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No girly-men allowed: Official Contra 4 shut-up-and-shoot Thread

lyre

Member
Contra4title.png


"Rizer's credo is to shoot first, keep shooting, and don't ask questions until they're no longer relevant."

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Boxart
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51bPJ%2B4mBCL._SS500_.jpg


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Specs
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Developer: WayForward Technologies
Publisher: Konami
MSRP: $29.99 USD
Aliens Landing: November 14
Players: 2 - co-op (1 cart per system)
Player Deaths: Far too many

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Story
---------------

Two years after Red Falcon's defeat in the Alien Wars, Black Viper arrives blah blah blah who cares, grab your gun and don't stop shooting.

If you really care read it at the official site.

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Contra 4 - 20th Anniversary
------------------------------

Unlockables:

* Contra NES
* Super C NES
* 5 hidden characters
-- All characters here
* Challenge Mode
* Virtual Museum of the history of the Contra series
-- Art, information about the games from US, JPN and EU, interviews
-- 2 digital comic books from the original Contra artist
* Manly chest hairs

Unlockables found here.

-------------------------
About the game
-------------------------

It's Contra 4. You play as one of four commandoes; Bill Rizer, Lance Bean, Mad Dog, or Scorpion though 9 levels of exploding aliens. Wipe them out or die (many times) trying.

Choose from 7 power-ups (6 of them are guns, the way it should be), each with an upgraded version to blast enemies to a fine thin mist. Weapon spoilers ahead so don't read if you really care about something like that.

Homing (H): Missiles that seek out nearby enemies. Upgrading fires a swarm of 3 homing missiles.
Machine Gun (M): Hold down the B button and shoot rapid fire shots. The upgraded version shoots two larger red balls at the same time for twice the kills.
Laser (L): Long beam which goes through enemies. Its upgrade gives you a thicker laser.
Flame (F): A unique bullet that fires in circles about the height of your commando. This shot allows you to hit enemies that usually require you to duck before you can hit them. Its upgraded version is Super C's Flame weapon where the shot bursts into 4 directions upon impact.
Barrier (B): The only non-gun upgrade in the game. This makes you invincible for a short period of time. You won't need it if you never die (ie for wussies only).
Crush (C): Missiles with limited range that explode shortly after launching. The after-effect of the explosion continues to cause damage for a short period of time. The upgraded version gives it range that covers both DS screens.
Spreader (S): Classic weapon that fires 3 bullets that cover more area, killing more aliens. Upgraded version gives you a 5 bullet spreader.

Both DS screens are used for gameplay allowing more enemies, more platforms, more guns, more bullets, more things that explode and more deaths.

A Grappling Hook is added to the game which allows you to reach higher platforms, monkey bar areas, heaven, or whatever else is overhead.

The vertical 'forward-running' corridors of the first Contra make a return.

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Screenshots
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contra-4-20071018052138733.jpg
contra-4-20071018052139405.jpg
contra-4-20071018052140046.jpg
contra-4-20071018052141124.jpg

contra-4-20070710110821462.jpg
contra-4-20070711000402594.jpg
contra-4-20070711094207186.jpg
contra-4-20070711094209248.jpg


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Links
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Official Site: http://www.konami-data.com/officialsites/contra4/
Game Demo via Gamespot: http://www.gamespot.com/video/941461/6174741/contra-4-stage-demo *Warning: Spoilers within*

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Reviews
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Nintendo Power: 8.5/10
Techvat: Kickin' Ass, Taking Names
EGM: 7.5, 8, 8
IGN: 8.0 (Not an average)
Shacknews: Read
1Up: 7.5 Editor's Rating GOOD

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Neogaf Threads
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Contra 4 official site live
Contra 4: Release date, box cover art

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Notes
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- Konami code is in.
Pause the game, enter the code, upgrade your current power-up. Can only be done once per life. Doing it twice ends yourself. Only works in Normal and Hard modes.
- Normal and Hard modes
have different music.
- *bows* WayForward
- I already know the other thread is still going but I thought the 'Manliest Game of the Year' deserves its own official thread and I got the mod go-ahead to make one.
- FU IGA!

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Gratuitousness
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contra_4_art.jpg

c5e2e39a3467b73bc028e64a688eebe7.gif

Arnold.jpg

rambo_l.jpg

chuck_norris.jpg

jerkw-excitement.gif


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Hairless, Yellow Pansies
----------------------

* loosus
* Joseph Merrick
* Gamespot (for still not having the game reviewed)


.
 

AGFlamey

Member
Wait wait wait a second, you can unlock the ability to play through the game as the probotectors? Coz playing as humans feels...wrong.
 

jman2050

Member
Fired up the original on VC to prepare for the manly ownage.

Got destroyed by level 5... again... god I hate that stage. If I can get through that and 6 without problems I'm home free :/
 

drohne

hyperbolically metafictive
man, i hope wayforward got this right. it certainly looks the part. and in any case i'm practically getting it for free after that tru mario galaxy deal
 

Pimpbaa

Member
AGFlamey said:
Wait wait wait a second, you can unlock the ability to play through the game as the probotectors? Coz playing as humans feels...wrong.

No, playing as robots feels wrong! Damn europeans and their bastardization of contra!
 

Avrum

Member
Downloaded the demo to my DS after picking up Mario Galaxy today. Won't be day one purchase, but WILL be purchased soon after.
 

lyre

Member
vicious_killer_squirrel said:
Forgive my ignorance, but what's with the IGA hate? Has he had something to do with Contra in the past?
He has nothing to do with Contra.

The hate only has everything to do with IGA recycling everything under the sun to churn out a recycled CV game while WayFoward has drawn new sprites, new levels, new tiles, looks like it maintains the feel of the original games while adding new elements and also done in the same amount of time as a CV game (and probably had a smaller budget than a CV game too, if that is remotely possible).

WayForward > IGA and friends.
 
lyre said:
He has nothing to do with Contra.

The hate only has everything to do with IGA recycling everything under the sun to churn out a recycled CV game while WayFoward has drawn new sprites, new levels, new tiles, looks like it maintains the feel of the original games while adding new elements and also done in the same amount of time as a CV game (and probably had a smaller budget than a CV game too, if that is remotely possible).

WayForward > IGA and friends.
Ah, I see.

*Nonchalantly pushes CV:HoD, CV:AoS, CV: DoS and CV:poR game boxes out of sight with foot*

Wait a minute... the Probotectors are unlockable?! Please tell me that they're playable in the unlockable version of Contra 1.
 

Jcgamer60

Member
lyre said:
He has nothing to do with Contra.

The hate only has everything to do with IGA recycling everything under the sun to churn out a recycled CV game while WayFoward has drawn new sprites, new levels, new tiles, looks like it maintains the feel of the original games while adding new elements and also done in the same amount of time as a CV game (and probably had a smaller budget than a CV game too, if that is remotely possible).

WayForward > IGA and friends.

Maybe if the Castlevania team was given more time and a bigger budget...
 
Jcgamer60 said:
Maybe if the Castlevania team was given more time and a bigger budget...

lyre said:
He has nothing to do with Contra.

The hate only has everything to do with IGA recycling everything under the sun to churn out a recycled CV game while WayFoward has drawn new sprites, new levels, new tiles, looks like it maintains the feel of the original games while adding new elements and also done in the same amount of time as a CV game (and probably had a smaller budget than a CV game too, if that is remotely possible).

WayForward > IGA and friends.

lyre said:
(and probably had a smaller budget than a CV game too, if that is remotely possible).

lyre said:
a smaller budget than a CV game

.
 

spangler

Member
Perhaps the rest of you know something I'm not privy to? Do you suppose gamestop is correct in this shipping delay or is gamestop just being "gamestop" again?
 

ChazAshley

Gold Member
My frothing anticipation for this game increases everyday. I beat super contra last night to prepare for this momentous occasion.

*holds down L and R and poses*
 

baruflea

Member
spangler said:
The listing for this on gamestop now indicates a shipping date of 11/23. This does not please me.

:O nnnnnnooooooooooooooooooo! *huddles in corner, cries!*

Love the thread. Can't wait to hand off the DSL to friends who're supposedly good gamers and watch them weep in frustration. :lol

RE: IGA bubububu...castle..vania! Classic franchise despite shitty console iterations over the yrs. Drac X isn't bad a'tall. I'm loving it after spending 2 hours with it.
 

Jcgamer60

Member
Is it confirmed Wayforward has a smaller budget?

Also, what about timing? Maybe Konami is pressuring him to churn out at least one castlevania game a year.

Don't get me wrong i'm sick of all the recycling and god awful portrait of ruin just as much as anyone else, I just want to be sure the blame has to be put purely on IGA.

At least DoS was great.
 

Iam Canadian

and have the worst user name EVER
In all honesty, Portrait of Ruin was better than DoS and I'm not sure why people love DoS while crapping on PoR.

At any rate, this game looks like a win-win proposition. Contra IV looks like a truly worthy successor to the Contra series, a perfect mixture of old and new. Gaming needs more titles like this; no crappy story, no filler material; just pure gameplay.

And hey, even if the inconceivable happens and the game is subpar, we get portable versions of Contra and Super C. Everybody wins.
 

jman2050

Member
ThirstyFly said:
Eh? Since when is the original on VC?

Crap, I got confused cause my bro played Super C on VC not long before XD

I think I played it using... other means... the rest of my post stands though :lol
 

lyre

Member
Iam Canadian said:
In all honesty, Portrait of Ruin was better than DoS and I'm not sure why people love DoS while crapping on PoR.
Because, at least for me, it's too much of the same of what we have played for years. It's to the point where I play Johnny just like how I played Soma in DoS; with a cheap pocket knife as my weapon, low grade armour, Knife item and nothing. If you change a few colours, you would swear Johnny's sprite was merely traced over Soma's ... oh ....

Though despite me knocking these games for recycling sprites, I have no problems with games reusing assets so as long as the game is good with qualities that out-weight the negatives, like the GBA MegaMan Zero games for instance. That series had pretty much a new game a year reusing the same engine through 4 games (probably) with tweaks in the sprites but the games still play really well (until Capcom started tracing over sprites in ZX). Whereas the new iterations of Capcom's other franchise (Castlevania of course) tries to pass itself as a new game with every version and fails every time.

Mind you I like the 2 DS CV a lot; check my post history, but even the most dedicated fan can get burnt out. And that should be enough derailment of my own damn thread. :p

At any rate, this game looks like a win-win proposition. Contra IV looks like a truly worthy successor to the Contra series, a perfect mixture of old and new. Gaming needs more titles like this; no crappy story, no filler material; just pure gameplay.
Just the way I like it.

And hey, even if the inconceivable happens and the game is subpar, we get portable versions of Contra and Super C. Everybody wins.
Not possible, though I can agree with you on the latter statement. :D
 
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