Contra is a series that I assume most people are slightly familiar with if not intimately. In Europe it was released as Probotector with all humans changed to robots so that it could clear the sensors about “realistic violence” at the time. I was first introduced to the game by a friend (later turned enemy) named Patrick Hammick.

On a sunny Sunday after noon, upon returning from church, I went over to my friends house to play some NES games and possibly ride our bikes over to the arcade and check out some comics on the way. All those plans changed when I got there and he showed me his new game: Contra. We spent the next 5 hours just playing Contra in a daze. Try after try, stolen last life after life: We never really got very far though. Perhaps level 5 at best. We tried and tried the game for weeks. Eventually, while flipping though a game magazine at the drug store, I came across the Konami Code. With a pen from the desk I wrote out the code on my arm: UUDDLRLRBASlSt. That night was the first time we beat Contra.

After that we would only play to attempt to beat it in less lives (we could get to the alien hive with only about 5 lives used at one point, but that level always handed us our asses). Our interest slowly waned in favor of other games. I eventually ended up trading Rampage for his copy of Contra. This is when I learned that the game is a completely different beast when you try to tackle it alone. I ended up using my Game Genie to beat it by myself as the Snow Fields usually sucked my last bit of life out of me. I still have this copy of Contra, but I have a hard time playing it: turning it on chokes me up with nostalgia.

My next system was a Genesis, which I got for Sonic 2 and Golden Axe. After playing Super C and not enjoying it to the extent of the original I never returned to the series of Contra until Shattered Soldier. I also never owned a SNES until late 2000. I really missed out on something here.

Contra: Hard Corps. I just received this the other day in the mail after long searching and getting it dirt cheap. Toted as one of the “hardest games ever” I was not only hesitant, but it just added to my feelings of Konami not having the juices left to make a good successor to the original Contra. Around the time I was playing a lot of Gunstar Heroes (no, I had no idea who Treasure was) with my friend Michael-John in his grandmothers basement. He said he played it at a friends house and that it was “too hard.”

Ignore all these people who say this. If it is too hard, well since most people who have not played it are emulating it anyways, get the Japanese version, as it has a 3 hit life bar. But that is really too easy. Contra is not about being easy, it is about being hard core. Playing this game last night for the hour and a half I spent with it I could make it to level 4. I also found a secrete in level 3 which is very Treasure like and completely excellent.

This game is the culmination of the best action elements a game can offer, as well as some of the greatest music ever. This could possibly be Konami’s greatest and crowning achievement in action games. This far surpasses any expectations I had of the game and the music that the Genesis could make. Bravo and kudos Konami and SEGA, there still are some gems left in your system that I have not found yet. This with Castlevania: Bloodlines will bring more hours of fun than one person should have with just 2 games.