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Contra (video game series) (view source)

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* ''Operation C'' (Game Boy)
* ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' (SNES/GB, released as ''Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX'' on the GBA)
* ''Contra Force'' (NES, a [[Dolled -Up Installment]] originally planned as an unrelated game titled ''Arc Hound'')
* ''Contra: Hard Corps'' (Genesis)
* ''Contra: Legacy of War'' (PS/Saturn, first of the two Appaloosa-developed installments)
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** As few Contra games had dialogue or a focus on plot, the change to robots typically didn't affect much with the exception of ''Contra Hard Corps'' (which actually had a storyline). Most of the dialogue and some scenes were cut, which made several events such as Bahamut turning into an alien monster [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|completely unexplained]].
** ''Contra ReBirth'' was changed when brought overseas -- when a photograph of Chief Salamander is shown at the beginning of Stage 3, he looks strikingly like Adolf Hitler in the Japanese version. He was redrawn to look just like an actual salamander in the overseas versions.
* [[BraininaBrain In A Jar]]: The penultimate boss in ''Contra III'', whose official Japanese name is "Brain Organism Searle" <ref>''Zunou Seimeitai Saaru''</ref>, is [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|a sentient brain]] with one eye.
** As it's connected to Emperor Devil Gava <ref>''Tennou Ki Gyaba''</ref>, it reappears among Gava's dissected remains in ''Neo Contra'', and Gava [[Expy|look-alike]] Black Viper has a similar counterpart in ''Contra 4''.
*** Contra Hard Corps has "Big Magnum", a brainish alien being used to power a giant [[Earthshattering Kaboom|planet destroying]] laser.
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* [[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.
* [[Cloning Blues]] / [[Tomato in The Mirror]]: {{spoiler|Bill Rizer}} in ''Neo Contra''.
* [[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.
* [[Continuing Is Painful]]: In the early ''Contra'' games, losing a life will revert the player's weapon back to the default Normal Gun, which can be especially painful in the middle of a boss battle. To fix this problem, the automatic Machine Gun was made into the default gun from ''Operation C'' and onward (with only ''Contra 4'' reverting back to the "peashooter"-style Normal Gun from the arcade and NES games), while ''Contra III'' and ''Hard Corps'' allowed players to carry more than one weapon at the same time (giving players the option to have a backup weapon in case they lose a life). Averted in ''Shattered Soldier'' and ''Neo Contra'', which gave the player fixed weapon configurations.
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* [[Cutscene Incompetence]]: Actually ''optional'' in ''Hard Corps''. At one point {{spoiler|[[Mad Doctor|the Doctor]]}} tells you that the situation is hopeless and you must surrender, what with the thirteen [[Mook|regular soldiers]] with their guns trained on you. You may choose to surrender or fight it out (granted, if you do fight it out, you end up fighting completely different enemies).
* [[Cyber Cyclops]]: A popular trait for robotic enemies, as well as two heroes.
* [[Difficult but Awesome]]: The Laser Gun. Often regarded as a [[PowerupPower-Up Letdown]] due to its slow firing and narrow range, mastering it nonetheless nets you a powerful weapon that can take down bosses in seconds.
** The game itself, though insanely difficult, is very fast-paced in nature and still became a successful franchise of Konami's.
* [[Difficulty By Region]]: The Japanese version of ''Contra Hard Corps'' had a life meter with allowed three hits before dying. This was removed in other regions without otherwise modifying the difficulty, leading many to regard this as the hardest game in the series.
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* [[Difficulty Spike]]: Happens in the later half of many of the games.
* [[Directionally Solid Platforms]]: Numerous platforms exhibit that kind of behavior in the series.
* [[Dolled -Up Installment]]: ''Contra Force'' was derived from an unreleased Famicom game titled ''Arc Hound''.
* [[Dragon Their Feet]]: One of the possible path in ''Hard Corps'' has the player fighting against Colonel Bahamut in the second to last level. The last level features Deadeye Joe, who doesn't seem to care that his boss is dead. Thankfully, he's [[Breather Boss|really easy]] for a Contra mini-boss.
* [[Dub Name Change]]: Bill Rizer and Lance Bean were given the [[Punny Name|punny names]] of "[[The Phil Silvers Show|Sgt. Bill 'Mad Dog' Ko]]" and "Corporal Lance 'Scorpion'" in the manuals for the NES versions. When the American version of ''Contra III'' kept the futuristic setting, their names were changed again to Jimbo and Sully and this time the manual claimed that they were the descendants of the original heroes. All four names were later used in ''Contra 4'' ("Mad Dog" and "Scorpion" for the extra palette swaps of Bill and Lance, and "Jimbo" and "Sully" for their ''Contra III'' renditions).
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* [[Embedded Precursor]]: ''Contra 4'' features the NES versions of ''Contra'' and ''Super C'' as unlockable extras after completing a series of optional challenges.
* [[Epic Fail]]: In ''Hard Corps'', the second stage features an airship in the distance launching a bunch of airborne mooks at you for a little bit. How is it defeated? Simple--it abruptly crashes into a sky rise building!
* [[EverythingsEverything's Better With Llamas]]: Stage 3 of ''Contra: Rebirth'' has lots of robotic llamas.
* [[EverythingsEverything's Better With Spinning]]: The main characters love to do somersaults.
* [[Evil Is Visceral]]: One of the recurring bosses is a gigantic beating heart. More generally, pretty much anything to do with aliens is this.
* [[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]]''.
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** In ''Rebirth,'' the Contra commander looks like Che Guevara, and Brownie the [[Robot Girl]] looks suspiciously like Drossel Von Flugel from ''Fireball''.
* [[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]].
* [[Fallen Hero]]: {{spoiler|Lance Bean, Player 2 in the original ''Contra'', turns out to be the Blood Falcon Commander, the apparent [[Big Bad]] of ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'' (although he did go a little nuts toward the end, his dying confession reveals he was really a [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] trying to fight the [[Government Conspiracy]] that was ''really'' behind the whole alien war from the beginning.)}}
** {{spoiler|Likewise, Lucia, player 2 in ''Shattered Soldier'', ends up as a member of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] in ''Neo Contra'', where she participates in a conspiracy to destroy the human race, and is fought and killed by the players.}}
** Colonel Bahamut, the [[Big Bad]] from ''Hard Corps''. In the prequel, ''[[Hard Corps Uprising]]'', he's the '''[[The Hero|hero]]'''.
* [[Five -Bad Band]]: In ''Neo Contra''
** The [[Big Bad]]: Master Contra {{spoiler|Bill Rizer (Project C)}}
** [[The Dragon]]: Animal Contra
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** The opposite is the case with ''Hard Corps: Uprising'' where it's clearly an official prequel to ''Contra: Hard Corps'' for the Genesis despite not having ''Contra'' in the name.
* [[Intentional Engrish for Funny]]: Borderline and done deliberately in ''Contra Rebirth''.
* [[Invincibility Power -Up]]: The "Barrier" power-up in most games.
* [[ItsIt's a Wonderful Failure]]: In ''Shattered Soldier'', if the player doesn't have a high enough ranking when Mission 5 is completed, the player will get a [[Downer Ending]] where the island is destroyed by a [[Kill Sat]], killing everyone including the heroes.
* [[Kill It With Fire]]: The Fire Gun in ''Super C'' has an extra-powerful charged shot that destroys most of the stronger enemies with one or two hits.
* [[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]].
* [[Luck Based Mission]]: The Low Ammo 2 and [[Pacifist Run|Pacifism 4]] challenges in Contra 4 basically come down to "Did a running enemy spawn on the same platform as me?"
* [[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,
* [[Market -Based Title]]: The arcade version of ''Contra'' was retitled ''Gryzor'' in Europe, while oddly enough the arcade version of ''Super Contra'' kept its original title for its European release. The European versions of the early console games were retitled ''Probotector'' and had the human characters replaced with robots. This was done so that the games could be sold to children in Germany without any problem due to the country's strict censorship laws. This lasted until ''Contra: Legacy of War'', in which all further European releases were identical to their American counterparts.
** In Japan, ''Operation C'' is known as ''[[Recycled Title|Contra]]'' (although spelled in katakana instead of the kanji used in the arcade and Famicom versions), ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' is known as ''Contra Spirits'', ''Contra: Hard Corps'' is known as ''Contra: '''The''' Hard Corps'', ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'' is known as ''Shin Contra'', ''Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX'' is known as ''Contra: Hard Spirits'', and ''Contra 4'' is known as ''Contra: Dual Spirits''. ''Super Contra'' was shortened to ''Super C'' on the American NES, even though the arcade version kept its full title for its western release. ''Contra Force'' would've been known in Japan as ''Arc Hound'' had the Famicom version actually been released.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Brad Fang, the wolfman in ''Contra: Hard Corps''.
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* [[Mutually Exclusive Powerups]]: In the arcade ''Super Contra'' and ''Contra 4'', your weapon can be upgraded to a second level, but the extra power-up is lost if the player changes weapons. This also applies to the "Rapid Bullets" power-up in the two NES games, in which the increased bullet speed is lost when the player changes weapon. Averted in the arcade version of the original game, in which the Rapid Bullets power-up is still in effect after changing weapons (presumably due to the fact there are only two Rapid Bullets power-ups in the entire game in that version and they can only be acquired when the player is wielding the default gun).
* [[Naked On Arrival]]: Bill in ''Contra Rebirth''.
* [[NamesName's the Same]]: Browny (a.k.a. CX-1-DA-300 Combat Robo) from ''Hard Corps'' and Brownie (a.k.a. BR-W9) from ''ReBirth''.
** While Brownie's design is obviously based on Browny's, her name is simply Tsugu-Min in [[Dub Name Change|the Japanese version]].
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: Every entry in the series.
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** The Appaloosa-made titles, ''Contra: Legacy of War'' and ''C: The Contra Adventure'', were never released in Japan either. Also, ''Contra Adventure'' never came out in Europe, even though ''Legacy of War'' did.
** The MSX2 version of ''Contra'' was only released in Japan and did not have an official release in Europe, even though ''Nemesis'' (aka ''[[Gradius]]''), ''Vampire Killer'' (the MSX2 equivalent of the first ''[[Castlevania 1986 (Video Game)|Castlevania 1986]]'') and ''[[Metal Gear 1987 (Video Game)|Metal Gear]]'' were all released there. However, many ROM sites incorrectly list the game under the title of ''Gryzor'' (the European name of the first arcade game).
* [[One -Hit -Point Wonder]]: Every game except the MSX2 port of the first ''Contra'' and the Japanese version of ''Contra: Hard Corps''. Oddly, Konami took this feature ''out'' of the [[Difficulty By Region|overseas versions of the game]], feeling it would water the challenge down too much.
* [[One -Hit Kill]]
* [[One -Man Army]]
* [[One -Winged Angel]]
* [[Outrun the Fireball]]: The end of ''Contra III'' and ''Shattered Soldier''.
* [[Pacifist Run]]: Some of the challenges in ''Contra 4'', which strip you of all weapons.
* [[Painfully Slow Projectile]]
* [[Poison Mushroom]]: Area 2 of ''Contra ReBirth'' has a Normal Gun power-up on Hard mode (read: changes your weapon to your default pea shooter).
* [[PowerupPower-Up Letdown]]: In most games, when you have too many shots on screen to fire a full spread, the Spread Gun will instead fire partial spreads or single bullets to keep your firing rate consistent. It does ''not'' do this in ''Super Contra'' (arcade version only), turning the Spread Gun from a [[Game Breaker]] into an annoyance as you have to wait for your previous shots to clear the screen before you can fire again. The "upgrade" makes it ''worse'': it fires five shots per spread instead of three, and your shots-on-screen are increased from nine to ten, which would be good in any other game, but here it means you can only have two spreads on screen instead of three. In the fast-paced [[One -Hit -Point Wonder]] world of Contra, this can be the difference between life and death.
* [[Projectile Platforms]]: The missile-jumping level in ''Contra III''.
* [[Pun -Based Title]]: ''Contra: Hard Corps'', which is a play on the word "hardcore". Unfortunately, this pun isn't so obvious on people who [[No Pronunciation Guide|mispronounce]] the word "corps" as "corpse".
* [[Punny Name]]: The localizations of the early installments were filled with these. For example, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean were renamed "Sgt. Bill Ko" (as in "[[The Phil Silvers Show|Sgt. Bilko]]") and "Corporal Lance" (an inversion of "Lance Corporal") respectively in the manual for ''Super C''.
* [[Rated M for Manly]]
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* [[Savage Setpiece]]: the apatosaurus in ''Hard Corps''.
* [[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.
* [[SchrodingersSchrodinger'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.}}
** From the same game, Bahamut's base is either right next to your current location, a train ride away in the jungle, or a boat ride away on an island.
* [[Score Screen]]
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* [[Shout Out]]: In ''Contra Rebirth'', Colonel Salamander is named after the Konami game ''Salamander'', a spin-off of ''[[Gradius]]''. Also, rhe name of the lizard man, Plissken, is obviously a homage to [[Metal Gear|Solid Snake (Iroquis Pliskin)]], and both are a reference to Snake Plissken from ''[[Escape From New York]]'' and ''[[Escape From LA]]''.
** 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 (Film)|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.
** Referring to the same film, the reptilian Plissken in ''Contra ReBirth'' sometimes prefers to be called "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Newt]]."
* [[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''.
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* [[Stripperiffic]]: Sheena Etranzi's outfit in Contra 4 is ridiculous on so many levels. See it [http://www.blogcdn.com/nintendo.joystiq.com/media/2008/03/cdsjppr002ak.jpg here].
* [[Sunglasses At Night]]: Brad Fang in ''Hard Corps''.
* [[Super Not -Drowning Skills]]: Although your character is [[One -Hit -Point Wonder|killed by anything that isn't a floor, wall, ceiling, friendly, or a power-up]], this does not apply to water. In the first game, you could even stay in the water INDEFINITELY with your head submerged!
* [[Super Title 64 Advance]]: Averted by ''Super Contra'', which was originally an arcade game, and then adapted into the NES under the shortened title of ''Super C''. When the series made it to the SNES, they had no choice but to come up with a different name for its installment (''Contra III'' in America and ''Contra Spirits'' in Japan). However, the GBA port of ''Contra III'' plays it straight by being called ''Contra Advance''.
** Played straight with the European versions. ''Super C'' became ''Probotector II'' and ''Contra III'' became ''Super Probotector''. However, the Game Boy and Mega Drive installments are both simply titled ''[[Recycled Title|Probotector]]''.
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* [[Timed Mission]]: In the arcade version of the original ''Contra'', the first "3D maze" stage needs to be completed in seventy seconds and the second one in 110 seconds. Since the maze stages don't feature infinitely respawning enemies, the timer is a contrivance to keep the game from sitting in the same place (much like how the bosses in ''Gradius'' will eventually self-destruct just in case a player could find a safe spot and walk away from the arcade machine). As such, NES version discards the timer, yet the Commodore 64 version is punitive, giving only forty and fifty-five seconds respectively.
* [[Traintop Battle]]: ''Contra: Hard Corps'' has a stage taking place on a military train, featuring two mid-boss battles and culminating in a fight with Powered Ninja Yokozuna, all on its roof.
** ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'' has a level that involves chasing a train down on motorcycles, attacking the weaponized caboose, and heading to the engine. At which point the Yokozuna Jr. mecha attacks the train, leaving the player to wonder why our [[One -Hit -Point Wonder]] heroes had to bother.
* [[Transforming Mecha]]: Mr. Heli-Robo in ''Contra: Shattered Soldier''.
* [[True Final Boss]]: In ''Shattered Soldier'', if you get an A Rank or higher on the first five missions (if not, you get a [[Downer Ending]]), you get to go on to Mission 6, where after defeating the Mr. Heli-Robo [[Transforming Mecha|transformer]] [[Mini Boss|miniboss]], you face the [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] Relic Of Morai in a [[Sequential Boss]] fight (as if the sequential boss fight with Lance wasn't enough). And THEN, if you beat all that with an S Rank, you fight his true final form, which disappointingly is a [[Clipped -Wing Angel]] boss (if the pattern has been memorized), combined with a [[Gainax Ending]].
* [[Underwater Boss Battle]]: The Man-Faced Fish in ''Shattered Soldier''.
* [[The Unfought]]: One of four main story paths in ''Contra: Hard Corps'' ends with an outbreak of alien organic matter, providing a distraction for the main antagonist, Colonel Bahamut, to escape to fight another day.
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*** The worst offender is "Critical Moment of Contra", a 2-minute tune played during a 30-second boss battle.
** For some reason, in the arcade version of ''Super Contra'', "Hotter than Hell" plays during the very short [[Penultimate Boss]] battle instead of during the [[Final Boss]] battle, which uses the same music as the main stage. And the "Game Clear Jingle" is misplaced, playing before the final boss instead of after.
* [[What Measure Is a Non -Human?]]: The early Contra games had the main player character and several enemy characters changed into robots when localized for Europe for this reason.
* [[Wholesome Crossdresser]]: Lance in ''Contra Rebirth''.
* [[With This Herring]]: Let's just say this: You start off with a wimpy gun and you are such a wuss that you are DEAD if you touch ''anything'' that isn't the floor, wall, friendly, or a power-up.
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