contra 4 just misses the bulls eye on a perfect old school throw back

I got Contra 4 a couple of weeks ago when I noticed it on sale for the Nintendo DS. Now contra was one of my favorite old school shooters, but latest offerings like contra hard crops has made me wary. But I picked up the game knowing it had at least the classics has unlockables. While I have beaten the easy mode several times I haven't quite gotten to far into normal, but decided to review it anyways. Contra 4 is a great throw back but a few things keep it from hitting the bulls eye.

Story
A couple of years have passed since the alien wars have ended and peace has return to the earth. Unfortunately Black Viper has come to avenge his friend Red Falcon and has invaded earth issuing an ultimatum to humanity surrender or die. Now if you're the earth government what to you do, do you surrender. No you send the 4 soldiers responsible for busting the last several alien meet and greets that have happen on earth into the alien base to blow stuff up.

Not much on narrative but then a Contra game shouldn't have much narrative. All you need evil aliens are in your way and it's your job to clean them up.

Graphics.
16 and ½ bit is a good way to describe the graphics in Contra 4. The graphics look like they would be home on the SNES if it wasn't for a little bit of the sprite modeling using 3d to give them more depth to the animation, and a few special effects like boulders tumbling down this could easily have been on the old system. And you know something it works out well the game feels like an old contra with plenty of explosions to keep your eye entertain, even if there isn't much eye candy. The game is played with both screens with the top screen and the bottom screen functioning has one. It's been done before and Contra 4 does an ok job of doing it, other then the blind spot issue. Any games including Sonic and Zelda that use the top screen has an extended screen has that blind spot, annoying to those games in Contra 4 it's absolutely fatal. Expect plenty of cheap deaths to bullets and snipers hiding in that blind spot, especially on vertical parts like the waterfall.

Sound.
Music wise you get Contra songs remixed in normal and easy mode, and in the hard stages you get music more akin to the original classic tunes. Basically nothing wrong with the music has in typical Contra style it fits with the mayhem on screen. The 4 characters have the same voices that say the same thing, auugh, followed by a saying like Lock and Load after they reappear.

Gameplay
Unlike Shatter Soldiers Contra 4 doesn't just look like an old Contra; it plays like an old contra. Expect harder then heck difficulty and plenty of run and gun. Like all Contras one hit puts you on the floor, you loose whatever special weapon you were holding. The whole point is to get to the end of the stage and beat the boss while not getting hit. It's pretty easy to pick up on but the game can be difficult even on easy mode there is plenty of enemy bullets and grenades heading at you. The special weapons will be familiar to anyone who has played classic Contras, the only changes for the most part is the laser which has lost a lot of it's power but has become faster and is now able to fire more then one shot. All the other guns are pretty much found in Contra 3. The added fire power from collecting weapons remains addictive and makes the game play fast and fun has it was on the good old SNES.

To put more of a classic feel to it they limited the continues so for those of you who thought Castlevania Dracula X chronicles was unfair sending you back to the beginning of a stage, Contra 4 won't hesitate to send your sorry keister back to the beginning of the game.

There is also plenty of extra modes and unlockables. The main one should be the challenge missions which have you either go through stages with a special weapon, going through several bad guys in an area with out dying, or trying to get through an area unable to fire a single shot. Beating these challenges will unlock things like extra skins where you can play has the probectors from the European games (note none of these skins do anything special nor is there any difference between the characters, which is a good thing Contra demands to be has shallow has possible). The big thing is the unlockable original Contra and Super C NES games that can be unlocked. The emulation on these games aren't bad and all the original codes are intact, bad thing is no 2 player options for these unlockables but they are there.

Now I would like to say Contra 4 is a perfect hard core classic experience there are two things that keep it back. First thing is the all ready mention blind spot, but I am willing to give it a pass because it's a flaw in all DS games that take the split screen route. The 2nd problem though is a little less easy to forgive. It's a flaw that looked good on paper but was lousily executed. This idea was to allow weapons to be powered up by grabbing two of the same weapons. For example if you have a machine gun, grabbing another machine gun adds an extra turret. Unfortunately the machine gun is the only gun that really seems to have been upgraded properly. Some guns like the flame thrower actually become more of a liability powered up because it changes from a Contra to a Super C type flame thrower. The Super C flame thrower was more powerful but it lacked the range which means the powered up flame thrower will have you venturing into enemy fire in order to use it. Worst is some guns have been weaken in order to accommodate this power up system. The spread for example now only fires 3 bullets when you pick it up, you have to find another spread in order to fire out the 5 bullets it was originally suppose to. And if you die with a powered up weapon in hand you loose the whole gun so it makes the game a bit more frustrating then it needs to be. Oh and one more gripe the game does use the contra code, by entering the code it powers up whatever weapon you have in your possession, or it will cost you the weapon and a life some cheat code. The power up system is not a game killer but it's enough to keep it from getting a perfect rating.

Final Recommendation.
Despite not being able to hack it in normal mode Contra 4 gave me a lot of thrills and there is plenty of challenge there. The unneeded power up system is a bit of a pain though and keeps this package from betting the 5 stars it would otherwise deserve.