Contra (NES) Playthrough

Channel:

Zemrick

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Published on April 22, 2023 9:47:22 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJOzuwiUQ2o

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 22:22

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A playthrough of Konami's 1988 game for the NES, Contra.

This was the first game I ever played of it's type on the NES as a kid, and I couldn't possibly guess at the sheer number of hours I sank into it before I ever managed to beat it without the 30 extra lives code. It's the ultimate symbol of what home gaming could be in the late 1980s - besides the graphics and sound limitations of the NES, the home version of Contra played so much better than the arcade game, and was much more approachable to anyone at any skill level. With a bit of practice, anyone could finished the first level. The same certainly can't be said about the final stage, since the game's difficulty ramps up pretty quickly. But that's one of the things that makes Contra so enduring I think. It's always hard, but it's always fair. You've just got to know it well enough and to have refined your reflexes enough to avoid getting overwhelmed.

Fantastic game, and I can't recommend it highly enough to anyone that somehow hasn't played it before.

On a side note, Contra was later released in 1990 in Europe as Probotector, and replaced the human sprites with robots. The US version is actually cut down slightly from the original Japanese version 魂斗羅 (Kontora, not Gryzor like the original Euro version was released as), missing some background animation and cinematics, but either way, it's still one helluva game.