Part D
(Browny)
As i mentioned before in Cuphead
review that i will do the review on Konami's Contra Hard Corps (1994) as Browny which is is the last review for
this game.
Nice barb and navy pattern plat.
After long time play this game, i just realize that there's some scary robot
faces in seam between steel plates on background.
By the way, here's Browny the
robot. He has only one red eye but it doesn't matter. Who need more eye when
you have jetpack and small-size body which looks smaller than his rifle. You
may laugh at his tiny posture but it is excellent to dodge most of the attacks
in this relentless game. So playing as Browny is practically easy mode as
opposed to playing as Fang. Here's some trivia: back in the day, young me favors
Brownly while young my-older-brother favors Fang. You can clearly tell who's
the sterling gamer and who's the bloody dodger. Hint: i'm still not good person.
A robot army attack a city and
first thing a do is run some of them over. My vans can goes through the robots
like a hot knife through a butter but there's a wrecked car that impedes it
from further joy ride. Only knife (or other stronger tool) that can stop other
knife. Fair.
PS: Yep! It's another bombastic
opening gif like in other part :p
Darn! Another bad starter. My
skill become rusty thanks to those Steam games and Azur Lane. By the way,
Browny's demise pose is a kin to Super Mario but with electric shortening
effect. He's robot, you see.
The control is as follows: direction
pad for aim/move/crouch, A button to cycle weapon/screen-clearing bomb
selection, B button to shoot, and C button to jump. You can press A button
while holding B button, to change your stance mode. Stance #1 allow you to move
and shoot at the same time. While stance #2, will make you hold still whenever
you're firing thus preventing you from making unnecessary move also you can aim
at 8 main direction perfectly in this stance. You can press C button while
crouching to slide within a distance. You're invulnerable while sliding so it's
perfect defensive mean. Each and every character has 4 weapons to pick and
screen-clearing bomb. Browny's 4th weapon or D weapon is these spheres that
surrounds him if you hold shoot button and upon releases, they will homing on
enemies. Kind of like that weapon in Ganryuki but the spheres are faster and
smaller.
It's the giant cyclops robot. Say "Hi", everyone!
He's so shy yet welcome. Too bad, i will destroy him by shooting right in his
only eye with dozens bullets.
You think the giant fellow is the
leader of the army? No. It's the guy named Deadeye Joe who's currently inside
that robot. Here's another reason why i like Browny: his weapon C, this Yoyo is
basically "Boss killer". Holding the shoot button will extend the
Yoyo and seek the boss' hitspot. Even if it's well hindered by any boss'
invincible parts, the weapon goes through them like they were nothing. Even it
sway a lot once it reaches boss' hitspot, it still deal devastating damage to
the boss! Just hold the shoot button and concentrate more on dodging boss'
attacks, that how you do it.
The robot is destroyed but
Deadeye Joe survives somehow. After taunting a bit, he escapes with jetpack and
i'm going after it because i want to go to tragic/sad ending. Of course, he's
not alone. There's many robots cover his escape including this spider-shaped
ones. You think i have advantage by shooting him from behind but that's not the
case. He can lob those bouncing orbs while he's in front of me.
Other thing that he can do is
throw his claw that bounce on tarmac. Because i can't do sliding while on bike,
dodging his attack here can be intense but thankfully the attack pattern is
quite easy to read.
Deadeye Joe manages to slip into
this ship. He could fly high completely evade me but no. He rather kill me
personally than complete evasion but this ship capability to kill is lame. It
can only retract that orb device and launch energy orbs at me with easily
dodged pattern. Also, yes. My bike turns into gerwalk mode for this rough
terrain.
The ship explodes into huge blast
but luckily both me and Deadeye Joe survive. I lost my ride while he has new
one: a giant robot with morning stars for its hands. He and his robot are
currently on background while bombard me with the aforementioned morning stars
or he try to stomp on me. I can do nothing about it except keep dodging his
attacks. Once he runs besides me while taunting at me, i can shoot him for a
while before he goes back to background again and repeat his routine.
With enough bullets, the robot is
destroyed, partially. In this phase, he jumps wildly between background and the
same plane as me. Another appliance of dozens at his machine, will defeat him
for good. Turns out, he's just distraction so his ally can steal alien cell in
laboratory. There's distress call from said laboratory, but i ignored it
because heeding it will leads me to good or best ending and that's not my plan
here.
3 Days
later...
My boss seems forgiving enough
for my error letting the alien cell stolen. Now he wants me to go after famous
hacker Noiman Cascade who's supposed to devise the robot attack on the other
day and his base is in this junkyard. This reminds of Junkyard Jive stage in Cuphead, a bit. Another Browny's quirk is:
he has small hitspot. See that rocket launched from that junk car? It flies
above Browny's head...while he standing still. No need to crouch to dodge that
one.
Deep beneath the junkyard, i
found Noiman's hideout. I can climb the entrance of his lair to meet this
shoddy bloke who offers me to join some gladiatorial sport. If i accept his
offer, i will go to alternative ending where i go to prehistoric age and be
throned next to queen monkey. Sounds nicer than tragic end but i have to be
consistent with the plan so i pass. Hearing my refusal, he calls me spineless
jellyfish. What a jerk!
And so here i'm, fighting Noiman
Cascade that turns into embodiment of Sagittarius constellation and lastly
Gemini. He can also turns into Taurus or Gemini on the fly. Each time he's
defeated he will drop weapon pickup so no need to hold back on using the
weapons here.
After i break his constellation
shape-shifting trickery, Noiman turns into a single block that will create
other blocks that will make a shape of bigger cube, tank, or helicopter. The
single block which is definitely the weakpoint of the boss, often placed in
rather awkward position: too low for constant jumping shoot and too high for
standing shoot. But behold! The mightiness of The Overpowered Yoyo that can
reach the weakpoint even when i don't look at it. After enough Yoyo interaction
with the block. Noiman Cascade is defeated and surrenders.
Engineer_cheers03.wav
Noiman spills the bean about who the
mastermind that hired him to create that massive distraction. It's Colonel
Bahamut who once a hero but attempted on coup d'état against the government and
failed. He get his hand on alien cell and i don't think he will use it for
goodness. His HQ is in this jungle and i'm tasked to investigate it. As i
encountered alien animal instead of normal ones, i say i'm on right track here.
I mean, this dragonfly can't be normal ones. It has too many wings and consist
of many spheres like Vectorman. This
weapon A much like other's is rapid weapon and excellent to mow down lowly
running grunts. But there's more than that. This particular weapon A (which is
triangular waves) can cover any degree angle unlike others that generally only
covers 8 main directions but it has slow turning speed, mind you.
Let's skip the giant alien that
like to pull bridge and get to this sphere robot. I believe i said that this
sub-boss has the same routine with Goopy Le Grande (from Cuphead) only more.
Like here for example, where it burns the ground with certain frequency. You
need precise jumping to avoid this attack...unless you play as Browny, that is.
You see, his jetpack isn't just decoration on his back. With it, he can double
jump (by pressing jump button after jumping) and gliding afterward (by holding
jump button). He surely has more aerial maneuver than the others.
Then another sphere comes down on
top of the previous one, creating this bastard that performs drunken Jaipong
dance. Despite his silly dance, he still poses a lethal threat because his
touch (like any enemy's) is deadly because this is Contra game. Plus he moves rather erratic. To avoid him, you can
either jump or slide pass through him. The latter option seems the safest plus
sliding inflict damage to enemies.
Whether Deadeye Joe alive or not, you're forced to fight this long
lasting boss at this point. It's kind of tedious, as most of the time the boss
is invincible but you can rake score to the point of gaining 1up by harming it
fruitlessly. I'm poking it with the Yoyo here like someone play with their pet
cat with Feathers Teaser Cat Toy.
So we skip to the point where Browny
is surrounded by Col. Bahamut's army. It's kind of funny that he's annoyed with
the fact that the professor betrays us although they never met before. But
maybe he recognize professor from the distress call back then. Anyway, i choose
to turn myself in because they barely can aim at me and i don't want to
disappoint them. Well, not really.
Dude. He's certainly not smirking
there. By the way, it's really elaborate of them to put handcuff surrounding
Browny's jetpack . How Browny can escape from this situation as there's no
Deadeye Joe that will rescue him and later want to kill him like in Sheena's
playthrough? In rather shocking twist, Col. Bahamut decides to destroy the base
himself along with his troops here as he deems everyone have outlived their
usefulness. The sick psychopath! This place is indeed explodes and soldiers run
away in panic. The one who doesn't aim at Browny there, throws his rifle at Browny
when the explosions occur. And as for why Browny release from his handcuff?
It's most likely destroyed by the explosions. He's really lucky badblood.
The professor also become cruel
lunatic as well. He turns the (sensible) escaping soldiers into alien midgets. Honestly,
i have no idea why he becomes big jerk like that. Probably, he and Col. Bahamut
become best friends with one (dark and evil) heart.
Without a little or next to
nothing warning, a flame wall appears behind me forcing me to run while both
shooting at the transformed soldiers and navigating the terrain. This lethal
auto-scroll section reminds me of the same scene in Rocket Knight Adventure. The difference is obvious. Sparkster has
health point meaning he has rather generous failsafe while Browny has none (at
least that's what happen in US version) even though they both have useful
jetpack.
With rather short of that
auto-scrolling section, i manage to get into this elevator and the professor
with that weird bipedal robot is here as well. He jump between walls and
ceiling. If he stops at ceiling, he will release this small probes that will
unleash lethal-to-touch spinning blade. They will relocate in random location.
You can pass them harmlessly as long as they haven't pulled their blade out.
If the professor stands at the
right walls, he will unleash suicidal smaller robots at you. This is his
easiest attack as you can shoot both the smaller robots and professor at one go
especially if you have the weapon A.
If the professor stands at the
left walls, he will unleash those 2 rod-like probes that (again) locate at
random location. They will grow their length to catch you by surprise (and kill
you, of course). They're lethal to touch in anytime.
Next, the professor will walk
around this elevator room while subtly lengthen his robot's leg. Just
walk/climb around and keep shooting. He's dead soon enough.
Scout_dominationeng02.wav
The elevators takes me this outer
space height where Col. Bahamut creates super cannon by using the alien cell. I
think he's merged with that hideous alien cell thus explaining why he becomes
miserable crazed man. I hope the testing ground there covers [insert the name
of person you hated the most here].
On this 1st phase, the final boss
has 3 attacks that you need to memorize. The 1st and 2nd attack will track you
so jumping or dropping from ceiling at the right moment is required to dodge
them. While the 3rd attack: he will shoot orbs that later will drop at you but
there's one exact free space from the orb that you can use to dodge this
attack.
On second phase where his cannon
turns into presumably Col. Bahamut's face (thus proving that he's emerged with
the alien cell), he will unleash long homing orb. It will relentlessly follows
you but it has relatively small turning capability. So all you need to do is
run in the same direction along the floor and jump to opposite direction. I
just realize the weakness of this overpowered Boss-Killer Yoyo weapon: it's not
fit with closed space that requires me to climb into wall and ceiling like
here. Plus the ground here only covers 50% of the screen. The key to utilize
this weapon is holding the shoot button while constantly running or jumping.
Climbing makes Browny dead stop while using this weapon thus diminishing his maneuverability
to 0%. Thankfully in this phase, he can use Weapon D in the most optimal means.
On the last phase, you have to
constantly running/climbing (also dropping from ceiling) to avoid this rotating
spheres. Again, the yoyo shines the least here. So you have to use other weapon
that actually not bad.
After beating that relatively
easy pattern, the final boss is doomed along with that super tall tower.
Although there's no narration to back it up, i believe Browny doesn't survive
too.
It's sad ending but at least you can see the falcon symbol of
power up in close up. It's shiny and majestic. Sniper_mvm_loot_rare03.wav
Rest in Peace Browny, you
magnificent bastard.
Character
review: Browny is most likely the easymode character as his hitspot is the smallest,
and he has that damned useful jetpack. Weapon A is triangular waves that can cover
angle but has slow turning speed even slower that Fang's flamethrower. Weapon B
is practically like Cuphead's 'roundabout' weapon but faster. You
can fill bullets around you with this weapon if you use it while jumping around
like crazy kangaroo. As i mentioned before, Weapon C (A.K.A the Yoyo) is probably the most overpowered
weapon in this game. It can devastate any boss with ease while you focus on
dodging by jumping or running around. But when it comes to the place where you
need to climb around, this weapon becomes rather a dead load and you should
switch to other weapon. Weapon D is more like defensive weapon. It's perfect
for those minions that like to run at you. It also has great tracking
capability so it's also good for boss fight. There's brief delay before the
orbs can be refilled again, do mind that
Route
review: I this route is the shortest as there's only not-so-long escape
section, a sub-boss fight (with the professor) and the final boss on final
stage. It's slightly shorter than the alien cell outbreak route and easier too.
So this route is also probably the easiest. But the outcome is sad: the hero
dies along with the villain. However, this can be considered heroic ending
although tragic. You can see large view of Col. Bahamut and the Falcon symbol
here. So it's not entirely bad. The final stage is the least appropriate to
utilize the best Boss-Killer Yoyo weapon. So if you want to play as Browny, you
may want to avoid this route.
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.
