The year is 1988. The NES is kicking out some of the best games in history including the original Contra. For those of you who grew up on a steady diet of side scrolling, alien killing, waterfall climbing fun…you certainly will not be disappointed by the most recent installment of the contra series on the Nintendo DS.
Simply named Contra 4 (visit the official site), this installment (the 20th anniversary edition) must have been designed by people who truly loved the original Contra. In fact, the game seems to be an upgraded version of the much loved original. The graphics are upgraded, and some of the levels are changed up a bit, but veterans of the original will notice many similarities including a waterfall level, bosses from the original and a weapon selection that includes spread, fire, machine gun and laser.
As you would expect, this rendition is extremely hard. I suggest playing it on easy at first. There are actually some differences in how weapons respond between difficulty settings. Rest assured that normal and hard will require patience and skill.
The 30 life-code doesn’t work upfront. However, after you beat the game in any of the modes, you wind up unlocking the classic NES versions of Contra and Super C…..where the original Konomi codes do work.
This version does have a great multi-player mode. The bad news is that you need to have two versions of the game (one for each DS) to be able to play. However, this is a small price to pay to once again have the opportunity to leave your friend behind on the waterfall level 
All in all, this is a great game that pays tribute to the original in a fun and updated way.
02/01/2008 at 4:13 pm Permalink
Contra is one of the greats. It is nice to hear that they finally did not screw up a sequal. So many of the follow up games I have played over the last 20 years have sucked. They are just to damm hard and with out the 30 life code, which is what made the first game so cool, the games were just to hard to complete. I’m talking about you Playstation contra!
02/01/2008 at 4:27 pm Permalink
I totally forget about how you could leave a man behind on the waterfall level.
02/01/2008 at 4:44 pm Permalink
That damn waterfall………