Essentially, this is a rehash of my "Let's Talk Contra"-thread from last year, but it's better to start a new thread now, than to bump an old one. Besides, that last one was too partial to the original Arcade games and Nakazato-developed home sequels. Here I'll try to cover every known game in the series (including the bastard sequels).
AC - Contra (GX633, 87/2/20)
Konami scored a hit when they released the original Arcade version of Contra was released in 1987, the game took the basic gameplay of it's previous military game, Rush 'n the Attack, and added 2-player co-op, a sci-fi setting and an arsenal of weapons for the main characters. Set in the 27th century, the players took control of "Contra" Commandos Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, as they took agaisnt the vile Red Falcon terrorist group which had taken over Galuga island. In true, Red Falcon was merely a forefront for a much bigger alien organization. The original Contra was also the only game to employ "3D stages" that were viewed from the main characters' back. The 3D stages were one of the game's selling points (ironically, the Contra series would later be recognized as a mostly 2D series).
Contra got it's name from the Iran-Contra scandal at the time. Despite this, Contra's name remained unchanged in the US, at least initially (later installments were merely called C), but the game's title was changed to Gryzor for the European region.
The heroes Bill and Lance (best known by unofficial nicknames, Scorpian and Mad Dog) were originally modeled after Arnold Schwartzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, while the alien creatures in the game were based upon H.R Giger's work.
AC - Super Contra (GX775, 88/1/28)
A sequel to Contra was released on the following year. Fully titled Super Contra: Alien no Gyakushu (the Alien's Counterattack), the game's story was set a full year after the original, in which Bill and Lance were on a mission to retake the GX Army's base in South America from the aliens. Aside from boasting improved visuals and audio from the first game, the game also allowed player to improve their current weapons and replaced the 3D stages with overhead Commando-style stages. It's a shame Konami didn't port the first two Arcade games in a DX pack like they did with Gradius and Twin Bee.
NES - Contra (RC826, 88/2/9)
Konami ported Contra to the NES and introduced the series to most of it's userbase (myself included) to the series. A very faithful reproduction of the Arcade version and it some ways, better too.
The Famicom version in Japan, made use of Konami's custom VRC2 chip, due to the fact that Konami made their own Famicom cartridges. However, when they ported the game to the NES, Konami was forced to use a standard Nintendo UNROM and many of the game's graphical effects, as well as cut-scenes were taken out. Tis a shame. When Konami released the game in PAL territories, the main characters were changed into robots and renamed it Probotector (a change that was standard for all Contra games until Hard Corps).
MSX - Contra (RC762 89/5/26)
Konami released an MSX version of Contra in Japan a year after the Famicom game. A very weak conversion I might add (it doesn't even have a 2P Mode), but it does add new levels to the game (including a volcano level) and a new end-boss. The backgrounds are slightly more colorful than the NES games, but the sprites are ugly in comparison. Play it for curiousity only.
NES - Super Contra (NES-UE, 90/2/2)
The NES port of Super Contra (which was retitled Super C here) came out two full years after the NES original. The NES port added new stages and a new end-boss (the Fearsome Beast Kimkoh), but made the game on the same engine as the first one.
Oddly enough, Konami opted not to use a special chip for the Famicom and released on a Nintendo Famicom cart with an MMC3 chip instead.
DMG - Operation C (DMG-CNJ, 91/1/8)
Essentially a portable version of Super C with different stages, Operation C was one of the few good games for the original Game Boy. The game known only as Contra in Japan, but the title was spelled in katakana instead of the usual kanji. Contra was featured in Vol. 1 of Konami GB Collection carts released in '96 and was given a full GBC-facelift when it was released in Europe (shown here). KoA opted not to release the GB Collections here (lousy KoA).
NES - Contra Force (NES-CR, 92/08)
Originally planned as an unrelated Famicom game titled Arc Hound (it was developed a year before Contra III came out, but came out after), Konami opted to release this for the NES instead at a time when most of it's userbase already converted to the SNES. The game shares the same basic gameplay as the actual Contra games, but it's set in the present (the present being 1992) and has a power-up system similar to the Gradius series. Konami probably intended Arc Hound to be a Salamander-style spinoff of the series, but ended being more like the Snake's Revenge of the series. I thought it was a decent game of it's own (not exactly deserving for the flakk it gets), but the other Contra games are definitely better. Contra Force did served as a pre-cursor to Hard Corps with it's multiplete characters.
SNS - Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNS-CS, 92/2/28)
The third true installment of the series marked Nobuya Nakazato's directorial debut. This time, the aliens have launched a full-scale attack agaisnt the Earth and only Bill and Lance are man enough to stop them. Contra took everything from the past games and made it more insane (giant robots would come crashing into walls, planes would drop bombs that engulfed the ground into flames and the player would go from motorcycles to a helicopter to fight a giant warship). Improvements were made to the gameplay, such as ability to hold two weapons and carry helio bombs that would kill every enemy on-screen. The overhead levels returned, but this time they made used of the Mode 7 rotation (which ended up being more gimmicky than helpful).
The game's lead programmers, Yaiman and Nami, left Konami for Treasure, where they made for Gunstar Heroes (leading Treasure-fans to boast that Treasure created the Contra series).
This was also the last time people saw Bill and Lance until ten years later in Shattered Soldier, where both were given radical changes to their personas.
SG - Contra: The Hard Corps (T-95093, 94/9/15)
Nobuya Nakazato's second Contra game. Contra: The Hard Corps took the multi-character concept from Contra Force, but with a Contra III-twist. Player choose between Hard Corps' leader Ray Poward (the typical Contra guy), Sheena Etranzi (the sexxxy chick), Brad Fang(wolf guy) and Browny (the cute robot), each with their own arsenal. The game was also filled with multiple branches and endings, as well as something resembling an storyline with a cast of supporting characters. Contra Hard Corps was only released for the Genesis, but two of it's level can be seen in the GBA version of Contra III.
DMG - Contra: The Alien Wars (DMG-ACSJ, 94/9/23)
A portable version of Contra III: The Alien Wars (sans the roman numeral) developed by German group, Factor 5 (Turrican, Rogue Squadron). Quite a decent port of the game despite the lack of 2P Co-Op. They even kept the overhead levels here (but took the bike level). A decent port considering the hardware limitation.
PS1/SS - Contra: Legacy of War (96/11)
Then came a dark era in the franchise know as the "Appaloosa Age". Appaloosa gives Ray Poward an ugly makeover and ditches the rest of the Hard Corps crew with generic wanna-bees in this shoddily executed 3D transition called in Legacy of War....
PS1 - C: The Contra Adventure (98/9)
.....and somehow managed to create an even worse game with the generically-titled C: The Contra Adventure. Honestly I've never played the Appaloosa Contra titles. They're the kind of games you tend to avoid because everyone else said so. Regardless, they've long been retconned from the series.
N64 - Contra Spirits 64 (Cancelled)
Not much is known about this elusive N64 installment of the series other than it was being developed KCE Osaka before it was canned. Whether it was a good thing or a bad thing will never be known.
PS2 - Contra: Shattered Soldier (VW104, 02/10/23)
After eight years since Hard Corps, Contra finally makes it's long overdue comeback thanks to Nobuya Nakazato and KCE Tokyo. Bill Rizer, now a convicted murderer (accused of killing 80% of the Earth's population), is released from his icy imprisonment as he teams-up with the Bionoid Lucia to neutralize out the newly-revived Red Falcon organization (now called Blood Falcon). Shattered Soldiers takes the intense 2D gameplay from the previous games and combines them with the PS2's 3D graphics. The game included artwork from comic book artist, Ashley Wood and soundtrack from the composer of Silent Hill 2. Shattered Soldier sold pretty well for Konami and another Contra sequel may not be far off.
GBA - Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX (RK313, 02/11/14)
A heavily compromised version of Contra III with levels from Hard Corps that do nothing but clash with the graphical style of this game. Yep, I didn't like it at all. While I gotten used to SNES ports on the GBA, Contra Advance could've been better too. Hopefully they'll produce a new game next time instead.
That's all the Contra games for now.
