Some sections of the jungle have foreground trees that cover the screen, making it difficult for the player to see what is in front of them.ĭethgerbis awaits at the end of this level and will engage the player as the stage boss. In addition, there are a couple of fetal aliens concealed inside stationary egg-like vessels that shoot indestructible red gels. Skull-shaped biped aliens pop from the ground and charge forward. In the arcade version, the player is treated to seeing aliens for the first time in the game Buggers dart from the ground and also leap from the top of the trees. While this feat can be done infinitely in the NES port, in the arcade version the player will eventually be forced to resurface and be once again open to enemy fire, so submerging underwater should be used with careful timing and must not be abused. When traveling in the water sections of this stage, the player becomes unable to jump but gains the capability to submerge and remain invincible while underwater (although stationarily).
Their constant ambushes combined with some Ledders sniping from strategically emplaced positions may make this section difficult to pass. It’s probably too late to write the book on Super C, but you may be surprised with how strong that game still is if you passed on it back in the day.Greeders will unexpectedly jump down from the top of palm trees in the initial jungle section of this stage.
#SUPER CONTRA NES SERIES#
Despite its quality being at least on the level of the first one, the only things really holding back were its name, a series of button inputs for an extra life code, and additional lives that came with the code. Now that I’ve truly given Super C an honest try, I believe that it really got the short end of the stick for superfluous, yet critical reasons. It retains the frenetic action of the original while presenting everything with better graphics, a few new weapons, and cool top-down stages that add variety to the action. Having played it a few times in recent years as part of the NES Classic and the Contra Anniversary Collection, Super C is just as good, if not arguably better than the original.
#SUPER CONTRA NES FULL#
If it had the full name and the 30-life Konami Code, would it have succeeded on the scale of its precursor? I don’t think it’s crazy to believe it could.
#SUPER CONTRA NES CODE#
In Super C, even with the code on, I still needed save states on modern platforms to beat it. With it, I’ve beaten that game more than any other game in my life. I’d never beat the original game with the Konami Code. Part of the Contra appeal for me was that even though these games were challenging even with the codes on, I could still beat them, even if I barely squeak by. Combine that with the game’s slightly higher difficulty, and I bet that many fans of the original bounced off this one when they couldn’t beat it once. Furthermore, it only gave players 10 lives instead of 30. Before it became a thing that became synonymous with Konami’s games, they used a different code for Super C. The other issue that I think holds it back is that it doesn’t have the Konami Code. While it only takes a second to realize that Super C is a part of the Contra series, I feel like this title change really hurt the game’s legitimacy in the eyes of consumers at the time. Maybe they would have triggered a political firestorm by keeping the original name, but it feels like the adjustment really hurt the game’s marketability. Called Super Contra in the arcades, I read somewhere that the full name was shortened in order to get away from the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s. Like NES Contra that came before it, Super C is based on an arcade game with “almost” the same name. However, it didn’t fall short because it was a bad game. Super C was the first of those subsequent releases that fell short of its predecessor’s success. While the series would carry on for many years after that NES release, none of the franchises subsequent releases came even close to capturing the worldwide frenzy of the original. Decades later, that game holds up incredibly well relative to the modern action games of today. Everyone in my circle knew and loved it, and I would discover years later through the internet that the game struck a chord with much of the gaming populace around the world. From its run-and-gun power fantasy action, to being the most important use of the Konami Code ever, Contra on the NES is one of the most iconic games of its time.