The word ¡°Contra¡± brings back cherished memories when we were all young and carefree, skipped homework, in a button-mashing frenzy on our (or friend¡¯s) arcade consoles to shoot down enemy alien hordes in a variety of landscapes. And with that sick electric guitar-infused soundtrack to boot! Oh man.
Look closely at the blonde-haired commando, Bill. Rumour has it that he was given the likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the movie Predator.
Well, today is our beloved Contra¡¯s 30th birthday. That¡¯s right. While the game has had several ports and versions, the original Contra was published by Konami as a coin-operated game on February 20, 1987. Within a year, the game was released across different markets in Europe and the US, on different arcade game consoles at the time -- including the NES version, which most of us in India have grown up playing.
Contra featured two gun-toting protagonists dressed in red and blue -- Bill and Lance -- both of whom were commandos determined to kill enemy hordes and their alien overlords at the end of each stage. And what stages they were! Not at all easy.
This is the famous pseudo-3D level of Contra
The first stage, called Jungle, was okay, and didn¡¯t you just love how the Contra commando landed down from the top of your screen in an epic somersault? The second stage wasn¡¯t 3D, it gave a false sense of 3D, which was brilliant at the time. The third stage, called Waterfall, was an absolute nightmare for me personally, and I was stuck on it for many a days, before finally managing to conquer it. That was one of the most awesome feelings of accomplishment I ever remember having!
Finally, confronting the epic alien boss -- who not only fired cannon balls at you, but spawned spider minion horde which crawled the ceiling and the floor, trying to take you down -- was nothing short of dramatic. Killing it finally was another out-of-this-world experience!
This is the frustrating waterfall level of Contra!
Contra was equal parts fun and frustration, making you swear countless times as to how was anyone expected to complete the game with just three lives?! Then you discovered the secret game mode which gave you not three but 30 lives and several undiscovered game levels and your amazement knew no bounds!
Contra was much more than an arcade game -- it gave all of us growing up in the 1990s an unrivalled sense of joy and belongingness, and the game was especially engaging when you played it in two-player mode with your best friend, sharing that sense of common adventure and awe.
The final boss of Contra, an alien overlord
If you want to recapture the lost feeling, Contra game ports are available for both Android and iOS -- just search through the Play Store or Apple App Store to turn back time!