Contra: Evolution Game (Android & iOS)
2The famous action-packed arcade game is back with more twists. The brothers who put an end to aliens are back for more alien hunting here in Contra: Evolution. Select your character and start infiltrating enemy territories. Shoot down robot soldiers, turrets, cannons, and aliens. Shoot the flying capsules and they will drop power-ups. These power-ups will grant your character special weapons like rockets, homing projectiles, or laser guns. You can also get invulnerability for a short period. Try to avoid dying so you can achieve all eagle badges for each mission. Use these badges to unlock new characters with their own expertise of weapons.
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Up, up! Down, down! Left, right, left, right! B! A! If you were a gamer in the late 80s or the early 90s, then you know exactly what that little bit of gibberish means. And if you know what it means, then you also know one of the most famous games to make use of that little string of commands. And with this game, we're bring back Contra, and what's more, it's in lovely HD graphics, so let's take a look at Contra: Evolution!
As with all remakes of older games, this particular one runs the risk of not being able to capture the same feel and fun factor of the older game. After a bit of playing though, you'll see that this has just the same amount of shooting fun you'd expect from a Contra game.
As aforementioned, the game is now in HD. That doesn't mean that they just scaled the graphics up with some fancy-shmancy scaler though, most (if not all) of the graphics have been completely redrawn and redone to make the best use of modern screen resolutions. Despite this though, it's nto a complete departure from the old school feel of the graphics, allowing the game to keep the nostalgic feel that you'd expect from playing a contra game. Also, there's not much in the way of cheating with modern effects during gameplay, everything feels like it could have been played on an older console (well, despite the HD part, that is) rather than a modern machine.
The sounds are, just like the graphics, updated, but they also keep the feel of the old NES game. The music isn't exactly 8-bit, but it's clearly 8-bit inspired. Once you play it, you'll be taken back a few decades to the days when you'd hold onto your controller, flick it up as you jump, twist around as you dodge, and mash madly at the buttons as the bullets keep coming at you.
As with the older version, the entire game revolves around jumping from platform to platform, dodging bullets, and blasting the crap out of everything that comes at you. Also like the previous game, you've got a whole arsenal of weaponry available to you, from heat seeking rockets (which inexplicably fire out of an assault rifle), to the much beloved spread-shot, to the really cool-looking laser beam. The enemies all also follow similar patterns and shoot much like they did in years gone by. This should make anyone who spent hours on the NES feel right at home (though hopefully there won't be any horrible flashbacks to the blind rage-inducing difficulty of the games from that era).
Unlike the previous game though, you've got a choice from four different characters, two of which were from the older game. The other two can be unlocked as you play, and they each have their own special quirks. It's an interesting addition, and adds a touch of modernity while still staying true to the older game.
And that just about wraps it up. So, feeling nostalgic? Want to get your hands on an old school platformer game? Feel like blasting apart waves after wave of bad guys? Then go on and grab yourself a copy of Contra: Evolution!