Oh Contra. Some of my friends back in the day preferred Super Mario, others preferred Castlevania or Mega Man. No matter what our tastes, we could all get around Contra. It just nicely struck a chord with all of us.
Konami's laziness to blanket release Probotector across Europe, rather than just Germany always irked me, more so as the artwork for Contra actually came from Ocean's home computer port of the game in the UK which itself was totally uncensored.
I've always had the impression Konami was hardly alone in that regard. It seems like the fragmentary nature of the European market-lots of languages and laws to adapt to for relatively small populations vs. the U.S. or Japan-meant that a lot of non-European companies just tweaked things for the most restrictive market on the continent (usually Germany) and said, "good enough."
@@JeremyParish Almost certainly the case. Japanese companies and Nintendo in general had very little interest in the European market in the 80's, I think for understandable reasons you mention here. It wasn't at all uncommon for them to nope out at the slightest resistance. So I guess it's actually nice that Konami even bothered localizing Contra, as that was not remotely a slam-dunk to even happen.
What's amazing is that the Contra Anniversary Collection - as well as the other two 'Collections' released around that time - didn't originally include the Japanese ROMs. It took a lot of complaining from the community for them to get patched into the games. But hey, at least they're included now.
The upside of the lack of optimization in Probotector is that you can play it on an NTSC console/an emulator running in NTSC mode and have it play just as well as the US version--or even better, after factoring in the improvements made in the PAL version, as long as you don't mind the robot theme. Most PAL conversions are just stuck being bad PAL conversions, but Probotector's zero-effort approach means played correctly, it's still an NTSC, 60 Hz game. Not even Probotector II is so lucky.
@@TheSmart-CasualGamer I'm sure there are specific games and don't get me wrong, at the time I didn't know any better about the slower running games & music for a lot of ports but it was a big wakeup call playing the US Contra and Mega Man 2 for instance and hearing the games music at the correct tempo! :)
"Two color-coded muscle guys trade their shirts for assault rifles." :D Only in the '80s, am I right! In all seriousness, I love your wit. These videos are always such a treat and truly give me something to look forward to.
I love the improved weapons and boss fights in Super C. The only thing I miss is that multi-tier stage design. Compare the two games' jungle areas, for example.
Easily one of the best titles of the era and entertaining to pick up and play to this day. The amount of rental time I had with this and Super C was astonishing, the limited budget of a child meant purchase was a near impossibility. Still my dad was always up for some Contra and Punch Out so it was never difficult to convince him whenever we would be getting our general weekend movie rentals.
Regarding the static transitions; these have come a long way since their initial introduction and I’m happy with where they are at. The channel number was a nice touch and the sound is not loud and intrusive anymore. Nice work!
Great video! You know you can use the “R” rapid fire power-up in combination with the other power-ups to shoot them faster? I see you kept passing them up in your footage.
How many video games were inspired by the Alien movies? Besides Contra, there was also Metroid, Xenophobe, R-Type, Alien Syndrome, Alien Crush, Mega Turrican, etc.
I've always been a huge fan of this one. Many a Friday night was spent back in 1990 with my best friend running and gunning through this game. Frankly, I'm also not much of a fan of the arcade version. It's graphics look too busy by comparison.
It says a lot about the gaming community that after over 15 years of consuming retro gaming content this was the first time I heard about the origins of the contra name
@@Ayzklymbr I've tried that hundreds of times, but it never seems to work. I don't know if I'm inputting them incorrectly, too quickly, too slowly or in the wrong spot, but it never works.
I somehow never intellectualized that Konami was all about “legally distinct not quite plagiarism”. Contra, Castlevania, Snatcher, and Metal Gear are all basically a weekend of watching Cannon Films and Hammer Studios, with a dash of William Gibson.
One of the greatest games ever! As a kid, I didn't even know it was an arcade game, nor did I ever see the arcade game in the wild. I always wondered why the Contra 4 was the only way to replay it post NES..until the release of the collections last year. Never get tired of firing the game up for a quick run. Everything about the game is perfect...before knowing about the other uses of the konmai code, we called it the Contra code, lol. The most notable outside use of the code I remember using it for was in the GB turtles game.
But there's no guesswork involved in the bases in the arcade. There's a clear opening on one side, and a visible wall on the other. The arrows signify that you have to actually walk to the sides to get to the next room. Also, for you, the reader, the arcade version is definitely the more challenging of the two; when you change aiming angles, it gradually changes between the 8 main angles, being less rigid and instantaneous, so you kind of have to anticipate before aiming. It's overall a looser game, and definitely worth playing for Contra fans.
@@mortenera4423 I played it on DS with the Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits. It had DS Wireless play, letting the second DS be used as a controller, so you could stand the first DS on its side to get a vertical screen, and still control it (with negligible latency, so it was fine.)
I think everybody forgets that the giant head you destroy at the beginning of the final stage is Red Falcon's head, myself included. It's a good interpretation, but I think Red Falcon being a heart ties well with Gradius' final boss being a brain that similarly can't do anything.
As someone who's never seen Contra's arcade version (more specifically, someone who didn't know it even existed), seeing the comparisons here REALLY does show the difference. Everything about the NES version looks, feels, and sounds so much more superior.
The NES version really is a big improvement. The footage shown here doesn't really do the arcade game justice though -- the graphics look very washed out (due to emulation) and they shouldn't.
This was the first video game both me and my son played through together all the way to the end and yes I used the Konami code just so he could see the game all the way through. Me personally I can beat this without 30 lives no problem. Sadly my son passed away on Nov.12 , 2020 from liver failure he was 22.
One of the all time greats. I've completed the arcade and nes versions multiple times and without the code. Or even rapid fire. A shame all the later titles seem to remove the base levels for way lamer top down segments. Or become boss rush titles. Or both. Konami did it nearly perfect out of the gate.
I don't remember the bases in Arcade Contra being mazes, there's only one way you can actually move as indicated by the map above, the other is a wall. Contra had the alternative name Gryzor on some versions, any idea what's up with that?
I believe this was due to the sensitivity of the "Contra" name outside of the USA which Jeremy mentions in the video. I think the ZX Spectrum port went by Gryzor in the UK at the very least - it had the humanoid characters/levels so no need to name it Probotector, but I suppose they thought 'Contra' was poor taste and needed changed all the same. From what I also remember the first level boss was defenceless too- you just walked up and shot the weak point. Strange!
Really good video on Contra, an NES favorite that I certainly beat a few times using the Konami Code (I was never that good enough a player to make it past the first base using the standard 3 lives). I really ought to get Contra Anniversary Collection since I kinda do want to replay Contra and also give Super C a try. Yup, Konami in the late 1980s was synonymous with great NES games. And RC Pro AM on the next NES Works? Nice.
@@ValkyrieTiara which part don't you agree with? It being his favorite game (lol what? How/why would you disagree with someone proclaiming it's their favorite - as opposed to what I said in a comment, where I stated it's one of the greatest games of all time (now that's something you could actually disagree with/argue)) or this not being a great retrospective?
Going back to the greatness that Contra on the NES was makes me sad since Konami now is just a shell of the innovative developer they were back in those days!
It's a shame the game's visual flair had to be cut down so much for the western release, especially for such a would-be big hit. Most of the kids who played it back then will never know. But on the other hand, games like Jackal and Blades of Steel were super beefed up when they were brought over, so it evens out.
I didn’t discover Contra in the arcade until long after playing the NES version so I was confused. I liked the arcade graphics but the nes gameplay was what preferred.
Ha! I was just playing this (and Super C) with my younger cousin who never played these before. It's so funny how he can rip thru modern games in a couple of days, but he was terrible at this more simple game, its ACTUAL difficulty notwithstanding
I'll always have a soft spot for the Contra games even if I prefer the Metal Slug series as a whole and Sunset Riders over most individual Contra games. I spent a lot of time playing Contra with friends and family when I was young and Super C was the last game I played with dad before he died many years later.
I played Contra (Or Gryzor in Europe) on my father's old computer, and...it was crap, but I loved it anyway. Back in 2004 I found a copy of the NES version for cheap, and I bought it right away. Once inserted the cartridge, I was surprised. "What the hell? This isn't Gryzor" I said to myself, but I loved it more and more while playing
Great video! One of the greatest games of all time. Also, a note: you definitely want to pick up the "R" power-up, even if you have the spreader. It makes it even more effective, doubling its shot speed.
I found funny how the European NES port is actually an UPGRADE to the european version of the Arcade game, because for some reason the European GRYZOR is turn based 2 player
10:20 To be fair, Contra's arcade "mazes" had a map, which appears in your game footage. If you peeked at the map, you would never make a wrong turn. It was still a bizarre design decision in an arcade shooter, though. Not surprised Konami got rid of it in the NES port, and the sequels.
Playing games like this, Punch-Out, and Rygar at friends' houses is what got me to want an NES. I ended up getting one and later bought Castlevania based on screenshots from the Official Nintendo Player's Guide. Such an amazing time as a kid. I came to see the Konami logo as a sign of quality during that era and the 16-bit era.
_Soul Battle: Silk_ is undeniably an NES classic, though I’d say the sequel _Soul Battle: Velvet_ is the better entry. _Soul Battle: Cotton_ was fine, but it was all downhill from there - we don’t mention _Soul Battle: Wool._
I think the game has a lot more to do with Iran-Contra than you say here. Iran-Contra had a second half, the more important one that wasn't mentioned, that the money from the illegal weapons sales to Iran was used to directly fund the "contras" in Nicaragua, who were basically mercenaries hired by the CIA to overthrow the legitimately elected socialist/indigenous Sandanista government (hmm something similar went on in the last few years... lol... if these were laughing matters). So the setting of "Contra" being two buff white dudes fighting for America in the Central American jungles was a bit more than a coincidence, in my opinion. Of course, it would be a bit much to be completely literal, and Aliens was a big hit, so... the bad guys are aliens or something, despite fighting humans most of the game. Why it had to be that sickening topic (check out the details if you think I'm exaggerating) that ended up as the basis for such a great example of a well-made game from that era... it's a funny world.
Another possible reference to the conflict in Nicaragua was the name of the enemy in the video game: Red Falcon. The colour red is associated with communism. The Reagan administration portrayed the Contras' fight against the leftist Sandinistas as part of the struggle against communism. Another inspiration for the game Contra was the film Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), in which a shirtless, headband-wearing soldier fought communist forces in a jungle. Ironically, in the game Contra ReBirth the Galactic President who gives orders to the Contra team resembles Che Guevara.
I always wondered why you mow down humans (humanoids?) throughout the most of the game before engaging xenomorph and facehugger copyright infrigments in the last stage. Or are human terrorists co-operating with the aliens or keeping them to use as a weapon (which would become a plot point in Contra: Hard Corps)?
Great video all 'round and I laughed at the Macek bit. There's just one thing that irks me: the Code does not include the final start, in neither Contra nor Gradius.
The code really should *not* include the Start press. In Gradius, the code displays power-ups upon the "A" press. In Contra, after entering the code the player can decide 1P or 2P mode before starting. Interestingly enough, in Life Force, the Konami code is seen to operate exactly similar to Contra. This is in fact incorrect. The code is shortened to just Up Up Down Down B A. You can press the Left Right Left Right but it is unused.
@@karensmith7118 Whaaat! I just played Life Force recently, and it was still in my NES, so I just tried this to goggle at it! I was totally unaware... All my friends bitd would have loved to know this! They had trouble inputting the code quickly/accurately enough.(Well, me too, actually; after my experience w/the Code on Contra, I like never[extremely rarely, I guess] used it or other 'cheat' codes, so I was similarly clumsy and useless helping them try to enter it!) :-D They(me as well!) might've managed this shorter version w/out so many do-overs! Thanx for posting this! It is an interesting bit of info. Tho it oddly feels like 'cheating' to put in the 'cheat code' that way! :-)
Dumb argument that even predates the internet to host it: is part of the Konami code? I notice you included it in the video - and you are the scholar - but was that a conscious definitive statement you were making, or just the way you happened to say it?
Ahh, arguments over the Code. Memories... :-) Bitd, *everybody* I knew swore you had to hit BA twice in the Code. A dude at my game group disputed this, starting an unresolved controversy.(He was solidly buried under naysayers, but persisted..) Then, years later, I found out you didn't! Will apologize next time I see him!
Keep up the good work Parish. Despite the fact that I'm an NES nerd I still learn something in every one of your vids. That nugget about them tracing Arnold in two different stills from Predator is crazy. I mean I knew those games were loosely inspired by aliens/Arnold but didn't know to what degree. Guess Konami's other outfit, Ultra used the same stenciling prowess to juxtapose Kyle Reese from T1 onto the Metal Gear box art.
I remember the Konami code showing up in the most recent Hardy Boys book "Attack of the Video Game Villains" when I was kid. It wasn't called that, but it was the same thing - a massive cheat code, and it was fairly central to the plot.
Super C and Contra III: The Alien Wars are two of my all-time favorite Contra games. I do like Contra Rebirth, Contra, and Contra 4. Here’s hoping Contra 5 gets a release on the Nintendo Switch!
Contra 5 for Switch! Hell Yah! From your lips(keys/screen? :-)) to the Gaming Gods' ears(sense organs?)! In the meantime, try Blazing Chrome if you haven't already. Very Contra vibe.(with some Metal Slug influence) It's bad as all hell!
@@velarantube - “organs” 😂 😂 😂 I don’t know sales wise how Contra 4 did, but I know that Wayforward was responsible for the game. I hope the team that created Contra III: The Alien Wars makes Contra 5 if Wayforward cannot. Didn’t Konami make Contra Rebirth? I wasn’t a fan of the art style, but I’ve grown to love it. The particle & special effects in that game was great.
@@velarantube - Thanks for the advice, although I own Blazing Chrome. My friend put me on to it and I believe I either ordered it from Limited Run Games or I got it from Best Buy; can’t remember.
@@NYCJoeBlack Guessing the sales numbers on 4, Hardcorps: Uprising, and Rebirth weren't satisfactory to *them*, or we wouldn't've been punished by the recent 'Contra' title. I'd hoped 4 would put the series back on track... :-( Konami *published* Contra Rebirth for certain. Developed, not so sure. It was the odd one out in that series, what with Castlevania Rebirth being a colorized Castlevania: The Adventure and Gradius Rebirth a patchwork of previous Gradius titles(stages from here, weapons from there, bosses from the other..). Likely, a 3rd party did it. I thought the Rebirth games were simply getting the name of the series back out there rather than serious efforts, honestly. All three were OK at best, imo. Pretty sure the III Team is either retired by now or has left Konami. I don't think they make anything in-house anymore. Even Metal Gear(One of the only few franchises they seemed to care about somewhat recently) is outsourced, I believe. Hopefully Joymasher(the Blazing Chrome people) will have a huge hit, and they'll bear the torch!
@@velarantube - Hopefully or maybe Wayforward can hey the license again for a second attempt in the form of Contra 5 and maybe they can finally include four co-op play in the story mode that they quietly pulled from Contra 4. I still have the poster that features all four players.
Didn't know that myself until years later. Dropping the 'ontra' part was puzzling as hell to me and my friends as kids. The Super part was kinda weird, too. Why not Contra II/2? In college, a guy I was in (Cobol I? :-/)class with explained the 'Super' of the title meant it was *Super*ior to the original.(As awesome as the OG game was, this was plausible.) He couldn't satisfactorily explain the shortening of the main title of the game, tho... :-D
It’s a shame more people haven’t tried Contra 4 because of the platform it’s on. It’s probably one of the best co-op games on the DS and the sprite work is excellent.
Other than the co-op part, everything you said applies to Operation C as well. :-( Glad it made it into the Contra Classics Collection. Hopefully, 4 will get a similar treatment soon.
The dual screen is confusing, I remember playing Contra 4 for the first time and I got killed like an idiot on the first stage because I failed to notice a single bullet going from the upper screen. Still a fun game that references previous entries a lot.
14:28 "While the NES version of Contra was bizarrely inaccessible for years outside of an unlockable bonus feature in Contra 4, a Nintendo DS exclusive game..." Strange, because I bought a copy of Konami Collector's Series: Castlevania & Contra (5-game collection) at Toys R Us four years before the Nintendo DS even launched. I got a second copy at Big Lots for $9 a few years later. Still have it. It was PC CD-ROM software with emulated versions of the NES games. I also got a Hudson and Capcom games packaged in the same oddly-shaped PC CD-ROM game boxes, like Dino Crisis 2 and a Bomberman Collection that includes Bomberman '94. Still have all of them. :) Konami was easily the most well-represented in my stack with everything from Whiteout to Metal Gear Solid 2, which was the first PC DVD-ROM exclusive game title I recall from back then.
Right. That collection was released in 2002 and didn't stay in print terribly long. Between that release and last year's Contra collection, 17 years later, Contra 4 was the only other place the NES game appeared for purchase for a long time.
Many memories of playing this game at parties. It was THE two player game to have for the NES. Life Force/Salamander was a close 2nd, but space shmups never really had the macho vibe that Contra has. Years later, learning about the Iran Contra Affair in history class, almost the entire class knew the name from the game, but nothing about the event it was named after!
History? Wouldn't that really have been current events? I (born 1981) remember in my base US history classes in HS we only really got to Vietnam even if the book went all the way through to Clinton.
@@stevenglowacki8576 about the same age, so yes we did go into the 80s. They divided US history to two years in my school. First class was "US History to 1945" and the second class was "Contemporary America"
@@NJRoadfan That's a completely different focus than what my school did. We spent an entire year on European and eventually specifically English history leading up to the Revolution, and only one year on actual US history. It seems a bit strange to me to spend an entire year on things that your parents and grandparents would have direct knowledge of.
The best game NES at the time of release. Everybody wanted that game. I didn't get the game but my cousin had it so it was borrowed many times. Oh and, i watched my brother at the time play this game through without dying. I saw it with my own eyes. I even asked him for confirmation a couple of years ago cause that many years later i thought...maybe i misremember this stuff? But no, he did it. The thing is while it seemed like a accomplishment at the time, we didn'T feel like it was something super special either... In the decades since i realised that me, my brother and the couple of friends we had then, were pretty much elite level NES gamers.... just because we were children who spent the majority of their spare time playing NES. We were good without knowing it having not many people to measure our skills against (i come from a very small town). Even though personally i would rank myself as the worst player of our little group. But still if i saw my childhood self play NES today, i'm pretty sure i'D wonder if i am still the same person.
I didn't play the arcade version until it hit XBLA (a friend and I raced to see who could get that 1 credit clear achievement first) and I was struck by the differences. Even the waterfall boss is more interesting in the NES version, which was surprising. For people who have trouble with the arcade mazes, the game has a map at the top of them. It directs you which way to go with no issues.
I'll take the arcade version anyday. The bases were NOT mazes. You can only go one way. The opening is either on the right or left. I think I ruined 2 controllers raging on the home version. Proud to say I beat it well before we heard about the code. I loved giving my buddy a hard time because he needed the code to beat it. The home version made me yell f bombs at Easter, it's such an evil bastard.
@@JeremyParish I know it inspired the box art for Contra, but still. In my opinion, the closest inspiration for Bill Rizer is John Matrix from Commando.
You asked why people associate the two. The box art for one is traced from the other. That's it. That's why people make that association. Problem solved.
That's right. The box art is the reason people make that association. It's a pretty strong association: The key image for a popular game, right there on the front of box, making it the first thing you see when you saw Contra in the store, traced directly over the poster of a rising action movie star's blockbuster motion picture. Glad I could help you with your question!
@@BubblegumCrash332 fuck if i know... they dont show anything, and their voices are all sfx'ed out... i just remember docs poem and dirts screams... but i do love that his peyote come down medicine is booze and a turkey leg...dirty nyquil...
@@absolutezeronow7928 It's interesting how Robotech was edited together from three unrelated anime series, and yet it still managed to tell a more coherent story than Disney's Star Wars sequel trilogy.
And of course, there is “contra”ry information to the NTSC re-edit, with an OST track being named “Sandista”. As that very much a reference to the politics of the 1980s, it’s odd that such isn’t just an retranslation for the American market...
Contra was the definition of "videogames" for the longest time. Still remember seeing the new-model NES in my neighbour's (In India, we had clone NESs) and the original cartridge. For some reason, I can't find Contra III or Hard Corps as "fun" as the OG.
Yeah, man! And it still is! Only Super C was its equal! III, Hard Corps., or hell, even 4 just can't stack up to the awesomeness of the first two. Operation C had potential, tho.(lack of co-op takes it down, sadly.) I seem to remember the regional clone being the 'Pegasus'.(without checking.) Read about it, the Samurai, Comboy, and others in a Hardcore Gaming 101 post some years back. -Just looked- :-/ Totally wrong, your Famiclone was a Samurai, Terminator, 'Sega 8-bit' or perhaps another creatively named knock-off! This 8-bit market is still around in the Southern U.S. Pre-quarantine pandemic(January perhaps, memory isn't what it used to be.. :-)), a co-worker got a collection of NES games in a unit shaped like a N64 controller! Blazing Chrome is a modern contender for Contra spiritual successor. Hope you've given it a shot. It rocks!
I agree with you. The follow up games were exciting, and in their day they were more compelling, but as the years have passed I find myself only going back to the first NES version really, as it just hits all the marks without a need for all the extra applesauce. Looks great, sounds great, plays great, perfect balance.
Contra III and Hard Corps are fun but in a different way. The OG Contra is accessible to nearly everyone, it's not as hard as everyone says, but III and Hard Corps *will* brutalize every single newcomer in the first stage, only for them to discover that it's just the beginning and even more sick challenges lie ahead. This might be a turn-off for many.
Contra and Super C are two of those games that are just so much fun to try to master, to the point that you can go from a bumbling fool to achieving a run without losing a single life thanks to how much of the game design is focused on memorization.
I like Super C on NES more, but both are some of the best on the console. The fact I didn’t grow up with them and still enjoy the butt kickings they give me is a testament to how phenomenally designed they are. Also some of the best hit detection I’ve experienced in an NES game. A far cry from, just an example, Capcom’s early Mega Man games where things just cause damage because eh, they were close enough I guess.(I like Mega Man but the classics are far from flawless)
Personally, I’d say the original Mega Man is the only one with egregiously bad hit detection. The sequels aren’t nearly so bad. Imagine trying to get through Metal Man’s screw worm section in MM2 with MM1 hit detection…
@@JeremyParish Metal Man’s stage does have those spike chains that hit you even when the gap should be wide enough to run under. The series isn’t rotten with it, I agree, and seeing as 2 was a passion project and 3 was rushed, it’s amazing they came out mostly polished, but playing the Wily Wars remakes causes me to notice the NES versions’ awkward moments more.
