breath of the wild but more. which is to say that its more good but also more bad. i'm happy nintendo felt compelled to build on botw's foundation and expand on the systems established in that game, i think both of these games are some of the most invigorating and delightful current day AAA releases, but i do hope that for the next game the team won't be afraid to apply that same "ruthless critique of everything existing" mentality that botw approached the series at large with to the structure of these newer games. let's maybe rein things in a bit - make the world smaller, ditch hyrule and ganon (because my god some parts of the overarching narrative here are a total misfire and symptomatic of a series in narrative stagnation), and maybe restrict the player's freedom a little so there's some room for progression (though non-linearity should be kept by any means necessary - i am certainly not one of the advocates for a return to a more linear "old school" 3d zelda). restricting the player's freedom a little could also go a long way towards fixing some issues with the game's difficulty - tying special effects to clothing is fine, but being able to switch them on the fly is something that not only becomes a tiring exercise for the player but also undermines the survivalist aspects. similarly, combat mechanics that are really quite good are undermined by the ability to heal in the menu, something that not only allows for sloppy play and makes the game needlessly easy but also feels like a chore to even do. there's just too many interruptions, and that's a big buzzkill in a game that is otherwise so dynamic and immediate. this is another reason why i've become intensely skeptical of fast travel - it's just too optimal to zip all over the place from the menu, which alienates you from the world you're exploring. certainly it's hard to imagine a game of this scale without fast travel, but that's just one more reason to advocate for a smaller world. there's a reason why the tutorial levels of these games feel great to play - because you're really immersed in the space, really engaging with the environment and the immaculately constructed systems, and steadily gaining new abilities that upend the nature of that engagement. people have called these tutorial levels "the games in miniature" but i'm not sure that's true - i think they're defined in opposition to the rest of the game which is much less restricted. after all, it feels pretty liberating to gain the paraglider. so in short, what i'd like to see in the next game is something that actually replicates how the great plateau or great sky island play on a large scale. i respect how committed these games have been to freedom and player empowerment, but the way to stay true to breath of the wild's maverick spirit is actually to confidently question even the core pillars of its game design - not to uncritically follow its formula.

my pie in the sky wish is that they yet again look to zelda 1 and this time try to replicate that game's sense of organic player discovery. obviously there's some of that in these games but what i'd like is less contextual story events, less handholding and signposting, more mystery, more trust in the player to be engaged and immersed in the world without a yellow brick road to follow. i think this is one of the few areas in which elden ring has these games beat and i'd like to see this series retake that particular throne. i'm not expecting it to, because this game runs counter to that direction with its main quests, but it's what would excite me the most. would also like to see stuff like shrines integrated more seamlessly into the world - the caves in this game are a good half step in that direction (venturing into the royal hidden passage was an early highlight of the game), it just needs a bit of depth and variation. hopefully the smaller world would prevent things from feeling like rote repetition, as it sometimes does in this game with the copy pasted rooms and blue frogs you find in every single one.

anyway i still love this game and link is really hot god bless

Buff shirtless dudes with headbands and machine guns; what else do you need to save the world? These games are all fun diversions despite their unforgiving difficulties (especially Contra III for SNES and Hard Corps for Genesis). They're at their best as classic side-scrollers, but they fall flat when they experiment with different viewpoints. The original Contra features pseudo z-axis corridor stages that feel like speed bumps to the main event, and Contra III's overhead Mode 7 stages are dizzying and unintuitive. The run-and-gun genre ultimately found better expression in Metal Slug and Treasure titles like GunStar Heroes.

Like with Castlevania, the Contra franchise, at this point in time, was on a seemingly perfect streak, releasing some of, if not THE best run ‘n gun games of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, giving the player plenty of fast-paced, action packed gameplay with some fantastic visuals that only a few others were able to replicate. They were all some of the best third-party games that you could get from a Nintendo console, right alongside other heavy hitters on those systems, but in terms of any games from this series from Sega’s systems, they were left high and dry of any of that sweet Contra goodness. It didn’t really matter too much, cause they had Gunstar Heroes, which was already just as great as Contra, but thankfully, like with Castlevania: Bloodlines, Konami would give the Sega Genesis a taste of what Contra could really do, and they would release Contra: Hard Corps.

Honestly, I didn’t expect too much when it came to this particular entry in the series. I thought it was gonna be great, of course, but I didn’t think it was really gonna do anything that ground-breaking for the series, and would just serve as another entry, not being able to top The Alien Wars in terms of sheer quality. However, after playing it, I realize now that I was wrong. Dead wrong. Even after one playthrough of the game, I knew that this game was absolutely fantastic, but after seeing all that this game has to offer, I can say with confidence that it is PHENOMENAL, and without a doubt the best entry in the series so far. Sure, I guess I could find some nitpicks in it if I looked hard enough, but even then, none of that would stand in the way from the gargantuan amount of fun that I was having with it, and I am so glad I finally checked it out after so long.

The story is mostly what you expect from a Contra game, where in the year 2641, crime has run rampant as a result of the events of The Alien Wars, which results in the formation of the Contra Hard Corps to fight back against it, and one day, when a mysterious hacker reprograms a bunch of robots to cause even more destruction around the world, it is up to the Hard Corps to destroy them all and find out what is going on, which is as simplistic as one of these game’s plots can get, but at the same time, I am having too much fun to care. The graphics are fantastic, being one of the best looking games I have seen on the system, while delivering plenty of great effects, wonderful designs of characters and bosses, and environments for you to blast your way through, the music is, of course, incredible, since it is a Konami game from the 90’s, although a lot of the tracks do sound very similar to each other, but I didn’t mind that all too much, the control is just as tight and responsive as ever, although it did take a bit to get used to the new mechanics the game offered, but it wasn’t a deal breaker at all, and the gameplay was mostly the same run ‘n gun action we know and love, but expanded on even further to make it near perfect in my eyes.

The game is a run ‘n gun game, where you take control of one of the Contra Hard Corps, including Ray Poward, Sheena Etranzi, Brad Fang, and Browny (ok, not gonna lie, those names are pretty bad, even for a 90’s game), go through many different stages through plenty of different environments, even if they aren’t too creative or different from other titles in the series, run, jump, and shoot through many different foes as you do your best to survive the onslaught that is laid out before you, gather plenty of different weapons and bombs along the way to give yourself a fighting edge over your foes, and take on some truly unforgettable bosses, which will test your skill and reflexes in the best ways possible. Those who are well versed with Contra games will be able to jump right in and have a great time, which definitely was the case for me, while also being able to enjoy the new elements implemented to make the game much more enjoyable.

The game plays pretty similarly to any other Contra game, where you run through linear stages, shoot every single thing that moves, and gather plenty of badass weapons to use to help you out throughout your journey, but there are new features here that make the game much more fun to play, even when it was already great to begin with. First of all, in terms of controls, you now have a brand new sliding maneuver that you can use, which becomes very helpful in certain scenarios, and there is also an option now to choose what type of shooting style you want to work with throughout the game… and by that, I mean it makes it so that you either stay still while shooting or move around. This change may not sound like a big deal to most, but for me, it is what I have been waiting for ever since I first played the original game. While it was never that big of an issue, one of my biggest pet peeves with this game, or any other run ‘n gun game, was how whenever you would be aiming diagonally towards an enemy, most of the time, you would run in the direction you are holding, and thus, make shooting in said direction more stressful than it needed to be. Now, you can switch between moving and not moving at any time, which cements this as being perfection in video game form, and you cannot tell me otherwise.

Not only that, but there are also the ACTUAL new features that the game has, such as the case with the weapons. In every previous game in this series, whenever you got a new weapon from a capsule, it would automatically replace the weapon you currently had, which can be useful most of the time, but it can also be a detriment when you have a really good weapon that you don’t want to lose. Here, however, you can carry multiple weapons all at once, being able to switch between them at any time, and whenever you die, you lose the weapon you are currently holding rather than all of them. Again, that kind of shit may not matter so much to some, but this is EVERYTHING to me, as it allows the player to have a fighting chance in many cases, even after death, and makes the game that much more fun and exciting.

And finally, for the last, and definitely the best change that the game makes to the series, is the branching paths. At certain points throughout the game, you will be given the choice to go to one of two different routes, which not only determines what happens in the story, but it also determines what stage you will go to next. There aren’t that many of these choices throughout the game, but there are many different combinations you can make with choosing specific options. For example, in one part, you can choose to chase after this guy named Deadeye Joe, and later down the road, you can choose to fight to the end when faced against a seemingly unwinnable situation. That all leads down one path already, full of plenty of stages that you can have fun with, but then, in another playthrough, you can choose to still chase after Deadeye Joe, but you can also choose to surrender to said unwinnable situation, which leads to an entirely new path full of unique stages, bosses, and story elements. All of this leads to the possibility of getting six different endings, from the best ending to the worst ending, which creates plenty of replay value for those that loved the game already, while also providing a lot of content to experience.

I genuinely can’t think of any actual issues that I have with this game, I had that much of a great time with it. If I had to say anything, I could say that, like with most other Contra games, this game is (no pun intended) pretty goddamn hard, I’d argue even more so than the other games in the series, since there is no option to change the difficulty around, and there isn’t any Konami code to save you this time (unless you are playing the Japanese version). But thankfully, from what I experienced, not much of that difficulty is really all that bad, and there is also the possibility that you could… you know… get good. That’s what I had to do, and it was all the more satisfying because of it.

Overall, despite how the difficulty of the game will still make sure to give you a good ol’ kick in the teeth, this is, in my opinion, the best Contra game so far, and one of the best run ‘n gun games I have ever played, being a non-stop wave of energy, action, and entertainment from start to finish, while offering plenty of desired changes and content to where I didn’t want to stop playing even when it was all said and done. I would absolutely recommend it for those who are big fans of the Contra series, as well as those who love run ‘n gun games in general, because, in my opinion, this game gives you practically everything you could ever want from one of these games, especially from this era. Although, now that all of that is said and done, I can’t help but feel a little upset, because since this game is pretty much perfect, none of the other Contra games after this will be able to reach the same quality as this. But hey, I am willing to see how they will try… and fail horribly.

Game #514

Hard Corps idea of an introduction is having you plow through some unsuspecting goons with your truck tank and it doesn't stop escalating for the remainder of its terse runtime. A single one of Hard Corps vividly imagined and gorgeously animated encounters would probably drain a considerable portion of a modern triple a production's budget but here the mega cyclops tearing up half the city in the first stage gets checks notes 30 seconds. That there are multiple characters, paths and endings slathered on to this action behemoth is the cherry on top for me. What a wonderful introduction to the world of run and guns.

Finally, I get to talk about a good video game.

Contra: Hard Corps lives up to its name. It's tough as hell and leans heavily into a 90's "hardcore" attitude that drives the pace and action of the entire game. Some of the most insane, colorful, and explosive set pieces on the Genesis are all crammed into this one little cart. You start the game plowing through enemies in an armored vehicle, which you then fly out the front window of with barely a second of respite before you need to mow down swarms of attacking bad guys, only to wrap up the game climbing to the top of an out-of-control rocket containing a grotesque alien who is actively breaking through the hull to attack you. That's assuming you stick to the main story path and get the true ending. There's an impressive amount of alternate exits and routes you can take, with a number of different endings to earn along the way. In a way, it's like a prototypical Shadow the Hedgehog, although that game doesn't let you travel back in time and marry a monkey. A rare knock against Shadow the Hedgehog, but if any game were to one-up it, it's Contra: Hard Corps.

As is the case with most Contra games, Hard Corps is best enjoyed with a friend, and each character provides enough of a difference in terms of their movement and weapon options that everyone will find one that suits them best. Personally, I really like Brownie. He's a tiny robot, which means he has the smallest hitbox, and I'm 5'6" so it's good to have representation in video games. That said, Hard Corps is good enough that if you want to play it solo, you'll still have a great time. Either way, just be prepared to die a lot. Hard Corps is absolutely brutal, but learning the game and overcoming it feels satisfying in a way that's unparalleled on the Genesis. It also throws you back in the action so fast that a game over only feels like a mere hiccup, and if you find yourself becoming frustrated with one particular route it's not asking too much to simply switch onto another.

The soundtrack is also completely off the wall. Every track is about as frenetic as it can possibly be. Hiroshi Kobayashi and his team knew their way around the YM2612, playing to its strengths, particularly in its ability to produce an incredibly grungy sound. Needless to say, it's well-suited to the action and aesthetic style of Hard Corps.

Everything about Hard Corps adds up into the best possible experience you could have with a Contra game, and it might just be one of the best run-and-guns on the Genesis to boot.

Before playing this game, the only 3D Sonic I ever played was Sonic Colors. And even then, a good chunk of that game was in 2D. So Adventure was my first fully 3D Sonic game ever. For years, I'd hear people say this game was broken beyond belief or just simple a "guilty pleasure" game that they enjoy despite being shit. While I did not love it like some people do, I can personally say I did not think the games were either of those things.

The game is broken up into 6 (technically 7 if you complete all other routes) character routes. You can play as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Big the cat and Gamma respectively. Each of these characters play differently from each other, whether it's for better or worse, and even tho each playthrough varies in quality, I can at least commend how ambitious this is. Because in each character's playthrough, you get different cutscenes and also context for certain scenes that may not be explained in earlier playthroughs. As my friend Lemonstrade said, it's sort of similar to what Drakennier does which again is super cool conceptually, especially for a 1998 game.

But back to the actual characters, Sonic is the clear best one here. He has his spin dash, is of course the fastest in the game and also has a super fun aerial dash. I've heard people say the controls are bad in this game and I simply don't get that at all. Sonic, at least, feels simply perfect to control. The levels on the other hand, I can see people having issues with. I disagreed with the fact this game is broken beyond belief, but it definitely can be a bit broken if you're unlucky. I only glitched through the stage like 2 or 3 times, but the first time it happened was on the very first stage. That made me think the entire game would be broken, but it wasn't. Unless I got lucky, those claims, while still credible sometimes...are massively overblown. Besides that though, Sonic's stages while still fun, can feel incredibly janky just because of how fast he goes. It's hard to explain but if you've played the game you'd know, a lot of times the animations and your movement through levels can feel very unwieldly. It can be really hard to control sonic sometimes, and it often looks super awkward when looking back at it. Like I said it's hard to explain, and while I still had a ton of fun with his levels (just because he feels so good to controls) I can't help but think thee levels feel off. Again, this is mostly when you're at full speed going through loop de loops and shit. When it's slower sections you're going through, it's not an issue.

As for the other characters, they all have significantly less stages than Sonic. Tails has you racing against sonic, and with him being able to glide, you can take some seriously crazy shortcuts. The game itself even encourages this which I thought was pretty neat. Knuckles has you searching for three master emerald shards. It's basically a treasure hunt, with the emerald icons turning different colors depending on how close you are to them. These were alright, but story-wise I wasn't really a fan. Honestly thought his story would be more different from Sonic's than it was, not to mention the final Chaos fight was barely different from Sonic's (and Tails had a unique fight for his ending). Amy was probably my least favorite character to use. Her levels consisted of getting to the end like Sonic, while running away from one of Robotnik's robots. Problem is, while her hammer bounce is kinda cool, her moveset isn't nearly as fun as Sonic's yet her levels are still long like Sonic's (which isn't much of an issue with Tails and Knuckles). That plus, besides the one Gamma scene, her cutscenes were lame. Big the cat is the most contentious character by far, and honestly I didn't hate him. Yeah his cutscenes are super dumb and don't add much to the story. However his campaign is by far the shortest, and the fishing is actually really easy (and kinda fun) once you get the hang of it. Gamma is by far the best character next to Sonic. Not only are his stages fast paced, with you having to kill enemies quickly to get more time to your total. His story is actually significantly different compared to the others, and quite touching at that. If I had to rank each character's campaigns, I'd say Sonic>Gamma>Tails>Big>Knuckles>Amy.

To go to each actual level, you have to navigate the hubworld. For a 1998 game, it's not bad but it can feel somewhat empty I felt. Though, there are things to get that aren't just apart of the main story. There are some optional collectables and even some minigames you can play. There's also the chao garden which, I tried to get to work but since I was emulating the game, I suspected there was an add on I needed or something idk. But from the little I've heard, it does sound fun.

The story in general, does have its high points, like the aforementioned Gamma campaign and the ending is really nice. It's simple but effective. However, the actual voice acting is horribly stilted a lot of the time. It's not even a so bad it's good situation, it was just mediocre a lot of the time. That is, except for Robotnik who is super over the top but hilarious. Even despite the fact they reuse fight dialogue in actual scenes (which is jarring for sure) his dialogue is super duper memorable and easily the highlight. Something else that was memorable were some of the face animations, goddamn are they awful sometimes.

I didn't like LOVE the soundtrack like some people do, but it is quite nice overall. Very experimental which I appreciate a ton. My favorite songs were probably Red Skull Mountain, Welcome to Station Square and Egg Carrier: A Song That Keeps Us on the Move.

Once you complete all 6 character routes, you unlock the 7th and final one..Super Sonic. This is essentially just the final boss and some closure on the story, but it's definitely satisfying. You become Super Sonic, defeat Chaos's final form at supersonic speed, and in turn this cleanses Chaos of his evil as we find out he wasn't ever bad from the start. The closure on the whole Chao's and the past cutscenes was really nice. That along with Gamma's scenes ofc, easily the highlights of the story.

This game is definitely flawed in some ways, and Adventure 2 might improve on everything in this game idk. But I can officially say, this game is overall good and that Sonic had a good transition to 3D. Not everything works in this game, but I can acknowledge this game is full of heart.

May drop it down to a 6 cuz I was feeling like that for a good while but for now it's a 7.