Man, do I love this franchise! At least PS2 owners will have the chance to play this game...

Neo Contra (PS2)

Publisher: Konami Developer: Konami TYO
Genre: Third-Person Shooter
Release Date: 10/19/2004

By Benjamin Turner | Oct. 20, 2004

The latest Contra is very good fun, but it' s also something of a pushover.

Considering how fun it is to run around and shoot things, it' s a mystery as to why there aren' t more run' n' gun games like Contra. Perhaps they' re hard to do well. Not even Konami gets it right every time, which was proven in 2002 by the playable but decidedly dry Contra: Shattered Soldier. Now, Contra producer Nobuya Nakazato is mixing things up a bit in Neo Contra, which switches to an overhead perspective that we haven' t seen since 1992' s Contra III. This change-up doesn' t quite restore all of the series' former glory (and does introduce a few aiming difficulties), but Neo Contra is a fun and worthwhile action game in its own right.

As in Shattered Soldier, Neo Contra dispenses with power-ups, instead giving you all of your weapons from the start. This time, though, you can choose from different sets of weapons to take into battle. Each set features two " normal" armaments and one " 3D" gun, which is used to lock onto enemies that are not on your soldier' s plane, Panzer Dragoon-style. Since the 3D gun has its own fire button, it' s a cinch to toggle between the two normal guns, which is a nice improvement over Shattered Soldier. These changes are just the beginning.

The main issue with Shattered Soldier' s gameplay was that it relied almost solely on rote pattern memorization. That' s always a part of action games like Contra, but there needs to be a strong twitch element as well. Neo Contra wisely tones down the memorization and reintroduces the twitch. However, it also tones down the difficulty as a whole, and this may be where the game' s greatest shortcoming lies.

Quite honestly, Neo Contra is not very hard. It should only take a few runs before you' re familiar with the levels, and after that it' s just a matter of optimization. The tough " hit rate" grading system of Shattered Soldier returns, but it' s relatively easy to get those fancy " S" grades now since you' re allowed up to two deaths per level. You' ll need to get at least an " A" average to see the entire game, but that won' t be particularly tricky after a bit of practice. Contra III was a fabulous game made near-perfect thanks to its " hard" difficulty setting. This variable challenge level is quite noticeably absent in Neo Contra.

Despite the ultimately light difficulty, Neo Contra is still a fun ride to take. Most of the weapon sets are well-designed and enjoyable to blast away with, and the enemies die in satisfyingly gruesome ways. The level design is pretty good, and veterans of Shattered Soldier will be thrilled to hear that those interminable mid-level cutscenes are now skippable. That said, I prefer the segments where you can run around freely to the (less prevalent) 3D, on-rails areas. There' s just something more direct and visceral about shooting a machine gun or grenade launcher than locking on with homing lasers.

It goes without saying that two-player simultaneous mode makes a return, and that' s as fun as ever. However, the enemies don' t get any stronger, so the difficulty takes another hit. Given this, it shouldn' t be long before you' re rolling in unlockables. A few are quite cool, including extra weapon sets and a close-combat, katana-wielding version of the second character. These add some excellent replay incentive, though some of the later weapon sets are just too powerful to be considered fair. (On the other hand, the 3D weapon of one or two of the earlier sets is almost too weak to take out the second-to-last boss, which has a strict 30-second time limit. Bummer.)

Once in a while you' ll need to rely on 3D lock-on shots.

As a long-time Contra fan, I had a good deal of fun with Neo Contra. It' s obvious that Nakazato wanted to create a Contra that was inclusionary to newbies, instead of exclusionary. In that he' s succeeded. The only problem is that Neo Contra' s average difficulty level will have the opposite effect, and turn off the old-timers. It' s too bad, as a simple difficulty selection could have helped correct this. In any case, Neo Contra is a worthy shooting game that' s worth playing, but vets might want to wait until it' s discounted due to the ease with which they' ll cut through it.


Pros
Action-packed gameplay; good level design and graphics; fun bonuses.

Cons
Too easy; aiming a bit tricky; music rather blah.