Game Debate #163: Contra III: The Alien Wars

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

[Gloves | 11,777]

Love this game, gave it a 9. 

[Webhead123 | 675]

Fantastic game continuing the track record of the early Contra titles. While it's not my personal favorite of the series, it's not far behind. Fantastic graphics and music, some of the best bosses of the franchise and the ability to carry two special weapons really makes it a killer app.

9/10

[fox | 1,667]

A non stop trill ride only held back by the vomit inducing overhead levels

[Sumez | 2,951]

Possibly the best game in a subgenre with too few games as it is

[elprincipe | 142]

Great game, but unfortunately less great than Contra and Super C.

[Code Monkey | 2,009]

I've been playing through this quite a bit with the Anniversary Collection on Switch but can't seem to get very far in it. I can beat the first 2 easily but this one is way harder.

[Webhead123 | 675]

9 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

I've been playing through this quite a bit with the Anniversary Collection on Switch but can't seem to get very far in it. I can beat the first 2 easily but this one is way harder.

I feel like there's a different cadence to this one versus the NES games which makes it feel more difficult until you've played enough to adjust to it. Once you find your footing, it's not that bad outside of a couple of the boss fights.

[Sumez | 2,951]

It's definitely tougher than the NES games though.

Also, Hard Mode is where the game really shows what it's got to offer. It's the mode it should be judged by, but even on Normal it's harder to beat than either NES title  

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

9 sounds about right.  Top 10 on the platform, and top 100 for my favorite games overall.

[DefaultGen | 5,405]

I went 9. Played it all the time with my buddy as a kid. We were pretty terrible though.

[Tanooki | 4,933]

I never had it retail new, did have it off and on since the back half of the 90s second hand, and currently have it today with the book too.  I don't think I ever finished it.  Something about it just bugs me, not sure what, but I can't get into it like I can the strange GB version or the previous stuff on NES and Gameboy which I have cleared out.  I can't place it, maybe it's even meaner, maybe a little more janky, not really sure what it is.  But, I would put it well over hard corps, that I sold off, twice in the last 5 years even as it just does nothing to make me want to put up with it, so there's that.

Gave it an 8.  Hard, somewhat unfairly hard really (look up the Japanese one to see what I mean), yet it has some really nice set pieces, changes up of the stage types, really amazing audio and visuals too.  I'd recommend it to a Contra fan if they're not just passing but hard core fans for the series.  I don't think I'd tell a newb to take a shot unless they feel a game like GnG on NES was moderately challenging and obnoxious.

[Webhead123 | 675]

I think maybe what contributes to Contra 3's perceived difference in difficulty comes from how many more "gimmicky" challenges it introduces. There is much more variety from stage to stage compared to the earlier titles and many of these hazards aren't well-telegraphed. The variety can be a good thing but it also means that the player is almost relearning the game with every new stage. In Contra, once you've made it through the first two stages, you pretty much know everything you need to know about how to handle the game from there. Contra 3 isn't like that.

I mean, just look at it: there's the overhead maze-levels, speeder bikes, hanging from the missiles in mid-air, the spinning monkey bars, the ladder climb, etc. etc. Even the bosses demand a level of awareness and navigation that isn't present in C and Super C. That's certainly not the only factor, for sure, but I think it's part of what makes Contra 3 both unique and more challenging to adjust to. The player model and hitbox are also a bit larger and the screen is more zoomed in than the NES titles, meaning you generally have smaller reaction windows and the graphics, while very good, can occasionally distract the eye from other dangers.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Webhead123

[Sumez | 2,951]

7 hours ago, Tanooki said:

I'd recommend it to a Contra fan

Yeah, I think I would too

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

Great game, but way harder than the NES games IMO. Still a solid 9/10.

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

I've touched this game a dozen times or more and just can't get into it.  Probably the difficulty.  4

[AirVillain | 489]

Great game, but the difficulty is a deterrent to playing it more often.

I can beat Contra & Super C pretty easily, but Contra III presents a pretty insane challenge. 

I don't think it's because I have played Contra/Super C much more, either. 

Contra III is wildly difficult for no reason. It's "manageable" up until you get to the wall on the first/second? fucking level. From there it's pretty tricky and the mid-way bosses along the way can be brutal. 

I've made it decently far, but no where close to beating it I don't think? It's just really frustrating with the random quick deaths so playing it repeatedly to learn the different mini bosses and sections is taxing. 

I do enjoy the overhead levels and use of both weapons at the same time. 

Sometimes I get confused in my head with the levels from Hard Cops, so I think I've made it much further in Alien Wars than I can recall, but still not really a "relaxing" gaming experience. 

Still gave it a 9 because everyone should play it, but in overall comparison it's not as fun as others in the series because of it's somewhat annoying difficulty. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

To me, Hard Corps and Shattered Soldier represent difficulty that is borderline unfair.

Contra III and IV are about right on the money.

Contra and Super C were pretty easy to me relative to the rest.  I got the Contra no-death clear during a contest week with just a few days of practice.  I beat Super C with just a few attempts for the backlog thread a few years ago.

Neo Contra is probably the only genuinely easy game.

Gave up on Rogue Uprising or whatever it was called.

I haven't played Hard Corps Uprising in so long I can't even comment on it.

[Sumez | 2,951]

18 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

I think maybe what contributes to Contra 3's perceived difference in difficulty comes from how many more "gimmicky" challenges it introduces. There is much more variety from stage to stage compared to the earlier titles and many of these hazards aren't well-telegraphed. The variety can be a good thing but it also means that the player is almost relearning the game with every new stage. In Contra, once you've made it through the first two stages, you pretty much know everything you need to know about how to handle the game from there. Contra 3 isn't like that.

I think the primary thing that contributes, though you do have a good point with what you said, is the fact that Contra 3 remains a fairly challenging game even when you "know what to do". 

The first two games, on both nes and arcade, are both fairly easy games once you are familiar with them, and you are able to maintain an upper hand by not losing your weapon upgrades. 

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

To me, Hard Corps and Shattered Soldier represent difficulty that is borderline unfair.

Contra III and IV are about right on the money.

Contra 3 and 4 are absolutely tougher games than Hard Corps, even the US version. I realise that difficulty is highly subjective, but I feel pretty confident saying that about games that are so fundamentally similar, based on the effort required to 1CC each of them.

People tend to massively overstate Hard Corps' difficulty due to how frontloaded it is, with the first stage just trampling you with an onslaught of RNG and endlessly respawning enemies. Its easy to fail a few attempts shortly into the game, and then assume its a lot harder than it is, similar to how NES Contra also ends up at the top of all those "hardest video games of all time" lists written by people who never tried beating them, which at least you and I both know is a farce

The thing is, nothing like that first stage ever happens again for the rest of the game, which instead turns into a boss rush (or "event rush") immediately after. 

Most of those encounters are full of downtime and blatant safespots, where just standing the same place and using the same attack every single time will just get you through with 100% certainty, and it usually doesn't take more than a single death in a location to learn what not to do on every subsequent attempt. Contra 3, by contrast, even though it still does have a ton of super predictable enemies, at least asks the player to react to things quite often.

Shattered Soldier is similar, it's probably more brutal to an uninitiated player than Hard Corps is, but it is equally difficult to screw up most of the encounters until at least the last few boss fights which can get pretty intense. I'd say getting a full S rank is still a really tough challenge at least. 

Contra 4 is harder to compare, because it's such a long game and getting it down took a lot more work than any of the other games, making it arguably "harder". That said, once I got my first 1cc I'd learned the game so well I had over 20 lives in reserve at the final boss. It's a little absurd how many lives you get, but the series in general tends to be quite generous with them. 

Neo Contra probably isn't as hard for a clear, but I find it a lot harder to not get hit at all in it, because it's much less deterministic. Fortunately that's not required for an S rank however, unlike Shattered Soldier. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

I dunno, maybe I'm biased since I grew up with 3, but Hard Corps to me is a harder playthrough than 3 on Hard.

But I've only done the one path in HC, and I failed to beat the final boss.

[Gloves | 11,777]

13 minutes ago, Sumez said:

NES Contra also ends up at the top of all those "hardest video games of all time" lists written by people who never tried beating them, which at least you and I both know is a farce

It's a funny, if incredibly braggy party trick of mine whenever people IRL see my games and go "Oh you have Contra, tI love that game but it's super hard" and I hit them with the "I can beat it without dying" and they get all mouth agape like "no way" and I'm like "it takes like 15 minutes, watch". Super funny to do with people who have no clue, while around these parts it's not even anything to brag about, we have a bunch of people who are like "What, you don't even put on a blindfold? Play upside down? Lol scrub.".

[Webhead123 | 675]

I haven't put a whole lot of time into Hard Corps yet and don't have Contra 4, so I can't comment on that one. Hard Corps definitely puts up a tough first level or two but I do think it seems to ease up a bit after that. I've never made it all that far though and am certainly more practiced with Contra 3. On "normal" difficulty, the only part of 3 that really gives me much trouble these days is the final boss (who I think has been universally pegged as a pretty cheap difficulty spike). I don't remember the last time I made an attempt at "hard" difficulty but it certainly seemed to live up to its name.

I really need to revisit Contra ReBirth because I remember being quite impressed by it and feeling that it had some sections that were pretty brutal. Curious to know anyone else's thoughts on it. Actually, the whole Konami ReBirth series was excellent and it saddens me that it will almost certainly never see a rerelease.

Edited July 21, 2023 by Webhead123

[G-type | 2,481]

I love Contra 4 and Hard Corps, so I’m interested in this one

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

On 7/21/2023 at 10:34 AM, AirVillain said:

Great game, but the difficulty is a deterrent to playing it more often.

This is also one of those games that annoyingly requires you to beat it on the hardest difficulty to get the ending. It's a challenging enough game on easy, but hard is a nightmare.

Edited July 23, 2023 by Bearcat-Doug

[Sydpinkfloyd | 12]

Definitely a favourite of mine. Whenever my brother and I rented a game we always defaulted to either this one or Mario kart if we couldn’t find another good simultaneous 2 player game. Years later we practiced enough and beat it on hard mode, but boy that did take us a long time. Great gameplay, level design, and I love the soundtrack. Easy 10/10 for me personally.