Contra Anniversary Collection

Genre: Compilation / Action-Platformer

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Contra Run & Gun Bundle, along with Contra: Operation Galuga.)

Contra Anniversary Collection is a collection of 10 games from early in the Contra series… sort of. The problem with that number is that “10” is counting what amounts to 3 different releases of the original Contra, 2 releases of Super Contra, 2 releases of Contra 3, and 2 releases of Contra: Hard Corps. While there are differences between some of these versions, to some extent this kinda’ feels like 5 games masquerading as 10.

For those not familiar with the Contra series, these are Action-Platformers with high volumes of bullets like you would expect to see in the shmup genre, and where one hit is enough to take you out, making these games all very difficult. Here’s how they stack up:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Contra (Arcade)	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B-
tl;dr This is the Arcade version of the first game in the series. There’s some good action here, but this game is damn difficult, and the aim feels somewhat imprecise.
Super Contra (Arcade)	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B-
tl;dr This is the Arcade version of the second game in the series. Like the first game, there’s some good action here, but this game is damn difficult, and the aim feels somewhat imprecise.
Contra (NES) (NA)	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B
tl;dr This is the US NES version of the first game in the series. This version doesn’t have graphics as good as the arcade version, but the controls feel tighter.
Contra (NES) (J)	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B
tl;dr This is the Japanese NES version of the first game in the series. There are some minor differences with the US version, but for the most part they’re pretty comparable.
Super C	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B
tl;dr This is the US NES version of the second game in the series. Much as with the NES port of the first game, this version doesn’t have graphics as good as the arcade version, but the controls feel tighter.
Contra III: The Alien Wars	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	A-
tl;dr This is the US version of the third game in the series, released on the SNES. This game did some inventive things with the extra power of the SNES, and overall really pushes the series forward. It’s still absurdly hard though.
Super Probotector: Alien Rebels	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	A-
tl;dr This is the European version of the third game in the series, released on the SNES. The main thing this game changes is that it replaces the human characters in the game with robots. Otherwise, it’s pretty similar.
Operation C	Action-Platformer	1	B
tl;dr This is the first Game Boy entry in the series, and honestly as far as Game Boy games go, it’s pretty decent. Obviously the graphics are really scaled back compared to other games in the series, but the gameplay is fairly solid.
Contra: Hard Corps	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B
tl;dr This is the US version of the Sega Genesis game in the series. In this game, players are given their choice of four characters with different abilities, which makes for more flexibility. Like other games in the series though, this one is punishingly difficult.
Probotector	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B+
tl;dr This is the European version of the Sega Genesis entry in the series. In addition to changing the humans in the game to robots, the speed was taken down a notch, reducing the difficulty just a bit. Still really difficult though.

In the end, pretty much all of the games in this collection are at least decent, but you’re unlikely to play through all of them – in the end, you’ll probably just decide which version of each game is your favorite and make that your go-to. If, as I do, your favorite version of the first Contra is the US NES version, you’ll probably never touch the other two versions, except out of curiosity.

The repeated games here are especially frustrating given the omission of the NES game, Contra Force, the WiiWare game Contra ReBirth, or the excellent Nintendo DS game, Contra 4.

The other issue with this series is that, save for maybe Operation C, every game in this series is absurdly, punishingly difficult. The arcade games do allow you to press a button to “insert coin”, but after using up a few continues, the game inexplicably boots you back to the title screen, even if you have credits. And of course, you can abuse the save state feature this game adds into all of the games, but given the nature of this game, you’ll undoubtedly be using this feature a lot. This makes for an annoyance that will frustrate anyone who plays this.

On the positive side of things, rather than just including the games and calling it a day, this collection actually goes a few steps farther. In addition to the save states, the game offers multiple display settings, and control settings.

On top of this, this collection includes a digital “History of Contra” book that includes box art, interviews, and lots of behind-the-scenes materials detailing the making of each game in this collection. This was a completely unnecessary inclusion, and its presence here is definitely a nice touch.

In the end, Contra Anniversary Collection inflates the number of games included here to make it seem bigger than it is, and the games it does include are overly hard. On the other hand, there aren’t really any bad games in this collection, and there’s a good amount of bonus content here. Fans of difficult action-platformers will still find plenty to like here, even if it feels like Konami cheated a bit when making this game.

tl;dr – Contra Anniversary Collection is a collection of super-difficult Action-Platformers that includes ten great games from early in the series (well, if we’re honest, it’s more like five games, given that they’re including multiple versions of the same games as different entries). These games are absurdly unforgiving, but they’re still solid classics, and there’s a good amount of bonus content here as well. This collection is worth a look.

Grade: B-

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