'C' hardly does original 'Contra' justice

C: The Contra Adventure

Konami

HHH

Anyone ever interested in action/platform games has had to have heard of "Contra," perhaps the best of the genre. The player is a soldier battling hordes and hordes of aliens with powerful weapons, like homing missiles and lasers. But if you thought that you've seen it all from the "Contra" series, think again, because this time it's a whole new ballgame.

"Konami," like "Capcom," belongs to a group of powerful video game companies out right now. "Contra" is like "Street Fighter" to "Capcom;" it's one of the leading titles that made "Konami" famous. In "C," the player still has to kill the alien enemy who has nothing better to do than to invade the peaceful little planet. Yes, the game still has all the original but impressive weapons, and the aliens are still difficult to kill.

What is fascinating about "C" is the different gameplay it offers.

"Konami" had a "Contra" game for Playstation already, and it flopped because it used an overhead perspective with cheap 3-D glasses. People were disappointed, not to mention that they looked silly wearing glasses. This time "Konami" returned to the tried-and-true side-scrolling perspective in parts of the game, so the playing experience will be reminiscent of the good ol' days of "Contra" on the Nintendo and the Super Nintendo systems. The player will also enjoy the dec-ent gameplay and the cool visual effects.

In the second stage, "Konami" starts to experiment. We have a new third person 3-D perspective that is a mixture of "Tomb Raider" with the attitude of "Duke Nukem." Although it was not as captivating as the side-scrolling perspective, it was a fine try and actually proved to be interesting to play. The player even has a laser pointer for the gun. But after that, we have the warped overhead view, where visibility is relatively nothing. This is aggravating because a player can be cruising through the whole level, and then suddenly become blind. The bosses were off-screen, and one can't judge the distance of the bullets nor the level of the gun, not to mention that the figure is small as lint on the screen.

Another flaw of "C" is that it is just for one player. "Contra" was always for two players. Why change?

But despite all the bad points, "C" is a decent game. It definitely beats the first Playstation "Contra." The controls are good and the music and sound effects are fitting. The graphics are up to date with some well-designed 3-D and lighting effects. The difficulty is a little high, but that's expected from a "Contra" game. Konami definitely deserves credit for trying this new third-person 3-D perspective.

Overall, the game contains many perks to keep you interested for a while, but it would be better if "Konami" would simply create a straight up "Contra" game that is an upgrade of the original.

We already know what works best, so why try the rest?

- Stephen Ma

10-14-98