This is the only Contra game I’ve finished so I’m not the best authority here, but this game fucking rocks. Aside from the boring auto scroller fight, it’s so well paced and has a few points where you can select between branching paths that make every playthrough feel unique. It’s not absurdly difficult; there’s never too much to manage at once. It’s got a fantastic soundtrack. It looks very pretty. It just rocks, man. That auto scroller fight IS quite boring tho. Probably the only blemish here.