When I heard that there was going to be a true sequel to Contra, I was ecstatic. Then they revealed that it wasn’t going to be done by Konami. It was doomed to be shuffled off to some developer that didn’t have a lot of Contra-style games under its belt. I didn’t really know what to expect. I mean, it was Contra 4, the first real Contra game in 15(!) years; however, it wasn’t important enough for Konami to develop in-house. After getting the game and playing it, did it live up to the pedigree of the series, or did it join the Shatter Soldier pile?

Let’s get this out of the way first: Contra 4 is as tough as its predecessors. On the hard difficulty, it might be even tougher. However, there ARE three different difficulty levels, so you can kind of ease into the game. On easy, you get something like five continues with ten lives per continue. On normal difficulty, you get five lives. On hard you only get three lives per continue. More changes between the different difficulty levels than the amount of lives. There are a lot more enemies as you go up in difficulty. The game completely leaves out certain enemies, and the last few levels, on easy. You have to power up your weapons more as the difficulty goes up. Even with the fairly smooth progression from easy to normal (I won’t even mention hard right now), it is still hard to even THINK about beating normal (even if you have mastered easy). Contra 4 helps ease this transition by adding the excellent challenge mode into the game after you beat the game on easy.

The challenge mode consists of forty challenges that range from killing a certain number of enemies to beating a level in a certain amount of time. Not only do these challenges help you improve your skills in the game, but beating them will also unlock certain bonus features. Unlockables consist of things like different playable characters and, best of all, two full games (Contra and Super C). After you beat these challenges, you just might be ready to take on the game at normal difficulty. Alright, probably not.

Despite Contra 4’s high difficulty level, you never feel like the game is cheating you. The game is simple run and shoot gameplay, every death happens because YOU messed up. You missed an enemy, didn’t time a jump right, or used the wrong weapon against a boss. It’s always your fault and, every time you play, you improve. It gives a great feeling of accomplishment, unlike any other game. That said, I really don’t know if anyone will ever be good enough to take the game on at the hard setting. I can’t even beat the game on normal yet, and I have been playing it forever.

The gameplay is great, but did they skimp on the presentation? The menus may make you think so. They aren’t ugly, but they are kind of bland. Straight to the point, no extra frills here. Once you get into the actual game, you will realize just how great the game looks. The animation is fantastic and the colors are vibrant, it is easily one of the best looking games on the system. It doesn’t stop there. The music, while not memorable like Mario or Zelda music, is effective and energetic.

I don’t want to give the game a rating, simply because I haven’t beaten it yet. That said, as of now, I consider it to be the second best DS game of all time (and my number two GOTY after Super Mario Galaxy). I’d rank it just below Advance Wars DS. Will everyone like this game? Probably not, but if you like challenging games or grew up on the NES, then you should love it. You should see it (Youtube it) and decide for yourself.