Contra 1987 - Konami

Posted by Lary on July 22nd, 2019

The Contra series is a series of sci-fi / futuristic action games that typically feature run 'n gun gameplay. The series plot lines usually involve the alien menace Red Falcon and its' alien forces endangering the Earth in the 27th century and only members of a special forces elite commando team (Bill Rizer and Lance Bean being the main ones) can stop them.

The bosses are mostly aliens/robots, with the second boss being a gargoyle. Strangely, the first boss is considered to be the most difficult, due to poor hit detection on the boss itself, (you can only damage it when it moves horizontally) as well as its projectiles sometimes glitching, making them randomly move in a curved direction and thus occasionally making them impossible to avoid without luck. Touching any of the bosses hitboxes is instant death, unlike some of those in Contra.The weapons are somewhat different in this game. The flying power-up containers take two shots to destroy (unlike one in the official games) and the power-ups are random. The default weapon is the machine gun like in Contra III: The Alien Wars, the Spread Gun can only fire one set of shots at a time, (presumably to prevent sprite flickering) the Laser Gun works similar to the NES originals and the Flame Gun is similar to the one in Super C. Oddly enough, the Spread Gun and Laser Gun use each others' original sound effects. The R power-up (which in the official games speeds up the bullets of the current weapon) now gives the player an extra life and the Barrier lasts for about 5 seconds, making it near useless while the Falcon Bomb works the same as in Contra and Super C. The latter also appears to be the most common power-up in the game. The score appears to either be glitched or non-functional, and like the official Contra games it only appears between levels.The control is mostly identical to NES Contra/Super C, though with minor differences. The player cannot jump while running near edges and the gravity is lower, Mars-like.

The shooting system is similar to Contra III, as your guns shoot rapidly by default; however, the Machine gun and Flame gun can shoot faster by rapidly pressing the fire button.As is common with Waixing's earlier action games, many of the graphics are ripped from other games, mainly Contra and Mighty Final Fight, both for the NES/Famicom. 

If you're up for more interesting facts and news from Contra Series make sure to visit Contra Central.