Contra Run & Gun Bundle

Genre: Compilation / Action-Platformer

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

Contra Run & Gun Bundle, released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation containing Contra: Operation Galuga, released earlier in 2024, and Contra Anniversary Collection, released separately in 2019.

I have separately reviewed these games. Here is what I thought of all of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
Contra Anniversary Collection	Compilation / Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	B-
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.
Contra: Operation Galuga	Action-Platformer	1-4 Co-Op (Local)	B-
tl;dr Contra Contra: Operation Galuga is a re-imagining of the first game in the Action-Platformer series, and while it stumbles in many areas (nasty load times, terrible story, disposable new gameplay elements), the core gameplay is still solid. Fans of the genre and the Contra series specifically will want to play this game, though I doubt they’ll find it to be among their favorites in the genre.

In short, there’s a lot of good Action-Platformer gameplay in this bundle, and while I think I give the edge to the Anniversary Collection both for its variety as well as being more classic and iconic, I do think both titles in this collection are decent, if a bit punishingly difficult. I should note that this Compilation absolutely doesn’t include every Contra game, and doesn’t even have every Contra game on Nintendo Switch, though as far as that goes, I doubt anyone is complaining too loudly that Contra: Rogue Corps isn’t here.

Okay, so then we turn to value: How much bang for your buck are you getting here. The answer to that really depends when you’re buying it. Separately, both games sell for a combined $60, making this bundle’s $45 price tag a pretty solid savings. However, this bundle has not yet (as of this writing) gone on sale, while Contra Anniversary Collection regularly goes on sale for $4, and even though Operation Galuga hasn’t gone on sale quite as much (at least, not on Nintendo Switch), you’ll get the two games cheaper even if you just wait for a sale on one of the two games.

As such, anyone looking to save money has a better option than Contra Run & Gun Bundle. The included games are good and the standard price is decent too, but when you’re looking for savings your best bet is to just wait until at least one of the two games goes on sale and buy them separately.

tl;dr – Contra Run & Gun Bundle includes the Action-Platformer Contra: Operation Galuga, as well as the Compilation of Action-Platformers, Contra Anniversary Collection. Pretty much everything in this bundle is good, if a bit overly-hard. However, one of the two included games goes on sale regularly, resulting in a better price buying the games separately than you can get in this bundle. The result is a good bundle whose value leaves something to be desired.

Grade: C+

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