RANDOM GAME # 4
Also for: Luna, Playstation 4, Windows, Xbox One
[I'm reviewing the NES-version of Contra from the Contra Anniversary
Collection, as played on the Nintendo Switch]
I'm getting too old for this shit. I've slaved for far too long at a lousy,
physically demanding job in the Swedish Postal services, on rotating shifts,
and it has taken a toll on my mind and body. Years of labor and
recurring sleep deprivation often make me feel like I've aged ahead of time.
Now, having reached my forties and a bit beyond, I often get the sensation
that my stiff body can't keep up with my mind. My dexterity suffers for it. As
a gamer, this makes it impossible for me to face up to the demands of the
classic arcade difficulty. It's too fast for me. My instincts might tell me
that I'd better avoid this suicidal enemy or that incoming
bullet, but my body doesn't react in time. My reflexes and eye-hand
coordination aren't what they used to be.
Praise be to Konami, then, for releasing the
Contra Anniversary Collection, which adds a save-anywhere-you-like
feature to their classic, typically "Nintendo hard"-series. Some might call it
cheating, but for people like me it's nothing less than an accessibility
option. Believe me, I've tried Contra the proper way, but I just don't think I
can beat it. After a lot of sporadic practice, I haven't even gotten to the
halfway mark.
But by utilizing the save feature, I can finally say that I'm able to see the
end scene and credits. Yay, what a relief. Or is it?
I guess everyone and their grandmother knows about this game already, so let
me get the basics out of the way. Contra is a 2D-sidescrolling platformer,
playable as a single-player or a two-player campaign of eight levels (on the
NES). It takes place on Earth in a distant future. The evil Red Falcon
Organization have set up a base around a crater in an archipelago outside New
Zealand. You're sent to wipe out the alien invaders who control the Red
Falcons from their lair in the center of the impact zone.
When I say the game is hard, that's true in every conceivable way. Even rating
it is hard, because it's such a two-faced game. I should warn you beforehand:
This won't be a review in the traditional meaning of the word. My thoughts on Contra in this text are more like ruminations on difficult games in general.
Contra is impeccable in both its presentation and gameplay design. The controls
are incredibly responsive and intuitive, the scrolling is smooth, and the
level design is varied and imaginative. I love the way the first
side-scrolling jungle stage transitions into a third-person view inside the
enemy base, and then becomes a vertical scroller on the waterfall stage. The
game keeps reinventing itself like that with every new level, and sometimes in
the middle of a level as well. And through it all it keeps the same core
control scheme. The bosses are cool and tough, but fair. The music is insanely
catchy. I've caught myself humming the jungle theme many times in the last few
days.
But then we have the accessibility problem. Dying is too easy, and the
punishment too hard. More specifically, you die in one hit and lose all your
weapon upgrades, making it insanely tough to get back on the winning track.
You only get three lives at the start of the game, with extra lives added at
certain scores. You only get three credits to retry a stage from the beginning
after you lose all lives. Losing all lives and credits means starting
the entire game over. No wonder that the jungle theme is the one stuck on my
brain - it's the first level.
The enemy swarms the screen. Enemy soldiers appear from all over; from left,
right, below and above. They hide in the bushes and snipe you from ledges in
every direction. Cannons appear from hatches in the rock wall and track your
every move. The occasional rocket salvo restricts your safe spaces and
sometimes split into several exploding fragments. Everything that moves kills
you (well, almost). One stage springs traps everywhere you go.
Simply put: Your mind is on constant alert, overheating, always aware,
stressed out... You need to pay attention to every part of the screen at all
times. Even nature itself works against you. Rocks keep falling on the
waterfall stage. If you fall off the screen you die, even if a ledge should
logically exist just below the bottom edge.
The only things working in your favor are the weapon pickups. Your starting
peashooter plain sucks, but by shooting certain objects you can find the
almighty spreadshot, a lazer, a machine gun or a flamethrower. The spreadshot
is simply sublime, the other ones are best for situational use. One particular
item increases your rate of fire and yet others turn you briefly invincible.
You can fire in eight directions, although for some reason you have to jump in
order to shoot straight down. And some enemies are able to aim in at least
sixteen different directions.
The added possibility to save your game anywhere removes the major difficulty
hurdle - the constant need to start over from scratch - but comes with a big
catch: It turns the game into a ho-hum platforming shooter, that also feels
way too short. I can still see the expertise in the design, but the
possibility to save and reload removes all tension, and like it or not - the
tension is a crucial part of the Contra experience.
I guess you must have experienced something like it to understand. It's the
euphoria of beating impossible odds; of learning enemy attack waves, traps and
patterns; of mastering every jump; of getting the right weapon upgrade for the
right situation. I learned to love it through the Soulslike formula in the
shape of the original Demon's Souls for the PS3.
Every minute you spend in one of these hard but well-made games builds tension and emotion. Beating the final boss or reaching a point of permanent progression triggers a moment of catharsis that's impossible to describe. It's simply pure bliss. Using the Contra save feature removes the possibility to reach that catharsis.
Contra is a short game. Theoretically, I should be able to memorize every
attack wave and trap. I should be able to learn what pickups work best at
every location. I should be able to beat every boss properly, because their
patterns are pretty simple. But with several hundreds of games still left
untouched in my backlog I'd have to ask myself if the time investment is worth
it? If I play Contra for weeks upon weeks and finally beat it, what have I
gained? A short moment of bliss and the right to brag about it later?
I'm not sure it's worth it.
When it comes to retro games I've grown to accept my fate as an archaeologist,
rather than a hardcore gamer. I've now experienced every part of Contra
firsthand, albeit not the legit way. And I kinda like it. I would even say
that I admire its design, especially considering its age. But the admiration
is intellectual, and the game isn't designed to be intellectually engaging. It's
meant to engage you by the way it grabs you by the balls.
But can I ever reach that sweet climax of beating the game, even if I learned
all the fixed enemy placements and all the attack patterns? The game still
throws random (or timed?) respawning enemies at you at many locations. So no
matter how well you memorize everything, it's still a matter of playing
flawlessly. All you can do is maximize your chances of survival. No guarantees
exist.
That's my short assessment of the NES Contra experience, as it exists on the
Contra Anniversary Collection. If I played the game again, I'd have to try it
the old-fashioned way, and I suppose I would only like it better if I beat it
fair and square, without any crutches. So here's my controversial take on the
whole affair: Giving me the option to easily beat Contra does not make
it a better game. It turns a possibly great experience into a generic exercise
in admiring great design with no emotion behind it. It's informative but not
particularly engaging, as if I'm dissecting the game rather than playing it.
So take it from someone who cares about these things: Let the hardcore games
stay hard, and if you cannot beat it, get better or learn to live with the
regret of not playing it sooner.
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