Operation C (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
306A playthrough of Ultra's 1990 run-and-gun shooter for the Nintendo Game Boy, Operation C.
Operation C was Konami's first Contra game for a handheld platform, and it was an impressively well scaled-down "remix" of Super C for the NES with a few elements from the first Contra thrown in for variety's sake. About the only way I could imagine anyone would have been disappointed with it would have been if they were expecting a brand new title in the series. Still, the new level layouts, remixed music, and a few new boss battles make it all worth seeing for any fan of Super C or Super Contra.
Operation C has five main stages, and they alternate play styles between the traditional side-scrolling platformer and the top-down shooter. Just like Super C did. Some of the stages reuse themes and ideas from the old while incorporating some new surprises - the first stage, for example, uses the same industrial site/cityscape as a backdrop, but it features an elevator that brings you down to the water level where you'll find a submarine boss waiting.
The graphics and sound are excellent, especially for such an early release on the system. The sprites are all crystal-clear and stand out against the detailed backgrounds without blurring too much - thank god they figured that out so that they didn't have to slow the action down as much as they did with Castlevania: The Adventure! The projectiles are all huge and dark, making them easy to see, and some of the new boss designs are pretty neat. I particularly liked the last robot guy before the really strange "final" boss, but that last one seems to take its cue from Gradius and Metroid. Not something you ordinarily see in a Contra title, but it's a cool novelty moment. The music is really good too. A lot of it is remixed from older games, but the new stuff holds up just fine against those familiar tunes.
The gameplay is closely modeled off of the NES games as well. The controls are just as responsive (though on the Game Boy's d-pad I always got into trouble by accidentally ducking instead of aiming diagonally down, anyone else?), and even though the area of the play field has been shrunk considerably, you rarely feel like you need the elbow room. The number of enemies and their positions have been tweaked to cater to this. Just watch out when jumping across gaps - there are places where you can hit your head (like when getting off if the Stage 5 elevator platform), and doing so will make you plummet like a rock, straight into a pit. The weapons have also changed a bit - you get the classic S powerup (upgradeable!), the F shot (no charging this time, sorry), and a new homing weapon that feels like a precursor to the homing missiles in Contra 3: The Alien Wars. The machine gun and the laser are missing, but they aren't ever really needed.
Operation C is a fairly short and entirely too easy, but it does provide a solid Contra experience on the go, and is still much better than the later-released Game Boy port of Contra 3.
Random side note - Operation C did get a full Game Boy Color port in a Konami GBC collection cart, but it was released only in Europe, and it was called Probotector despite the complete lack of robots. Strange, huh?
*Recorded using the DMG shader from Retroarch for the classic Game Boy look!
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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