| Introduction
Contra is one of those long-standing Konami titles
that have appeared on quite a few home consoles over
the years with both the SNES and Genesis boasting versions
of this side-scrolling epic. 'Contra Advance' is a mixture
of several of these titles, although most of inspiration
comes from the SNES hit, 'Contra III: The Alien Wars',
which was one of the most enjoyable versions.
GamePlay
Anyone who's enjoyed console games must at some point,
have encountered the legend that is Contra. For those
of you that haven't, Contra is basically a platform
based shooter where the goal is to survive each level
by shooting everything in sight. In fact, on any level,
this is what you'll mostly do and aside from figuring
out a boss' weak points, there's very little mental
challenge. After all, Contra has always been about endurance
and fast reactions and 'Contra Advance' is no exception.
One thing that has changed from the original, however,
is that the whole game is now played 'side on' and although
visually the developers occasionally try to alter this
with some battles, for instance, taking place on a speeding
train, the lack of any 'top down' sections do limit
the gameplay somewhat.
The most fun you'll have with Contra on the GBA is
with the multi-player co-op mode, which does make the
game slightly easier. Unfortunately, you'll need another
copy of the game to enjoy this, which seems a little
shortsighted from the developers point of view as I'm
sure a multi-cart 'boot' could have been included given
a little more development time.
Finally, we have what has to be in the running for
the most time-consuming password system ever. It appears
that all the years of pleading for a simple code have
fallen on deaf ears. At 18 digits it's certainly the
longest I've seen for some time. Recording and then
inputting this is tedious and annoying.
Controls
As far as arcade games go, the controls are just
as you'd expect, so there's a good chance that the instruction
booklet will never even come out of the box. It's all
very tight and responsive too, although the moves you're
asking your on-screen counterpart to make hardly require
pixel perfect accuracy. There's little more to say really
except that the controls are definitely not to blame
if you can't get past the first level.
Graphics
With most of the visuals being ported from the less
powerful 16 Bit console, the GBA has little problem
in delivering the graphics. Sadly, the graphics themselves
are a little dated and occasionally bland and this includes
everything from the various levels to the sprites and
special effects. Evidently, the developers have done
nothing to enhance the cosmetics. Still, it all works
reasonably well and although most of the levels are
clear enough to see what's going on even when the screen
becomes a little cluttered, it's still a far cry from
what we know the GBA is visually and graphically capable
of.
Sound & Music
As with the visuals, Contra Advance comes off sounding
more functional than anything even approaching innovative.
It's all here though, with the majority of the audio
either being a direct port or at least inspired by the
SNES version. It's just a shame that it's not as exciting
as you remember it.
Final Comments
'Contra Advance' appears to have as many plus as
it does minus points and if not for the fact that it
was part of a classic series, it's questionable whether
it would ever have gained a release. There's also a
distinct lack of variety, with the developers opting
for more side scrolling action whilst scaling down anything
in the conversion process that deviates from this tried
and tested formula. This has considerably reduced the
number of levels available and arcade enthusiasts will
complete the game in no time at all.
In addition, Contra sticks rigidly to the standard
arcade-style AI, so the only real way to beat the game
is to memorize exactly where every gun emplacement and
baddie are going to appear and blast them away before
they get a chance to do the same to you. Despite this,
Contra Advance is still both entertaining and challenging
and fans of the series should probably check it out.
Although it's not the best example of an arcade conversion,
it's still a good game.
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