Obnoxious price aside, I found myself enjoying this a lot more than Wayforward's other Contra game (Contra 4). The biggest additions to the formula here are a perk system and the ability to "overcharge" your weapons. Basically, you can sacrifice them for a host of unique temporary power-ups such as slowing down time (laser) or sending a heap of bullets bouncing across the screen (spread). In addition to this, you can actually upgrade said weapons by picking up two of the same without getting hit. I had a lot of fun messing around with these mechanics in the handful of arcade mode runs I've done so far.

Overall I'd say this would be a great starting point for newbies thanks to how flexible it is in terms of difficulty, and not a bad entry for hardcore players since you can make the game as hard as you'd like (one-hit kill mode, no perks). As it stands, though, forty is probably going to be too much for most people and I get it. If it weren't for the fact that there aren't too many new games coming out that I want, I probably wouldn't have snatched this up day one.