We all the hype surrounding the newly-revealed Contra: Shattered Soldier for PlatStation 2 and Contra: Alien Wars EX for the Game Boy Advance, I think now is the time to take a look back at the previous games in the series.
Contra started life in 1987 as an Arcade game, followed by Super Contra in 1988. It wasn't until the original Contra was released for the NES during 1988, in which the series gained a following. The Arcade Contra was released unchanged as Gryzor in Europe, but when the NES Contra was released in Europe, the Rambo-like main characters were changed to robots and the game was called Probotector. Subsequent Contra games also had the human characters replaced by robots in Europe as well. In addition, the Japanese Famicom version of Contra had additional scenes and graphic effects not featured in the NES game thanks to the addition of one of Konami's Video Resource Chips. The original Contra was also released for the MSX2 computer in Japan only.
In 1990, Super Contra was released for the NES, but got it's name changed to Super C for no reason in America. 1991 saw the release of Operation C, an original Contra game for the Game Boy loosely modeled after Super C. In 1992, after the release of the Super NES, people were demanding 16-bit versions of their favorite NES games, Contra included. Konami oblige with Contra III: The Alien Wars, a whole new adventure starring Contra heroes Bill and Lance. Around that same year, Konami released Contra Force for the dying NES, a game which can be considered as the series' equalivent of Snake's Revenge. It was not part of the actual Contra-canon, was handled by different developers, had very different gameplay (Contra Force had a Gradius-style power-up system) and wasn't even released in Japan.
Around 1990s, Nintendo already gave up it's monopolist 3rd-party practices and Sega established itself as Nintendo's fierce rival, several game franchises made the leap from Nintendo to Sega, with Contra being no exception. In 1994, Contra: The Hardcorps was released for the Genesis, the first and only Contra game on a Sega console (not counting Legacy of War). Set several years after Contra III, instead of controlling twin commandos, player could now choose between one of four characters a la Contra Force, each with his or her own power-ups. In 1994, Konami also released a GB version of Contra III, courtesy of German-developer Factor 5.
Afterwards, the Contra franchise took an incredible downfall. During the late 1990s, Konami entrusted Hungary-based developers, Appaloosa, to create two Contra games for the PlayStation; Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure. Both games lacked everything that made the Contra series a classic and it would seem that the series would fade into obscurity. But now, with the arrival of Shattered Soldier, it seems that both of Appaloosa's Contra games will be nothing but a bad memory.
Games in the series:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hzk/kommander/con1k1-1.png
Contra (Arcade Version)
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hzk/kommander/con2k1-3.png
Super Contra (Arcade Version)
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hzk/kommander/con3k1-3.png
Contra III: The Alien Wars (SNES Version)
http://www.classicgaming.com/contra/chc/l1-2.gif
Contra: The Hardcorps
Links:
Contra Headquarters - From the creator of the Castlevania Dungeoun
Contra Densetsu (Japanese) - Best Contra site ever!
