(This is the 97th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet/blog is in my bio.)
It surprised me to see the very positive reviews about this game online. Usually, I find that my thoughts on these older games align for the most part with consensus, or are even more positive. With Contra: Hard Corps, the follow up to 1992's excellent Contra III: The Alien Wars, I stumbled upon a game where I found my time to be significantly less fun than it seems to have been for many others.
I'm not gonna dive too deeply into it because I "only" played the game for 3 hours, but as someone who thought that Contra III definitely was among the 3 best games to release in 1992, the amount by which I disliked Contra Hard Corps was very surprising and easily my biggest disappointment out of the 1994 playlist. Why? Level design would probably be my number one answer to that. For a game that is as fast-paced and action-packed as Contra games tend to be, there were a LOT more moments in this game where you couldn't skip dialogue or certain scenes. For a game made to be replayed constantly, this had me bored out of my mind after the 10+ failed attempts each area took me. Then there is the bosses and mini bosses in each level, which felt unfairly designed here more than anything. Where Contra III's bosses usually made me feel like I mastered them after a while and could reliably get past them, bosses in Contra Hard Corps just seem to constantly corner you or have attacks that are just barely avoidable by a frame and overall feel way less reliable to beat. Weapons seem to do less damage here than in Contra III as well, which means for a lot of fights with basic enemies, you can't just "run and gun" your way past them, but instead have to stop, aim and shoot, which for a game like this really isn't something I should ever be forced to do.
There is no stand and shoot diagonally button for starters. Controls are not tight either. If one projectile comes at you, they are reliably dodgable, but two or more and I found myself praying to the Contra gods that my input would allow me to dodge them. Even if you do, hitboxes seem too large and you get hit anyway.
It's things like that that just made this incredibly frustrating to play. I can't say I enjoyed any of this. It felt like a less clever, more unfairly punishing Contra III with worse visuals.
Clearly, I'm in the minority with that opinion, but unfortunately this was my experience for a game I was looking forward to.
It surprised me to see the very positive reviews about this game online. Usually, I find that my thoughts on these older games align for the most part with consensus, or are even more positive. With Contra: Hard Corps, the follow up to 1992's excellent Contra III: The Alien Wars, I stumbled upon a game where I found my time to be significantly less fun than it seems to have been for many others.
I'm not gonna dive too deeply into it because I "only" played the game for 3 hours, but as someone who thought that Contra III definitely was among the 3 best games to release in 1992, the amount by which I disliked Contra Hard Corps was very surprising and easily my biggest disappointment out of the 1994 playlist. Why? Level design would probably be my number one answer to that. For a game that is as fast-paced and action-packed as Contra games tend to be, there were a LOT more moments in this game where you couldn't skip dialogue or certain scenes. For a game made to be replayed constantly, this had me bored out of my mind after the 10+ failed attempts each area took me. Then there is the bosses and mini bosses in each level, which felt unfairly designed here more than anything. Where Contra III's bosses usually made me feel like I mastered them after a while and could reliably get past them, bosses in Contra Hard Corps just seem to constantly corner you or have attacks that are just barely avoidable by a frame and overall feel way less reliable to beat. Weapons seem to do less damage here than in Contra III as well, which means for a lot of fights with basic enemies, you can't just "run and gun" your way past them, but instead have to stop, aim and shoot, which for a game like this really isn't something I should ever be forced to do.
There is no stand and shoot diagonally button for starters. Controls are not tight either. If one projectile comes at you, they are reliably dodgable, but two or more and I found myself praying to the Contra gods that my input would allow me to dodge them. Even if you do, hitboxes seem too large and you get hit anyway.
It's things like that that just made this incredibly frustrating to play. I can't say I enjoyed any of this. It felt like a less clever, more unfairly punishing Contra III with worse visuals.
Clearly, I'm in the minority with that opinion, but unfortunately this was my experience for a game I was looking forward to.
2 Comments
@iyellatcloud Hey, thanks for mentioning that. I enjoyed Contra III so with that knowledge I might go back to Hard Corps soon since I'll be Steam Deck bound for a while anyway, appreciate it :)
iyellatcloud
4 months ago
If you press the A button while you're shooting, you can toggle between "stand still while firing" and "move while firing" modes. It's not particularly well communicated but it's there!
It might not change your overall enjoyment but just wanted to pop in to say that (and also that I'm enjoying this series of yours!)