The best game on the series was somehow on the Mega Drive all this time. I legit wasn't expecting to like Hard Corps this much.

For starters, four different characters, each with their own weapon loadout - that's sixteen mostly distinct guns. My favorite ended up being FANG, a humanoid wolf with a gun for an arm, that also wears sunglasses. Video games, man.

Half of his guns don't shoot in multiple directions, but they are all absurdly powerful, making for an incredibly satisfying character.

The game also features some branching paths, with a few unique levels between those paths.

There is also a slide with some very generous i-frames, and it's immensely satisfying to use that.

But really, maybe what puts this above other games in the series is that this is a healthy challenge. Something like Contra 4, for example, is absolutely brutal, and the NES games are stuck in that memorization arcade mentality.

The auto-scroller boss is a bit of a pacing killer though, and fairly brainless. So brainless that you can actually fast-forward through a good chunk of the fight on an emulator, since the screen just auto-scrolls and you can't damage him at all in these sections. Lame.

Play the Japanese version though, or the American version with the proper romhack. It features a 3-hit life bar and infinite continues, while the western release has you die in one-hit and features limited continues, get out of here.

For me, this felt like a big step down from Contra III…

The bosses were the highlight. Original, weird and wonderful in their design.

The levels lacked depth. Very simple and uninspiring.

The difficulty really annoyed me. I don’t mind learning enemy move-sets, but you have to be PERFECT in your player placement and movement. I know this is a feature of these Contra games but this was the worst game yet for unfairness.

I enjoyed my time with Hard Corps but it won’t be something I will run back to.

Before I write my junk, I do have to mirror reviews and suggest that if you were to play this that it would be better off playing the Japanese version (or a patched U/E ROM file). Purists may say it's the intended experience to be playing with one-hit-deaths but that puritanism is an effect of elitism that often permeates around older titles on legacy consoles. Completing the game using an English release IS an achievement... but one that requires a lot of investment and practice that many of us simply don't have.

Hard Corps isn't existentially brutal when you can survive a single hit from any of the grunts, creatures or robots. Most of your challenge is in learning boss patterns on your 2nd or 3rd go around. Most of them are straightforward enough, move to a different side of the screen or jump at a certain time. A few last a little longer than expected and the words "how much health does this guy have?" left our mouths more than once.

The branching paths is a fun idea, another mechanic that is a little more forgiving if death isn't a 16x16 tile away. There are about 4 choices available and all of them seemingly have some form of consequence in stage selection and bosses fought. Regardless of that, most runs will only have 6 stages. It was a shock to us that we beat the game. That's it? We need to play again then!

If there were any major criticisms to be had on a personal level, the game is perhaps too visually cluttered. It looks wonderful when you watch someone else play it or when you get a chance to appreciate the environmental art and enemy design. More often than not, you are locking your focus on projectiles wandering across screen praying that you don't get hit by some random object you seemed to miss. Exaggerate that issue of focus when you're playing co-op, both of you spraying bullets everywhere.

I am looking forward to play this again, clear another path and hopefully convince some people on retroachievements to add support for the Japanese release.