Contra III: The Alien Wars - Super Nintendo

Review comments

Contra III: The Alien Wars box art Earth is in trouble! An alien space craft of vast proportions has somehow managed to completely deactivate the Earth Defence Net and launch a massive attack on the major population centres of the world. Unable to retaliate, the leaders of each nation watch as the aliens build their own command centres and begin to take over the world!

Meeting at an underground location, the leaders decide that only a small, one or two-man task force could successfully breach the aliens' defences and in a blaze of photon annihilation, send them back from whence they came.

You (and your chum in two-player mode) are charged with the task of tackling the enemy forces. This occurs over a series of overhead and side-on shoot 'em up scenarios, collecting new weapons, driving armoured transports, and blowing up anything vaguely alien-looking. But during their short-lived occupation of the Earth, the aliens haven't been idle. Using their strange and extraordinary skills, they've managed to deposit a lethal alien at the end of each level. They've been trained to absorb many hits before their eventual demise, and even their looks have been distorted to make ordinary humans cringe in fear and soil their trousers with primal terror.

Against such phenomenal odds, do you still reckon yourself hard enough to get the job done? Or will the only job done be the one in your undies?

Staff comments

Anyone who doubts the abilities of the Super NES should take a look at this - it's unbelievable! The graphics, sounds, special effects and varied, highly addictive gameplay and all absolutely outstanding anbd make for one of the greatest shoot 'em ups yet seen. In fact it's so good it puts most of the coin-ops I've played recently to shame! The sideways scrolling bits are all action-packed with tons going on, and the overhead sections are like a mega version of Crackdown. The game is very, very challenging, especially when you play it on your own, and the final guardian is nigh on impossible to dispatch until you learn his special attack patterns. Contra Spirits is a superlative game and Super NES owners shouldn't miss it under any circumstances.

Wow! Contra Spirits grabs you immediately with its ultra-violent gameplay. Literally thousands of enemy sprites bite the dust before the game is complete, and that's just in EASY mode! The graphics are spectacular. Konami have incorporated every Super NES graphics trick in the book, and added plenty of new ones too! I defy you not to be impressed by the overhead rotational levels - they're just jaw-droppingly amazing. The sound is awesome too, with atmospheric scores that almost rival Actraiser in their brilliance. It's a shame that the effects are just so loud, as they tend to drown out the music. Other than that, you just can't fault Contra Spirits. Basically, what we have here is ultra-addictive, arcade quality blasting action - with simultaneous two-player action thrown into the bargain! Once again, Konami have produced a product that simply MUST be purchased!

Retrospective comments

Konami really went all out with this the third instalment to the Contra series (or Probotector to gamers in the PAL regions). The development team at the time must have relished the challenge of developing on the Super Nintendo as this is one of the more impressive games on the system. Everything is so much bigger and brasher than the 8-bit NES games. Gone are the jungle themed landscapes in favour of a post-apocalyptic fallen city overrun by alien invaders.

You and a friend can take on these evil alien hoards as Rambo style mercenaries (or blue and pink robots in the Probotector variant of the game!). Most of the action takes the form of a standard run n’ gun platform style however there are two top-down sections in the game all with liberal helpings of the Super Nintendo’s famous Mode 7 technique to provide some nice scaling and rotating effects.

The action is always fast and furious. The game really plays like a 80s big budget Hollywood film with huge setpieces happening almost constantly. You’ll take on terminator style robots (and their Dad!), rush through a collapsing city with earthquakes and fire rising from the ground and take on a giant enemy vehicle in style on a motorbike.

The controls in Contra III are perfection. The players are very manoeuvrable and can hang on to railings, grapple up walls, dual wield weapons and somersault through the air to avoid oncoming attacks.

The visuals work really well in this game. The detail in the backdrops is outstanding for a game of this era, the sprites still look good today and the special effects still impress. The musical score is amazing too, it becomes instantly very memorable and the tension really builds up during boss fights.

Some newcomers to this game may be intimidated by the difficulty level. The action is fast and frantic and your reactions will be really put to the test. Don’t be ashamed to set the player count to 7 and put the settings to easy if you are finding the going too tough. You will never die because the game is sluggish like some similar games, it is always because you just didn’t react fast enough.

This really is a great game and deserves to be played by any SNES gamer. It is lots of fun playing solo but it shines even more brightly when playing two player co-op. Highly recommended.