I have always been intrigued by the Contra series, ever since I first saw it on the Super Nintendo. When I was finally able to play the game, I was instantly shocked by the difficulty level, and it wasn’t long before I was back in the safer and more forgiving space of Super Mario World. So, I was slightly apprehensive coming into Contra: Operation Galuga, the latest entry in the series, worried that the difficulty level had returned, and the game told me that I was right and wrong at the same time.
Before we get into the game properly, I feel it is right to address performance issues, which are mainly directed at the version my review is based on, the Nintendo Switch. Reading up on articles published at the time of the game’s release, all mention a bad frame rate, plenty of bugs, and bad performance in general. It was so bad that even Nintendo Life recommended people stay away from the Nintendo Switch version and play it on other platforms. Since then, the game has received patches, and my playthrough was much smoother than others were at launch. I played mostly handheld, but I didn’t notice any stuttering or bad frame rates, and I encountered only one bug, so kudos to Konami and Wayforward for addressing those issues and making Contra a satisfying experience performance-wise.
Contra has always been a challenging series, and this latest entry is no different. You’ll be fending off wave after wave of soldiers, machines, and dinosaur-esque creatures, such is the nature of the ‘run and gun’ genre. Konami have certainly harkened back to the game’s roots, with enemy fire seemingly knowing where you are or where you are going to be, and sometimes there was just to much going on at once to avoid damage. This did lead to some frustration, and I ended up taking my time with each segment of the stage to make sure I could spot the dangers ahead, defeating the purpose of the genre. Bosses were interesting and well designed for the most part, but they showed inconsistencies with the difficulty, with some being harder than others. Later bosses were easier to defeat than earlier ones, for instance. You may say that I was more powered up at that time, but I wasn’t really, only having one buff (which we will get to later) activated. This incoherency showed in the general stages as well. I got to a point where I was ready to activate some accessibility options just to make it slightly less of a challenge, but I was shocked to find nothing in this area. I can’t believe in this day and age that some games are still being created without these options, as they should be mandatory, especially in this type of challenging game. There’s no excuses, and its the bigger studios that are the guilty party, with independent developers showing them up on a consistent basis. Bear this in mind when you are choosing your difficulty level at the start of the game. With me choosing normal, I was really wishing I had selected easy by the end.
One other area in that Wayforward harkened back to the older days was in its respawn points. Usually taking you back a chunkable way, it started to grow quite frustratingly when I came across a tricky area where I died multiple times, only to have to replay half the stage again before I could attempt that section again. This showed mostly in the boss battles, making you replay a chunk of the stage before you could attempt the boss again. Yet again, in this day and age, there is no reason why I couldn’t of respawned just before the boss. I can see people quitting the game just for this reason, especially with all the other games calling for our attention. Developers really need to keep implementing systems to make games snappy and less time-wasting to keep people invested in their games.
Wayforward did try to implement a perk system to help in the difficulty area, with you earning credits to buy different perks in a shop. These range from increasing your invincibility after you die, increasing your health points, adding the ability to start with a certain gun, etc. You earn credits as you play the game and receive them when you die or when one of the eight stages has been cleared. The trouble with this was that I never really earned enough credits in my playthrough to be able to buy any of the really interesting perks. With many costing over a thousand credits and you earning between 18 and 150 credits at a time, it seems like the game is insisting on multiple playthroughs just to get enough credits for the most intriguing buffs. I was not on board for this, so for me, those will always remain a mystery.
Other ways in which the game tries to help with the difficulty are in its two modes. You’ll find a story mode with voice-acted cut scenes with a general plot about aliens and an arcade mode that gives you the full original Contra experience with no cut scenes and hardly any story. The biggest difference between these modes is that the arcade mode is a one-shot kill, and the story mode gives you a health bar. I played mostly in story mode, with a small amount of time in arcade, and if you think the story mode might be brutal, wait until you experience the arcade mode. It wasn’t long before I was back in the comfort of my health bar, cut scenes and all.
The most fun I had playing was experimenting with the game’s many special weapon upgrades you will find along the way. The three-way bullet gun makes its return along with a machine gun, a laser, a flamethrower, one that fires black holes, and my favourite, the homing missile launcher. You can carry two at once and interchange them on the fly with one button press. Another fun feature is that, with a long press of the L button, you can overload your special weapon to create a temporary bonus. These ranged from a shield to hundreds of bullets bouncing around the screen, with three guns appearing and constantly firing at enemies, being some examples. These were very handy during boss battles, and this is a feature that needs to be utilised if you are to progress in the game.
Presentation-wise, Contra looked as good as you would expect on the Nintendo Switch, with nice enough menus and backgrounds in the stages. The character animations seemed smooth and not jaggedy, and the cut scenes played well and looked as good as you would imagine. With the patches I mentioned at the start, the game runs well now, and I would be surprised if you came across anything game-breaking in that area. Soundtrack wise, there’s nothing that really stands out. It fits the style of the game, but it was more background noise than anything else.
If your itching for some good old-fashioned Contra action, then Contra: Operation Galuga will probably scratch that itch and you’ll walk away satisfied, but if this is your first experience of Contra, then you may struggle. With the game trying to feed your nostalgia, it forgets the modern gamer with its harsh respawn points and the unforgivable missing accessibility options. If you think you can work past those, stick it on easy and see how you go before cranking that difficulty up. If you can’t, then there are thousands of much better games waiting for your attention. Contra: Operation Galuga is a good first attempt at a new Contra game, and with some modern features implemented, the next one could be great.
Contra: Operation Galuga
Release Date: Out Now
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, PS4 & Xbox Series X/S
Price: £34.99
Many thanks to Konami and Keymailer for supplying us with a review copy of this game.
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