Neo Contra

Written by Tom Clare in PS2 Game Reviews, Friday 17 July, 2009

Released: 2005
Developer: KCET
Publisher: Konami
Genre: 3D Run 'n' Gun
Platform: PS2

The enduring Contra series began life back in 1987 as a side-scrolling 2D shoot ‘em up, and has since gone on to forge a reputation for its frenetic gameplay and at-times infamously punishing difficulty level. Unfortunately, Konami’s attempts to drag Neo Contra into the “3D” age only serves to make it feel more antiquated than its retro-infused predecessors.

It isn’t that the game is sloppily programmed or beset by any major faults as such, it’s just that by breaking away from the 2D run ‘n’ gun template it had followed so well for so long, Neo Contra feels like an all-too-tentative step into the big, scary world of 3D blasters, and one that serves to remind the player just how much the genre had evolved by the time of the games release in 2005. From the get-go it feels very dated, from the ever-so-slightly awkward one analogue-stick control scheme; to the rather low-rent visuals; dodgy plot and the tacky, hyper-colourful armour that adorns the main protagonists and enemies. Whilst for a long period Contra could count itself among the best 2D shooters, its move towards modernity ends up taking the gloss and individuality away from this iteration, making it seem unremarkable and unadventurous.

The game for the most part assumes a top-down perspective, where you’re given the choice of playing as either generic tough guy Bill Rizer or orange-clad samurai Jaguar. Having decided whose boots to fill, you are thrown into a plot that, even to fans of the series, must seem largely nonsensical. Within the space of about half an hour you’ll encounter giant killer plants, a good-turned-bad combat android, an evil clone and the imminent threat of worldwide destruction. In fairness, the story was never likely to be the selling point, though the few lines of dialogue we are treated to are duly butchered at the hands of some extremely suspect dubbing. As is the way with Contra, one hit taken results in death, meaning extra care must be given to avoiding traps and foes, as well as this there is of course the obligatory ritual of learning the strengths and weaknesses of bosses so you can beat them easier next time you play.

Here it draws parallels with celebrated PS2 blaster The Red Star and on the surface the two titles share some basic gameplay traits. However, Neo Contra has none of the style or imagination of Acclaim’s classy showing. Each level, despite some effort being made to provide variety to the settings (even if they aren’t overly memorable), you find that they all seem very much alike. They’re derivative even by shoot ‘em up standards, as you repeat the process of making easy work of foot-soldiers, using homing-rockets on airborne enemies and memorising the attack patterns of the various mid and end-level bosses.

For a game with plenty of mindless shooting and a nice line in funky weaponry (which includes homing thunder-charges and a flaming katana), it’s surprising just how flat it feels. The sense of fun and the excitement you’d expect when tearing through the quick-fire, arcade-style levels is curiously absent, even when playing the two-player co-op with a friend, and perhaps more significantly for fans who love a challenge, there’s little sense of achievement in dispatching the rather mediocre bosses. Instead of making use of the PS2’s dual-analogue setup, Neo Contra insists on showing its age further by attributing all movement to the one stick, leaving the other with nothing to do. To simultaneously move and fire in one specific direction, you have to hold down L2, which proves cumbersome as it regularly takes several attempts to get your character facing exactly the direction you want them to – something a proper lock-on or even a simple strafe mechanism could easily have fixed. Having to cycle between your two main weapons using R1 is also rather needless, especially as the arcade-style gameplay of Neo Contra would have benefited from simply allowing the player use ‘Circle’ to fire it, but that’s another button that goes unassigned.

Considering the dizzying visual quality Konami achieved with Silent Hill 3 and Metal Gear Solid 3, Neo Contra comes up way short of their usual standard. Whilst there are a few suitably destructive FMV’s and some fairly decent cut-scenes here and there, in-game the environments look very ordinary, with poor characters and little animation. The purposefully old-skool menu screens are similar to those featured in cult-classic shoot ‘em up Metal Slug, but the nineties veneer it lends Neo Contra seems misplaced as its at odds with the gameplay’s move away from the retro spirit.

There are two difficulty settings; ‘Easy’ is a breeze to finish as you are given the rather excessive tally of thirty lives in which to complete four stages, whilst the ‘Normal’ setting tightens things up by allocating just five lives and making the bosses a bit more resilient, even if the levels themselves play almost identically. ‘Normal’ offers a solid challenge, though perhaps mercifully for mere mortals, there are no really super-tough parts. Either way, it’s on this difficulty that a few extra features such new character models and a music player can be found. However, given that the game initially only presents four levels, it’s new stages that you’ll be most keen to uncover.

And in this respect, Neo Contra goes a little way to sparing its blushes. The first four missions can be played in any order, offering just forty-five minutes worth of gameplay between them. Completing all four unlocks a fifth and should you have achieved a sufficient overall ranking based on the number of enemies you’ve killed and the number of lives you’ve retained, a sixth and seventh level become available as well. It’s unlikely to excite the majority of gamers but it’s something the die-hard fans can glean some value from.

The crux of Neo Contra’s problem is that it’s hard to see whose really going to get the most out of it. It’s not quite challenging enough to keep fans attention for long, whilst gamers new to the series are unlikely to find much here that hasn’t been done better elsewhere. Forgettable presentation, uninventive level-design and disappointing gameplay mean that in the end, it’s a pretty mediocre effort by Konami’s usual standards.

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