Depending on who you ask this is either easier than the first game or harder. I think it all comes down to how reliant you are on the extra lives codes and if you mastered the mechanics of the first game. With that said I feel this game improves on most of the things that were present in the first installment while still retaining some of its weaknesses.

Having to manually press the fire button for your starting gun still sucks and not having a secondary is a pain but thankfully this game swaps the 3D hallway levels for top down levels. These flow a lot better and aren't as finicky as the 3D ones in the first game.

The one thing I love the most about this game, however, is the overhaul given to the fireball weapon. I like that you can now charge up its blast because it adds an extra layer to the gameplay and arguably makes it better than the sacred spread shot.

While some may still prefer the original due to setting the standard for what's to come I much prefer this one. The music is better, the graphics are arguably better, and there's a bit more polish this time around. It may not reach the heights of say Hard Corps but you can't go wrong with this one.

Here we go! This is the game that brought me into the Contra series and has kind of been the measuring stick for me and how Contra and other run-n-gun games should be like. I've played this game with my dad, my older brother, my younger brother and friends over the years and had never beat it until now and come to find out the reason being...it's easier to play when you're doing it solo because you can focus and have better control over the screen.

I honestly never played attention to the story and actually didn't here either, but the game excels very much in the awesome impactful music and very smooth gameplay. It was a lot of fun visiting this game again years later and it felt soooo great just beating the game and finishing it for the first time. I love this game.

Super C is probably the best aged game I've ever played. I seriously doubt there'll come a day when this game feels old. It's as basic a game as any; you run, you shoot, you jump and dodge... and yet, that's all you really need.

This applies to Contra too, but Super C is way more demanding and also ups the insanity. These are still some fantastic bosses for a run n gun. There's some bullshit here and there, but the game never feels terribly unfair.

Sadly, the final boss is quite underwhelming. A second phase would have gone a long way in capping off Super C as a complete masterpiece. Oh well.

After the world's most shirtless men killed some aliens, they thought the aliens were all killed. But they weren't! There were more aliens! The arcade version of Super Contra is kind of a bit nicer than the first to me, but I still hate how it controls and the stupid vertical aspect ratio and how its impossible to tell which weapon is which. The home console port sacrifices some of the explicit alien-ness of the enemies as well as the letters o, n, t, r, and a to bring you a bigger and shootier experience that does NOT make you think of the shit Reagan was up to a couple years prior to its release.

I am a simple little enby and you can give me the second game that's just a little bit less junky than the first, that's cool! And that's what this is. The weapons are actually all good and fun to use now, with the fire being a cool explosion that's powerful instead of a swirling little baby bullet. Spread is still what you want but that's ok that's just how Contra is. The levels have vertical AND horizontal scrolling at the same time now, the environments are more varied, and those pseudo 3D base levels are replaced with top-down ones that are less technically impressive but play much better.

This also marks the start of the "wow cool setpiece" stage of design in the series, which will be majorly expanded in future entries. At one point in level 3, an earthquake happens and segments of the stage start sinking, with you having to try not to fall into the abyss. Much less interestingly, there's an Elevator Segment in stage 4. This stuff was all there in spirit in the original, but it was more static. Things like a mine cart existing or a snow plow with a gun coming at you. Super C feels more like the levels are constantly throwing setpieces and minibosses at you, with changes of music and everything.

This one's a bit easier than the original, but more balanced in its difficulty. I didn't need many tries to complete it, but in Contra 1 almost 100% of my difficulty was in just stage 6 specifically, here it felt more spread out, though 5 was the choke point in general. The multi-loop design of the thing and simplicity of the design means its probably going to get harder when I hit Contra III and I'm looking forward to that

After the success of the original Contra, of course, Konami had to cash in and follow it up, and unlike Castlevania, they weren't gonna try to ruin it with the next installment (sorry, I had to). Anyway, after less then a year, Konami then released Super Contra to the public. Or... Super C, because I guess letters are just cooler than words? In terms of the original two games, I would definitely consider this game better than the original, as it is still the fast-paced gun shooting action, with a little more to make it better. Not by much, but it is still the superior title for me.

The story, once again, is just "kill aliens", but this time, the aliens are a lot more detailed and graphic, which I definitely prefer, the graphics are still pretty good this time around, the music is the same good ol' Contra goodness that the original brought, the control is just as responsive as before, and the gameplay is still the great run 'n gun as before, except much more varied and much more challenging.

What makes this game better then the original for me are the top-down shooter levels that were introduced in this game. The running-forward levels from the original game were pretty good, yes, but I just prefer the constant moving and action of this game more, with the variety of environments used and the amount of enemies you face throughout.

If I had to give one complaint about this game, I would say that it sucks that the Konami Code this time only gives you 10 lives instead of 30 like in the original, but that is just a very minor complaint. Not to mention, if you did get 30 lives again, the game would probably be too easy, at least, in terms of Contra standards.

Overall, this is a pretty fantastic sequel to the original Contra, and a fantastic game overall. I just hope that this level of quality continues for a long time in the next games in the series.

Game #62

The Fire shot is better than the Spread shot


That's it. That's my review. I loop this game on days I want to relax, so nothing I say would at all be unbiased; as you can probably infer from the other reviews this game has, "I play this to relax" is already a very strange take.

Original hardware doesn't have savestates, yo!

A great sequel improving on everything from the original. A super consistent campaign that gets better every mission. Just like the first it’s super short yet just as replayable.

The two top down missions are great as well and are a better change of pace than the third person levels in the first game.

In many ways it’s a very straightforward sequel. Essentially a redo of the original with improvements to make for a better experience. Typically i’d want more from a sequel but I think this did about as much as a contra on nes could do so I think it’s fine. Besides this game doesn’t replace the original.

Also wow the presentation is even better. Saying a lot considering how good the original looked but the end of this game looks really awesome with the alien levels and the cool boss designs.
The tone overall is a little darker and more scary than the first.

Definitely one of my new favorite nes game for me.

light 4/5

Ok one problem is the removal of the 30 lives konami code. it’s a differnent code and it’s only ten. 😭

A straight-forward sequel to the genre-defining Contra, Super C is more of that goodness you expect with slight tweaks, such as weapon "upgrades" when you pick-up the same weapon twice. They also went with overhead stages instead of the third-person scenarios from the first game, which is a slight improvement.

Contra and Super C are both suitable for beginners that want to start getting into the run-n-gun subgenre, as its sequels would up the ante in all departments, including the challenging gameplay!