hard is required but if you don't mind a simple congratulations, then play it on anything other than hard. You can crank the number of lives to seven in the options menu (highly recommended) and the higher the difficulty you choose, the more continues you're granted.

This Terminator-themed bosses is one of the best in the game.
He breathes fire, shoots homing lasers and is equipped with
nasty detonator bombs. Even the way he dies is stylish! 

As difficult as Contra III can get you are thankfully give what is arguably the best arsenal in the Contra series to defend yourself with. Your default machine gun is actually pretty handy, though you'll no doubt want to pick up one of the five guns you see through out the game. The flame thrower, while short in range is quite powerful. Homing missiles lock onto enemies, great if you don't feel like aiming your shots. The fan favorite spread is actually the weakest of the five weapons, but covers the most firing range of any of the guns. The laser  is insanely powerful and will pierce through sub bosses like butter but it's attack line is extremely narrow. Crush missile is an excellent gun to have in any situation, exploding when they collide with enemies, casing massive damage. You can carry up to two guns at once but when you lose a life, whatever weapon you were using at the time goes bye-bye so if you're know you're about to bite it, you might want to switch guns. Finally, there's the smart bomb. With these, you're limited to the number you can carry but the damage caused fills the entire screen, sweet for getting rid of those pesky mooks and putting some hurt on bosses as well.

The first top down level of the game.

Despite it's run & gun nature, Contra III has some varied level designs and bosses to keep things fresh. In addition to the top down levels, there's an awesome motor cycle stage that has you offing aliens passing over you on hover bikes and climaxes with you riding shooting missiles to destroy an alien warship that's been giving you grief about halfway through the level. The third stage has you fighting a sub boss over a bottomless pit with a rotating bar for you to hang onto and immediately after that comes another sub bosses which is fought while scaling a huge wall. Once you get to a certain point, the boss pulls a top and bottom portion of the wall out with spikes on both ends. The boss then proceeds to try and crush you while his weak point is exposed. Contra III is the very definition of the term "thrill ride."

Bill and Lance are so awesome that they can hang on to flying
missiles and it doesn't have to make sense how they can do it.

Even though it was one of the earliest SNES games, Contra III is still a marvel to look at. Destroyed cities are dark and haunting, with the best example being the third stage where smoke from several destroyed buildings fills the sky with blackness. There's also some highly impressive mode 7 effects in the top down stages, most notable being the boss of the second level, a giant, robotic spider that tries to crush you after its takes enough damage. The war-themed soundtrack is every bit as good if not better than the visuals. Rather than play it safe and just give the music from Contra and Super C the 16-bit audio treatment (the only tune that received that was the stage clear jingle), Konami went all out with brand spanking new music. The track that plays in the first level, actually titled "It's Time For Revenge", gets you stoked to shoot anything that moves. On the third stage, the tune "Battle Runner" plays in the background and perfectly matches the scenery of the destroyed city and black sky, illustrating both visually and audio-ably how badly those aliens have wrecked our planet.

Contra III is often praised as the pinnacle of the Conta series. Later Contra titles like Contra: Hard Corps, Contra: Shattered Soldier and Contra 4 have all been splendid Contra entries, but Contra III is Contra perfection, ranking as one of the best games of the 16-bit era and one of the best run and gun games. Download this now.




Screen shots from Gamepro.com.


Take it Easy in Japan
Known as Contra Spirits in Japan, the Japanese version of Contra III features infinite continues regardless of the difficulty setting. In addition, the game also uses the Konami Code to give the player 30 lives. There's also a code to select any stage in the game and listen to the game's music via sound test (remember when nearly every game had that option?) The American and European versions have no such codes or infinite continues, making an already tough game that much more difficult. It certainly wasn't the last time Konami did something along these lines with a Contra game outside of Japan. The Japanese version of Contra: Hard Corps originally had a life bar allowing up to three hits before you perished along with unlimited continues. European and American gamers were of course, screwed.