Contra (video game series): Difference between revisions

* [[All There in the Manual]]: The plot for most of the games prior to ''Contra: Hard Corps'', which is how the American version of the series managed to get away with a different continuity for several years until ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'' (aside for the fact that the Famicom version of ''Contra'' had cut-scenes which were removed from its NES counterpart).

** Also, you wouldn't know that ''Contra: Hard Corps'' took place during the holiday season if you haven't looked at the manual.

* [[Ambidextrous Sprite]]: Brad Fang's gun-arm changes sides if he faces left.

* [[A Winner Is You]]: The first Contra had an exploding island and then said simply "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE DESTROYED THE VILE RED FALCON AND SAVED THE UNIVERSE. CONSIDER YOURSELF A HERO."

** The [[Fridge Logic|unanswered question]] is "why should I have to consider myself a hero? Doesn't anyone else?"

* [[Bait and Switch Boss]]: The Stage 2 boss in ''Contra 4'', and Slave Beast Taka (the Stage 1 boss) in ''Shattered Soldier''.

* [[Big Badass Wolf]]: Brad Fang.

* [[Chain-Reaction Destruction]]: It happens commonly throughout the series.

* [[Classic Cheat Code]]: ''Contra'' wasn't the first game to use the classic [[Konami Code]] (that honor goes to ''[[Gradius]]''), but this game was the one that made it popular in North America.

* [[Color-Coded Multiplayer]] - In the NES versions of ''Contra'' and ''Super C'', Bill and Lance are distinguished by the color of their pants. This was mainly done due to hardware limitations, since Bill and Lance in the arcade version actually have different sprites (though, they did wear color-coded bandannas), but ''Contra III'' for the SNES and ''Contra 4'' for the DS both kept the tradition. In the arcade version of ''Super Contra'', Bill and Lance actually wore green and purple respectively, which became the colors for "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion", the extra characters in ''Contra 4''.

* [[Combining Mecha]]: One of the stages in ''Hard Corps'' has an aeroplane robot, a sea-urchin robot and a dolphin robot as the minibosses. After the three get their asses handed to them (and escape), they merge together to form a large running robot, a robot bird, and a robot-tank hybrid respectively ([[Shout-Out|a]] [[Getter Robo]]??) before attempting to merge one last time and exploding spectacularly instead.

* [[Expy]]: The final boss in the arcade version of ''Super Contra'' is based on Mad Emperor Asmodeus, the final boss of another Konami arcade game, ''[http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/arcade/c/bats.htm Battlantis]''. ''Battlantis'' was directed by Hideyuki Tsujimoto, who was co-programmer in the original arcade version of ''Contra'' and later directed ''Super Contra'', as well as ''[[Sunset Riders]]'' and ''[[Mystic Warriors]]''.

** The brain boss of ''Contra III'' also resembles the Golem from ''[[Gradius|Salamander]]''.

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Colonel Bahamut from ''Contra: Hard Corps'' used to be a war hero until he turned against the Government. ''Uprising'' is actually a ''prequel'' before his [[Face Heel Turn]].

** Colonel Bahamut, the [[Big Bad]] from ''Hard Corps''. In the prequel, ''[[Hard Corps: Uprising]]'', he's the '''[[The Hero|hero]]'''.

* [[Flash of Pain]]: From ''Contra 3'' onward.

* [[Four Is Death]]: ''Neo Contra'' takes place in A.D.4444 featuring a four elite. Not to mention ''Contra 4'', which features the four shirtless heroes Bill, Lance, Mad Dog, and Scorpion.

* [[Konami Code]]: Didn't begin here, but most certainly popularized by these games (at least among American players, who are not as big ''Gradius'' fans as the Japanese were).

* [[Life Meter]]: The Japanese version of ''Contra: ''(''The'')'' Hard Corps'' gets a 3-hit life meter. [[Difficulty by Region|Players of other regions get stuck with being]] [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|One Hit Point Wonders]].

* [[Macross Missile Massacre]]: Occurs in ''Contra III'', and your character is right in the thick of it. Lots of missile also appear in Stage 3 in ''Contra: Rebirth'', including a miniboss who is upside-down on a missile and a boss which is a giant missile shooting smaller missiles.

* [[Marathon Level]]: The final four stages in the original arcade game is set in one extra-long level, with the changes in backgrounds and music being the only cues that you've reached the next stage. In the NES and MSX2 versions, the game lets you know when you've reached a new stage,

* [[Riding the Bomb]]

* [[Robot Girl]]: Lucia. BR-W9.

* [[Schizophrenic Difficulty]]: The arcade version of the second game starts off rather hard, gets harder in the second level, eases up in level 3, then has another [[Difficulty Spike]] on levels 4 and 5.

* [[Schrödinger's Gun]]: In ''Hard Corps'', [[Big Bad|Colonel Bahamut's]] plan for the [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|Alien Cell]] depends on which path you take through the game. {{spoiler|Either he wants to use it to power a [[Kill Sat]], turn it into a bio-weapon, [[Fusion Dance|merge with it]], or load it on a missile and launch it into civilization.}}

** And a lot of the aliens in the series are a homage to Ellen Ripley's ''[[Alien]]'' movies.

* [[Shout-Out Theme Naming]]: The original ''Contra'' duo, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, are named after four actors who appeared in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Aliens]]'': specifically Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser for the former; and Lance Henriksen and Michael Biehn for the latter. The different spellings used for the surnames, obviously the result of a [[Spell My Name with an "S"|clueless translator]], does obscure the reference a bit.

* [[Sleeves Are for Wimps]]: Applies to the few characters who [[Walking Shirtless Scene|wear shirts at all]]. Probably the only character to wear a shirt with sleeves is Ray from ''Hard Corps''.

* [[Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness]]: Individual games run the gamut from grim, [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] atmospheres (''Contra III'', ''Shattered Soldier'') to over-the-top [[Summer Blockbuster]]-esque antics (''Hard Corps'', ''Neo Contra'').

** Also note that in ''Contra Rebirth'' we have [[Crowning Moment of Funny|a helicopter which can fly in space - WTF!?!?]] (totally silly)

* [[Smart Bomb]]: The Hyper Shells in ''Super Contra'' (which are present only in the arcade version and could only be used in overhead stages) and the bombs in ''Contra III'' and ''Contra: Hard Corps''.

* [[Spike Balls of Doom]]: A few bosses in 'Hard Corps'' use these.

* [[Spread Shot]]: One of the most famous examples of it, especially in the original game where it was a [[Game Breaker]].

* [[Violation of Common Sense]]: In ''Contra III'', what's the best way to destroy a giant flying battleship? Chase it with motorcycles, and then cling to a cruise missile that's heading for the ship! And then leap from missile to missile in the salvo as they impact uselessly on the alien's shield. Considering that you've mostly been running along the ground, climbing walls, and riding tanks so far, it's an unusually...[[Rule of Cool|brazen choice of attack]].

** In deference to common sense, once the ship's shield is down, the missiles ''will'' harm it, and it will eventually be destroyed without any added assistance from the player.

* [[Walking Shirtless Scene]]

** Arguably all of the Shattered Soldier soundtrack due to the inability to hear it over the gunfire and no separate volume controls for SFX and BGM.

*** The worst offender is "Critical Moment of Contra", a 2-minute tune played during a 30-second boss battle.

* [[Wolf Man]]: Brad Fang in ''Hard Corps''.

* [[Womb Level]]: Typically the last level in a game.

** ''Contra Force'' is ''Contra'' in the modern day with the power-up system from ''Gradius''.

* [[Zeerust]]: For a series set during the 27th century, the technology used the by characters look way too modern by late 1980s/early '90s standard. This is probably the reason why the American version of the storyline took place in the present until ''Contra III''.

 

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