Hold onto your missiles—Contra's back and it's crazier than ever! http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=18542 With the release of Contra ReBirth for Japan's Wii Shop Channel, the legendary action franchise became the second (after Gradius) in what looks sure to be an ongoing series of WiiWare revivals for classic Konami properties. Downloadable retro titles may be nothing new, but unlike the multitude of titles on Virtual Console, or even the meticulously 8-bit-like Mega Man 9, Contra ReBirth feels distinctly like a new $10 game rather than an old $50 one. My playtime with it so far has shown this approach to be welcome in some respects, and less so in others.
Contra ReBirth adapts the series to the WiiWare format primarily by stripping it down to a pure run-and-gun foundation, and making no attempt to stretch out the experience. Ever since the franchise began in the arcade, Contra's side-scrolling action has typically been punctuated by 3D or overhead stages to change-up the gameplay and extend the running time (the Genesis title, Contra: Hard Corps, being one exception). ReBirth dispenses with such stages, instead providing five tightly-paced levels that continue to up the ante right up to the final boss. Moreover, by providing relatively frequent checkpoints and unlimited continues, Contra ReBirth demonstrates that it isn't afraid of players seeing much of what it has to offer in a fairly short period of time—distinctly unlike many games of its kind from years past that were burdened with high price tags.
(Note: the Super Famicom version of Contra III featured unlimited continues where its Super NES counterpart did not, so this aspect could be subject to change when Contra ReBirth is released outside of Japan)
This approach ensures a less frustrating experience than previous Contras and combined with ReBirth's generally brisk pacing, makes repeated play (there is still no save, nor a VC-like suspend feature) through the levels more palatable for today's gamers. However, the downside is that ReBirth ends up feeling less epic than its predecessors, and to some may well seem somewhat insubstantial, even for the 1000 Nintendo Point price tag.
Leaving the continue system aside, Contra's trademark high difficulty has been left mostly intact, so ReBirth will still challenge players despite demanding less of their time. The difficulty can also be customised, both in terms of the number of lives available and the challenge level (Easy, Normal or Hard), with the higher settings offering different attack patterns for bosses in addition to adding more enemies and bullets.
In gameplay terms, Contra ReBirth is much closer to Contra III: The Alien Wars than the recent DS title, Contra 4. For instance, the more complex elements of WayForward's portable edition of the franchise, such as weapon-stacking and the grappling hook, have been omitted. ReBirth even leaves a few things out from Contra III, such as the screen-destroying bomb, plus the Flamethrower and Charge weapons, but it otherwise plays near-identically. Most noticeably, the controls leave the fire rate of all the weapons automatic, so no hammering of the fire button is ever required. The net result is a relatively straightforward and accessible Contra, but this is not without its problems (the Spread weapon is back to its highly overpowered best here) and some fans may miss the greater intricacy of previous titles.
At first glance, Contra ReBirth looks like an unremarkable 16-bit title, running in 4:3 and exhibiting less focus on graphical detail than even 1992's Contra III. However, in motion the visuals begin to charm and impress thanks to a bold comic-book art style, fluid animation, special effects that make bullets and lasers incandescent, and more sprite scaling and rotation than all those early Super NES games that made "Mode 7" famous put together. Later on in the game, the sheer volume of sprites being pushed around at high speed truly distinguishes Contra ReBirth as something that wouldn't have been manageable for the 16-bit platforms. Taken together, these enhancements are significant yet subtle enough to keep Contra ReBirth in line with fans' memories of the 16-bit era while thankfully taking things up a notch and omitting the stilted animation and slowdown from those days that have become so much more noticeable in the years hence.
Crucially, developers M2 (of VC emulation fame, appropriately enough) have delivered in the areas where any Contra game absolutely must: imaginative bosses and outrageous set pieces. The spoiler-sensitive among you out there may wish to skip past the next few lines, but for those curious about what ReBirth has in store, expect such craziness as: a battle with a colossal caterpillar while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, a high speed chase involving purple robotic llamas, a full-on stampede through an alien hive, and—of course—giant missile grabbing. As appropriately absurd as these scenarios sound, they are equally well designed and fun to play, though not quite on the same level as Contra III's finest moments.
The settings for the stages are rather familiar, the second level is a ruined city much like the opening stage in Contra III, for instance, and a number of ideas from previous games are reprised, but there's enough new and surprising things going on to make the levels seem sufficiently fresh. Conversely, the soundtrack goes all out for nostalgia, especially for Sega fans given the distinctly Genesis-like instrumentation employed, with an assortment of classic melodies that will have Contra veterans humming along.
Another essential part of the Contra experience for many fans is two player co-op, and this is included in ReBirth. It still requires the presence of a friend in the same room in lieu of online functionality though. In fact, Contra ReBirth lacks even the online high score rankings of its Gradius counterpart on WiiWare, thus its replay value is limited to playing through the game a few times to unlock trivially different extra characters and a super-hard difficulty setting.
To sum up, Contra ReBirth is a highly concentrated experience. It isn't going to last for very long, neither is it an especially ambitious or creative endeavour, but I've had a blast playing it from start to finish—and a few times over again. Konami has taken the opportunity offered by WiiWare to go back to the basics with Contra's gameplay, providing intense, no-nonsense fun that's a great fit for the platform. Hopefully it won't be long before other regions get their chance to "lock and load!"