Contra III: The Alien Wars
Red Falcon is back and stronger than ever. This time they strike fast and hard, targetting major cities around the globe in one final attempt to
wipe out the human race. Bill and Lance take it upon themselves to defeat Red Falcon once and for all, making their way through the urban warzone to a remote desert where
they will face both new and familiar enemies.
Guest review
Reviewed by Arc LeonellKonami’s logo hasn’t even appeared before I press buttons on my pad with a great eager to play the game as fast as possible. Back then I was a typical arcade monkey. I didn’t care much about stories, intros, nor anything else. It was just pure and clean gameplay that concerned me. They were the days when RPG’s were the worst genre in my book. The title screen fades in and I don’t care about looking at the options, before I rapidly press the start button. The game starts and my first experience with Contra games is about to start.
A character lands at the ground with a glowing light surrounding him. I press the Y button, which usually represented the action button in many snes games, and the character starts to shoot, giving away noise of a heavy machine gun. No time to explore the moves, I want to kill. After few minutes and some lives lost I finished the first stage and its big nasty boss. Japanese passion for bosses bigger than the screen in the 80’s has its influence on Contra. And we’ll see plenty of big monsters in Contra. That I can promise you. The screen fades away as you watch the boss die in pain you caused him. At the next screen, which is always including a kick ass background, a score is being applied for the completed mission, a bonus and maybe a life if you killed many enough. The game continues and suddenly a surprise hits me when the game offers me to choose where to set my starting point. I randomly pick a location and the camera zooms in. The game has suddenly changed from side- to bird view. What the hell? I lose the rest of my lives here and the game is over. I don’t like it. But I decide to give it another shot, but this time a friend joins me. The game's got a new perspective now. It suddenly appeared to me how much more fun it was with 2 players. This time we finished the second stage but died shortly there after. And there we had to quit.
Second time I played Contra was when I stumbled across a server which allowed people to play snes roms together. The first game I thought of was Contra, so I hosted a game and soon another player from the other side of the world joined me. We haven’t even finished the first stage before I realized that I had forgotten about the greatness of this game, the action, explosions, adrenaline and the pure joy of gameplay that Konami served us Contra players. As a matter of fact it was not until now, a long time after my first Contra experience, that I found the true value of this game.
The graphics are quite stark and the dark colors used for the level design fits the game perfect, giving you a feeling of a not so bright future. Animations and effects are great as well, without being exaggerated nor troublesome. When it comes to sound, sound effects themselves can't be much better. Fitting and appealing! But when it comes to the music that plays in the background; geez. Terrible! Nobuo Uematsu's melodies playing in Final Fantasy games were a totally different story. And maybe it's right here that we can find the weakest spot in Contra games in general. One of the most important element in a sidescroller shoot 'em up game is the control. Control in Contra 3 makes a 10-point score. The character acts precisly as you what him to. And if you die it's all you.
Today I'm a experienced gamer with 12 years under my belt and tons of finished and played games. Even today, I still return to this great game to get my kick, my adrenaline rush and to remember the greatness of the 90's and the 2D era.
February 28, 1992
April 6, 1992
November 19, 1992