![]() That may seem a little small, but those are the three weapons that everyone likes the most anyway. The game only contains three guns from the traditional Contra arsenal: spread-shot, homing missile, and laser. You can expect to see a new enemy, mid-bosses, and environmental hazards to pop up at least every two or three minutes. Though a few are recycled, there is little to no filler in any of these stages. Contra ReBirth consists of five stages, with stages one, three, and four being only vaguely reminiscent of prior Contra games, and stages two and five being more direct lifts from levels of previous games. Like with Gradius ReBirth, all the music here comprises remixes of stuff from past Contra games, ranging from the first game all the way up to Hard Corps. The game itself plays out like a concentrated blast of set pieces influenced by other Contra games. It’s as ridiculous as it is awesome, and that’s what makes it Contra. Being a Contra is being a man who bravely fights against insurmountable odds all for the sake of, um, I don’t know… whatever. This is the glorification of blowing stuff up and taking bullets for only vaguely understood ideals, against an enemy that you don’t know a thing about. This is war, as seen through the childlike perception of someone who learned everything they know about warfare from going to the movies and watching the evening news. In other types of games, this kind of stuff might seem stupid, but it all makes sense in the world of Contra. I don’t want to give away all the details, but rest assured that references to multiple Stallone movies, American sci-fi epics, and real wars are a part of the game from start to finish. The inclusion of a real-life military leader/political activist into the game’s narrative shows that the writers behind this game truly understand the special real-history/Hollywood/fantasy connections that make the Contra world what it is. I fell in love with the game before I even started playing it. That said, even without the Contra name, Contra Rebirth would still be a short-but-sweet, entertaining, even funny two-player shmup with charm and excellence to spare. If you ever loved a Contra game, you’re sure to enjoy Contra ReBirth. ![]() Instead, these ReBirth titles are love letters to the games that came before them. “ReBirth” in this context doesn’t mean “re-imagining” or “reinvention,” as you might guess. For better or worse, Contra ReBirth is the Contra-est Contra game in recent memory.Ĭontra ReBirth solidifies what the now-two-games-deep ReBirth series is all about. ![]() Not only does the game give us the full reveal on Konami’s definition of “Contra” for the first time, it also provides us with a game that exemplifies everything that makes the series so special. Well, after more than 20 years of such questions, Contra ReBirth has come forward to finally deliver some answers. What’s the connection between the two definitions? Are the Contras of the Konami series actually political activists disguised as alien exterminators? Is the game trying to tell me that Rambo is a secretly a Latino? What the hell is really going on here? In the Konami games, a “Contra” is a muscular Stallone/Schwarzenegger look-alike who battles jungle aliens while shirtless, sometimes in the 1970s. In real life, a “Contra” is a member of the guerrilla force that opposed a left-wing government in Nicaragua in the 1970s. The surreal mixing of Hollywood references, real-life political terminology, and sci-fi craziness has long been a staple of Konami action games, but the Contra series takes that special brand of weirdness to another level. ![]()
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