Posted by Martin Watts on Monday, October 10, 2011 ? Leave a Comment?
No, You Did Not Just Shoot That Green S!#@ At Me!
Here it is. The grandaddy (well, the grandson of the grandaddy) of insanely hard games. Super Probotector: Alien Rebels, or Contra III: The Alien Wars as it?s known to the majority of you. Unfortunately, I?m lumbered with the inferior PAL version that switches the bad ass, machine gun-wielding dudes Jimbo and Sully for two lame robots. How it sucks to be European at times.
Anyone who has played Contra III will know why it?s featured here in Tough as Nails. To put it bluntly, it?s a rather sadistic affair. In fact, all the Contra games are pretty evil when it comes to the difficulty setting. Whichever programmer at Konami thought it would be funny to label the lowest difficulty setting as ?easy? should be taken out back and whipped repeatedly. This game is cruel. Contra III is more than just a game, it?s a life lesson. And the lesson is that you will always die in the end. Over and over again.
The Future is Painful
What is Contra III and what makes it so ridiculously tough to warrant my written moanings? Well, it?s a run and gun game from 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The third part of the Contra series was special, because it was the first time we saw Contra in glorious 16-bit form, not that the Game Over screen looks particularly striking as a result (it is what you?ll spend most of your time looking at though).
Konami was at the top of its game when it came to arcade-style games or ports for home systems. That same year also saw the release of the brilliant, albeit considerably easier Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time. And this is the key thing to remember here. Despite being harder than a rhino?s arse, Contra III is actually a very good game. The SNES? Mode 7 technology really enhances the gameplay with its interactive backgrounds and top-down run and gun missions that add a nice bit of variety. Everything is a bit clearer, not that it matters of course ? that incoming bullet or rocket is destined to hit you no matter how hard you try.
Contra III isn?t one of those games that?s so complex that it?s difficult. It?s simply a case of running from left to right, dodging incoming fire and dishing out a ton more in return. The first issue here is the health system ? there isn?t one. One hit from anything, whether it?s in the head or your toe, will kill you instantly. This would be fine were it not for the fact that there is a lot of ker-razy stuff happening on-screen, all at the same time. While the enemy projectiles are bad enough, you have to watch out for rabid dogs, flying bugs and these drill things in the third level that make your local hardware store look like a toy shop. Bearing in mind that all you di run, gun, and jump (and occasionally climb), there isn?t much room to manoeuvre; in most instances, you need to kill your enemy before they kill you. Oh, and sometimes the screen will stop scrolling, giving you even less space to move around in. It?s bullet hell.
Bosses and mini-bosses that you encounter halfway during some missions redefine the meaning of unfair. To be honest, you are required to memorise a boss? attack pattern and exploit it. Nevertheless, some of their moves are so fast that your brain just can?t compute most of the time. Coming back to the drill thing that I mentioned earlier. During this particular fight your character is hanging off the side of wall, meaning that movement is restricted and you can?t move and shoot at the same time (as you?re using one arm to hold one). You can only hit the drill bit in a certain place, and this is only an open target once it gets close to you (read: when it?s flying at 300mph towards you). Sure, it?s clever boss design, but it?s also evil.
Then there?s the live system. You can, thankfully, configure it so that you start with 8 lives, but this makes little difference. Your demise is inevitable. And here?s the worse bit: when you run out of lives, that?s it. You don?t go back to a checkpoint, you don?t even restart the level you were on. You can be on the final mission and if you die, it?s back to the start for you. It is enough to reduce grown men to tears.
Contra III sports a cooperative mode, which is certainly better than going it alone (although coordinating the platforming bits can be tricky). The extra firepower is handy too, although more bullets isn?t necessarily a good thing. Player 2 will be your best friend until their continuous scatter shot fire means that you?re not able to see that incoming projectile. Or when they accidentally steal that power-up you needed. This is a game that will also ruin friendships.
Game Over, Man, Game Over!
To sum up, Contra III is a game that should only be attempted if you?re absolutely stark-raving mad. It?s a game that you?ll want to play over and over again, just to see if you can make it that extra six inches further along the screen. The gameplay is addictive but let?s not beat about the bush ? it is brutal. This game and its prequels deserve their own category, they?re that hard.
You have been warned.
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Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2011/10/10/tough-as-nails-contra-iii-the-alien-wars-super-probotector/
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