Part C (Fang)
Because i played some European
Run 'n Gun game on Sega Genesis for previous article. Therefore i continue my review on
Konami's Contra Hard Corps (1994).
In this part i will go through
'bad ending' route and i will play as Fang. If you don't who Fang is. Here he
is...
Yes, he's wolfman with gatling
gun for arm and wears bandolier and sunglasses. What's with his awesome design
and name, who doesn't want to play as him? Well, beside everyone who know that
playing as him is practically hard mode. You will see why later on.
First mission is: to secure a
city that's currently under attack by hostiles led by an unmanned robot and i
enter the scene with explosive way. It's very explosive that Michael Bay will
like this for sure.
PS: i made gif of the same scene
twice before and i will do it again.
Well, this is definitely not a
good starter. This happens because i pick 'D' weapon which is...it's hard to
explain. I will tell you later but from now let's say it's not ideal when
you're holding shoot button while you're surrounded by "melee"
enemies. By the way the control is simple: direction pad for aim/move/crouch, A
button to cycle weapon/screen-clearing bomb selection, B button to shoot, and C
button to jump. Also, pressing C button while crouching to slide. It's important to slide especially to dodge enemies or their attack.
Another thing you need to know
about the control: If you pressing A button while holding B button, it will
change your stance. Stance #1 allow you to move and shoot at the same time.
While stance #2, will make you stand still whenever you're firing thus
preventing you from making unnecessary move like in this case where you only
need to stand still at this corner and shoot at this robot that can spray fire stream
but it doesn't reach me here. There's shot indicator near the photo, that will
inform you about your current stance.
I was peacefully navigating
between spinning rods but suddenly this rod pivot goes crazy, falling, then
wrecking these cars.
But it get shots off-screen thus it can no longer wreck havoc further. I should
be grateful to the shooter...
...by punching him over and over
again. In case you didn't know, he's the one who responsible for this chaos.
He's the unmanned robot but actually he's manned by some desperado named
Deadeye Joe. The boss battle over quite quickly thanks to this 'B' weapon which
is punch that emits explosion. It has pretty short range but it's powerful.
As i want to go through bad
ending route, i have to chase Deadeye Joe after defeating him instead of
answering the distress call from laboratory. Of course, he's not alone. These robots
(that could be based on rejected gundam design) stand in my way. You don't need
to worry about the blimp yonder that sending this robots as it will crush into
a building later on. Engineer_specialcompleted11.wav
Oh, hey! There's also robo scout
tries to hit me with large bomb manually. Dummy! I like the flame aurora-like
can be seen on far background, meaning we're not far from the burning city.
That's reasonable detail, reader!
Oh no! It's the end of the road.
Fortunately my bike here can transform into running robot to adjust with off-road
terrain. Demoman_positivevocalization01.wav.
After destroying blimp where
Deadeye Joe escapes to, i'm thrown to this freeway and another duel with him.
This is the only section in the game where you run toward the camera as result
you can see your character's butt everytime they jump (and you have to do it a
lot if you want to survive and shoot Deadeye Joe) just like this. The main
weapon of Deadeye Joe is those morning-star like hands. He slams them to the
ground or he hurls them like bombs. Most of the time when he attacking, he's on
the background so you have to wait for the time where he running side by side
to shoot him.
During his dying breath, he
reveals that he's just decoy so his allies can steal the alien cell in the lab
and later call me fool for pursuing him. This is quite indication that i'm on
the right track of Bad Ending.
3 Days
later...
Next mission is to detain the famous Hacker Noiman Cascade who's
responsible for the attack on the city. His base is in junkyard where lots of
robots guarding it including this junk robot who has the same morning star
hands as Deadeye Joe's robot for some reason. This robot either punch at you or
swinging his tail. His attacks are quite easy to dodge: duck his punch and jump
over his tail.
Before i confront the hacker, i like to demonstrate you a little
about my weapon 'C': flamethrower! I'm Pyro so you know how i feel. Anyway this
weapon can be fired in various angle but it requires time for the flame to
traverse. It deal moderate damage per tick but the explosion from the punch
deal heavier damage per tick. But again, the
flamethrower can be fire continuously while the punch has quite long
delay between firing. Therefore weapon 'C' is lots safer to use or more
appropriate for crowd clearing.
Noiman Cascade traps me to this
virtual reality and later he turns into constellation: Taurus, Sagittarius and
lastly Gemini. As you expect from bull shaped constellation, he charges a lot
with his horns. Also as you expect from centaur with bow shaped constellation,
he shoots arrows a lot. While as twins shaped constellation, he does something
related? He shoots dozen orbs, for sure.
When he's done as sentient
constellations, Noiman turns into a block that will develop into cube, tank,
and lastly a chopper. Maybe he like to dream about becoming 2-Dimension Lego
block. By the way, here's Fang's weapon 'A': barrage of fast orbs. The farther
the bullets travel, the wider the vertical range that they covers. That also
means less bullet density on farther end than on closer part. Meaning the
weapon deals less damage the farther the range or so theoretically. As the
weapon spread is random and very fast. The detailed damage calculation that i
mentioned, can be considered negligible. In my opinion, this is the best weapon
'A' in entire game.
After defeating Noiman on his own
game, i captured him and later on tells us about who hires him. It's Colonel
Bahamut who's the leader of revolutionary army. Whatever his plan regarding the
alien cell, it can't be good.
Colonel Bahamut has a operation
base in this jungle and i'm here to investigate it. First thing i do: clear my
way from these alien monkeys. No, i don't think they're ordinary monkeys by
looking at their tone skin and hair. I like their confused expression after
getting shot while scratching their head. "I have been shot, but
why?" I like to answer that question with "For my security...and my entertainment!"
Oh, the playful bridge yanker is
here and he's as jester as ever. He likes to pull this bridge and later fire
rapid bullet from his proboscis. Shoot his exposed brain to show him who's the
boss! It's Colonel Bahamut, in case you forget.
With the bridge yanking monster destroyed, the bridge also
destroyed for some reason. Luckily there's Ultrasurus that i can land on. To
repay his deed, i kill rolling fleas that also land on him.
This is what Weapon 'D' works. If
you hold the shoot button while equipping it, you will charge the weapon
instead of firing it rapidly like other weapons, leaving you defenseless. The
fully charged weapon results in
sine-wave like orbs that deal hefty damage. This weapon certainly not
suitable when horde of enemy come at you constantly therefore it's mostly
suitable in sub-boss/boss fight. But keep in mind that you can't aim the weapon
up like the weapon 'B' (the explosive punch).
I think it's quite unnecessary to
tell you about the sub-boss that happens a minute ago: robotic sphere that once
defeated will emerge with another sphere. Instead, i just want to show you that
i can plow an alien flower with bullet barrage.
Heavy_specialcompleted01.wav
Even with Deadeye Joe bit the
dust, you still have to defeat this boss but -you know- it's unmanned now for real. The
same thing that also happens, is: you will get ambushed by Colonel Bahamut and
The Professor after this fight.
I think "It's a trap!"
is the words that you want to say instead, Fang.
To get to bad ending route, i
must chose keep fighting to bitter end instead of surrender temporarily. They can just shoot me right
away back there, but The Professor wants me to die by his creations instead. By
using a proportion of the alien cell, he creates the already alien fauna a into
more dangerous monster by combining them 2 at the time, like this
hybrid-crossing between the monkey and the flower. It has to do handstand for
the rest of its life therefore i relieve his suffering by killing it. I forget
to tell you that with this punch weapon, i can defeat any sub-boss/boss in
short time. Handy, isn't? [Light pun intention]
The professor is getting mad with
his creations fail to prove of their worthiness. Thus he overworks his merging
machine here and creating this giant abomination in process and it eats The Professor.
Good! I don't like him, anyway. In Ray's playthrough, i have hard time to hit
the boss's weak point. But in this case, it's quite easy since i have
flamethrower that can bypass the weak point through its legs but you have to mind
about its leg's erratic movement. Any enemy touch is bad touch, remember?
Later there's cutscene where i
confront Colonel Bahamut but later interrupted by a soldier reporting that
Alien Cell breaks loose. Good news for those who like viral outbreak on their
game!
Yup! The game becomes twisted as
this base is corrupted with alien cell. There's enemy grunt that keel over and
later become fast-moving alien with ostrich body and legs. You know what to do?
Kill them with fire! Pyro_laughlong01.wav
Then there's this huge alien of
"What the freak?". It suddenly spews rapid bullets at a step or two
distance away from left corner. Cling to the left corner and start jumping
while shooting at its head when it attacks.
Next there's this hanging unnatural
titan who like to heave back and forth while spitting maggots at me. What a
huge rude bastard.
Venturing further into the heart
of the base, i have to navigate these bars while being harassed by monstrous
turrets that can respawn almost immediately after destroyed. Here's the
thing with playing as Fang: he's tall chap, meaning he has the largest hitspot
among the others. Even when he lies down, his long hitspot's vertical length is
converted into horizontal length. When fighting Noiman's Lego tank, he can
dodge its cannon shells in prone position but got trampled if you don't park
him deep enough into left corner. Besides that, Fang has slightly slower move
speed than others but this could be just what i feel.
Deeper interior of the base
become more alien-y and grotesque. This time there's this big crawler who like
to charge at me but it doesn't know that i can just climb into ceiling. Scout_beingshotinvincible32.wav
Now, this is huge problem! The
ceiling is occupied by its twin. The ceiling creeper will bounce on the back of
the floor ones while they both move forward and later backward scouring entire screen! Fortunately, you can run on
top of the floor creeper safely but you still need to time it right so you
don't get crushed by the ceiling ones. Also keep shooting them until they're
dead.
Here's the most difficult of non-boss part: there's alien
scorpions scuttling through the walls while occasionally switch side and
there's big jaw creature on the center that will prey on you or the scorpions.
Such is the beauty of nature. [Huge sarcasm]
You may want to keep some of the scorpions alive so the big jaw
won't target you but you still have to aware of its movement. Even it lunges at
the scorpion, it's still a big threat considering its size and how narrow this
section is. You can predict who it will attack by observing its eye that
located in lower jaw. You can cling to the either wall and not relying on the
bar to increase your maneuverability. Normally, i like to keep the
screen-clearing bomb (for no sensible reason) but i advise you to use it here
as you can kill not only the scorpions but also to the big jaw.
After passing another big jaw
hunter, i encounter the Alien Cell that i assume turns into Mother of the
Aliens or you can call her Alien Queen. Her face makes me remember Dragon's Fury immediately. You may
instinctively shoot the highness in her face though it's her weakpoint but i
suggest you have to destroy either his arm first to significantly increase your
chance to survive this fight. She will swing her arms anywhere, you see. Also
you have to destroy those flying minions with dozen eye that she constantly
spawns.
The Alien Queen will turns into a
giant heart on her second phase. She doesn't do anything but she's guarded by
those flying one-eyed spheres and they move both erratically and very fast (on
some occasion). Dodge them and keep shooting the heart! That's my only advice
Thankfully that was her final
form. With The Alien Queen destroyed, the world is saved from massive alien
cell outbreak but Col. Bahamut is running away! If only Fang isn't so
dumbfounded with the design of chopper that Bahamut uses to escape and pull the
damn trigger, the world will be spared from Col. Bahamut's evil plan in the
future. Maybe Fang is out of ammo or his gun suddenly jammed. Whatever the case
this is totally unacceptable. After the credit roll, you can see screen of your
character in close up while Col. Bahamut in the back. This means that your
character have yet score to settle with the villain.
Character
review: Fang is certainly hardmode character as his hitspot is the biggest, and
his weapons are rather unconventional in
Contra series. Half of his arsenal is
close-ranged weapons but he can deal heavy damage if you play him well. Weapon
A is barraging bullets that cover a decent vertical range. As i mentioned
before, it's the best Weapon A among the characters, also it's the strongest. Weapon B is punch that can
emit strong explosion. It goes without saying that using this weapon is very
risky as any skin contact with enemies is lethal but the weapon can dish any
sub-boss/boss in short time. I used them in 1st fight with Deadeye Joe and the
sphere bots, it works wonderfully. It's considered 'high risk & high
reward' weapon. On the other hand weapon C (the flamethrower), is slightly
safer to use than Weapon B but (sadly) deal less damage. That's a shame as i
love to burn enemy with fire weapon. Nonetheless, the fire jet can be aimed in
various angle and bypass enemies and/or obstacle. Weapon D is the enigma of any
weapon in Contra games. It requires
precision aim and timing to use the weapon to maximum efficiency. Clearly, it's
not correct weapon for the entire level where pack of enemies come at you at
once. Thus, this weapon is only suitable for sub-boss/boss or maybe you need
someone to back you up while you're charging.
Route
review: If you really like viral outbreak theme in your game or alien-y setting
like in previous Contra, you may want
to go this route. Keep in mind that, this route is the hardest (thanks to that
vertical section with alien jaw) but pretty short.
Also The final boss feels easier than in any route that i played. Some may says
that 'villain escapes so the hero must fight another day" is considered
not bad ending. But to me, it's bad enough. Or at least, it's the worst outcome
in entire game. Well, besides "game over" before finishing the game
that is.
That's Contra Hard Corps
(1994). Is it great? Superb even. Is it difficult? Sadly, yes. It has knife-edge intensity of difficult. I can't
really enjoy the game to its fullest. You can
play it relaxily. You can finished it. But you can't do both. But maybe with
rigorous training, you can accomplish that. The musics are very great. The
graphic are gorgeous. The gameplay is certainly wonderful, with enough
uniqueness on every stages mostly in
graphic/visual.
The boss/sub-bosses fights are amazing and interesting (except the you know what). And the sub-bosses are plenty too. The
branching path certainly make up with replayability font. That's certainly what
the classics lack of. The distinction between the characters also good feature.
Also that shooting stance. It works very well and slick.
Overall i can surely recommend you to play
Contra Hard Corp (1994), especially if you're Contra hardcore fan (unlike me).
Do note that Japan version has 3-hit kill system instead of 1-hit kill system
like US version that i played. If you don't care much about any reading and
want fairer gameplay. You should go for Japan version. Whatever your choice,
you can go wrong with playing this game. I mean it has multiple ending, and
tons of explosive action. I
guarantee you will love this.
No comments:
Post a Comment