Contra ReBirth

The Good
There are a few franchises that, over the years, come to define us as gamers. For me, I always mention Resident Evil and Metroid. Sadly, the franchise I always forget to mention is the one that has been an obsession of mine for far longer than those other two--and that's the kick-ass Contra series. I'm ashamed of myself for waiting as long as I did to download this gem.

Contra: ReBirth is the second title from Konami that lives to emulate the classic SNES experience Contra III: The Alien Wars (not counting the two Game Boy versions of Contra III). The other, of course, being that DS showpiece, Contra 4. That title, by the way, is easily one of my top DS games. And like Contra 4, the point of ReBirth is to take all the things that worked best in part III to craft a new, though retro-heavy experience.

First off, amazingly, the thing I was instantly in love with was the music. Pretty much all the music here is a throw-back or revamp of the excellent, era-defining tunes from the 8-bit classic Contra from the NES. Those classic tunes have been ingrained in my brain since I was a kid. It might sound silly to say that they're damn near a part of me, but seriously--they are. The music in ReBirth is just amazing.

ReBirth features action to spare. It perfectly delivers that old-school, totally insane action flavor. The second the Hunter gun is picked up and unleashing hell across the screen, I was in love all over again. Explosions from attacks and Hunter gun strikes seem flashier than ever, and the game delivers up all this insanity without skipping a beat, slowing down for a second, or stuttering in anyway. Granted, the Wii should be able to handle a 16-bit-style game without any hiccups, but it's still nice to see that it works.

Across the games 5-ish levels, the boss battles are incredibly varied, and just the kind of over-the-top spectacles you'd hope to see with a new Contra game. Many seem positively overwhelming at first glance. But, as I stuck with it, I discovered they were survivable in the way Contra games have typically been. Patterns emerge and strategies can be formed. As is typical of most Contra games, some bosses are revamps from the past, including one that appeared in the bulk of this franchise, including Super C, Contra III, and Contra 4. There is enough of a change to them, however, that the battles are still unique and feel fairly fresh.

The game's difficulties are fair to their settings. That is, Easy is pretty much a cakewalk, Normal is what you'd expect, and Hard is over-the-top and completely crowded with enemies. I tried the game on Easy and moved through it fairly quickly,but stopped just shy of seeing where it stopped. I played through it on Normal as is the way to play a Contra game, and found the challenge to be just about perfect. The final boss battle is quite a sight.

Contra: ReBirth manages to deliver quite a few new experiences to the series, which was both surprising and welcomed. There are no over-heard stages, and there are no 3-D stages (like in the original game or part 4). Everything is side-scrolling. Still, it includes elements such as climbing up walls, riding on a truck, and attempting to keep cool while jumping back and forth across small floating platforms. One stage has the ground completely covered in small versions of the final boss from Super C as they chug in a straight line across the screen. They cover the ground so completely that shooting through them is next to impossible and you'll need to run across the top of the things to advance.

With this in mind, it's great to see that this title is actually a new game with it's own story, rather than just a straight remake or some kind of compilation game using some of the best parts of previous games and nothing new. The new stuff is great, and the throwbacks are great.

The best part of Contra: Rebirth is that, for as long as it lasts, it's pretty much consistently a great time (sans one questionable spot, which I'll get to). It's action-packed, over-the-top, and constantly fun. If you're a fan of run-n-gun titles or that classic Contra experience, you really won't be disappointed.

Character graphics and animations are brilliant and vibrant, and for all the old-school 16-bit style to them, there are modern elements that add to the spectacle, such as particle effects and brilliantly smooth animations.

Like pretty much every Contra game at the time of their release, ReBirth is an exclusive title. There has yet to be a cross-platform release of any title in this franchise barring the three ports/revisions of Contra III. I'm a huge fan of exclusive titles because they add necessary value to a game system. And like World of Goo and the Strongbad game on WiiWare, Contra: ReBirth adds some necessary exclusive value to the Wii which has struggled to both feature quality 3rd-party exclusives and has struggled to reach out to the hardcore crowd.

Oh, and for the first time ever, at one key point in the game, the Laser is actually incredibly useful. (Okay, maybe the second time ever, I seem to recall a boss encounter in Contra III where a Laser was beneficial.)

The Bad
For as good as the graphics are, they're no where near as good as in Contra 4. I guess, in part, that makes some sense since this is a downloadable title, whereas Contra 4 was a full-blown retail release with bells and whistles galore. The background graphics, I would say, aren't even quite on-par with the SNES classic. Maybe closer to the old Genesis Hard Corps title. Sure, you won't be sitting there paying much attention to the backgrounds what with all the action taking place, but too often they're a bit lifeless. While it makes the action in the foreground easier to follow, it also looks rather bleak between high-intensity segments.

ReBirth is a tad on the short side, and quite a bit easier than many other titles in this often-punishing franchise. To this day, I have yet to finish Contra: Hard Corps due to just how intensely challenging that game is. And I had to work at Contra 4 for quite a while before I mastered its nuances. ReBirth on the other hand, I tore through in a couple days--or a few play sessions if you must know. The unlimited continues are helpful, though they may make the game a bit too easy.

Levels could be longer. On the upside, though, the game never gets stagnant. As I said, there is one segment in the game that is less than satisfactory. It concerns a stage that is basically a vertical drop, during which, the bulk of the time is spent clinging to a platform that slowly lowers to boss battle at the bottom. The regular slow drop isn't too bad and does have it's unique strengths. It's when the platform is destroyed that the game gets a little ridiculous. Then it's a free-fall descent for about a distance of three or four screens in height. The fall is quick, and navigating the hazards is more painful trial-and-error and memorization than quick reflexes.

Only three weapons exist in the game (aside from the standard machine gun), and unlike Contra 4, they are not upgradeable. All we have are the series-mainstay Spreadgun, the ever-useless Laser, and the ever-awesome Hunter gun (originally introduced in Operation C).

The Bottom Line
If you have a Wii, and you feel like the thing has gone under-used, then get this game if you don't have it already. Sure, it's short. In fact, for the most part, it's about on-par with the length and depth of the Game Boy classic Operation C, which, if I'm remembering correctly, also had only three weapons (the Fire gun instead of the Laser), and five stages with a final boss battle. By the way, we should all hope that Operation C finds it's way to the upcoming Virtual Console for the 3DS, since it was a great classic title in the vein of Super C.

Like I said, this franchise has been one of my favorites--essentially--since I started playing video games. My younger brother and I logged unheard of numbers of hours on the original Contra back in the day, and it was one of the titles that made the Game Genie worth the purchase (keep weapons after death!). I'm not sure why I waited so long to get this gem on the Wii. I think like a lot of more hardcore gamers, I grew disenchanted with the system and left it to collect dust while I burned up the days with the Xbox360.

Pity that I left the Wii to sit for nearly a year without downloading this beast. Just because it wasn't the best system for hardcore gaming doesn't mean it lacked it completely, right?

You might notice that I didn't mention the story. To be honest, it wasn't until after I got Contra 4 that I looked into the history of the franchise a little deeper (and then finally sought out the less-than-stellar Playstation games). The story here isn't bad, and it involves a popular franchise character, but to be fair, with as jumbled and fractured as the plotlines of these games have become, I've never been able to care all that much. The Playstation titles have atrocious stories and often dreadful gameplay. Neo Contra is just, well, retarded. It doesn't help things that the Japanese and American continuities are so different, or that the European one... replaced everything with robots.

I grew up in the 80's with the Swartzenegger/Stallone/Willis/etc over-the-top action flicks, and the original Contra games were like living some of those movies. The original game was like "Alien vs Predator vs Swartzenegger"--and I got to be Ahhhhnold. It rocked. It was all adrenaline and testosterone and explosions and insanity. A visceral good time. And in the end, Contra: ReBirth accomplishes it's goal of being a fresh step back in time to hellish 80's excess. Sure, more intense games have been made over the years, and game violence has grown to practically ridiculous levels, but what I'm talking about is the feel. I'm an old-school gamer and this game brings back the classic feel of those old-school 8 and 16-bit Contra games.

So, you want something good and hardcore on the Wii? Download this. Want to get that nostalgic feeling of old school adrenaline? Download this. Fan of run-n-gun games or Contra? Download this. It's shortcomings are easily forgettable in the face of the ass-kicking good time of the overall experience. And the music just rocks.